The Comitatus Relationship in Beowulf Essay -- Epic of Beowulf Essays

Throughout history rulers have always been protective of their kingdoms. In hopes of always being in control of their territory, rulers develop special relationships with the people to protect them. This relationship was usually achieved by of instilling fear into the minds of their warriors, or instilling respect between each other. In the story Beowulf the relationship between the ruler and his thanes is that of honor, friendship, and respect. In Anglo Saxon stories, the relationship between the ruler and his thanes is known as comitatus. The comitatus relationship requires that "the thane swear to defend a lord to their death, while he provides them with the protection and a share of his wealth and weapons." This sounds like a typical warrior defending master relationship, but the relationship between a lord and his thanes is far more complex than that. Along with the thane and lord each providing services for the other, there is also a great deal of camaraderie between the thanes and their lord: "Some of the native terms used for this group in Beowulf may suggest something of ...

Developing Professional Practice Essay

1. Briefly explain how the CIPD HR Profession Map defines the HR profession, including the professional areas, the bands and the behaviours. The HR profession Map captures what successful and effective HR people do and deliver across every aspect and specialism of the profession, and sets out the required activities, behaviour and knowledge. It covers 10 professional areas and 8 behaviours, set out in 4 bands of competence. The Map covers every level of the HR profession: Band 1 being the start of your HR career through to Band 4 for the most senior leaders. The bands set out what you need to do and what you need to know for each area of the HR profession. As per the CIPD Website, the bands cover the following areas: Band 1: Supports colleagues with administration and processes. Effectively manages information and date and is customer orientated. Band 2: Advises on and/or manages HR related issues relating to an individual or at team. Has a clear understanding of the evaluation process and the solutions available. Band 3: Leads a professional area acting as a consultant or partner, addresses key HR challenges at an organisational level for the medium and long term. Band 4: Leads and manages a professional area(s) and/or the organisation. Responsible for developing and delivering organisational and HR strategy. The two professional areas, Insight, Strategy and Solutions and Leading HR sit at the heart of the profession and are applicable to all HR professionals, regardless of role, location or stage of their HR career. There are 8 behaviours that identify in detail how professionals need to carry out their activities and make a contribution to organisational success. The behaviours are: †¢ Curious †¢ Decisive thinker †¢ Skilled influencer †¢ Personally credible †¢ Collaborative †¢ Driven to deliver †¢ Courage to challenge †¢ Role Model CIPD website refers to the HR Map as: â€Å"This is a powerful and simple to use personal development tool for professionals operating at all levels in HR. Not only is it free for members to use, we’ve also carefully designed it to ensure that many of the suggested actions to help professionals progress are low-cost or no-cost – which will be particularly welcome at a time when the recession is ensuring resources for development are tight. Professionals can use the tool to develop in their roles and pursue their career plans. We hope the insights it delivers will quickly become a firm fixture in the performance and development reviews of HR professionals in organisations of all shapes and sizes and across all sectors.† (Stephanie Bird, April 2010). 2. Evaluate how the two core professional areas, the bands and any two selected behaviours uphold the concept of ‘HR Professionalism’, giving two examples from the knowledge and activities at band 2. The two professional areas Insight, Strategy and Solutions and Leading HR sit at the heart profession and are applicable to all HR professionals. They underpin the direction of the profession as an applied business discipline with a people and organisation discipline and describe how great HR professionals work for HR’s purpose. HR can only deliver it’s purpose of sustainable organisation performance if it works from a deep business, contextual and organisational understanding to develop actionable insight. This allows us to creative prioritised and situational strategies that make the most difference and build a compelling case for change. It includes: †¢ Building a picture †¢ Developing actionable insight †¢ Delivering situational HR solutions that stick †¢ Building capacity and capability †¢ Working with agility The successful HR professional provides active, insight led leadership. Owning, shaping and driving themselves, others and activity within the organisation. They develop across three main areas of leadership – personal leadership, leading others and leading issues. It includes: †¢ Personal leadership †¢ Leading others †¢ HR function design and service delivery †¢ HR recourse planning and delivery †¢ Delivering value and performance in HR teams †¢ Managing HR budgets and finances This being based as the heart of the profession, there are 8 main behaviours expected, including; †¢ Role Model – Consistently leads by example. Acts with integrity, impartiality and independence, balancing personal, organisation and legal parameters. †¢ Skilled Influencer – Demonstrates the ability to influence to gain the necessary support from drivers stakeholders in pursuit of organisational value. The CIPD (2005a) has stated that: All personnel and development specialists must be thinking performers. That is, their central task is to be knowledgeable and competent in their various fields and to be able to move beyond compliance to provide a critique of organisational policies and procedures and to advise on how organizations should develop in the future. HR professionals have to think carefully about what they are doing in the context of their organization and within the framework of recognised body of knowledge. They have to perform effectively in the sense of delivering advise, guidance and services that will help the organisation to achieve its goals. Legge (1995) made a similar point when she referred to HRM as a process of ‘thinking pragmatism’. Harrison (2007) commented that the ‘thinking performer’ philosophy focuses on the ways in which HR fields of activity should link to produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, on strategic awareness and on evidence based practice. The CIPD ‘The Thinking Performer Concept’ (2007) believes: â€Å"The non thinking performer will privately regard many of the things her or she is required to do as absurd, indefensible, inefficient, even immoral or corrupt, but will say nothing †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ the non thinking performer is a ‘ lifetime liability’ to the organisation.† Looking at the requirements in Band 2 of the HR Map, and taking into consideration the behaviours within this, you need to build strong relationships with your customers. Managers need to feel comfortable approaching your for advise, and confident that you will be able to lead and advise them on the appropriate approach to take. You need to be skilled in influencing the manager to the correct way of thinking, to handle the situation in the correct manner, but also be flexible in your approach and listen to their ideas/requirements. And together, agree on the best action and way forward. The need for HR theory, Ulrich (1997a): To make practices more than isolates acts managers and HR professionals must master the theory behind HR work; they need to be able to explain conceptually how and why HR practices lead to their outcomes. Regardless of the preferred theory, managers and HR professionals should extract from it a higher level of reasoning for their day to day work and thus better explain why their work accomplishes goals. 3. Explain, with related examples, why HR professionals need to be able to manage themselves, manage groups or teams, manage upwards and manage across the organisation. HR professionals provide insight led leadership. They need to own and shape themselves as well as others within the organisation. They need to personally lead themselves, as well as teams and upwards within the organisation. The definition of management as stated by Michael Armstrong is ‘Management is defined as deciding what to do and then getting it done through the effective use of recourses’. The main processes of management are planning, organizing, motivating and controlling. HRMagazine say: HR must turn outside business trends and stakeholders expectations into internal actions, and should focus on both business results and human capital improvement. HR professionals should target both individual ability and organisation capabilities. HR is not an isolated activity, but sustainable and integrated solutions. An effective HR professional melds individual abilities into an effective and strong organisation by helping to define and build its organisation capabilities. Organisation is not a structure or process, it is a distinct set of capabilities. HR professionals can help line managers create meaning, so that the capability of the organisation reflects the deeper values of the employees. HR professionals are credible activists because they build their personal trust through business acumen. Credibility comes when HR professionals do what they promise, build personal relationships of trust and can be relied on. In order to be an effective HR professional, it is important that they are able to manage themselves in order to show their teams and organisation that they can be trusted. They can then go on to manage their teams effectively, through to managing across the organisation. HR professionals make change happen at institutional , initiative and individual levels. 1. Undertake a self-assessment against the specification of HR professional practice capabilities, such as the CIPD Associate Membership criteria, to identify professional development needs. See appendix 1 for SWOT analysis. 2. Evaluate and select at least three development options to meet your needs , explaining the advantages and disadvantages of each, and their fit with your preferred learning style and career aspirations. Continued Professional Development (CPD) is a necessity in the HR environment. The profession is a very high pace with changes to the law and best practise. CPD makes sure your knowledge is up to date and fresh. New ideas and developments are happening all the time and being dedicated to CPD ensures you are professional and consistent. 20 years ago CPD was not widely spoken of, or used in the HR environment. Until recently the profession has not recognised the need to adhere to the requirements of other professional bodies (medical, law etc) as HR was seen as a job anyone could do, but the recent introduction of the HR standards and HR Map means all HR professionals need to continue with CPD to reflect the professionalism of their career. In recent years the concept of ‘a job for life’ has subsided and now employees in all professions need to continue to prove their worth and stay valuable to the organisation. Keeping up to date with CPD means you are actively trying to develop yourself and have an interest in developing yourself to benefit the organisation and profession. I have undertaken a SWOT analysis (Appendix 1) on my current developmental needs. I have also used the HR map to find out where my weaknesses lie as an HR professional. I found this exercise an interesting and useful tool for working out my developmental needs. I have included a Career Development Plan (Appendix 2), this shows my current development needs and I will be referring to them below. My first, and most important need, is an update on HR Law. This is needs so I can give better advice to managers and have the confidence to act on my own beliefs. My second is updating my knowledge on how to deal with Absence Management, a high level of absenteeism can be extremely costly to an organisation and I would like to develop my knowledge so I can help the absent employee and also help the organisation’s statistics and costs in turn. My third developmental need is Reward Strategies. I find the topic fresh and a lot of organisations are not fully using the strategies. I would like to enhance my knowledge and research best practise to see what recommendations I can make for the organisation I am employed by. I intend to satisfy these needs by taking advantage of courses offered by the CIPD, in house training and by attending the Intermediate Certificate in HR Management at Bridgwater College. It is also important for me to use other tools for learning, for example journals, on line resources and many of the books available at local libraries. To satisfy the needs for enhancing my knowledge of HR Law I will be attending the unit on the subject at Bridgwater College and I also regularly attend HR Breakfast’s at FootAnstey Solicitors. They cover a wide range of topics, including sessions on Employment Law. Absence Management will be researched by looking at the media available, for example previous research and best practise. I will also look to attend relevant CIPD courses being held in the South West area. Reward strategies are reasonably new and important when it comes to employee satisfaction and retention. Researching the subject will enable me to make use of best practise and o ffer recommendations.

Breast cancer reflection

The finding was made through a study from the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program at Michigan State University, which indicated that before any umors appear, there are changes in the breast that include increased cell growth and alterations in immune cells. I believe this is a great topic for a health science class for students, has many other broader areas of work and subject to further discuss such disease and preventions that can be made and helps teachers have more knowledge as to what diseases can be prevented from articles like this one..This article helps a lot in a health science class. In health science it is important to teach students the different diseases that are killing many out there and the early reventions that can help reduce the risk of it become a disease, in this case, cancer. In a health science class, we can discuss food groups and differentiate what are high fat diet foods. Also, we can deeply discuss puberty, which usually half of them know, b ecause even their parents are too shy to discuss such topic.Sometimes students see changes in their body and have no idea why, and I think this subject links puberty to a well discussed topic in a classroom. Finally, being able to discuss breast cancer, and other cancers can link a great topic for a health science class, discussing hat is a cancer, how it develops, how it is reduced and moreover and most important, how it can be prevented.Discussing about how high fat diet plans during puberty increases the risk of breast cancer, we as teachers can link this topic in other subject so students grasp the information, share it with their families and spread what can save a life in their community. In English, writing essays as to how you would inform the community of what high fat diet during puberty can cause can link the topic. In social studies, students can be engaged in the global social month of cancer awareness which is in the month of October.And finally linking health science with English, and social studies, to help more and broaden such article, we can engage in different arts and craft that visually help to explain students and others of how we help in cancer awareness, know what it is and how we can spread the word. Articles like this one are very important to students and teachers for the betterment of self-knowledge and also to help the community. While most people are aware of breast cancer, many forget to take the steps to have a plan to detect the disease in its early stages and encourage others to do the same.We have made a lot f progress but still have a long way to go and articles like these make us have a broader idea of what can cause it and instead of finding ways to prevent it, once and for all be able to avoid it by taking the necessary steps to live better, longer and healthier. Students, females in this case are able to also avoid un-healthy dietary plans and take more care ot them and us as teachers not only help increase the cancer k nowledge of what can cause it to our students but moreover help our students share the information and make our community help a nation with more information flowing for the betterment of everyone.

Health, Safety or Security Concerns Arising from a Specific Incident or Emergency Essay

The main concern that may arise when dealing with abuse is communication. This becomes a major concern as if a student’s has a hearing or speech impairment, it can mean that they may not be able to communicate how they feel about the subject, or express it correctly. In my poster I minimised this barrier by suggesting suitable responses to the situation. Ensure that staff talk to the student in a place where they feel comfortable. Staff should use good listening skills and write down appropriate notes to hand on to relevant people. After ensure that staff members go to their child protection officers to deal with the situation properly. This is important so that they can take appropriate steps to ensure the child is safe and the situation is dealt with correctly. The second concern that may arise when dealing with abuse is that the student may not tell staff members how they feel as they might feel scared if something happens if they tell- losing the dependency on an abusing carer especially if this is a key person the student communicate with. This could become a risk when working with any of my students that have a disability. I minimised this by on my poster giving staff advice on how to approach this. When talking to students its important that you make them feel comfortable and build a trusting relationship, there’s a better chance of them opening up their true feelings. However this may not be the case as the student may have learnt from their care or wider experience to just be compliant and live with it. The final concern that may arise when dealing with suspected abuse is the way the staff deals with it. They may have a lack of awareness of working with disabled students. A child with Down’s syndrome may act out in a specific way and staff may assume that this is because of their disability. Assumptions are sometimes be made about disabled children e. g. their mood, injury or behaviour. This can result in indicators of possible abuse being mistakenly attributed to the child’s impairment. However; their behaviour may be the only way for them to express how they actually feel. In my poster I minimized this by highlighting types of abuse and indicators that staff an look out for if they suspect abuse. For example an indicator for physical abuse is unbelievable excuses i. e. I walked into a lamp post. However, not all the signs mentioned mean that the student is being abused, but it’s about using your sense to know if it feels right or not. Intruders in the college The main concern that may arise when dealing with intruders in the college is getting hold of personal information. This is a major concern for any school or college and is important that they are stopped. If intruders do enter the premises they could get hold of personal information about students and staff. In my poster I have highlighted this and given advice on how to stop this from occurring if someone unauthorized enters the building. Computes should be password locked when they are not being used and any confidential paper work should be put into cabinets which are locked. Staff should ensure that all members staff are aware of this rule and if any computers are not locked to do so. By having this simple security measure in place, if an intruder does enter it will make it more difficult for him/her to access this information. However if these steps are ot taken it can means that confidential information could be used in a negative way towards students such as blackmail. The second concern that may arise when dealing with intruders in the college is how staff and students will respond if they think or see someone suspicious is in the building. When working with disabled students, some of them may not know if someone suspicious or how to react do them. The poster can help staff to tell students how to respond to people coming in to their college that they do not know. By giving simple steps, with heading makes it easier to read. Also I have given- ‘do not’ of how not to respond in a situation such as don’t not confront the intruder, as it can cause further danger to the student or staff members. The final concern that may arise when dealing with intruders in the college is if you get an intruders that is armed with a weapon- this could either be a gun or a knife. There are many situations that you could be in, that you could unsure how to respond. In my poster I state 3 different situations that you could be when a hostile intruder enters. By giving them each scenario and steps to take breaks it down and makes it easier to understand. When mentioning these steps I give prioties to make the students safe. This is important when working with students with disability ad they might know how to react to this situation, so ensuring that staff know the correct procedures can help keep the students stay calm. D2: justify responses to a particular incident or emergency in a health and social care setting In the second part of this report I am going to justify my responses to the incident I have discussed in P4 and M3. Intruders The safety of children and young people is important when working in any health and social care setting. I am working with students from the entry & foundation with special education needs. My first priority would be to make sure they are safe. the reason why this was my first priority is because that students are most important . – according to the information in the health and social care textbook , level 3. (Authors: Beryl Stretch & Mary Whitehouse) – if an intruder does gain entry, your priority is to keep yourself and the people you care for safe. Property can be replaced- people cannot. It was particularly important to priotise this response for my students with special needs as they might not know how to respond if an intruders does enter their space or maybe cannot escape by themselves- if they had a physicals or visual impairment. This is why it is important for me to ensure tat all my students are safe. This action reduces future harm occurring again in Entry and foundation because the students may learnt from my response the situation. Health and safety act at work Once I have ensured that all my students are safe, I would make sure I informed security or the site manager. The laws place certain responsibilities on both employers and employees. For Example- According to health and safety act; it is up to the employer to provide a safe place in which to work, but the employee also has to show reasonable care for his or her own safety. As the employee the next step I would take would be to ensure that the students are safe, and I would make my site manager or security aware of the incident or intruder into the college. This would mean that they could implement actions to help reduce further risk for any further things happening within the environment.

What do you consider to be the importance of witches in Macbeth Essay

What do you consider to be the importance of witches in Macbeth - Essay Example Their very presence offers a comparison between good and evil, natural & the supernatural, contrasting morality with Macbeth's ambition. It empowers Shakespeare to not only single out Macbeth's weak trait, but also stresses on these human flaws, which at certain times becomes a thin layer of difference between humanity and supernatural powers. Time element plays a dubious role because the "weird sisters" do not tell Macbeth what time he would become king; they predict such a happening in future but without specifying the time of his becoming the king. Therefore, their foretelling negates time. The impact of this negation of time element might indicate that the witches’ foretelling is a puzzle to be solved, and that the impact it has on Macbeth, leads him rather from listening to taking action. It derives then that the notion of the witches and their extra-ordinary abilities, are conspiring Macbeth's mind; he is instigated to fulfil his desires. It offers an evaluation of his p sychological state and feeling of humanity, knocking at Macbeth's human instinct. The presence of witches creates an element of uncertainty in the character of Macbeth. His state of mind remains unstable to the extent of further deterioration throughout the play. Audience reacts by studying Macbeth’s state of mind.... That’s the reason behind Shakespeare making extensive use of the â€Å"weird sisters†, bringing about a transformation in the character of Macbeth, as he murders King Duncan and his so-called best friend, Banquo. The clear purpose of Shakespeare's inclusion of the witches and their wicked ways was to create element of horror for his 17th century spectators (Aimee par. 5). Comparing present-day spectators of Shakespeare’s Macbeth with Shakespeare’s audience, one does not feel that emotional reactions to the appearance of ghostly figures would be the same. Modern spectators have gone through different and varied experiences and do not relate themselves with fearful expressions; rather they may take such appearances funny way. Portrayal of witches in Shakespeare’s times was inhuman. â€Å"You should be women; and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so† indicates that the witches are neither masculine nor feminine. Shakespeare has given a totally distinct image of the witches. Perhaps, he wanted to give a message that human beings blamed for being witches were falsely implicated, as witches looked abnormal and inhuman in appearances (Aimee par. 6). Shakespeare has given a different colouring to his presentation of witches, alluding them to human desires, suggesting them to be the inside presence of evil in Macbeth and human beings. It is the personal decision of each human being to bend before the evil inside or not. It also indicates that witches are just representations of one’s own mind’s evil, as it is weaved in Macbeth’s mind; actually, these are the spiritual framings of his inner desires (Aimee par. 7). Witches succeed in instigating Macbeth to the extent that

A market is efficient with respect to a particular set of information Essay

A market is efficient with respect to a particular set of information if it is impossible to make abnormal profits - Essay Example Second part of the essay contains on a market conclusion about the practical behaviors of stock markets in relation with stock movements. This debate also include the information of the market behavior that in which circumstances an investor can make abnormal profits and in which conditions it is not possible to make abnormal gains and profits. It this part, debate is also made on the question that either market is efficient or not. The last part of this assignment is based on a general conclusion about this study. Topic: A market is efficient with respect to a particular set of information if it is impossible to make abnormal profits by using this set of information to formulate buying and selling decisions. The efficiency of the stock market is based on the efficient market hypothesis. Many investors believe that they can select stock with the help of their forecasting and valuation techniques and can make abnormal profits easily. On the other side the efficiency market hypothesis states that all the stock prices are based on all the accurate information and reflect the full and fair information. This directly means that it is not possible to consistently outperform the market by using any information that the market already knows, except by luck. The idea is that now information is quickly and efficiently incorporated into share prices at any point of time, so that old information cannot be used to judge the future movements. The term "efficient market" was first introduced by in 1965 in a paper by E.F. Fama who suggest that â€Å"in an efficient market, on the average, competition will cause the full effects of new information on intrinsic values to be reflected "instantaneously" in actual prices† For proper understanding of the efficient market hypothesis we must have to aware about the basic market categories. A short summary of these categories are described below Market inefficiency An inefficient form of efficient market is one in which the valu e of the securities is not always an accurate reflection of the available information. In an inefficient market, some stocks will be over priced and other will be underpriced, which means some investor can make excess while other can lose more than warranted by their level of exposure. The logic behind this process is that proper valuation of securities and stocks are depend upon the latest information and in an inefficient market no latest data about the stock and securities are available. So this can directly result into wrong decision about buying or selling any stock. (BORENSTEIN, S., BUSSE, M. R., & KELLOGG, R. (2007). Principal-agent incentives, excess caution, and market inefficiency evidence from utility regulation) Weak form efficiency In a weak form efficient market share prices reflects information about all the past prices movements. This situation directly relates that these past movements do not help in identifying positive trading strategies. (Returns and weak form ef ficiency: betting markets 1984) In these kinds of markets future prices movements cannot be predicted because all the information is available of the past price movements. And any technical analysis cannot help to make a consistent gain on the market. It is stated in a paper by Kendall in 1953 that the prices of shares followed a random walk. I.e. there

The role of IT in generating competitive advantage for a business Assignment

The role of IT in generating competitive advantage for a business organisation of your own choice - Assignment Example he term information and communication technology (ICT) as people use and communicate to other people through a network connection (Laudon, & Laudon, 2010). Most organizations use ICT to interact with clients and become competitive in the market. The computer is made up of the hardware, which is the visible and physical part of a computer and the software that includes a set of commands that are understandable to the computer as well as the provision of instructions expected to be done by the computer. The basic principle of the computer is that information or data enters through the computer through an input device that is then processed and transmitted through an output device. Some of the output devices include interfaces like the screen or other electronic device like a storage device or computer network. For businesses to be successful and be effective, it is important for organizations to install information technology. Some of the business applications include databases, transactional systems like the real time order entry, web servers for example, the Apache. In addition, there are systems that manage customers and enterprise resource planning systems. Moreover, computer servers run business applications by interacting with client users and other servers across different networks (Kangas, 2003). In an organization, the IT department is tasked with the management of the organizations IT infrastructure and assets. The IT team relies on the specialized IT knowledge and skills to support the equipment and organizational activities. This paper will look at how Pfizer pharmaceutical company located in New York and spread across the globe is using IT to have a competitive edge over other pharmaceutical companies. Two cousins, Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, incorporated Pfizer pharmaceutical in Brooklyn New York in 1849. The company is dedicated on improving the lives of human beings. Moreover, it is dedicated to do research and revolutionary processes and