Motivation and Staff Performance in the Civil Service free essay sample

The key to motivation is the satisfaction of desires. As long as an individual has an unachieved personal goal, he has the force to motivate him, our behavior consciously or unconsciously, is generally motivate distinctive individual behaviour are to a considerable degree subconscious and therefore not easily susceptible to examination and evaluation. There has been persistent expression of dissatisfaction with the job attitudes and job performance of workers in public sector. This is due to the fact that the job is not attractive to workers. This inadequacy could be traced to the employee’s personal needs, job expectations and or innate states. Employees are usually more productive during a task simply because they want to do it, not because they feel they have to do it. Therefore, it seems evident that people or individuals will be prepared to commit themselves to their job to put in their best effort and loyalty to the job and to work towards the achievement of the organization targets if their goals are met on the job and if they are satisfied with the job. We will write a custom essay sample on Motivation and Staff Performance in the Civil Service or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When one is positively motivated, it precipitates positive behavior hence positive erformance. According to Musselman and Hughes (1999) morale affects efficiency of operation. Morale is the result of combination of many complex attitudes, workers personal feelings and biases, their values, economic and cultural environment, degree of security physical health, emotional stability, realization of job expectations and the flow of communication between management and the workers. 3 Many authorities believe that production rates are more sharply influenced by morale of the work force than by any other environmental factor. If employees feel that they are treated fairly well and good working conditions are provided, they are likely to have high morale to do their job. 1. 2 Statement of the Problem The civil service is the instrument through which meaningful development in the country is achieved. This is accomplished when the civil servant uses his acquired skills to formulate and execute government policies geared towards development. However, there is a strong evidence of deterioration about the work standard in the civil service. The behaviours of workers are characterized by such attitudes as laziness, absenteeism, lateness to work, hostility to members of the public; disloyalty and corruption. The expectations of civil servants are not met; hence, there is general laxity and inadequate performance in this sector. It is the general belief of civil servants that their counterparts in the private sector are better off with good standard of living. In view of this, they are not motivated to put in their best. This negative belief has created some problems in the attitude of workers in the civil service which has adversely affected job performance. 1. Research Question in view of the problem raised, this study is therefore designed to seek answers to the following questions in line with the aims of the study (1) What are the factors affecting job satisfaction among the Civil Servants un Oyo State? (2) To what extent are the Civil Servant of Oyo State are satisfied with their job? 4 1. 4 Objectives of the StudyTh e objectives of the research study are to (i) examine the factor that motivate the workers of Oyo State Civil Service; (ii) appraise the existing motivating packages for workers in the state ; and (iii) investigate the effects of staff motivation on job performance in he State. 1. 5 Significance of the Study The study will be of immense benefits to decision makers and human resource managers in organization when dealing with human problem such as the menace of low productivity as appropriate policy decisions that affect their personnel would be made. The importance of workers motivation and job satisfaction should not be ignored by government as they promote the corporate objectives of the organization as well as the individual. This research study would therefore serve as a guide to employers of labour as it would give them the understanding of the workers. The study is also expected to provide additional information research in this area and to government for effective efficient performance in respect of task and allocation of scarce resources for a result oriented state. 1. 6 The Scope of StudyConsidering the large population of the Oyo State Civil Service, it will be difficult and time consuming to include all the population of civil servants in the state. Therefore, the study focused on six ministries. The Miniseries are office of the Governor, ministry of Works and Transport, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Lands and Housing. The criteria for selecting these ministries are based on the fact that their programmes and activities are 5 geared towards the development of the state and the fact that they provide extensive services to the largest population of the state, hence, their impact is felt throughout the state. In addition, the population of these ministries is expected to be a representative sample of the characteristics of the whole civil service as the population of the selected ministries represents a larger proportion of whole civil service population. 1. 7 Limitation of the Study The system of records keeping at Oyo state civil service commission made it difficult to collect and retrieve data necessary for adequate analysis of data collected for the study. The time for the research study is not enough for an extensive work to be done. It was not easy to carry out a comparative study of all the Ministries in Oyo state because of fund. Definition of Terms1. 8 Definition of Terms The following terms are defined for the purpose of this studyMotivation The drive to satisfy a want or achieve an outcome. In this study, what motivates the labour to put up certain action and what comes out of it? Job Satisfaction The psychological disposition (attitudes and feelings) of workers towards his job. It refers to the contentment experienced when a want is satisfied as a result of a job factor. Morale The collective attitude of workers towards one another, towards their employer, the management, or their work. 6 Job Involvement The enthusiasm and dedication which an individual demonstrates at his job as he gets deeply absorbed in it in a bid to achieve corporate objectives. Management Management is a process by which a co-operative group directs the actions of others towards a common goal (objective). In this case, management is used to mean senior management, except otherwise state. Training The process whereby employees learn the skill, knowledge, attributes and behaviours necessary to in perform their job effectively. Behaviour The general disposition of the management which employees perceive as friendly or hostile, conductive or unconductive and which affect their job behaviour and consequently performance. 7 CHAPTER TWO AREVIEW OF LITERATURE AND THEORETICAL FRAME WORK 2. 1 Introduction Many employers of labour have come to realize that people are the most important of an organization. They concerned themselves with how the workers would be brought together to work for the fulfillment of the corporate of the organization. According to A. K. Ubeku (1975) â€Å"of all the assets of a business organization, people are the most important†. Motivation of workers in an organization is very important as it leads to the development of the individual and improve his job performance. Modern managers in an organization use personnel policy to motivate workers with a view to creating a conducive working situation where workers could attain self-actualization. Motivation creates a sense of success and security in the workers when his/her work is recognized as contributing to the aims and objectives of the organization. The classical approach to motivation has been the â€Å"correct and stick† method. The correct being money and the stick taking the form of physical punishment. The assumption has been that people would work harder and produce more if substantial financial rewards are placed before them or threatened with either dismissal or physical punishment. The classical theorists felt that workers could attain job satisfaction if their productivity and pay are maximized. This was not to be as money could motivate employees to a certain point only. Managers have also come to realize the importance of job satisfaction to workers. This is due to the facts that a worker who is satisfied with his/her works would put up an enhanced job performance while the reverse be the case for the dissatisfied worker. Thus, the success or failure of 8 any organization is a function of how satisfied its employees are with their work. A well-motivated worker could put up a high job performance because of the satisfaction he derived from his work. 2. 2 The concept of motivation and job satisfaction The word motivation is derived from the Latin word â€Å"movere† meaning to move. Motivation is therefore the process of arousing movement. The movement referred to being behavioural movement. Some theorists had asserted that people behaviour is determined by a complex interaction between the unconscious drives and the environment. Motivation is a predisposition to act in a specific goal directed manner. The term motivation refers to goal directed behaviour. Goal directed behaviour is characterized by the process of selecting and directing certain actions among voluntary activities to achieve goals. Motivation can be defined as the state of an individual perspective which represents the strength of his propensity to exert towards some particular behaviour. The word Motivation is derived from motives. The definitions of motives are as follows: Motives are expression of a person’s needs, hence they are personal and internal. Motives are acquired determinants that regulates the patterns of action and that arouse ore activate behaviour. They are the learned determinant of behaviour. Finally, Eze (1984) defined motivation as â€Å"a psychological process initiated by the emergence of a need in the organism which leads to a goal-directed behaviour/action aimed at satisfying the need†. 9 Davis (1981) defined job satisfaction as â€Å"the favorableness with which employee view their work†. It is an indication of the congruence between the worker’s expectations from his job and the actual rewards offered by the job. Eze (1984) defined job satisfaction as the â€Å"sense of well-being, good feeling and positive mental state that emerge in an individual when he obtains regard, consequent upon his job performance, congruent with or very nearly congruent with his expected equitable reward. According to Kevin J. Russel, job satisfaction is â€Å"a function of the importance attached, by the workers, to the extent to which needs are generally met in the work situation relative to the way in which these workers have ordered their wants and expectations (orientation to work)†. These definitions stated above have one thing in common: a recognition of the fact that an individual’s expression of job satisfaction is an emotional effective personal response as a result of his estimation of the degree to which some facts of job reality is congruent or incongruent with values. In order therefore to understand or describe an individual’s job satisfaction, one needs to have a good understanding of that individual’s total personality and value system. Ejiogu (2009) stated that people’s perceptions of their job situation will be directly related to the values which they place on the various aspects of their job and its environment as sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. From Wikipedia (2010) job satisfaction describes how content an individual is with his or her job. The happier people are within their job, the more satisfied they are said to be. Job satisfaction is not the same as motivation, although it is clearly linked. Other influences on satisfaction include the management style and culture, employee involvement, empowerment and autonomous work position. 10 2. 3 The Relationship Between Motivation, Job Satisfaction and Job Performance As seen above, motivation is quite different from satisfaction. While motivation refers to the drive and effort to satisfy a want of goal, satisfaction rears to the contentment experienced when a want is satisfied. In other words, motivation implied a drive towards an outcome and satisfaction involved outcomes already experienced (Koontz, O’Donnell and Weihrich, 1981). Motivation, therefore, precedes satisfaction. In most work situation in Nigeria and elsewhere, the same factor affect job performance could also affect job involvement, job satisfaction, job attitude and work motivation. 2. 4 The Early Theories of Motivation and Job Satisfaction In the early years of industrial revolution and after, profit maximization triggered the industrialists to search for ways and means of motivating workers for higher productivity. They want to make profits as much as possible through increased productivity. According to this view, the way to attract employee to work is to offer them attractive pay and the way to attract employees to work is to offer their attractive pay and the way to increase productivity is to constantly raise salaries. Motivation of workers through non-monetary rewards was never thought of by these early industrialists. The early industrialist tied motivation to financial reward (increased pay) which would in turn give workers satisfaction. The early theories on motivation and job satisfaction are as follows: 1. Classical Theory/School 11 2. Human Relation School 3. Structuralists School2. 4. 1. Classical Theory/SchoolThe development of modern management started about the beginning of this century with the classical school led by Frederick W. Taylor. This classical school preached Scientific Management, which combines the study of physical capabilities of a worker with an economic approach which views man as being driven by the need to earn his livelihood. The classical school advocated that if material required was closely tied to work efforts, the worker would respond with the maximum performance he is physically capable of doing. Taylor and his followers saw the worker as a functioning appendage to the industrial machine. Following this, the teaching of the classical school had been referred to as the Machine Theory of Organisation. The school assumed that the most efficient organisation would also be the most satisfying one, because it would maximize both productivity and workers’ pay and consequently job satisfaction. However, Taylor never thought off non-monetary regards. 2. 4. 2. The Human Relations SchoolThe excesses of the Classical approach came to be modified by the teaching of the human relations School which was heralded in by Professor Elton Mayo and his associates in the Hawthorne experiments. These experiments were carried out at the Western Electric Companys Hawthorne works in Chicago, U. S. A. between 1927 and 1932, were aimed at exploring the relationship between physical environment and productivity. The study was especially aimed at finding out the effect of illumination on productivity in the plant. The researcher discovered that when lighting was 12 illuminated step by step over a period of time, production increased correspondingly. On the other hand, when the researchers decided to decrease the illumination in the plant, production continued to rise and did so until the lighting was no longer brighter than moonlight. The major findings and conclusions of the Hawthorne Experiment are as follows(i) The level of production is set by social norms, not by physiological capacities; (ii) Non-economic rewards and sanctions significantly affect the behaviour of workers and largely limit the effect of economic incentive plans; (iii) Often, workers do not act or react as individuals but as members of groups; (iv) The importance of leadership for setting and enforcing group norms and the difference between informal and formal leadership; (v) The importance of communication, participative decision-making and democratic leadership in an organization. The Human Relations School assumed that the most satisfying organization would be the most efficient and so the organization structure and work should be related to the social needs of the employees. The rationale of the argument is that if employees are made happy, they will co-operate fully with the organization in their efforts and so increase organisational efficiency and productivity. Peter Drucker has criticised the views of the human relations school as being too employee centered. While the Classical and Human Relations Schools differ in their emphasis on either the formal or informal aspects of the organisation respectively, both had failed to see that productivity and workers satisfaction are inherently opposed philosophies. This has been left for the Structural School to sort out. That is the basic contradiction between a companys quest for relationally and profit and the human search for happiness freedom of action. 13 The Structuralists see the company organization as a large, complex, social unit in which many social groups interact while these groups have common interests like the economic viability of the organization, they also have some other opposed interests like how the gross profits of the organization are to be distributed. The two groups within the organization whose interests frequently come into conflicts are management and workers, although by no means the only group envisaged by the Structuralists. Essentially, rivalry and conflicts between organizational groups are inevitable and, perhaps, occasionally desirable. Peoples behaviour is motivated by common basic needs. These needs vary in degree with gender, generation, culture, maturity and other life circumstances. If appropriately structured, a persons job can help meet these needs, which leads to job satisfaction and job performance. A lot of research has been done in the area of motivation in relation to the area of organizational management. Researchers and authors agree that motivation is very crucial to the issue of job performance but they differ with regard to the things that motivate. Vroom (1964) sees motivation as a process governing choices made by persons or lower organisms among alternative forms of voluntary activity. This implies that motivation propel an individual to prefer one job to another. Some researchers assumed that variables such as amount of reward are motivational variables that directly influence the strength of incentive motivation. The implication of this is that extrinsic motivation has greater influence on ones (workers) performance. This seems to be in agreement with Skinners operant conditioning principle which states that behaviours are governed by their consequences. This is to say that if the consequence is positive, there will exist a better 14 performance (behaviour) from the worker. In other words, an individuals willingness to perform and the effort he will be willing to put depend on the reward he will get from the performance of such activity. There are propounded theories which are sophisticated in nature. Some laying credence to or supporting the above viewpoints and others contradicting them. Some of these theories would be discussed since this review cannot comprehensively discuss all of them. In addition, the literature review will include motivation, job performance, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, Nigeria Civil Service and Oyo State Civil Service. 2. 5 Maslows Theory of Motivation The need theory was originally advanced by Abraham Maslow (1938). According to him, people are motivated to satisfy a hierarchy or sequence of needs. He opined that man is a wanting being and what they want depends on what they already have. Maslow recognizes five (5) different needs that motivate individuals to work. These needs are as follows:2. 5. 1 Physiological Needs:These are considered to be basic biological functions of the human organisms and the most important of all human needs. They include the need for food, water, air, sleep, sex, rest, cloth and shelter. An individuals who lacks any of all these physiological needs is disturbed in mind. In addition, if these needs are unfulfilled, the higher needs will not be recognized. 2. 5. 2 Safety Needs:It is only when the individual meets the physiological needs that he tries to focus his attention on the next set of needs in the hierarchy, that is, the safety needs. At this level of the hierarchy, the employee is preoccupied with the safety of his life and property. He is also more concerned with stable situations and the security of his job. The needs for his 15

Why Should You Write About Your Familys Roots?

Why Should You Write About Your Family's Roots?If you're a first-generation college student, you'll want to be sure that your immigration essay topics will reflect on the experiences of your family. Since so many first-generation students are more connected to their ancestry than ever before, writing this type of essay has never been easier. This article provides some ideas for immigration essay topics that will appeal to students who are close to their heritage.Many of us know how important it is to talk about our family's historical and current connections to a specific country. There are some standard avenues you can explore in order to accomplish this. For example, you can do research in order to learn the names of those who came before you and those who currently live in your family's country. In addition, the customs of that particular country are important information to include in your essay.However, in terms of immigrant essay topics, there are many that are not familiar wit h. Some are relatively easy to write about, while others may be more complex. Writing on a variety of topics, then, may be necessary. You should certainly make sure that your essay isn't cluttered with too many paragraphs of the same thing. Instead, you should include some dissimilar content within each paragraph.One way to research the different immigration topics you can write about is to visit your country of origin and check out libraries in order to obtain specific literature related to your own ancestry. One approach you can take is to do a reverse search. Take a look at the bookstores and see if there are any books of immigrants that you have an interest in.It's also important to spend some time searching out ideas that are interesting things to talk about in the literature. One approach is to visit websites that focus on certain subjects, such as immigration laws. You may also check out some of the books that you receive at school. These, as well as numerous library books, m ay be a great place to start.Once you've spent some time researching the various elements that could relate to your ancestry, you may want to start thinking about the topics that you'd like to include in your essay. Your first thoughts may be those that you've read about and thought about yourself. After all, you would likely want to reflect on your own experience, as well as those of your family members, as part of your essay.After you've chosen the topics that you feel are most relevant to your family's ancestry, you'll want to take care to check with the right sources. Using these sources will help you avoid plagiarism. The best way to ensure this is to thoroughly research any resources that you are considering. Sometimes you may be tempted to use material from the Internet, and this is fine, but you should be certain that the information is original.To answer the question posed in the title of this article, your immigration essay topics should reflect on your family's heritage. Try to be as specific as possible and include several different points of view in your essay, rather than just focusing on one perspective.

High Employee Turnover Rate In Tourism Industry Tourism Essay Essays

High Employee Turnover Rate In Tourism Industry Tourism Essay Essays High Employee Turnover Rate In Tourism Industry Tourism Essay Essay High Employee Turnover Rate In Tourism Industry Tourism Essay Essay Harmonizing to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the touristry and cordial reception industry represents one of the most of import sectors of the planetary economic system, which contributes a US $ 6 trillion concern that employs over 230 million people and a important part of the universe s work force. In other word, human resource considered one of the most of import resources of the modern-day touristry and cordial reception industry. The labor back uping a broad scope of occupations in many different service sectors, for case hotels and eating houses line, subject park and amusement attractive forces. Personal service is indispensable to presenting merchandises and service to fulfill clients particularly those served in front line, for illustration servers, heads, receptionists, etc. Since the concern range is emphasis the clients contact all over the clip, the deficiency of work force may take the industry in problem. In fact, the modern-day touristry and cordial reception industry is confronting a HR crisis where the labour turnover rate is comparatively higher than other industry. The majority of service occupations tend to be impermanent, held by the people with no calling aspirations in touristry and no committedness to the industry. ( ) That is no uncertainty that the modern-day touristry and cordial reception industry offers occupation chances for the young person, adult females and less advantaged groups in society. Other than recruitment jobs, employee turnover may do by employee retirement, decease, unwellness or disablement, surrender, organisation retrenchment or expiration. The grounds why employees resign may be evitable where they may see unjust intervention, hapless leading, or deficiency of challenge. Otherwise they leave from an organisation with ineluctable grounds, for illustration immigrate to another province or state, return to university every bit good as serious unwellness . ( ) Employees may besides go forth an organisation because of dissatisfaction to the on the job conditions, wage and benefit, preparation and development, the work force diverseness issues, and other possible issue. Consequently, a elaborate turnover analysis of why employees leave a cordial reception organisation is meaningful to get at benchmark patterns on covering with the operational and administrative challenges the high degree of staff turnover. This research information would stand for the factors that influence staffs keeping or leave from their occupation in this industry. Furthermore, it helps cordial reception trade organisations generate schemes to minimise staff turnover rate yet increase staffs keeping by the agencies of heightening enlisting policy, occupation satisfaction, organisational committedness and eventually quality of service. 3.0 RESEARCH QUESTIONS What cause employees leave the organisations within touristry and cordial reception industry? What are the effects of high staff turnover to the related service sector organisations? What disciplinary action should be taken to undertake high employees turnover rate in specify sector? Research AIMS The purpose of this survey is to place the grounds of high staffs turnover in touristry and cordial reception industry. Further, this survey seeks to analyze the impacts of high employee turnover to the organisations in the industry and how organisations tackle this challenge. 4.1RESEARCH Aim To analyze the grounds of high employee turnover rate in touristry and cordial reception sector To measure the effects of high employee turnover in an touristry and cordial reception organisation To measure how organisations satisfy the employees in order to work out the job of high employee turnover in touristry and cordial reception sector 5.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 5.1 RESEARCH DESIGN Each method, tool or technique has its alone strength and failing. ( ) To guarantee the cogency and reliable of this survey, descriptive research design is used since the research jobs is non a new issue and had been sought by old research workers. ( ) Descriptive research is designed to depict features of a population or a phenomenon, where in this research, is to depict the features of the labour turnover within the touristry and cordial reception industry. Further, it may assist to analyze the ways that may cut down such phenomenon. Therefore, this research will be based on quantitative methods. Quantitative method will be undertaken by distribute study questionnaires to a big figure of respondents in order to obtain accurate information and bettering determination devising. ( ) Deductive research is the logical procedure of deducing a decision from a known general premiss. ( ) Deductive research has been used in this research to prove hypothesizes whether certain factors may act upon labours surrender and whether high turnover rate would take touristry or cordial reception organisation into certain quandary. Cross sectional surveies method besides will be used to carry on this survey because the continuance to carry on the research is limited. 5.2 UNIVERSE OF POPULATION The population selected to carry on this survey will be the employees who engaged in the touristry and cordial reception organisations that is high labour turnover rate, for illustration touristry attractive forces like Genting Highlands and certain hotels every bit good as eating houses in Malaysia. 5.3 Sampling Design: 5.3.1 SAMPLE SIZE To carry on this research, the selected sample size will be 200 employees within the touristry and cordial reception in Malaysia. 5.3.2 SAMPLE APPROACHES Since it is hard to seek the people who experience high labour turnover rate even surrender in the touristry and cordial reception organisations, the research are undertaken by snowball sample. Snowball sample is one of the non-probability samples that selects the initial respondents by chance sample and so obtained the extra respondents by referral from initial respondents. The advantages of utilizing snowball sample are economical and do convenience to the research worker every bit good as respondents. With this attack, this survey can conducted by makes initial interview with the little group and so utilize these to set up contacts with other relevant employees to reply the designed questionnaires. 5.4 RESEARCH METHOD Secondary informations such as diaries, text edition, newspapers and website articles besides will be utilized when carry through this research. In wide footings, the questionnaires for study intent are designed with closed and open-ended inquiries. The inquiries designed expect to present the grounds of high employee turnover rate together with its effects to the organisations within touristry and cordial reception industry. 6.0 DATA ANALYSIS The informations obtained from study methods will be analyzed by utilizing SPSS VS.18.0 per window. It is used to obtain the descriptive statistic like frequences, mean and standard divergences that reveals the result of the research job. 7.0 TIME SCALE GANTT CHART November 2010 December 2010 January 2011 February 2011 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Research Questions 1.2 Research Aims Rationale of the research chosen Chapter 2: Literature Reappraisal Chapter 3: Research Methods 3.1 Secondary informations 3.2 Focus group 3.3 Case surveies 3.4 Survey questionnaires Chapter 4: Datas Analysis and Findingss Chapter 5: Decision and Discussion Binding of Dissertation

Heavy Metal Definition and List

Heavy Metal Definition and List A heavy metal is a dense metal that is (usually) toxic at low concentrations. Although the phrase heavy metal is common, there is no standard definition assigning metals as heavy metals.   Characteristics of Heavy Metals Some lighter metals and metalloids are toxic and, thus, are termed heavy metals though some heavy metals, such as gold, typically are not toxic. ​ Most heavy metals have a high atomic number, atomic weight and a specific gravity greater than 5.0 Heavy metals include some metalloids, transition metals, basic metals, lanthanides,  and actinides. Although some metals meet certain criteria and not others, most would agree the elements mercury, bismuth, and lead are toxic metals with sufficiently high density. Examples of heavy metals include lead, mercury, cadmium, sometimes chromium. Less commonly, metals including iron, copper, zinc, aluminum, beryllium, cobalt, manganese and arsenic may be considered heavy metals. List of Heavy Metals If you go by the definition of a heavy metal as a metallic element with a density greater than 5, then the list of heavy metals is: TitaniumVanadiumChromiumManganeseIronCobaltNickelCopperZincGalliumGermaniumArsenicZirconiumNiobiumMolybdenumTechnetiumRutheniumRhodiumPalladiumSilverCadmiumIndiumTinTelluriumLutetiumHafniumTantalumTungstenRheniumOsmiumIridiumPlatinumGoldMercuryThalliumLeadBismuthPoloniumAstatineLanthanumCeriumPraseodymiumNeodymiumPromethiumSamariumEuropiumGadoliniumTerbiumDysprosiumHolmiumErbiumThuliumYtterbiumActiniumThoriumProtactiniumUraniumNeptuniumPlutoniumAmericiumCuriumBerkeliumCaliforniumEinsteiniumFermiumNobeliumRadiumLawrenciumRutherfordiumDubniumSeaborgiumBohriumHassiumMeitneriumDarmstadtiumRoentgeniumCoperniciumElements 113-118 Keep in mind, this list includes both natural and synthetic elements, as well as elements that are heavy, but necessary for animal and plant nutrition.

Comparison or contrast between two of the poems listed below in the Essay

Comparison or contrast between two of the poems listed below in the instructions - Essay Example She personifies death as a gentleman, who has come to pick her up from her busy life â€Å"He kindly stopped for me† (Dickinson). On her way she sees the school children playing, the fields of gazing grain, and the sun setting, which refer to her childhood, youth and elderly stages of life respectively. She wants the readers to understand that life is short and should be lived to its fullest as death waits for no one. It can be seen that both the poems want the readers to live their life in the best possible way, by facing all the challenges and not taking life for granted at any moment. The poem â€Å"Mother to Son† is created in free verse, thus it has no perfect from, rhyme or meter. Whereas â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death† contains iambic tetrameter in the first and third lines as they contain four feet and eight syllables in them, whereas the second and fourth lines consist of iambic trimeter. Thus, this poem has a fixed pattern and follows it throughout. Though the former is free verse, there are few places where rhymes have been used, such as â€Å"stair† and â€Å"bare,† and slant rhymes like â€Å"landin’s† and â€Å"climbin.† The latter has the last word of its second and fourth line rhyming such as â€Å"me† â€Å"Immortality,† â€Å"chill† â€Å"tulle,† â€Å"ground† and â€Å"mound† etc. Hughes employs common language used in the black culture to emphasize the message in his poem. It is often perceived that educated people lack practicality so that must be the reason why he has portrayed the woman as one who â€Å"is not well educated, but is street smart and wise,† (Metaphor Analysis in Mother to Son) to pass on his message of not giving up and facing the difficulties in life with boldness and courage. The mother’s tone here is bold and straightforward. Emily Dickinson uses formal English and the poem contains archaic usage such as â€Å"tis†

Theories Concerning Human Development Assignment

Theories Concerning Human Development - Assignment Example Jim today suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which is mainly caused due to the extreme level of anxiety or exposure to serious psychological trauma. As diagnosed, this could be the possible consequence of his mental and physical reaction to the World Trade Centre massacre in 2001. Contextually, his age might have been an influencing factor as through the normative stage models it is apparently discussed that young adults tend to decipher more active response towards any kind of trauma being steered with their quench for unique identification in their workplace. Young adults are also observed to possess the high degree of moral values which might have influenced Jim’s response to the disaster when he was 25 years old. His PTSD syndrome may affect his capability to deal with stress in his future career which shall further limit his job opportunities. He might also develop anxiety and frustration in his married life which will again disrupt his physical as well as mental health making him stressed and emotionally weaker. These forces shall thus increase emotional vulnerability within Jim making him less confident in his relationship. He might also seek the less stressful job and be reluctant in accepting diversity easily as compared to other people. He might have to face severe constraints when performing in working areas such as schools where stress level and diversity are perceived to be quite high. Regular interaction with young children might be helpful for him to reduce his psychological vulnerability.

Basic Concepts Of Phytoremediation Environmental Sciences Essay

Basic Concepts Of Phytoremediation Environmental Sciences Essay Contamination of soil in oil refinery has been an environmental issue of modern industrialization in many countries. The main reason for this contamination is the contaminated products generated during the activities associated with purifying and refining petroleum in oil refinery. Those activities including distillation, chemical treatment, product transfer and storage and so on are the contributors of the contaminants. These consist of the petroleum hydrocarbons, asbestos, metals, some inorganic compounds and etc[1]. There are a lot of effective remediation technologies such as pump-and-treat (PAT), soil washing, thermal desorption, bioremediation and etc. However, some of them are causing inhibition of soil fertility or even destruction to ecosystem. Therefore, this encourages my evaluation on phytoremediation- a variation of bioremediation which has been an emerging technology for remediation of petroleum hydrocarbons since late 1990s[2]. Phytoremediation is a cost-effective in-situ treatment which uses up vegetation to clean up the petroleum-contaminated soils and groundwater. In general, it is to utilize the ability of the special plants roots associated bacteria to take up, accumulate, and breakdown the contaminants (e.g. TPHs) located in soils and ground water[3](Figure1). This technology is more suitable for: (a) large sites with shallow contaminants where only polishing treatment is required; and (b) the sites where vegetation is used as a final cap and closure of the site[4]. Figure 1 Basic concepts of phytoremediation 2. Mechanisms There are seven mechanisms of phytoremediation: phytoextraction, rhizofiltration, phytovolatilization, phytostabilization phytodegradation, hydraulic control and rhizodegradation. They can be described as follows: Phytoextraction This is also known as phytoaccumulation. It aims to utilize plant roots in order to uptake and translocate the metal contaminants in the soil into the above ground portions of the plants[5]. The plants absorb, concentrate, and precipitate the toxic metals from the soils into shoots, leaves, etc. (Fig. 1)[6]. Figure 2 Phytoextraction of Ni from contaminated soil There are some plants, called hyper-accumulators, which are capable of accumulating extremely large amount of metals especially nickel, zinc and copper[7]. These plants need to be either incinerated or composted to recycle the metal after have been used for some time[5]. Rhizofiltration It is the adsorption or precipitation onto plant root surfaces, or absorption into contaminants which present in the soil solution in the root zone. Although rhizofiltration looks similar with phytoextraction, the main function of rhizofiltration is to remediate the contaminated groundwater rather than the soil by removing inorganics and metals. The plants are first raised in greenhouses with their roots in water until a large root system has been completed. At this stage, the original water source is replaced by contaminated for acclimatization. Once the saturation of contaminants in the roots has been reached, the plants are harvested. In the study of removal ability, sunflower, Indian mustard, tobacco, corn and etc. have been used to investigate the removal of lead from water. Among those plants, sunflower has the greatest ability[5, 6]. Phytovolatilization This involves the uptake and transpiration of contaminants by plants, with release of the contaminants in vapour form to the atmosphere. It looks like a natural air-stripping pump system. This natural ability of volatilization enables the plants to volatilize the volatile organic compounds in parts of refinery site, vinyl chloride as well as inorganics and etc[6, 8]. Phytostabilization This process is to use plants for immobilizing contaminants in the soil and groundwater. The roots absorb and accumulate the contaminants, provide adsorption or precipitation within the rhizosphere (root zone) in order to reduce the mobility of contaminants. As contaminant migration to the groundwater or air has been minimized, the bioavailability for their entry into the food chain can be lowered. Metal-tolerant species can be used to restore vegetation to those metal-contaminated sites. Those species not only can decrease the potential migration of contaminants but also prevent the leaching of contaminants to groundwater[5]. Phytodegradation This is also called phytotransformation. It is the breakdown of contaminants through metabolic processes or the effect of constituents (e.g. enzymes) produced by the plants. The complex organic contaminants are degraded into simple molecules and these molecules are then incorporated into plant tissues[5]. Hydraulic Control Hydraulic control is employed by plant canopies on the control of water table and the soil field capacity. Phreatophytic trees and plants are commonly used due to the ability to transpire large amount of water and thereby influence the water balance at the site. The increased transpiration decreases the tendency of contaminants to move towards groundwater water or alleviates the migration of contaminants from the site in groundwater plumes[6]. There is something to be noted that trees must be rooted into a shallow water table aquifer in order to successfully prevent plume migration[9]. Rhizodegradation This is often referred to as phytostimulation or planted-assisted bioremediation/degradation. It can be achieved by breaking down the contaminants in the soil within the rhizosphere through microbial activities. During the microbial activities, organic contaminants such as fuels and solvents can be biodegraded by microorganisms into harmless products. The nutrients for the microorganisms are provided by the exudates produced by the plant[5]. 3. Major influencing factors (a) Soil composition and quality: Soils with high concentration of contaminants soils tends to have a poor physical conditioning which is not able to promote the growth of vegetation and rhizosphere microorganisms. Common limitations are the deficiencies in moisture-holding capacity, aeration, nutrient and permeability and so on. Thus, adjustments are required to improve the quality of soil before planting. A common adjustment is the amendment on pH of soil by adding sulphur or lime[9]. (b) Selection of plant: Plants are selected by taking the concerns of the target contaminants to be polluted and the remedial objectives for redevelopment such as time frame and risk management. Moreover, the climate for the plants to be adapted into is also very important. The ability of the plant acclimating to the soil and the depth of plants root structure also cannot be neglected. The selection and use of plant species must be done carefully in order to avoid the introduction of non-native species into the areas which are new to that species[10]. 4. Advantages Relatively low cost: Comparing with other treatment technologies such as thermal treatment, chemical extraction, some ex-situ technologies and so on, phytoremediation is relatively inexpensive as it only uses plants. [5, 11]. Besides, there is no extraction cost as it is an in-situ treatment. Safe and passive: Phytoremediation is driven by solar energy and there is no chemical usage Feasible for large varieties of contaminants: It can be used on the major contaminants produced in oil refinery-petroleum hydrocarbon as well as the other minor contaminants such as VOCs, TCE and even heavy metals and etc[12]. Mitigation of soil erosion: The establishment of vegetation can effectively improve the soil structure and resulting in reducing the soil erosion. Preventing migration of contaminants: Phytoremediation avoids excavation and transport of polluted media as the contaminants are destroyed in place. Therefore, it can lower the risk of spreading the contamination[13]. Aesthetically pleasing: The use of green plants can contribute a more eye-pleasing and natural green environment. 5. Disadvantages Relatively shallow clean-up of soil with low contaminant concentration: Treatment is limited to soils less than 1 m from surface for grasses, less than 3 m for shrubs, less than 6 m for deep-rooting trees and groundwater less than 3 m from the surface. Besides, it is not effective for contaminated site with high concentration [5, 14]. Slow process: The whole process is relatively slow compared with other technologies as three to five growing seasons are needed to achieve remediation goals[5]. Site specific and critical plant selection: The optimization of plant growth and the contaminants uptake depends on the characteristics of the site and the plant species that are selected[5]. Potential food chain contamination: Contaminants may enter the food chain through animals which eat the plants or borne fruits[14]. Production of residual waste: Using phytoremediation may relocate contaminants from the subsurface to the plant, thereby creating residual waste to be disposed of[5]. By looking at the features of phytoremediation in various aspects, we may find some drawbacks and limitations. Although the overall performance of phytoremediation is still not effective as soil vapor extraction and other technologies, its trade-off such as low cost, practicality and environmental-friendliness indicates that it can be a promising solution for remediation in oil refinery, especially in developing countries. Also, many studies on phytoremediation are still being carried out, so it can certainly be combined with a lot of technologies for future improvement and ultimately be widely applied in oil refineries all over the world.