Happiness

Faith Like Potatoes Angus Buchan was a person who did not believe in God, did not trust others and did not accept help from others because he wanted to do everything by himself. He had emptiness in his heart; he was always stressed, angry, mad and rude to others. The life of Angus was a big mess. But one day the miracle has happened when he went to the church and heard one man sharing his life story. From that point, his life has turned upside down. Angus built relationship with God, invited God into his life, gave God his life and let Him do changes.

Angus personality has changed drastically for the better, and most importantly he had a strong faith in everything what he did and he believed that God would help him. God helped him to over come all the struggles and problems that pressed his shoulders, as well as made him many miracles. Praying was one of the religious expressions in the workplace showed in the movie. Angus was praying God for help while he was working. He was encouraging others to pray and they prayed all together to God: for the rain they needed, deliverance from the violence and murders, peace in the land and hearts and blessing.

People, as one big family, were praying before seeding the potatoes, during four months while they were growing and before harvest. Moreover, at the end of the movie another religious expression was introduced. Angus was teaching kids about the faith and trust in God: “Your faith in God must be like that (big potatoes) – it must be real”. After watching this movie, it gets hard to name one importance of work. From my point of view, there is no only one importance of work – there are many of them. Work gives us money and food, which are vital for human’s well-being and life.

Work gives us friends and team to work with, in such way work becomes easier and more pleasant. For example, in the beginning of the movie it was shown how Angus was struggling with the stump and that he was cursing the stump because he was not able to root it out by himself. But after he invited God into his life he looked at work from different perspective; as a result, he accomplished the same task easier with the help of his friends and in a great working environment. Also, work provides us with inner joy, creativity and happiness.

Work brings the meaning into the life because it motivates us to work hard and it greatly increases the chances of fulfillment and success in reaching the dreams. Work does not allow us to become lazy or bored individuals. Finally work brings us a great sense of achievement and encourages us to move forward. It is very inspirational:” The condition for the miracle is difficulty; for a great miracle – impossibility”. Great movie based on true-life story teaches us that with strong faith and trust in God the impossible becomes possible.

These changes could happen from one day to another. How do you tell your family that their economic situation, all of a sudden, has changed because of your new status as unemployed? Especially when family the family is accustomed to the idea of living the sweet life. The Decline of the West” from 201 0 is about a man who experiences the difficult problems of the economic decline. In the short story “The Decline of the West”, the narrator Mike lives with his family in the outskirts of London. He just got fired and is now on his way home to pass the news of his recent dismissal.

Mike used to work 12 hours a day, but despite the fact that Mike now is unemployed, he looks forward to spent time with his family. He has a rough time tying to tell the truth, and so he ends up arguing with his wife and sons instead. The main character of the short story is Mike. He is a 45-year;old man, father of two, and has until now been working in corporate finance. Mike is a hardworking man, who has provided his family with a lovely house in safe surroundings, plenty of material benefits, and an AU pair, who can take care of the house when he is not there.

Mike barely sees his family, and admits lankly that the AU pair sees more to his family than he does himself. “The AU pair saw more of his house and family than he did -“1 . The sweet welcoming Mike imagined was far from reality. When Mike arrives home, his wife, Imagine, does not even take the time to say hallo to her husband, but simply just passes him by with a gin and tonic mentioning going up stairs to take a shower. “Imagine passed him in the hall carrying a gin and tonic, saying she was going upstairs to have a bath”2 This indicates that the marriage might not be as warm and loving as one may think.

Mike’s marriage does not seem to go well. Imagine is not acknowledging Mike, nor is she interested in him. “Is it attention you’re after? ” 3 Mike sees himself as a man that gives all he can ever Offer to his family, but they are never satisfied. “l paid for this with my time, intelligence, and the education the state provided me with”4. Mike’s view on him self stands in sharp contrast to the adverse image we get of him from the dialogues. The contrast especially becomes clear in the argument between Mike and his older son, Tom. “Are you joking? You’ve done nothing for me” . As the argument is developing it proves out that the children, and the mother or that matter, is very unrealistic when it comes to economy and money. No matter how much they get, it is never enough. Mike has always given his children exactly what they wanted, despite the fact that their joy never lasted long. “The kids had stopped using it before he’d hardly begun paying for it”6. The narrator in the short story is a first person narrator with a limited point of view to the father. By this we get an insight in the fathers thoughts and speculations. He believed he was good at giving things up”7. We see everything from his point of view, so we have therefore have a colored view n the story. The story is written with the use of Pats. We, as a reader, feel sympathy for Mike. Imagine and the children seem greedy and ungrateful. They are products of the capitalistic consumer society. They are all against Mike and he himself takes position as the victim. He appears to be alone with the knowledge of his famish future situation; however, he does not have the courage to face the consequences.

Instead he tries to avoid them. Mike does become wiser on his family unrealistic luxurious lifestyle throughout the story. That happens when he notices Queen Elizabeth Sis’s crooked smile on a tote. “How had he never noticed what a sardonic little Mona Lisa smile the blinded-up monarch wore, mocking even, as if she pitied the vanity and greed the note inspired”8. In the world at large, money is what we worship. We are willingly sacrificing the bond with our family to pursue wealth. Mike has never needed anything in his life.

As his father said “Mike you’ve been stalked by good fortune your whole life” 9. Now that he is unemployed, he suddenly seems to have lost control of his emotions and life. For a moment he even considers to leave this world and all the financial troubles behind. “How easy t was to fall, and how tempting it was -? suddenly would be best – to die! ” 1 0 First of all “The Decline of the West’ refers to the Collapse of Wall Street in 2008, which had a huge impact on the life of millions of people in the West.

The western countries are currently in a critic financial situation. Our society, build upon capitalism and materialism demolished when the nation began to spend more than they could afford. This theme is evident throughout the story. Mike reflects on the lifestyle he, and many others had led in the past couple of years. He considers whether the financial crisis is a penalty for this. [… ]Nonetheless, like many people, Mike had also worried whether the present catastrophe was punishment for years of extravagance and self- indulgence;[… “11 The title could also be interpreted as a reference to a moral decline of the modern family. The values of love, and closeness are being replaced by the desire to posses and own everything you could ever dream Of. The love for material has taken over the love for our fellow men. We forget about all that really matters and we are only focusing on buying the latest gadgets and promoting our economical status. The grotesque overcorrection and insatiable love for material goods might have caused severe damage to our traditional social values.

Mike and his family is an example of this propensity, so the title might as well refer to the social regression in our culture. The financial crisis has resulted in lots of critical problems, but maybe a financial crisis was exactly what we needed? This could be a break from our unrealistic expenditure. Money can buy you many things, but the happiness from it is limited. Money can buy you lots and lots of material goods, still eventually you will no longer feel the same excitement bout your purchase.

Just like the kids in the short story, you will sooner or later cast-off your bought stuff and set your goals up for a new investment. Money can offer things to make people happy, but it does not mean that money can buy you true happiness. Poor people on the street huddling together to stay warm, that is care, which brings out true happiness. Their situation would improve with a little money, however, in the short story where a wealthy family that cannot live together, where is their happiness? Where is the love? Money cannot buy happiness, nor love.

Explain how Bentham’s Act Utilitarianism can be used in making moral decisions BY AltceReid20 Jeremy Bentham was a philosopher, economist, atheist and social reformer. Being a social reformer means that Bentham worked to make a gradual change to society. Being an economist meant that he had knowledge in the social science and discipline of economics. Bentham was a philosopher because he studied ways of thinking about the world. This all had an impact on the way his ideas were influenced. He developed the theory known as Act Utilitarianism.

His version of Utilitarianism is referred to as Act’ Utilitarianism because it states that the principle of utility should be applied to every act performed in each unique situation. Any act is Justifiable if it produces ‘the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number’. By the principle of utility Bentham meant the ‘usefulness’ of a situation. The principle states that we should aim to achieve ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number’. Act Utilitarianism depends on each action or each individual dilemma being calculated.

According to Act Utilitarianism it is the value of the consequences of the particular act that counts. In 1789 he wrote the book ‘An Introduction to the principle of morals and legislation’ He believed our main aim in life was to achieve ‘happiness’ and to avoid ‘pain’, he wanted to introduce this to society to maximise the amount of happiness produced in certain situations. His theory was made to drive a human being; pain v pleasure. As people are motivated by pleasure and pain is considered evil. As stated in his book: ‘Nature has placed mankind under the governance of to sovereign masters, pain and pleasure’.

Jeremy Bentham’s theory is considered as relativistic; this means that here are no universal norms or rules and that each situation has to be looked at independently because each situation is different. It is also thought of as a teleological theory. This means that it is concerned with the end purpose or goal of an action in this case it should always be happiness. Bentham’s theory was also considered to be consequentialist; this means that moral decisions should be based on the outcome or consequences of an action. Bentham felt that society needed a form of structure for making moral decisions influencing him to introduce Act

Utilitarianism to help treat each moral decision as unique. He was very concerned with the social conditions of his day, becoming particularly involved with both hospitals and prisons. He also believed in women’s vote and the decriminalisation of homosexuality. He developed the principle of utility in his theory which states that an action is right if it produces the ‘greatest happiness for the greatest number’. He had strong beliefs of maximising the quantity of happiness; he was not concerned about prioritising which form of happiness were superior to others. Bentham wrote in the

Rationale of Reward: ‘Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is equal of value with the arts of sciences of music and poetry’. Bentham’s position was that all pleasures are of equal value. From this he devised the hedonic calculus as a means of measuring happiness. Hedone meaning pleasure. There are 7 parts of the hedonic calculus being intensity, duration, certainty, remoteness, richness and purity which all link to measuring the amount of happiness that a certain situation will produce. An example be applied by using the hedonic calculus to help decide whether it is morally right.

A scenario, of a 16 year old girl called Katy wants an abortion because she doesn’t want to have a baby. However, her parents are Christians and do not agree with her having an abortion. Abortion is thought of as an ethical issue because people argue whether it is right or wrong. As Bentham’s theory is concequentialist all Judgements made should be based on the outcome. Using the hedonic calculus can measure/estimate the amount of happiness that will be produced. To decide upon the action taken on abortion the intensity of happiness will be produced.

In this scenario, the strength of the happiness of the girl, the parents and society will be taken into to help provide the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people. The duration of the happiness will also be taken into account, to measure how long the happiness will last for. In this case, how long will the happiness of the girl last if she has an abortion? The certainty of the situation will be measured to determine whether happiness is guaranteed to be produced. Will having an abortion actually produce happiness for Katy and her parents?

The extent of the happiness will be evaluated to decide how many people it will effect. In this example, will it affect her parents and society more than it’ll effect her if she has an abortion? The remoteness of abortion will be checked to determine how soon the happiness will occur. It will be debated whether having an abortion will immediately make the girl happy straight away and/ or in the future. This links to the richness of a situation evaluating how much happiness it may produce in the future. In this case, will abortion still provide the girl ith happiness in the future? r will it affect her family and society more so? Again, this links with the purity of the situation which is the decision of whether it will provide unhappiness in the future. Will abortion cause unhappiness for the girl, her family and society. As you can see the hedonic calculus works towards bringing the greatest happiness to the greatest amount of people measuring the quality of happiness not the quantity. In this example, the hedonic calculus would help to decide whether abortion is morally right helping to make moral decisions.

The edonic calculus helps you to weigh out what is morally right in a situation giving an objective view reducing opinions and biased options. It takes multiple choices into account excluding religion. In this case, the hedonic calculus would decide that is morally right for Katy to have an abortion. The hedonic calculus would conclude this because society may think that 16 is too young to have a baby which would provide them with more overall happiness of the girl having an abortion. However, having the abortion may cause unhappiness for her family but forgiveness is in the heart of

Christians, if they understand that having an abortion will create a very high amount of happiness for Katy and many people of society may agree with her having an abortion it outweighs the unhappiness of the parents. If Katy was to follow through with her abortion it would provide her more happiness in the meanwhile and future as having a baby may affect multiple aspects of her life. As you can see the hedonic calculus works towards bringing happiness to the greatest amount of people therefore supporting Bentham’s beliefs and following Act Utilitarianism.

Jeremy Bentham was a Utilitarian philosopher whose influence spread into many fields, including that of business ethics.  Although his father was an attorney and Bentham studied law himself, he did not practice law.  Instead, Bentham put his knowledge and reasoning skills to theories regarding philosophy, business, and law.

His primary contribution to business was that of his personal theory of Utilitarianism, a philosophy that had its roots in the late eighteenth century (Budinger and Budinger 17). The foundation for Utilitarianism is that the moral nature of a deed is judged by the amount of happiness that it provides to other people.  Bentham’s theory of utilitarianism was based on hedonism; that is, it focused on the ideal of pleasure.

Bentham suggested that morality was based on two opposing forces, pain and pleasure.  The moral act was to bring as much pleasure as possible to the largest number of people.  Although Bentham embraced hedonism, other utilitarian theorists suggested that happiness could also be based on intellectual pleasure.  This concept is called “ideal utilitarianism” (Budinger and Budinger 17).

The authors explain that “Utilitarianism originally was a movement away from outmoded Christian ethics and the injustices of English aristocracy that favored the few, toward changes that favored the majority (Budinger and Budinger 17).   The impact of Bentham, and of Utilitarianism, was such that many changes were made to an unjust business system, creating sweeping reforms of various different aspects of commerce.  These reforms included those made to the slave trade, industrial environment, and child labor laws, among other abuses (Budinger and Budinger 17).

Bentham’s skill as a philosopher, his education pertaining to laws, and his persuasive and copious writing allowed his drive to make these changes become a reality.  Without his influence, the business world would have been a very different place.  The utilitarian principles that Bentham and those who followed him proposed still have validity in today’s world.

Work Cited

Budinger, Thomas F. and Miriam D. Budinger.  Ethics of Emerging Technologies: Scientific Facts and Moral Challenges.  Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and Sons, 2006.

The sadest day in my life. When I was a child I lived with a important person for me. He was my grandfather, he was my best friend, with him I share the happinest moments of my life. Everything was hapiness and I lived in a beautiful world. But a horrible moment arrived and everything finished. When I recived the most confusing and sadest news in my life. One morning, my cousin arrived at my home and with her hesitant voice, she told me some news that I didn`t understand.

In that moment my mom arrived and she told me that my grandfather had passed away, she said that with some sweet words, because she knew how important he was for me. I could only try understand all the things that people told me, so I went to my grandmother`s house and when I came in, the only thing I saw was the lonely bed of my grandfather; in that moment I felt a inmense sadness in my heart, that moment was when I could understand everything, that I never again my grandfather would be with me.

After I had understood everything or tried to understand what had happended, my family and some friends of us met us at the church for offering emotive masss to give the last good bye to my best friend. It has been the most emotive mass that I had ever lived in my life and that I will never forget. When the mass finished, all people went together to the cementary, some men had already prepared everything. When we arrived, the men who carried to my grandfather, let us see him for last time, when I got close to my grandfather I couldn`t believe that the person that was always happy and laughing, nowwas quiet.

In that moment , I felt a inmense confusion and loneliness. My parent, my grandfather and my best friend would never be with me again. That day was the sadest in my life. I know that now I have a new angel, but I lost a friend, since that moment until now, I only have memories of that friend whom I spent happy moments in my life. That day was the sadest in my life although I knew that in that moment i would have a great angel for the rest of my life

World, In Hounding Me The poem “World, in Hounding Me” written by “Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz” explains her ethos and thought process in order to give a greater understanding of her psyche and in doing so, is also judgmental about modern life. She wishes to enrich her mind, spirit and existence with the understanding of beauty and humility. In the poem, it states, “How can it harm you if I choose, astutely, rather to stock my mind with things of beauty, than waste its stock on every beauty’s claim? . Rather than making herself look beautiful on the outside, she focus on making herself beautiful from within by finding the goods she has in her and understanding the importance of her existence in the world.

She wishes to avoid the corruptions of wealth and vanity. The poem states, “Costliness and wealth bring me no pleasure; the only happiness I care to find derives from setting treasure in my mind, and not from mind that’s set on winning treasure. . She doesn’t want happiness that only last a moment. She wants happiness that lasts a life time and beyond. She asks to be a simple woman with simple pleasures and not be made to enter the race of accumulating “things” and wealth. The poem states, “I prize no comeliness. All fair things pay to time, the victor, their appointed fee and treasure cheats even the practiced eye. “.

She doesn’t want anything that can be gain through wealth and power. She seeks the pleasures of life that is given by god. She wants to accumulate knowledge and understanding of her psych and also judgment about modern life. She believed life isn’t about looking pretty or gaining happiness through wealth. Instead she believed that everyone is beautiful inside and that the happiness is gain through the pleasure of life given by god.

Lincoln Electric Case

QUESTION 1

In which countries is the economic system or the cultural values too different that the Lincoln system can never work?

Before I would like to briefly tell the story, while describing the strategy pursued by Lincoln Electric, where when making its expansion encountered some problems due to cultural differences, economic, and legal to who found the time to enter those countries.

Lincoln Electric was founded by John C. Lincoln in 1985 in Cleveland (USA). Its main activity was and is to manufacture electric motors and generators for other companies. If Lincoln is to highlight the philosophy held since its inception, because the human motivation of its staff were based.

Lincoln had boundless faith in the individual, and gave an equality among all its members. They could develop their full potential through a system of incentives. This incentive system has had much impact, and in some countries has had consequences. This peculiar system of incentives, or piece work, it was the following: the worker did not have a fixed salary, and that grew on the basis of the work. Lincoln also proposed a points system, which entailed to receive a bonus. So the combination between piecework and annual premiums identify the best employees.

This philosophy had to be changed in certain countries, because it conflicted with the culture and laws of these countries. Lincoln Electric initiated an internationalization, and his philosophy had to be changed in the countries that decided to set up its infrastructure.

INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT, CASE I: LINCOLN ELECTRIC

In 1925 opened its first plant in Canada, and was when he began to experience problems when implementing its work culture and Canadian laws were different from the U.S.. Canadian law was mandatory marking the enjoyment of the holiday, and some minimum guarantees to employees.

In 1938 was introduced in Australia, where there was a strong union, but workers did not participate. In addition to the above Australia met with strong tariffs. In 1955, Lincoln Electric decided to open a new infrastructure in Western Europe, and the chosen country was France. It is there that I first had to be changed the philosophy of Lincoln, varying the U.S. model (vacations, sick leave were mandated by law or industry standards).

In addition to these cases also occurred in Venezuela, Brazil, Germany, Japan, and Indonesia where in this case demanded a minimum wage. In the case of Brazil, any bonus paid for two consecutive years became a legal right in Germany was illegal piecework.

QUESTION 2
How is Massaro’s recent overseas initiative different from Lincoln’s earlier failed approach?

Before develop this question, I would like meeting up sum up the situation in which the company was immediately before the entrance of Massaro in Lincoln. William died in 1986 which was followed Irrgang Wills had the opportunity to expand the business. Due to the slowdown in the U.S. market believed to find the solution in a growth abroad, and to establish new plants in various regional blocs would produce a reduction in tariffs. This led to begin a rise in long-term debt.

Since the establishment of new branches, how to manage these was with
managers without international experience, so that kept local specialists to use their experience in the field. To help these, Lincoln executives from U.S. command who knew the Cleveland system.

Many managers and employees in Europe are philosophically opposed to piecework. This together with the financial problems that faced, as were those that had subsidiaries in Europe and Japan in 1991. By 1992, all newly acquired plants were in the red. It was believed that the modified system of incentives would help to most foreign companies to achieve similar growth to that of Cleveland. The status of these plants were dragged to the U.S., which led for the first time Lincoln lost money.

It is at this point that Lincoln Electric began to take action. In 1992, I think the international strategic liaison team to discuss the operations abroad, which led to look for executives with international experience. In 1993 contract and Jay Elliott Tony Massaro.

This is where these two people identified errors in which Lincoln had made, such as the following:
– Lincoln’s philosophy was focused on the quality of manufacturing facilities and
acquisition of new markets, markets with weak sales.
– It had been a fragmented production costs while maintaining high rather than concentrating the manufacture of each product in a factory to take advantage of the elimination of tariffs.

– Lincoln had suffered from overcapacity and its subsidiaries compete with each
other.

The managers had realized that instead of increasing production (classic in Cleveland) had to reduce costs. In Venezuela and Brazil Massaro found different problems. Lincoln’s culture was so focused on individualism did not help business to its subsidiaries and in this way failed or came to success. And this Massaro affirm that part of the problem was that it was to do things like Lincoln everywhere, instead of adapting to local conditions.

The solutions provided by Massaro and Elliot for the restructuring and achieve profitability in this way should follow two stages:
– Some affiliates will not be able to save so they decided to close
– Rationalize the product line and improve sales force. It was an elimination of jobs.

Massaro did not follow Lincoln’s historical practice of imposing a solution from the top. However I think a European team management. Massaro carried out various measures to improve the situation of the plants in Europe (replaced several managers, business sumistro the long term, exports from the U.S.). These movements increase the volume and reduction in tariff costs.

With these measures in the foreign subsidiaries were recovered. In 1994 he received a benefit and increased until 1995 and 1996. Mexico plant also followed the trend similar to that of Canada.

QUESTION 3
Having built the plant, what kind of management system and compensation policies should Gillespie put in place?

Gillespie recognized that he could invite one, or both companies to become joint venture partners. Or he could set up a wholly owned manufacturing company and continue to employ them as distributors, although such a move might reduce their commitment to Lincoln. The decision was a difficult one since Gillespie already found it challenging to modulate relationships between two distributors and keep their competition energizing rather than destructive.

Gillespie felt that another option was to make the annual bonus merit-based and link it directly to factory performance, an approach that would require workers to put part of their compensation at risk. He envisioned a scheme based on the Cleveland model, but simplified for the less-educated Indonesian workforce. His thought was to offer a meritbased bonus that could reach 30% of the worker’s base pay in good years, but which could disappear if the plant were not profitable. “My experience with Indonesian workers is that they are more effectively managed with traditional management methods,” he said.

Gillespie realized that ethical and public relations considerations added another wrinkle to these calculations. A number of western multinationals had come under fire for paying employees in developing countries prevailing wages that seemed low to observers in their home countries.

QUESTION 4
Using the Globe and Hoffestde tools- analyze the difference from expanding operations from the US to these countries.

The Five Dimensions of Culture Armed with a large database of cultural statistics, Hofstede analyzed the results and found clear patterns of similarity and difference amid the responses along these five dimensions. Interestingly, his research was done on employees of IBM only, which allowed him to attribute the patterns to national differences in culture, largely eliminating the problem of differences in company culture.

The five dimensions are:
1. Power/Distance (PD)
2. Individualism (IDV)
3. Masculinity (MAS)
4. Uncertainty/Avoidance Index (UAI)
5. Long Term Orientation (LTO)

EEUU
(PD) (IDV) (MAS) (UAI) (LTO)
Flatter organizations. Supervisors and employees are considered almost as
equals.

Use teamwork
Involve as many people as possible in decision making. High valuation on people’s time and their need for freedom. An enjoyment of challenges, and an expectation of rewards for hard work.

Respect for privacy. Men are masculine and women are feminine. There is a well defined distinction between men’s work and women’s work.

Be aware that people may expect male and female roles to be distinct.
Advise men to avoid discussing emotions or making emotionallybased decisions or arguments.

Informal business attitude. More concern with long term strategy than what is happening on a daily basis.

Accepting of change and risk Promotion of equality. High creativity, individualism. Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Self-actualization is sought.

EUROPE COUNTRIES
(PD) (IDV) (MAS) (UAI) (LTO)
Flatter organizations.

Supervisors and employees are considered almost as equals.

High valuation on people’s time and their need for freedom.

An enjoyment of challenges, and an expectation of rewards for hard work. Respect for privacy.

Men are masculine and women are feminine. There is a well defined distinction between men’s work and women’s work.

Very formal business conduct with lots of rules and policies.

Sense of nervousness spurns high levels of emotion and expression.

Differences are avoided.  Parents and men have more authority than young people and women.

Strong work ethic. High value placed on education and training.
ASIA COUNTRIES
(PD) (IDV) (MAS) (UAI) (LTO)
Centralized companies.
Strong hierarchies.

Large gaps in compensation, authority, and respect Emphasis on building skills and becoming masters of something. Work for intrinsic rewards. Harmony more important than honesty.

Men are masculine and women are feminine.

There is a well defined distinction between men’s work and women’s work. Very formal business conduct with lots of rules and policies. Need and expect structure.

Sense of nervousness spurns high levels ofemotion and expression.

Family is the basis of society. Parents and men have more authority than
young people and women.

High value placed on education and training.