...Assignment of General Management on the Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement Joseph NGENZI MPAM/3020/11 This Term Paper is Submitted in partial fulfillment of UNIT MBA 603 grades of the School of Business and Public Management for the award of Master of Public Administration and Management. Mt. Kenya University July, 2011 INTRODUCTION Four adults are sitting on a porch in 104-degree heat in the small town of Coleman, Texas, some 53 miles from Abilene. They are engaging in as little motion as possible, drinking lemonade, watching the fan spin lazily, and occasionally playing the odd game of dominoes. The characters are a married couple and the wife’s parents. At some point, the wife’s father suggests they drive to Abilene to eat at a cafeteria there. The son in-law thinks this is a crazy idea but doesn’t see any need to upset the apple cart, so he goes along with it, as do the two women. They get in their unaired-conditioned Buick and drive through a dust storm to Abilene. They eat a mediocre lunch at the cafeteria and return to Coleman exhausted, hot, and generally unhappy with the experience. It is not until they return home that it is revealed that none of them really wanted to go to Abilene–they were just going along because they thought the others were eager to go. Naturally, everyone sees this miss in communication as someone else’s problem. Dr. Harvey used this wonderfully simple parable to illustrate what he believes is a major symptom of organizational...
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...The Abilene Paradox in an organization It was a day like all the others in a banks’ branch, when the manager realised that in the strong room was not enough money to serve the clients for a whole day because it happened to be the end of the month, and lots of funds were going out. The problem was that if he ordered money that actual moment, the security could only bring them to the branch the next day. So he suggested, that the assistant branch manager goes to the nearest branch of the bank to bring money. The assistant branch manager agreed and he went to bring the money. The other employees at the branch that were hearing the conversation did not say anything so one would suppose that silently they were agreeing. Main purpose of these team members was to serve the clients as best as they could and not seem unprepared to the CEO and have troubles of not ordering the money on time. When the assistant branch manager returned with the money a phone call from the main offices upset the group. The CEO of the bank called, really frustrated for the initiative the branch employees took because they weren’t following the policies of the bank and the action they took was not at all secured. He was really angry of the situation and the high risk the employees took of losing the money and he threatened with punishment. The end of the telephone conversation was the starting point for the blaming and faulting behaviour between the members of the group, a basic symptom of an organization...
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...Critique of The Abilene Paradox: The Management Of Agreement Section (3) Article (7) By ROHINI GANDHOTRA Dr. Frear MBA 500: Business and Leadership January 31, 2009 BIOGRAPHY Jerry B. Harvey, a management expert and pioneer of The Abilene Paradox is a Professor of Management at The George Washington University. During his career, he has served as a consultant to a wide variety of industrial, governmental, religious, military, educational, and voluntary organizations. He is the author of approximately fifty professional articles and has written two books: The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management and How Come Every Time I Get stabbed in the Back, My Fingerprints Are on the Knife? He is also featured in several videos focusing on organizational behavior including, "The Asoh Defense," "The Gunsmoke Phenomenon," and "The Abilene Paradox". In addition, he has published articles such as, "It's Not My Dog," "Eichmann in the Boardroom," "Organizations as Phrog Farms," "Interrupted Prayers and Organizational Un*Learning." Many years ago Professor Jerry B. Harvey discovered that the fundamental problem of contemporary organizations is the inability to cope with agreement—not conflict. He finds that most agreement in organizations is actually false consensus. It occurs because many people feel they might be isolated, censured or ridiculed if they voice objections. This often leads groups to act on inappropriate goals and is a setup for organizational...
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...Case Study Name and Page #: Abilene Paradox Information, Page 115 Student Name: Tony Colon | |Leading Ideas: Revisiting the Abilene Paradox: | | |Is Management of Agreement Still an Issue? | by Kathryn J. Deiss, ARL Office of Leadership and Management Services Program Manager In 1974, Professor Jerry Harvey of George Washington University developed a parable from a real-life experience to describe the issues surrounding how individuals reach agreement, or, more specifically, believe they have reached agreement. Twenty-five years later the lessons and insights his parable generates are still valid and provocative for organizations and the individuals who work together in those organizations. The Parable of the Abilene Paradox1 Four adults are sitting on a porch in 104-degree heat in the small town of Coleman, Texas, some 53 miles from Abilene. They are engaging in as little motion as possible, drinking lemonade, watching the fan spin lazily, and occasionally playing the odd game of dominoes. The characters are a married couple and the wife’s parents. At some point, the wife’s father suggests they drive to Abilene to eat at a cafeteria there. The son-in-law thinks this is a crazy idea but doesn’t see any need to upset the apple cart, so he goes along with it, as do the two women. They get in their unair-conditioned Buick and drive through a...
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...Kevin Daly Philosophy Paper Zeno’s Paradox I will be examining two of Zeno’s paradoxes in this paper that we have talked about in class. Zeno was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher in Italy from 490 BC until 430 BS. Zeno is mostly known for his paradoxes. He offered forty different paradoxes, which show support towards his mentor’s beliefs. These paradoxes have challenged the conceptions of plurality, space, and motion. But, all of them except four have been lost. These four have stayed because they were important enough for Aristotle to address. Zeno tries to argue that the belief n plurality and change is wrong. Zeno argues these points in two of his paradoxes that we discussed in class. The first is the Arrow Paradox and the second is the Achilles/Tortoise Paradox. Zeno’s main argument conveys that motion is just an illusion and there is no such thing. The Arrow Paradox attacks the idea of motion. Arrows move from one point to another and motion can be defined as a change in place for a piece of time. Zeno argues that at any time, the arrow is at one position. He says that it is at only one position at all times, it does not move from point to point. Zeno believes that the arrow moving is neither moving to where it is, nor to where it is not. He says that the arrow cannot move where it is because it is already there. Also, Zeno states that the arrow cannot move where it is not because no time is elapsed during this. Zeno believes that time is composed...
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...Do You Think English is Easy? 1) The bandage was wound around the wound. 2) The farm was used to produce produce. 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. 7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object. 11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid. 12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row. 13) They were too close to the door to close it. 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. 17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear. 19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? Let's face it - English is an illogical language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore...
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...History of English Literature Overview Anglo-Saxon Literature (500-1100) The Angles and Saxon conquered what is now called England in the 5th and 6th centuries. Christian missionaries taught the English to write. Northumbria soon produced Caedmon and Bede. Heroic poetry of a Christian kind is the chief legacy of Old English literature, notably Beowulf and the Elegies. A considerable prose literature grew up after King Alfred. Middle English Literature (1100-1500) Literature in England in this period was not just in English and Latin but in French as well and developed in directions set largely in France. Epic and Elegy gave way to romance and Lyric. English writing revived fully in English after 1360 and flowered in the reign of Richard II (1372-99). It gained a literary standard in London English after 1425 and developed modern forms of verse, prose and of Drama. The conquest of England in 1066 by William of Normandy displaced English as medium of literature. The language of new rulers was French. Saxons dealing with the King had to learn French and French was the language of court and the law for three centuries. Four genres of Middle English are: i. 1. Fabliau 2. Lyric 3. Dream Allegory 4. Ballad Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer is the best story teller and the narrative poet. Chaucer tells his stories in a most effective way. He has the knack of transforming an old tale into a new one in such a manner that its appeal increases manifold and its human...
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...30/04/2013 In Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia, the protagonist Karim states: “Yeah, sometimes we were French, Jammie and I, and other times we went black Americans. The thing was, we were supposed to be English, but the English we were always wogs and nigs and Pakis and the rest of it”. Write an essay exploring how Kureishi’s novel maps Englishness as a contested terrain of identities, politics and performance. Your discussion should refer to Stuart Hall’s work on ethnicities and on Judith Butler’s writing on performance as identity. Much of the Kureishi’s early work is grounded primarily in racial and cultural conflict between British mainstream culture and ethnic minority communities; the conflict between the cultural claims that the first-generation immigrants were prone to clinging onto and the sense of belonging, which they their children aspired to develop in mainstream British society. To the children of immigrants, particularly those who had migrated from British Commonwealth or ex-colonized countries, any reflection on Britain, or their parents’ homeland, in terms of “home” may differ significantly from that perceived by their parents. As a writer born and bred in Britain of a Pakistani father and an English mother, Kureishi reflects upon his own identity, affirming in an interview his own sense of identity be seeing himself as British: “Critics have written that I’m caught between two cultures. I’m not. I’m British; I’ve made it in England. It’s...
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...Students Chapter 3 Learner Diversity: Differences in Today’s Students Chapter 4 Changes in American Society: Their Influences on Today’s Schools ISBN: 0-536-29980-3 Introduction to Teaching: Becoming a Professional, Second Edition, by Donald Kauchak and Paul Eggen Published by Prentice-Hall/Merrill. Copyright © 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN: 0-536-29980-3 Introduction to Teaching: Becoming a Professional, Second Edition, by Donald Kauchak and Paul Eggen Published by Prentice-Hall/Merrill. Copyright © 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc. Learner Diversity Differences in Today’s Students T eachers begin their careers expecting to find classrooms like the ones they experienced when they were students. In some ways classrooms are the same. Students go to school to learn, but they also want to have fun and be with their friends. They expect to work but often need encouragement from their teachers. They’re typical kids. Classrooms are changing, however; the population of our schools is becoming increasingly diverse. Students come from different cultures and speak many different languages at home; they possess a range of abilities and talents; and issues involving differences between boys and girls are receiving increased attention. In this chapter we examine this diversity as we try to answer the following questions: ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ What is cultural diversity, and how does it influence student learning? How are the educational experiences of boys and girls different...
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...Министерство образования и науки Республики Казахстан Кокшетауский государственный университет им. Ш. Уалиханова An Outline of British Literature (from tradition to post modernism) Кокшетау 2011 УДК 802.0 – 5:20 ББК 81:432.1-923 № 39 Рекомендовано к печати кафедрой английского языка и МП КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, Ученым Советом филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, УМС КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова. Рецензенты: Баяндина С.Ж. доктор филологических наук, профессор, декан филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова Батаева Ф.А. кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры «Переводческое дело» Кокшетауского университета им. А. Мырзахметова Кожанова К.Т. преподаватель английского языка кафедры гуманитарного цикла ИПК и ПРО Акмолинской области An Outline of British Literature from tradition to post modernism (on specialties 050119 – “Foreign Language: Two Foreign Languages”, 050205 – “Foreign Philology” and 050207 – “Translation”): Учебное пособие / Сост. Немченко Н.Ф. – Кокшетау: Типография КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, 2010 – 170 с. ISBN 9965-19-350-9 Пособие представляет собой краткие очерки, характеризующие английскую литературу Великобритании, ее основные направления и тенденции. Все известные направления в литературе иллюстрированы примерами жизни и творчества авторов, вошедших в мировую литературу благодаря...
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...bibliography page appends four sources in Harvard format Outline I . Introduction II . Analysis III . Conclusion Introduction The Geffrye Museum located in East London puts forward a breathtaking imminent interested in the way people of London used to live all the way through the past . Basically the museum under consideration is of English household interiors and has space sets from the year 1600 till just about up to these days . Every single period room that is present in the Geffrye Museum is a superior illustration of how English people belonging to the middle-class in those times , with astonishing innovative furnishings , materials , works of art and accessories used to live . In every single room that you look into one would find something that has never been seen before , for example , the chess set that is arranged and exhibited in the Regency room or the string for calling upon the maids and house workers in the Victorian room are just examples (Porter , 2008 Analysis Perhaps the most welcoming and appealing museums of the United Kingdom the Geffrye puts forward the times gone by of the English household internal from the year 1600 to the contemporary times . A succession of epoch rooms restraining excellent compilations of fixtures , works of art and ornamental arts replicate the altering feels and approaches of the inner-city middle classes . The museum is developed in wonderful 18th-century almshouse constructions with good-looking private...
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...WATCHING THE ENGLISH The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour Kate Fox Awkwardness Rules As it is, our introductions and greetings tend to be uncomfortable, clumsy and inelegant. Among established friends, there is less awkwardness, although we are often still not quite sure what to do with our hands, or whether to hug or kiss. The French custom of a kiss on each cheek has become popular among the chattering classes and some other middle- and upper-middle-class groups, but is regarded as silly and pretentious by many other sections of society, particularly when it takes the form of the ‘air-kiss’. Women who use this variant (and it is only women; men do not air-kiss, unless they are very camp gays, and even then it is done ‘ironically’) are disparagingly referred to as ‘Mwah-Mwahs’. Even in the social circles where cheek-kissing is acceptable, one can still never be entirely sure whether one kiss or two is required, resulting in much awkward hesitation and bumping as the parties try to second-guess each other. Handshakes are now the norm in business introductions – or rather, they are the norm when people in business are introduced to each other for the first time. Ironically, the first introduction, where a degree of formality is expected, is the easiest. (Note, though, that the English handshake is always somewhat awkward, very brief, performed ‘at arm’s length’, and without any of the spare-hand involvement – clasping, forearm patting, etc. – found in less inhibited cultures...
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...The Future of English? A guide to forecasting the popularity of the English language in the 21st century David Graddol First published 1997 © The British Council 1997, 2000 All Rights Reserved This digital edition created by The English Company (UK) Ltd David Graddol hereby asserts and gives notice of his right under section 77 of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. What is this book about? This book is about the English language in of the English language and concludes that forecasting, identifies the patterns which the 21st century: about who will speak it and for what purposes. It is a practical the future is more complex and less predictable than has usually been assumed. underlie typical linguistic change and describes the way large corporations have briefing document, written for educationists, politicians, managers – indeed any decision maker or planning team with a professional interest in the development of English worldwide. The book has been commissioned by the British Council to complement the many texts already available about the teaching and learning of English, the history and used ‘scenario planning’ as a strategy for coping with unpredictable futures. Section three outlines significant global trends which will shape the social and economic world in the 21st century. Section four discusses the impacts these trends are The Future of English? takes stock...
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...According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary reparations are “the act of making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury; it is something done or given as amends or satisfaction; the payment of damages compensation in money or materials payable by a defeated nation for damages to or expenditures sustained by another nation as a result of hostilities with the defeated nation” (merriam-webster.com). “The paying of descendants of enslaved Africans for free labor of their ancestors. Supporters argue that the government of the United States at one time sanctioned enslavement and now it should try to remedy the effects of it by paying the descendants of the enslaved for their work” (Asante, Molefi Kete 486). I interviewed a diverse group and asked if they felt that due to the long stretch of years of oppression and torture African Americans have gone through in this country should they be given reparations and if so how. The group I interviewed included family, friends and co-workers: my son a seventeen year old African American male who is Baptist, a co-worker a twenty-five year old Caucasian female who is Catholic, a co-worker a forty-four year old Latin American male who is Catholic, and a good friend a thirty-five year old African American female who is Muslim. The twenty-five year old Caucasian female believes that there is no price for compensation applicable to those today that had their enslaved ancestors suffer. Even if compensation were...
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...Cause & Effect Assignment Teaching English as a Foreign Language in South Korea has been my dream job ever since I was a sophomore in high school and discovered my love for the Korean culture. I knew at the time that wanting to acquire a career such as this one would be quite an undertaking, but I didn’t recognize the fact that a good amount of issues would arise in this field. Within the vast amount of issues that my career offers, there are two issues that I am going to cover: creating respectable environments for English as a Second Language students to learn in, and dealing with the issue of how to teach politeness values or leave them out of the mix while they are learning English. I believe that my strengths of achiever, adaptability, positivity, and self-assurance can help me overcome these issues because they are strengths that directly apply to these specific issues that I am going to have to deal with. The first issue I am going to come in contact with is finding a way to create an environment that is ideal for the Korean students to learn English to the best of their ability. When this career opportunity first started off in the country of Korea, it was taught by American missionaries that only taught it ‘as an avenue for [their] missionary work.’ (Jeong, 2004, p. 1) While they were teaching it for this particular reason, under the impression that the Koreans could then be converted into their faith, they didn’t exactly teach it in a way that is considered right...
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