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Adapted Sports and Promoting Diversity in Sports

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Adapted Sports and the Issue of Promoting Diversity in Sports

Introduction

Adaptive sports which are also referred to as disability or Para sports are the sports which are played by individuals with disability comprising of physical as well as intellectual disabilities. This kind of sports is occasionally termed as adapted sports since several of these disabled sports are centered on prevalent able-bodied sports which are altered to meet the necessities of the individuals living with a disability. The adaptive sports are considered to be significant since they help the disadvantaged persons to do regular exercises which is vital for their bodies as it helps in strengthening their hearts, building strong muscles and increase coordination. In the United States, it is estimated that 56.7 million individuals, which is about nineteen to twenty percent of the total population are living with a disability (Winnick & Porretta, 2016). There exists several adaptive sports as well as recreation programs for individuals with disabilities which can be enjoyed for wellness, health, leisure, social and competition advantages. The organized games for the athletes living with a disability is usually categorized into three great disability groups. Consequently, each of these groups has an excellent history, structure, as well as an approach to the sport.

The number of individuals around the world with a disability who are principally involved in sports plus physical recreation is progressively up surging with organized sports for the athletes being classified into three major disability groups. The groups include the following; games for the deaf, games for individuals with a physical disability and lastly the games for the persons with intellectual disability. It is from the late 1980s that organizations started to include athletes who had some disabilities in sporting occasions, for example, the Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games (Thomas & Smith, 2008). Also, many of these adaptive sports are performed separately from the regular sports movements for instance; swimming, wheelchair dancing, wheelchair basketball, weightlifting among several other sporting activities which the mentally or physically disabled individuals can join. This paper discusses the adapted sport in an in-depth extent presenting its forms and its nature in general. Moreover, the issue of diversity and inclusion in games is also addressed and analyzed.

The Major Disability Sporting Events

Disabled Veterans

This is an organization which was founded by the United States Congress for the incapacitated military veterans of the United States Armed Forces. Its program are devoted to inspiring, reassuring as well as sustaining involvement and competition for its members through partnerships with VA hospitals plus the local adaptive sports programs throughout the country.in every year, this Departments typically hosts six national sporting occasions for the qualified disabled veterans (Tuakli-Wosornu & Derman, 2018). This organization is significant since it helps a lot the members in their physical health and their daily activities. Studies have shown that the adaptive sports exhibits several benefits comprising of less stress, fewer subordinate medical disorders, and more independence.

Disability Commonwealth Games

In 2002 in Manchester, several Para sports were encompassed in a wholly inclusive Sports Program as it is regarded as the first time to happen in the Games history. In the event a total number of twenty countries were represented by both female and male select athletes with a disability where they were supposed to contest in ten events through five Para-Sports; which comprised of Lawn Bowls, Table Tennis, weightlifting, athletics besides swimming.

Paralympic Games

This is a multi-sport occasion for the contestants with mental, physical and sensorial infirmities. These infirmities include amputees, mobility disabilities, visual infirmities and those individuals with brainy palsy. These games are conducted after every four years and they occur after the International Olympic Games.

Promoting Diversity in Sports

Sport’s participation is among the excellent ways of looking after one’s health. Through this practice, the jeopardy of cardiovascular problems as well as mental health problems is reduced and thus ones general life expectancy is enlarged and besides it involves a lot of fun. Being eliminated from participating in a various game for example due to one’s race, belief, gender, culture, sexual orientation, age, and even infirmity can be utterly disheartening and can lead to lowering of an individual’s self-esteem (Lastuka & Cottingham 2016, p.746) Prejudice and disparities in games can, therefore, reduce opportunities and result in limiting diversity in sport and the society as a whole.

Diversity in sport is significant since it helps in recognizing and respecting one another in society. Moreover, it brings togetherness and understanding of each other customs and beliefs. When the individuals are focused on winning, there will be no room for prejudice because all the individuals involved will have to anticipate the conduct of teammates virtuously on the heart of their capabilities. The issue of promoting diversity in sports starts right from the school where the schools should have some methods of making an effort of ensuring that every student is getting a fair and equal chance in the school’s game activities. Consequently, the sports club and gyms in schools should make an endless effort of identifying plus confronting prospective barriers to happen in the school (Perret 2017, p.168) This includes tackling and discouraging some biased comments, changing the dress and sports code so that the hijab-wearing women will be able to participate in sports, incorporating some unique games instruments and fields for the disabled. Moreover it substantial to train coaches to be able to work with the disabled for instance like communicating with the deaf.

Inclusion in Sports for the Disability

In the past number of decades, UNESCO has targeted to achieve extensively the execution of the regulatory standard of integration at all the stages in the education sector globally. This idea that the nations must guarantee a comprehensive education system at all the available stages is as well the main goalmouth of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Persons living with Infirmities. Therefore this calls for inclusivity of the disabled individuals in many activities not only in schools but also in sports. The distinct aptitude of sports to surpass linguistic, social as well as cultural obstacles thus makes it an exemplary platform for policies besides adaptation. Additionally, the universal approval and popularity of the sport and its social, physical plus economic improvement advantages brands it as a perfect tool for fostering the inclusion and welfare of individuals with disabilities.

Individuals with a disability are usually faced with societal barriers, and hence their disability typically evokes undesirable discernments in numerous societies. Due to the stigma which is characterized with a disability, these individuals are generally excluded from several sensitive sectors in the society for example in employment, leadership, education and community life which usually denies them of opportunities which are indispensable for their social growth, health plus their welfares (DePauw & Gavron, 2005). Consequently, these individuals are regarded as dependent and hence are seen as incompetent in some societies. This leads to fostering their indolence which regularly causes these individuals with physical disabilities to undergo through some restricted mobility which is yonder the origin of their disability.

However, sports can help in lessening this discrimination plus stigma which is allied with a disability since it can change community outlooks regarding the individuals with a disability. This can be attained by stressing their skills besides decreasing the propensity to see the infirmity rather than the individual. Therefore through sports, for example, a person without a disability can interrelate with an individual with a disability in a constructive context making them reshape the assumptions concerning what a person with a disability can plus cannot do. Sports transforms an individual with a disability in an equally profound manner by empowering them towards realizing their full latent as well as encouraging for modifications in the society. Sports teaches how to communicate effectively and also the importance of teamwork, respect as well as cooperation for others.

Also, sports are well-suited to help in decreasing dependence plus developing greater independence by assisting individuals with disabilities to become mentally and physically stronger. Sports acts as a transformative tool, and it is important especially for women with disabilities as they usually feel and experience discrimination by their disability as well as their gender. Studies suggest that 93% of women with disabilities are not taking part or being involved in sport especially the adapted sport and that only one-third of women athletes with disabilities in international competitions (Zabriskie et al., 2005) Therefore by providing the women with disabilities a platform and chance to compete and showcase their physical ability, sport can help decrease the gender stereotypes as well as the negative insights linked with women with infirmities.

In conclusion, as described in the above discussion adapted sports are generally for disabled individuals, and they are of great significance since they make them improve their health through exercise. Moreover, they help the individuals discover their capabilities and help them to interrelate well with other people. The issue of diversity is also discussed whereby diversity should be encouraged in sports at general as promoting diversity leads to the inclusion of all groups of individuals in sports without discrimination or bias.

References

DePauw, K. P., & Gavron, S. J. (2005). Disability sport. Human Kinetics.

Lastuka, A., & Cottingham, M. (2016). The effect of adaptive sports on employment among people with disabilities. Disability and rehabilitation, 38(8), 742-748.

Misener, L., & Darcy, S. (2014). Managing disability sport: From athletes with disabilities to inclusive organisational perspectives.

Perret, C. (2017). Elite-adapted wheelchair sports performance: a systematic review. Disability and rehabilitation, 39(2), 164-172.

Thomas, N., & Smith, A. (2008). Disability, sport and society: An introduction. Routledge.

Tuakli-Wosornu, Y. A., & Derman, W. (2018). Para and Adapted Sports Medicine, An Issue of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America (Vol. 29, No. 2). Elsevier Health Sciences.

Winnick, J., & Porretta, D. (Eds.). (2016). Adapted Physical Education and Sport, 6E. Human Kinetics.

Zabriskie, R. B., Lundberg, N. R., & Groff, D. G. (2005). Quality of life and identity: The benefits of a community-based therapeutic recreation and adaptive sports program. Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 39(3), 176.

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Farmageddon

Farmageddon is an intriguing movie that portrays the U.S. government as an agent that constantly attacks innocent consumers and farmers with the ill motive of safeguarding selfish corporate interests. The also portrays the irony that purchasing unhealthy commodities, such as cigarettes, is much easier than obtaining essential food stuffs, such as raw milk. Consumer interests and small agribusinesses face a great threat from government agencies that seeks to wipe out active cultivation and consumption of processed commodities from small holder farmers.

In consumer sovereignty, the choice and preference of commodities lie with the customer. This means that the consumer is the ultimate body in charge of the market and hence economy. To a larger extent, the consumer can change the current market conditions since he decides what products to buy and at what cost depending on demand. Farmers, entrepreneurs, and capitalists play a vital role in market dynamics though they activities are regulated by consumers who decide make a purchasing decision. But in a move to protect themselves from consumer exploitation, enterprises collaborate with each other to have a common bargaining power, determine prices, or what to sell. This leaves consumers with little choice other than comply since they need the products. Therefore, consumers can hardly change the market. In a monopolistic economy that involves the provision of basic services, such as public schools, water, infrastructure, and others, consumers hardly have control on the market and dependency theory posits that developing economies are highly dependent on developed states for their economic progress. According to the theory, goods flow from poor underdeveloped nations to the wealthy nations, making the latter wealthier and the former poorer. For this reason, the poor nations do not have sovereignty over the goods they produce since they fear economic sanctioning by their richer trading partners, hence no consumer sovereignty in poor countries. Richer states perpetuate dependence by various strategies, such as politics, education, sporting, infrastructure development and others, to exercise absolute sovereignty over poor countries.

Distributive justice is concerned with fairness in associated with distribution of resources and outcome decisions. The small farmers in the film hold the need distributive theory. This is because they require assistance from the government made stakeholders in provision of inputs, resources, and market for their goods. These farmers should receive more attention than established agribusinesses to help improve their economic viability and alleviate their status. In contrast, the government uses the power distributive theory in which it recognizes highly established agribusinesses, giving them more attention than the smaller farmers.

Corporates have the responsibility of ensuring that the products they produce serve the specific needs of their clients. In addition, they should ensure that these production uses safe materials, conserve the environment. Other corporate responsibilities include job creation and involvement in socio-economic developmental activities. Corporates should involve in provision of resources, personnel, or funding for social causes that are worthwhile to spur societal progress and development. Besides, corporates should not exploit consumers by inconsistently altering prices to their advantage or production of substandard products. Consumer’s responsibilities include being aware of product quality before buying, and speaking out in case a product is not conforming to the required standard, or overpriced unnecessarily. Additionally, consumers should be ethical in their practices to ensure fair buying and selling practice, thus avoid exploitation of other consumers. They should also be responsible for their environment by properly disposing waste and protection of natural environments. Other responsibilities include speaking out in case of exploitation and gathering all information regarding a product.

Movie Review

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God Father 1 is one of the best movies that I have ever watched. To begin with, the movie has a simple story line that makes it easy to follow the story. After watching the movie, I gained a lot of understanding about the mafia and how they operate. Through the movie, I was able to learn how the retirement of the mafia leader can ground the whole movement into a halt. This was evident after Vito Corleone retired as the leader of the mafia group and the whole team nearly became extinct. However, through the intervention of Michael, the mafia family is once saved and they are able to exert revenge on those who had killed their brother. Through the movie, I was able to learn how loyalty is crucial among the mafia groups. I understood the importance of respect not only in families but in any endeavor to attain anything meaningful.

Another thing that I got from this movie was the beautiful scenery of Sicily where the movie is based. Apart from learning about the customs of both Sicily and Cabala, the thing that captivated me was the American story. I was specifically intrigued by how people can rise and become successful in the so called land of opportunity. The spectacular examination of the opposition behind the success of America was something that was a bit of an eye opener to me. Through the movie, I was able to comprehend how people make their money in the capitalist world and how through careless mistakes they squander the money in worthless ventures. This is both an entertaining and an educative movie (Block, & Wilson, 2010).

Reference

Block, A., & Wilson, L. (2010). George Lucas’s Blockbusting: A Decade-By-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success. Harper Collins.

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Moral Isolationism

In morality and its critics, Mary Migday presents us with the abstract concept of us trying to understand different cultures and how it is difficult for a person to understand a particular culture fully. She presents the Japanese Samurai as an example through which culture can be misunderstood by people. She states that it is only in some situations whereby we can fully understand what a specific culture means along its practices. She also says that the only best understanding is understanding other people’s cultures through our own. The situation of being unable to understand other cultures fully and being faced with conditions that present to us the different cultures, as she states that our parents would have been shocked with, and the difficulty of understanding them is what she refers to ‘moral isolationism’.

She states that some people criticize other cultures for how they behave in a funny or unappealing manner, yet they have not fully understood that culture and this she frames as wrong practice. She also questions different features and concepts in dealing with cultures. For example, on page 611, she puts across the question of whether the understanding barrier towards cultures blocks a person’s ability to praise or blame a particular culture for its doings. She presents both sides of the coin by stating that we could only praise what we can thoroughly criticize. Therefore this calls for an understanding of a culture and not just trying to blame them for what does not appeal to us but also understanding why what they do is done in a specific manner. She also goes ahead to question what judgment involves, and therefore in this she states it is the formation of opinions.

However, it is wrong to form only crude notions of thoughts about other cultures. The last question Mary poses is if we cannot judge different cultures due to our ability to understand them fully, is it possible to consider our own that we are aware of? Here she discusses how moral isolationism would ban moral reasoning. However, these conditions and situations are present within the societies for our good because it is through the judgment that we get a direction to follow or avoid a culture. Finally, she admits that there is only one world, and with all the differences between different cultures and different people, we have to live within this world.

From the above discussion, it is clear that cultures and different people interact differently and at different rates. Every person has an opinion which they always want to prove, be it positive or negative. Therefore cultures have to interact appropriately because the inability to interact peacefully and adequately, as Mary suggests, leads to misunderstandings and other clashes of the culture and individual persons. This can come as a way of a person misunderstanding a specific culture like it is with the Samurai being misunderstood in its dealings and activities. Therefore, moral isolationism is a good factor towards social betterment. It discourages judgment and victimization of other cultures.

According to Mary’s analysis of moral isolationism, we come to realize that the unfair practice is not judgment as moral isolationism might try to make us see from a distant understanding. However, the basic tenet about our cultures and the world is the ability to understand each other, make sound judgments and provide relevant criticism of the different cultures. At the same time, be able to praise them and not just judge them for what they are not doing right. Therefore this is an essential aspect of any person’s knowledge of the world and the cultures. The concentration of samurai also has significance on Marys’s work as this culture is mainly misunderstood. People end up making judgments than being able to criticize effectively and analyze the culture for its strengths and weaknesses. She also talks of how anthropologists have only concentrated on small communities for their studies, thus providing and coming up with perfect studies. On the other hand, there has been a development of larger communities that bring in complexity about how society and culture operates.

Work Cited

Midgley, Mary. Trying out one’s new sword. Courses Publishing, 2000.

Moral Philosophy at the Theater (MPAT) employs cinema to apply the ideas and arguments learned from the required readings and class presentations. Students may research the plot to become familiar with the film. It is permissible to view any additional clips on YouTube. The goal of the essay is to apply ethical ideas from the course to create an informal argument, using the persuasive essay format as a tool to analyze the morality of the movie.  

Essay #1 focuses on a conception of morality depicted through the scenes in the movie, Noah.  Write a persuasive essay addressing this prompt: 

Discuss the Euthyphro dilemma in the context of the movie.  Take care to attend to the validity of the argument and reliability the reliability of premises as presented in the textbook.  Pay critical attention to the theme of the autonomy of ethics in class presentation.

The criteria for a successful essay requires the student to identify the conception of morality depicted in the movie clips and thoughtfully explain its connection to two or three ideas from the required readings and class presentations. (Do not merely summarize the scene.)  

This persuasive essay requires a well-formed thesis statement (about 25 words). The thesis statement should be the last sentence of the first paragraph. This sentence should have an independent clause asserting the conception of morality in the movie clips with an independent clause (marked by “because”) to provide two or three reasons justifying this interpretation.  The essay should also include succinct body paragraphs with topic sentences built from the words in the thesis. Within each body paragraph, include two supportive pieces of evidence containing verbiage from the movie and course materials.  (Review the illustrated, persuasive essay template.) 

The length of this persuasive essay should be between 500  and 700 words (maximum).  This length is about 3 to 5 well-formed paragraphs. The font type should be Arial 12 point.  Only Word format will be accepted as an attachment.  Creating/editing a document and pasting it into the “text entry box” of the assignment space is the preferable way to submit this essay. The guidance provided for the persuasive essay includes a paragraph template, a video tutorial, tips for formulating a thesis statement, and a rubric.

Moral Leadership

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Moral Leadership

Leadership is all about responsibilities, while morality entails instilling values for individuals to live and abide by. Moral leadership inspires and motivates people to act and hold themselves accountable. When you see people fail to step up and provide purpose or even do something that can give goodness to a more significant number of people, step up. Moral leadership is subject to respect for ethical beliefs and values to preserve human dignity and their respective rights (Ciulla, 2014). When discussing moral leadership, one must remember concepts such as honesty, integrity, trust, fairness, charisma, and consideration. Ethical governance is primal to building trust, inspiring colleagues, creating meaning, or helping individuals imagine a better future. It enables people always to do the next right things. This paper aims to enhance our awareness of moral leadership, what it entails, and various ethical leadership concepts.

World leaders are often celebrated based on their achievements and bravery. However, when it comes to moral leadership, the ideas seem far-fetched. As such, it comes down to whether morality counts when it comes to matters about administration? Numerous studies have concluded that moral leaders are better equipped to execute their obligations than their amoral counterparts (Lemoine, Hartnell, & Leroy, 2019). People seldomly celebrate ethical leaders in the current world. Perhaps, most people are accustomed to celebrating the wrong category of individuals. Great leaders, may it be in organizations or countries, will always work hard to ensure that morality permeates all aspects of their governance. A strategic initiative is imperative or rather subject to the ethical and effective management of projects. It is always hard to make a proper decision as every moral dilemma is subject to a solution. The success of institutions is entirely dependent on a decision-making process that involves moral dimension, ethics, and good governance. Three forms of moral leaders often overlap, namely, ethical, servant, and honest.

Ethical leaders tend always to refer and adhere to norms and regulations. They reciprocate the prevailing institution norms, standards, and culture to enact adherence to those standards among the individuals under their leadership. An ethical leader represents a moral role model and suppresses activities aiming to promote corruption in an institution, such as bribery and compromising classified information (Hannah, Avolio & Walumbwa, 2011). This form of leadership demands spearheading individuals into attending their respective obligations to avoid scandals, lawsuits, bad public image, and embarrassing the institution. It is expected that this form of leadership to a formidable bond that leads to mitigating harassment as people are always acting in the right way. The wrong side is that ethical leaders may enact self-gains regulations that other people might regard as offensive and immoral. For example, the United States may take an opportunity to financially aid third-world countries’ economies that work for better living standards. However, it would frown upon the Americans. Such actions are justifiable by ethical leaders based on their moral appropriateness by that country’s means but would hold less meaning when it comes down to the United States citizens.

Servants leaders tend to be so much inclined to outcomes. Servant leaders concentrate on how others get helped or harmed by their acts and often tend to spearhead institutions to perform better in the best interests of the public wellness (Lemoine, Hartnell, & Leroy, 2019). Servant leaders serve to take care of people. When it comes to business organizations, servant leaders put their employees into consideration first while at the same time looking out for other stakeholders, such as clients, shareholders, surrounding communities, vendors, among others. When it comes to the nation’s servant leaders, they will always put the interest of their people first and, at the same time, consider others. Servant leadership often faces the dilemma of balancing all the stakeholders involved in their governance. When it comes to economists, the vast majority of them would argue that any wealth spent on corporate social responsibility, ensuring the world’s wellness, is inversely suppressing the shareholders’ and employees’ returns.

Authentic leadership is often intertwined with fairness, honesty, and wisdom. Authentic leaders are highly aware of their strengths and weaknesses and always work hard to improve the people they lead by helping them understand themselves (Lemoine, Hartnell, & Leroy, 2019). Their decision-making process is subject to their moral compass, instead of other people’s opinions of morality. Authentic leaders listen to other people’s views, but ultimately, they would not primarily adhere to rules, or people’s expectations, or even what the majority would applause (Caza & Jackson, 2011). An authentic leader is a leader who can display moral courage to execute what they feel is right. They set an example for others to follow and encourage them to always be the best version of themselves. In most practical terms, think of organization leaders who, as soon as they assume power, overhaul everything and do what they feel is right. Such leaders can do unexpected things on some occasions, at times, go contrary to the rules, and sometimes it may have appeared as if they were doing something against the stakeholders involved in the short term. However, that felt right to them.

Authentic leadership is often associated with uncertainty, following internal drives that are only predetermined and only known (Lemoine, Hartnell, & Leroy, 2019). Individuals who follow a contrary moral compass to authentic leaders can write off such leadership as a loose cannon.

It is practical for leaders to have more than one element of ethical leadership. It may not be mutually exclusive to employ the above three moral leadership forms. Correspondingly, leaders may consider utilizing different moral leadership forms as significant based on present situations, as per the need dictation. The vast majority of the people make the mistake of categorizing themselves as virtuous and often try to generalize that other individuals hold a similar opinion than they do. It is a prerequisite for leaders of institutions to acknowledge that what they perceive as morally righteous may have a different interpretation of other people under their leadership. For instance, a chief executive officer of a given organization may practice an ethical leadership style; however, employees may be morally inclined toward a servant or authentic leadership. As such, one has to match the people’s morality under his/her supervision to achieve your goals effectively. People may support your idea of being an ethical leader, but you are the only one to give or rather determine what that entails.

Reference

Caza, A., & Jackson, B. (2011). Authentic leadership. The SAGE handbook of leadership, 352-364.

Ciulla, J. B. (Ed.). (2014). Ethics, the heart of leadership. ABC-CLIO.

Hannah, S. T., Avolio, B. J., & Walumbwa, F. O. (2011). Relationships between authentic leadership, moral courage, and ethical and pro-social behaviors. Business Ethics Quarterly, 21(4), 555-578.

Lemoine, G. J., Hartnell, C. A., & Leroy, H. (2019). Taking stock of moral approaches to leadership: An integrative review of ethical, authentic, and servant leadership. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1), 148-187.

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Moral Psychology

When it comes to the ethics of a situation, it’s a frequent misconception that people understand the choices they’re making. Toby Groves made choices based on his desire to save his company. Toby was focused on the business side of things, according to Tenbrunsel, with the goals of being competent and successful. His ethics and values vanished from view as he was exclusively focused on mending his business.

These reasons do not prove that Toby did nothing wrong, but they do provide insight into how people like him might improve. We can learn from folks like Toby and use what we’ve learned to help prevent unethical behavior. These are solid and acceptable explanations for Toby’s behavior and how he came to act unethically, in my opinion. He pledged to his father that he would never act unethically, but he ended up making unethical actions due to his lack of awareness of ethics in his situation. This can be utilized as a learning tool to assist you avoids making unethical mistakes in the future.

Toby was born and raised on a farm in Ohio. He placed a high value on the thought that he was a person of good moral character when he was a child. Then, when Toby was around 20 years old, he went home for a visit with his family on a Sunday in 1986, and he had an event that made the urge to be good even more pressing. After making that commitment to his father, Toby found himself in front of the same judge who had convicted his brother, facing the same charge of fraud. Not just any fraud, but a multimillion-dollar bank scam that resulted in the closure of several businesses and the loss of over a hundred employees. Toby was sentenced to prison in 2008, where he claims he spent two years staring at the ceiling, attempting to figure out what had happened.

Toby adds, “Those were things that tormented me every second of every day.” “I couldn’t understand it.” Toby has recently gotten a lot of attention from scientists, especially those who are interested in how human brains absorb information when making judgments. And the researchers concluded that the majority of us are capable of acting in deeply unethical ways. Not only are we capable of it without recognizing it, but we also do it regularly.

Consider a current argument regarding justice and demonstrate how at least two distinct approaches result in different outcomes. Do you believe that any of the techniques is superior to or inferior to the others? Why? (Of course, you don’t have to put up a fight — I just want to hear what you think). “We are all capable of behaving fundamentally unethically without realizing it,” says Toby Groves. Our minds simply can’t digest the options we’re presented with. Business perspective: succeed no matter what Ethical perspective. People can be completely oblivious that they are acting in an immoral manner. It’s not that they’re bad people; it’s that they’re blinded. And, if we wish to combat fraud, we must recognize that much of it is inadvertent.

Maximizing welfare:

Utilitarian/Consequentialist

Aim for the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people possible.

Promoting wealth, raising living standards, and boosting economic growth

Result/goal/incentive focused

Respecting Freedom:

Libertarians/Deontological.

Individual rights must be respected.

Who makes the decision, not what makes the decision.

Oriented toward procedures and rules.

Promoting Virtue:

Virtue Ethics

Religious rights and cultural conservatives

The pleasures of life

Cultivating the attitudes and dispositions, or character attributes, that a decent society requires

Maximizing welfare, honoring freedom, and developing virtue are the three ways mentioned by Sandel. Insulin costs a lot of money and has been increasing in recent years. People with diabetes have no choice but to spend a lot of money on insulin as a result of this. People are also forced to ration their insulin as a result of this. The maximization of welfare is used to justify the high cost of insulin. The insulin business controls the price of insulin, which makes them extremely wealthy. Individual freedom is at the heart of the argument against the high cost of insulin. People with diabetes are unable to choose whether or not to purchase insulin. Their lives rely on it, forcing them to pay the astronomical price for the drug. I believe that maximizing welfare is the worst option since it ignores individual rights in favor of the entire market, wealth, and numbers. Sandel disputes the idea that government and policy should be morally apolitical when it comes to difficult moral issues. He contends that engaging, rather than avoiding, our fellow citizens’ moral convictions may be the most effective approach of achieving a just society.

References

Katz (2018). “Secular Morality”. In Brandt, Allan; Rozin, Paul (eds.). Morality and Health. New York: Routledge. pp. 295–330.

Narvaez, D (2017). “Moral complexity: The fatal attraction of truthiness and the importance of mature moral functioning” (PDF). Perspectives on Psychological Science. 5 (2): 163–181. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.187.2813. Doi: 10.1.

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Flying Cheap

There is a growing increase of people using planes. The advent of technology has made the world a global village, as a result, many people are moving between and among continents for business, diplomatic, leisure and finding homes. In order to manage all this many travels, more reliable, fast and efficient systems of travelling are the most sought. The airline industry is the sole assistant for this necessity.

People will always like to experience a more fast, comfortable and reliable transport means. Overall, air transport has been cited as the most secure means of travelling between and among continents on the globe. It has rare accidents and the travelling conditions are a lot comfortable compare to other means of travelling between continents.

While travelling, everybody always wants to reach his destination fast without being bogged down by the airline. However, perhaps a question that flight passengers fail to ask is themselves is whether the value they expect to get from flight companies is mutually exclusive from safety. This argument is perhaps what set up investigators from Frontline to search and find out. In this movie, the investigators are motivated by the air crash that happened in February 2009, where flight 3407 was involved.

Following this crash, we have witnessed many changes in the industry; with passengers have a wide range of choices of flights with varying prices. The liberation of the industry has brought so many changes that are being enjoyed by passengers. Despite all this, flight companies are very boastful that the industry is the sole monopoly of safety with regards to travelling within and without.

This documentary aims at explaining the concept that while at times flight passengers have the impression that they have trained, experienced and smart pilots, the concept can sometimes be wrong. The reality is that sometimes, the passengers do have a cockpit filled with captains that have been deprived of sleep for a long time, some are purely undertrained and most hearting is that they are underpaid.

This film tries to search and explain some of the mysteries around an accident that happened in February 2009 involving the famous continental flight 3407. On this occasion, the crashing commuter flight claimed the lives of a massive 50 people with one of them victims having been on the ground.

As brought out in this film, the major cause of the accident is said to have been errors of the pilot and the first officer in charge. This film looks a bit horrifying. Some of the staff that has worked for Colgan Company are explaining their versions of experience while working at Colgan, something that makes this film quite thrilling. After this incident, the airline industry took a different turn. The industry developed a new pattern of working. One of the changes is that like Colgan, other small airline operating companies have had to rebrand. Lacking the means to train pilots to run large aeroplanes but still enjoy the competitive advantage, the airlines can use such names as continental on their brands. This is usually done with the aim of luring customer to come and enjoy the comfort and luxury of travelling in large planes while keeping their flight expenses low

There has still been some airline accidents since 2002 according to the documentary. Most of them if not all, have the accidents have been a result of mistakes by pilots. The N.T.S.B found that out of the six accidents that had occurred since then, four of them wear caused be pilot errors. As a matter of fact one pilot who had been working for Colgan earlier explains how his particular day in flying was, he says, “a lot of short routes, a lot of takeoffs, a lot of landings, and going in and out of bad weather, being down low” (Genzlinger 6).

When pilots work for long hours without ample rest, it is tiring and thus fatigue can be a major cause of lapses that can results into fatal errors. Pilots working for Colgan have had horrendous experiences. It is therefore no hard to say that most of the accidents that have involved Colgan were human errors caused by administrative issues in the company. Genzlinger says, “a lot of short routes, a lot of takeoffs, a lot of landings, and going in and out of bad weather, being down low” (7)

Underpayment is cited as one of the main challenges that were experienced by crew members in this documentary. In flight 3407, the first officer had actually to fly in from Seattle through Memphis in order to begin his working day. The concept of having low payments affected many of the crew workers; they were mostly forced to commute long distances to work. Renting a hotel was not an option because the remuneration was not enough. Alternatively, they were made to find some little rest in apartments that partner pilots would rent. The main shortcoming here was that they were very congested and this would not guarantee them ample sleep or rest to manage the next flight schedule.

This film may seem frightening for passengers that fly regularly. This is because there are no traces of hope that the situation will be corrected soonest. You may not be notified of any changes by flight companies. What may be hard to tell is that the next time you are boarding a plane, you may not actually tell if the crew members are undertrained, are having conducive working conditions, or they are a just a bunch of tired pilots struggling to make their living in the air.

Frontline’s investigators revealed that major airlines hard a share of the blame in all this accidents that happened after 2009. The airlines had targeted to remain relevant in the airline field by reducing their flight costs. This is what made them to allow small companies like Colgan to use some of their brand names. Passengers would therefore opt to use the flights due to reduced costs, and the repercussion was; increaser flights due to an upward rise in the number of flight customers in this small planes.

The increased flights were actually the main cause of fatigue to pilots. Perhaps the need to minimize on costs makes the companies to underpay their crew members.

It is good to appreciate that this documentary was a turn around to the flight industry. The president had to sign some legislations; “President Obama signed The Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010 into law,” (Rentz 2) which have brought about major improvements in the industry to boost passenger and crew safety in the aviation field. Qualifications for pilots have been streamlined and the particular training accompanying such has been improved as well.

There still more changes being proposed into this industry and in future we hope to enjoy comfortable flying experiences at reduced costs. The industry is also going to attract lucrative pays for pilots and crew members. Accidents are things that can be avoided, except for natural impediments, human errors can be rectified. Thanks to legislations and the professionalism with which the matters are being handled.

Works cited

Genzlinger Neil. “Up in the Air, With Frayed Safety Nets.” 2010. Web. 10 February 2014. < http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/arts/television/09cheap.html?_r=0>

Rentz Catherine. “ HYPERLINK “http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/blogs/shop-notes/posts/2011/nov/29/pbs-will-re-air-flying-cheap-tonight/” PBS will re-air ‘Flying Cheap’ tonight.” 2011. Web. 10 February 2014 < http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/blogs/shop-notes/posts/2011/nov/29/pbs-will-re-air-flying-cheap-tonight/ >

Washington Denzel. “Flying Cheap.” 2012. Web Feb 10, 2014 < http://video.pbs.org/video/1412744270/>

Case Study about Charles Well

(Author’s name)

(Institutional Affiliation)

Part 1- Value Chain Analysis

Michael Porter is the one of the first authors to use the term value- chain analysis in one of his books. Value chain analysis describes the activities an organization performs and links them with the competitive position of the organization. Value chain analysis describes all of the activities around and within an organization, and relates these activities to an analysis of the competitive strength of the firm. As it follows, this analysis evaluates which value each specific activity adds to the services and products of the organization. Economists developed this ideology upon the insight that a firm is more than a random combination of equipment, machinery, money and people. Only if organizations arrange these elements into, systematic activates and systems it will be feasible to create products and services for which the consumers will be willing to pay a certain price. Porter points out that the ability of a firm to perform certain activities and manage the associations between these activities is a competitive advantage source (Strategic management).

Porter distinguishes between support activities and primary activities. The primary activities distinguished by Porter are those, which are directly involved in the delivery or creation of a service or product. One can place these primary activities under five main groups. These are the inbound logistics, outbound logistics, operations, service, marketing and sales. Support activities are linked to each one of these primary activities, which help to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. There are four different areas of support activities. These include technology development, procurement, human resource management and infrastructure. Under infrastructure are systems for finance, planning, information management, quality, and many more (Strategic management).

Value chain analysis is an essential tool for the organization to work out how they can create the greatest possible value for its customers. In business, consumers pay to take raw inputs, and to add and increase the value to them by changing them into something of greater value to other people. It is easier to see this in manufacturing, in which case the manufacturer increases value by taking raw material of little use to the final user and converting it to products or services that buyers are enthusiastic to give money for, like converting wood pulp into paper. However, this ideology is just as essential as in service industries, where individuals make use of inputs of knowledge, time, systems, and equipment to make services of actual worth to the customers. To analyze the specific activities through which organizations create competitive advantage, it is essential to model or to arrange the organization as a chain of activities that create value. As already mentioned, Michael Porter identified a set of interrelated generic activities ordinary to a broad range of businesses. The resulting model is the value chain (Strategic management).

Services

Organizations realize a profit depending on their ability to manage the associations between all the activities in the organization. This is to mean that an organization can only deliver products and services, which customers are willing to pay more than the total of the costs of the sum of activities in the value chain. These linkages are essential for corporate success. These linkages occur between the flows of goods and services, information and processes and systems for adjusting activities. As it follows, the linkages are about seamless information flow and cooperation between the activities in the present in the value chain. In most industries, it is unusual that a single organization is responsible for all activities from design of the product to production to final assembly of products to deliverance of complete merchandise and services to the ultimate consumer. In most cases, organizations are elements of a supply chain or a value system (Strategic management. The value chain).

Margin

Michael Porter introduced a generic chain model that is composed of a series of activities common to a wide variety of firms. Porter, therefore, came up with primary and support activities. The purpose of these activities is to offer consumers a degree of value that is more than the cost of the activities, therefore, resulting in a profit margin. The primary value activities include inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales, marketing, and service. In regards to the inbound logistics, the warehousing and receiving of raw materials and their distribution to manufacturers activities are required. Operations in this case refer to the processes of changing inputs into finished services and products. Outbound logistics, on the other hand, deals with the distribution and warehousing of finished goods. Sales and marketing is involved with the identification of the needs of customers and the generation of sales. Service in this case is concerned with the support of customers after the organization sells and distributes the services and products to consumers (Strategic management. The value chain).

The infrastructure of the organization supports the primary, which is composed of the organizational structure, company culture and control systems. Another activity that supports the main activities is the human resource management, which is composed of employee hiring, recruiting, training, compensation and development. Technology development is also another support activity, which includes such activities as integration of activities that support activities for creating value. Procurement is the last support activity that involves purchasing of inputs like supplies, materials, and equipment. The profit or margin of the firm, therefore, depends on it effectiveness in performing these activities effectively and efficiently, so that the amount that the consumer is willing to pay for the finished goods and services exceeds the cost of the production activities in the value chain (Strategic management. The value chain).

Part 2- Key Challenges Faced in Human Resource and Operations

Operational challenges are those challenges that include all of the step- to- step details which control how exactly various elements in the supply chain functions. One of the most common operational challenges is coming up with a manufacturing and production schedule that is well organized. A schedule for production affects numerous other variables and, therefore, must be designed carefully to fit appropriately into the whole picture. Other operational challenges and decisions include things like the process for planning daily activities and filling orders with all the activities involved in the supply chain. The shrinking world gives organizations numerous opportunities and benefits for business, but these are not without extending the scope of the organization’s logistic responsibilities. The days for depending on brokers to finish their end of the bargain managing a single facility are gone. Now organizations must act proactively in their efforts to put together the best possible circumstances for operations that are successful. This means addressing all of the issues and challenges that come with a supply chain that has numerous elements scattered all over the place (How a shrinking world).

Charles Wells Ltd has for a long time combined years of pub retailing and brewing with genuine spirit of enterprise and innovation. The organization has evolved to become an essential market leader in both industries and many have recognized the organization for its assimilation of change to remain competitive, yet retaining independence, by both consumers and trade alike. However, despite its success, numerous challenges, and especially those that have to do with operations have affected its excellence and competitive advantage. Other minor challenges with regards to human resource have also affected the effectiveness of the company in the market (About Charles Wells).

One of the main operational challenges that the Charles Wells has to do with the marketing and sales force of the company. The national sales force of Charles Wells Company has been selling services and products into the purchasing departments of a number of customers like major wholesalers and grocery stores. With this operational activity, a challenge arose. The challenge concerned with the fact that the national sales force had to ensure an increase and an improvement in the existing national distribution coverage and, therefore, the sales of all of its international brands by getting them in the front line of as many customers as possible. The strategy the company thought of using to deal with this challenge was to hire or recruit young staff that were fresh out of colleges and universities and to turn them into sales forces that were effective. Based at home, these sales forces would have to be mobile. They would also need to have the ability to communicate easily and work remotely hand- in- hand with the regional managers and the head office (Charles Wells’ adopts teleworking solution for mobile sales force).

The company came up with a solution. The solution was working from home; the sales force used PCs with modem Internet connection supplemented by fixed broadband Internet. They were also able to come by a CRM system that had some details of the customers. The database technology was extremely useful as it enabled the replication to the tablet PCs of the representatives so they could operate independently with the most current customer information and data available. To support this process, each member of the sales force was given a multifunction device that had several functions in one machine. The members could, therefore, print, scan and copy from one compact device, thus, reducing the impacts of technology within the home office and reducing the total space used, and most essentially print in either mono or color. This solution offered the company a number of benefits. The project to address this challenge was successful, as a result, of the close collaboration between network support, developers, users and sales management. As a result, the project is producing results, with numerous new listings. The results of the project are key elements to the success of the solution. This project is an excellent example of how IT and mobile technology strategies can be of use to numerous businesses such as Charles Wells Ltd in solving its technological and operational challenges (Charles Wells’ adopts teleworking solution for mobile sales force).

Part 3- Summary and Conclusion

Organizations have for a long time made use of the value chain framework for organizational strategic planning. The value chain framework indicates that the value chain of a firm is useful in understanding and identifying critical aspects to attain competitive strengths and key competencies in the marketplace. The model also shows how the value chain activities are connected together to ultimately establish the value for the customer. The five main activities and four support activities create a system that is interdependent that is tied together by linkages. Therefore, analysis of the value chain has to break down the main activities of the organization according to the activities stipulated in the framework, and assesses the potential for increasing value through the means of differentiation or cost advantage. Finally, it is essential to determine strategies that put their focus on those activities that would make it feasible for the corporation to achieve competitive advantage, which it can sustain.

The value chains of numerous organizations have gone through many modifications in the earlier years, as a result, of inventions, innovations and advancements in technology enabling change at an increasingly rapid pace in the environment of business. As we have seen in the case study, these rapidly changing technological environments in business have caused numerous challenges for the Charles Wells Ltd, which had to change its approach to sales and marketing by recruiting new sales forces, which were later trained using new technologies. The integration of mobile technology into the new marketing and sales tactics enabled the company to solve its challenges and turn its sales around to become more profitable. The company made came up with the solutions to its problems after breaking down the main activities of the organization according to those stipulated in the framework, and after assessing its potential for increasing value through the means of differentiation and cost advantage. As a result, the corporation was able to come up with solutions and strategies that focus on the wanting activities, and which upon improvement would enable the company attain competitive advantage.

References

About Charles Wells. Charles Wells Pub Company. Retrieved from http://www.charleswells.co.uk/home/about

Charles Wells’ adopts teleworking solution for mobile sales force. Together. Retrieved from http://www.brother.co.uk/display.cfm?id=124129&isAdmin=1

How a shrinking world creates new logistics challenges. Solusource. Retrieved from http://www.solusource.com/tominfo/WhitePapers/Shrinking%20World%20Creates%20Logistics%20Challenges.pdf

Strategic management. The value chain. QuickMBA. Knowledge to Power Your Business. Retrieved from http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/value-chain/

Strategic management. Value chain. NetMBA. Business Knowledge Center. Retrieved from http://www.netmba.com/strategy/value-chain/

Acuity-Driven Gigapixel Visualization

Student’s Name

Institution

Introduction

Acuity-Driven Gigapixel Visualization is a project that makes to compensate for the flaws that have been presented by advanced visual technology. The realization that advanced visual technology has limitations on user navigation as a result of the alternating user-surface distance between optimal and suboptimal is acutely projected in the study. Deriving basis on tests run on a Reality Deck with a gigapixel display of 1.5, a 3600 Horizontal FoV and a 33′ * 19′ * 11′ workspace, the project is a presentation of optimized visualization process of gigapixel data (Papadopoulos, 2013). The project also employs the use of tracking data gathered from the study to formulate synthetic usage scenarios to conduct an evaluation of performance of the proposed system. It is termed so because it uses an approach of guiding optimizations by analytically formulated visual acuity (Papadopoulos, 2013).

Methodology

The study projects the use of a shader based on local data in determining the appropriate LoD for implementation of the virtual texture on a GPU. Such determination is made by the virtual texture pipeline on the basis of spatial derivatives of the texture coordinates of the of the image plane:

The study proposes that decrease of the user’s retina’s visual angle directly affects its texture space.A geometry tessellation based on the F + C lens curvature and viewer’s proximity from the display is further proposed in the study. The factors enable the calculation of gigapixel adaptive parametrization comprised of both a view based and a lens based metric.An integration of the LoD selection that is acuity driven in a gigapixel visualization pipeline that is based on virtual texturing is then conducted for implementation. The tessellation scheme is also GPU implementable (Papadopoulos, 2013).

Results

The algorithm had a linear projection between the resulting tessellation and the proximity to the screen and also accurately captured the F + C lens structure (Papadopoulos, 2013). The participants as such achieved an average vision enabled through the use of either corrective glasses or lenses. This is confirmed by their ability to successfully pick out similar survey target pictures after being subjected to queries on demographic information. Comprehending the data and the participants’ reaction is simplified by the head-tracking props that they wear.

The Article’s Flaws

In its experimentation, the article projects the participants used for the study as bearing an average of 26 years, all of whom are graduate and undergraduate students (Papadopoulos, 2013). The study thus fails to examine the children whose visual ability is very significant for their conception of the concepts of the universe, considering that their retinas are immature and subject to changes of development. Moreover, elderly persons also have their visual ability on a constant reduction. The study should hence offer the flexibility to cover for all generations with visual impairment.

Well Presented Points

The post-hoc analysis of the positional tracking makes it possible to rate the reaction of the participants and easily comprehend their ADGV image quality in comparison to SVG. The analysis is quite detailed and gives a fine explanation for the results.

Project Revelation

The project presents a scheme that improvises technology to further improve visual capacity in a great dimension (Papadopoulos, 2013). The use of vertex shaders to displace the underlying mesh by utilizing OpenGL tessellation that enables the F lens to be stored and precumpted in a lookup texture is an interesting concept (Lewis and SPIE, 2013). As such, the system supports execution that is distributed and synchronized (Porter, 2006).

Significant Conclusions

The projects take to simplify the complex mesh by refining the image based on proximity to the object. The process makes its distinct from the more basic mechanisms that that uses perceptual criteria to achieve the same and as such presents comparison to work in the LoD field.

Future Focus

The project aims to focus on varied mage data and a larger sample size. However, they should also aim to include more variation of the ages of the participants to establish the reaction levels (Lewis and SPIE, 2013). Not only would such focus make it easier to comprehend the eye and head the correlation movement, but also make it more comprehensive in analyzing the reaction rates based on age (Seymour and Britton, 1989).

References

In Lewis, K. L., Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft,, & SPIE (Society),. (2013). Emerging technologies in security and defence: And Quantum security II; and Unmanned sensor systems X : 23-26 September 2013, Dresden, Germany.

Papadopoulos, C. (Dec, 2013). Acuity-Driven Gigapixel Visualization in IEE Transactions in Visualization and Computer Graphics (Vol 19, 12).

Porter, C. (2006). Tessellation quilts: Sensational designs from simple, interlocking patterns. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.

Seymour, D., & Britton, J. (1989). Introduction to tessellations. Palo Alto, Calif: Dale Seymour Publications.