Discuss the rationale behind recent changes in the design and delivery Essay

Discuss the rationale behind recent changes in the design and delivery of labour market programmes in the UK. Consider a range of theory and international experience in your answer - Essay Example The major economic downfall of 2007 to 2009 led to scarcity of jobs for new people in the labor market. Ten years before the major economic crisis, that is, early 2000s many developed countries had steady achievement in terms of economic growth including large growth in job opportunities, but due to the economic crisis all these achievements have stalled. Millions of people have no place to work in the current tough economy. The crises have severely affected the public financial gains. The financial crisis has created many challenges to the European countries in the labor market and especially the issue of unemployment. Another challenge brought by the economic crisis include attempts to meet the European Union targets of economic growth, which may require the countries to retrench people to cope with the economic recession (Pattison, 2012, p. 466). The discussion paper involves the use of existing academic materials to determine the effects of the 2007/2009 financial crisis. It explains the actions that the governments in some countries such as USA, Australia and the UK have taken to reduce the effects of the financial crisis on the labor market. The strategies adopted and their rationales to assist the unemployed population are also discussed in the paper. Performance based contracting, which is a method same as payment by results, was used in the United States. The strategy led to development of new policies that decentralized funding and purchasing power to network of private companies. The policies emphasized on performance outcomes through financial incentives that motivated the staff of the agencies. The Department of Labor set the performance targets to achieve annually and the outcomes determined the funds saved from the investment. The outcomes also included delivery of employment services with contract periods of more than six months. It also emphasized on training the employees on work skills, which helped

Costco Wholesale in 2012 Essay Example for Free

Costco Wholesale in 2012 Essay Analysis and Evaluation Since the inception of Costco in 1983, one of its drawbacks is, they have 4,000 selections of merchandise compared to their competitors. In addition, customers can only purchase merchandises in bulk. Consumers who shop at Costco do not have the choice to pick up one single item, for instance a can of soup. Although Costco prices are low and the consumers get more for their money, more consumers are wasting food because they no longer have the big families. Costco needs to look at the demographics and re-evaluate their business model, as this could be detrimental to the company. In today’s society, more families are getting divorce and are becoming single parents. The big families are almost none existent; therefore, most consumers do not need to purchase in bulk. Many consumers want to have choices when it comes to the amount of food they purchase. One may say there are other shopping establishments a consumer may visit to get exactly what they want; however, that is beside the point. Giving consumers the choice to purchase individual merchandise will not only bring in more business but also an increase in cash flow, which will also increase profits for Costco. On the other hand, Costco competitors such as Wal-Mart stocked up 40,000 to 150, 000 items for shoppers to choose from and Sam’s Club have over 16,000 items. Sam’s Club have the treasure-hunt items but tend to be less upscale and carry lower price tags than those of Costco. Both Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club give shoppers more choices than Costco even though Costco offers a cheaper price on their merchandise. Costco spends very little in advertisements and they totally rely on their name and word of mouth by their customers. Compared to Sam’s Club they spent about $50 million annually advertising and direct mail promotions. Furthermore, Costco does not have a Public Relation department, which is not good business practice, even though they have been around for years and they are doing well financially. However, there are many opportunities for one of its competitor to come in take away their market share. Costco does not attract people who are below the poverty line; they cater to the business consumer and urbanites that have an annual income of $100,000; therefore, people who are impoverish cannot afford the membership fees and bulk purchase. In addition, Costco membership fee is more expensive compared to Sam’s Club. Recommendation Costco needs to improve the variety of choices by giving the consumer more than 4,000 items to choose from while their competitors are actually giving customers what they want. Costco needs to take into consideration the economy; people have lost their jobs and the recession, as customers are looking for cheaper prices and ways to saving money. Furthermore, if Costco does not come up with new and innovative strategies to entice low income and single household family to their establishment they are giving their competitors the upper hand. Costco should also focus on the advertisement because number of its rivals is already doing intense advertisement. In today’s global and technological world, many businesses are being aggressive and are taking advantage of investing heavily on the marketing. Costco cannot continue to use the concept of sitting back and waiting for their customers to spread the word by mouth. Costco needs to move in the direction of the 21st century by being more proactive by utilizing technology and a PR department for marketing purposes. It is true that company like Costco are doing good in economic downturn but competitors like Sam’s club is outperforming Costco in pricing which could be biggest threats to the Costco even though Costco keeps relatively branded and qualitative product than that of Sam’s Club The Five Forces Model of Competition Substitutes Strong threat Good substitutes everywhere Price not significantly higher Comparable product features More variety of features Low switching cost Potential new entrants Low threat Small pool entry candidates High barriers to entry Expanding market Attractive profits Buyers Weak bargaining power Some switching cost Large membership base Costco has the best value Suppliers Weak bargaining power Many suppliers Low switching cost Many substitutes exist Large quantities are needed Competing sellers Fierce Competition Costco is on top Quality is slightly better Buyer demand is growing Buyers switching cost is low SWOT Strength| Weakness| Low product and services†¢ Strong brand†¢ Excellent merchandise†¢ Exceptional employees†¢ 54 million members†¢ Economics of scale†¢ Efficiency| James Sinegal is 79†¢ Maintain high wages†¢ 42% higher than Sam’s Club†¢ Comparatively less attractive store layout for luxury items†¢Ã‚  Declining or inconsistent profit margins†¢ Primary focus on business customers rather than individual customers| Opportunities| Threat| Recession- Easier to find bargain luxury-items- Increased popularity of Costco†¢ Expanding foreign markets- Europe- China India †¢ Positive image in terms of employees pay and social responsibility†¢ Increasing brand awareness| Fierce competition†¢Costco cannot attract people who are below poverty line due to its membership fees and bulk purchase†¢High competition from Sam’s Club and BJ†¢Political problems in other countries| References Thomspson, A. A., Peteraf, M. A., Gamble, J. E., Strickland III, A. (2012). Crafting Executing Strategy (19th ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irvin.

Transformation of Islam: Islam in the societies of Central Asia Essay e

The next work used to study the Islamic government is â€Å"Siyasatnama† (â€Å"Treatise on government†) which provides a model of statecraft and administrative practice. â€Å"Siyasatnama† was written by a distinguished statesman of 11th century, a grand vizier, Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan al-Tusi (1018-92), who was given a title of â€Å"Nizam al-Mulk† (â€Å"the regulator of the state†) for faithful service to Seljuk sultans Alp Arslan and Malik-Shakh (Ibn Khallikan, page 90). â€Å"Siyasatnama† is chosen for present investigation because it reflects social and political life and moral values of the Seljuk period (Scott Meisami, page 145). â€Å"Siyasatnama† allows approaching the Islamic government from two perspectives. First, the Seljuk environment in the late 11th century will be discussed, and last, Nizam al-Mulk’s life experience will be considered. The 11th century Islamic world was characterized by strife and turmoil (Zakhodyor, page 244). Different sects appeared undermining the unity of the ummah, and the Ismailian sect of Muslims was gaining strength in Khorasan (Scott Meisami, page 161). Constant struggle for power between Shiites, Sunnis, and heterodoxy weakened the protection of the state, what was enjoyed by other nations taking military campaigns against Seljuks (for example, Dandanaqan battle) (lecture 2, week 7). In such political situation viziers were especially important, and a valuable contribution to strengthen the Seljuk Empire was made by Nizam al-Mulk, who conducted the state's domestic and foreign policies. Nizam al-Mulk’s theory of government is mainly based on a religious approach. Indeed, Seljuk court was important protectors of Islamic traditions (lecture 2, week 7). A picture of Seljuks as ardent Muslims is given by Aristakes Lastivertc’I ... ...y Nizam al-Mulk’s deep piety. Nizam al-Mulk devotes much attention to strengthening the faith on which Islamic government is based. Nizam al-Mulk relates that when the faith is weakened the state collapses (Ð ¡Ã ¸Ã' Ã' Ã °Ã'‚Ð ½Ã °Ã ¼Ã °, page 61). Indeed, ideology really matters for theocracies, it is the main factor that unites it, and destroying of it lead to break up of the whole state. To sum up, the issues of justice, virtue, and benevolence raised in the work determine the political views of its author. In turn, a socio-political system built by Seljuks had a significant impact on the formation of Nizam al-Mulk’s views. Thus, â€Å"Siyasatnama† is not only an excellent literary monument but also an important material in studying an Islamic governmental system of the Middle Ages, which contains a knowledge gained in practice and gives an idea of what an ideal government should be.

Dugong Research :: Marine Mammals Biology Essays

Dugong Research Scientific name: Dugong Dugon Status: Vulnerable to extinction since 1982 (IUCN) Appendix I of CITES Taxonomy: Class Mammalia Order Sirenia Family Dugongidae Genus Dugong Species dugon Common Name dugong or sea cow Local Name duyong or baboy dagat Description: The dugong is one of the 24 species of marine mammals present in the Philippine waters. The dugong is the only representative of the order Sirenia to be found in the country. It is a truly unique aquatic animal, being the only herbivorous mammal whose preferred habitat is the sea. Like people and other mammals, the dugong is warm-blooded, has hairs, breathes air and the mother suckles their young. It has been noted that stories on mermaids are attributed to this unique animal due to its striking resemblance – fish-like tail, brownish smooth skin, mammary glands, woman-like genitalia and even its’ suckling baby. An adult dugong can grow to more than three meters in length and can weigh more than 400 kg. Newborns are a little over a meter, while mature animals measure at least 2.5 meters in length (Marsh et al. 1984). The dugong’s body is torpedo-shaped with whale-like flukes. The neck is short and indistinct. The flippers are small and short are used for manoeuvring and as a support during feeding or resting at the sea bottom. The color of an adult dugong is greyish bronze, which becomes lighter ventrally. Neonates and juveniles are lighter and are browner in color. The skin is tough, heavily scarred and usually colonized with barnacles in older animals. Short/stiff hair and fine/thin hair is sparsely distributed throughout the back of the animal. Hair is almost absent in the abdomen but are large, thick and abundant in the snout region. The upper lip forms the rostral disc, which is horseshoe in shape and is covered with a lot of thick and long vibrissae used for probing. A unique feature is around 25-35 mm thick (not as thick compared to other marine mammals, since protection from the cold is not a great problem for this warm and shallow water species).

Expenditures and Revenues Summary: Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office Essay

The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, a statutory government agency, is responsible for providing services to three mandated programs in Palm Beach County, Florida (PBSO.org, 2013). Those programs are Law Enforcement, Corrections Services throughout Palm Beach County’s jails, and finally Bailiff and Court staff. Palm Beach Sheriff’s office is required to respond to law enforcement calls throughout the county and all unincorporated areas of Palm Beach County. Palm Beach Sheriff’s office is also responsible for providing services to certain municipalities throughout Palm Beach County, if a contract exists between the municipality and the Sheriff’s office. The municipality must come to a fee agreement with the Palm Beach Sheriff’s office before a contract is established. The following will elaborate on the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office revenue and expenditures and the impact of the expenditures on the revenue source. The following will also elaborate on who the key players are in terms of making budget decisions and whether or not there is any influence of political and public policies on the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office. Finally, recommended organizational financial analysis alternatives for the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office will be researched. The Impact of the Expenditures on the Revenue Source Palm Beach County is located in South Florida and is the largest county in square mileage in Florida at 2,268 square miles. Palm Beach County is Florida’s third largest populated county with just under 1.4 million residents (PBSO.org, 2014).The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office maintains 3,949 allocations throughout Palm Beach County and boasts 1,333 sworn law enforcement officers, 7,757 civilian support staff, 689 sworn Corrections officers and 170 sworn Court services and Bailiff; therefore a large portion of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office budget is allocated to programs. Personal services, according to the Sheriff’s Office (2014) means this part of the budget is considered to pay employee wages and benefits. This program is divided in to thee parts, Law Enforcement, Corrections and Court Services  and Bailiff, which in turns means three different expenditures. A total of $510,102,878.00 for the Sheriff’s was requested for the 2014 fiscal year in order to support the three programs. This amount is an increase of about 5.8% from the 2013 fiscal year (PBSO.org, 2014). The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office is funded through various revenues generated from Law Enforcement services, ad-valorem taxes and utility taxes. The Sheriff’s Office collects 15% of all revenues collected through adult entertainment and revenue is also received by the State of Florida for Crime Laboratory Operations. Funds are established by the Florida Crime Laboratory Council. Safety services also generate revenue for the Sheriff’s Office. The charges and fees are ultimately determined by the Statute and fee schedule approved by the Sheriff. These contracts include airport security, Private and Governmental Off-Duty permits and other law enforcement contract. The Safety Service fees make up a large portion of the Sheriff’s revenues (PBSO. org, 2014). Other revenues include fines and forfeitures, commission on coin telephones used by the county’s inmates, taxes levied on assessed properties in Palm Beach County and utility tax. According to Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office (2014), each program is divided in to three expenditures. Those expenditures are Law Enforcement, Corrections and Court Services and Bailiff. Each of the three program categories is broken down even further. Those parts are listed as Personal Services, Operating and Capital Outlay. Each variable requires funds in order to operate; for example, the Law Enforcement Program was budgeted for a total budget of $347,035,274.00 out of the $510,102,878.00. As stated this program is further broken down in to three variables, Personal Services, Operating and Capital Outlay. A total of $276,397,453.00 is budgeted for personal services. $60,185,099 is budgeted for Operating and $10,452,722.00 is budgeted for Capital Outlay. This brings the total to $347,035,274.00 dollars budgeted for the Law Enforcement Program. This total is about 60% of the total budget for 2014. It is important to understand that 81% of the operating budget consists of wages, overtime and employee benefits. These are items which are set through collective bargaining, policy, contracts and also receive protection under to Career Service Bill (PBSO.org, 2014). Key  Players Involved in Deciding on a Budget Because the Sheriff’s Office is large and requires time to create a reasonable budget, the budgeting process begins in December of the preceding year (PBSO.org, 2014). In January, the Palm Beach Sheriff discusses the philosophy for the approaching fiscal year. The Sheriff’s Office had an established budget staff which provides an overview of the budget process and provides details regarding the upcoming budget preparation and procedures. Executives and Senior Staff conduct a series of internal reviews before the proposed budget is presented the Sheriff. The Sheriff then reviews the proposed budget and either accepts or denies the budget. Once the Sheriff approves the budget a signed copy is sent to the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioner by May 1. The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners Office of Finance Management and Budget would then schedule a number of workshops for the County’s proposed budget. It is during these workshops that modifications to the Sheriff’s budget can be presented. Budgets may be modified based on the receipt of grant funds, donations or other sources outside of the Sheriff’s adopted budget. In September, there are two public hearing scheduled during which the final budget is adopted. The budget must be adopted for October 1, the start of the new fiscal year. The Influence of Politics and Public Policies on the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners Office of Finance Management and Budget is a governmental organization which oversees the Sheriff’s proposed budget on a yearly basis. The Constitutional Officers who oversee the budget include Clerk and Comptroller Office, Tax Collector and Property Appraiser (Palm Beach County, 2014). All three entities are those of local government. These three organizations are responsible for reviewing not only the Sheriff’s budget, but all other budgets relating to cities in Palm Beach County who provide public assistance. Politics can play a huge role when considering a budget proposal. In this case, these three entities know what funding is available as they are responsible for collecting different revenues. If the money is not available to fund the entire budget request, then cuts will be made to the budget; furthermore, because budgets are able to be accessed by  the public, is important to ensure that all decisions regarding the budget are ethical decisions. Financial Analysis Alternatives In the event that there is a loss of revenue source, there are many other options the Sheriff’s Office can explore in order to obtain funding. The Sheriff’s Office, like any other police department, has many departments which are responsible for investigating certain crimes; for example, the Sheriff’s Office created a department specifically for tracking online sexual predators. The United States Department of Justice provides funding to the Sheriff’s Office for strategically targeting online predators. The Sheriff’s office would be able to continue funding this department and maintaining its multidisciplinary team to assist in the development and implementation of the strategy. The COPS hiring Program (CHP) is dedicated to enhancing community policing by addressing the needs of a state, local or tribal law enforcement agency. The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) provides funding so that law enforcement agencies are able to hire new or career law enforcement officers. Employing more officers would increase crime prevention efforts in a given district (U.S. Department of Justice, 2014). The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) will provide up to 75% of any approved entry-level salary and fringe benefits. The officers must be hired as full-time officers for the length of grant period, which is 36 months. A minimum of 25% of the officer’s salary must be matched by the hiring agency and a maximum federal share of $125,000 per officer. Under the COPS Hiring Program, the agency is only able to hire up to 5% of the agency’s sworn police officers (U.S Department of Justice, 2014). According to the Sheriff’s Office (2014), there are two other sources of alternative funding. Alternative funding can be obtained through forfeiture funds which are obtained from cases which assets and cash are seized and eventually released to the law enforcement agency. Forfeiture funds may come from state and federal governments and ought to be used to purchase equipment which was unable to be funded. Secondly, alternative funds may come from the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office grant program. This program  generates millions of dollars annually. In the past, grant funding has enabled the Sheriff’s Office to purchase patrol boats; additionally, the grant funding, the Sheriff’s Office has also purchased 245 square miles of waterway in Palm Beach County and 45 miles of shoreline (PBSO.org, 2014). Conclusion In conclusion, The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office is large law enforcement agency within Palm Beach County which provides law enforcement, corrections and court services to Palm Beach County. The Sheriff’s office is also contracted by a number of cities within Palm Beach County to perform law enforcement duties within that area. Drafting a budget proposal can be challenging and difficult for such a large organization. Upon completing this research, one can easily see the much thought and preparation is needed to complete a budget which will allow the Sheriff’s Office to continuously provide services to those within the jurisdictions. The preceding elaborated on the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office revenue and expenditures and the impact of the expenditures on the revenue source. The preceding also elaborated on who the key players are in terms of making budget decisions and whether or not there is any influence of political and public policies on the Palm Beach Sh eriff’s Office. Finally, the organizational financial analysis alternatives for the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office were discussed. References Palm Beach County (2014). Preparing for Budgets. Retrieved from website http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/default.asp?Item=2367 PBSO.org, (2014). Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office Budget. Retrieved from website http://pbso.org/index.cfm?fa=budget U.S. Department of Justice (2014). COPS Hiring Program. Retrieved from website http://www.pbcgov.com/ofmb/budget/

Beyond The Burning Time Character Analyasis essays

Beyond The Burning Time Character Analyasis essays Beyond the Burning Time by Kathryn Lasky is a wonderful novel about the truth and lies of the Salem Witch Trials. During this time, one is either an accuser or the accused. The Chase family is desperately trying to keep calm. Mary Chase, the young daughter of widowed Virginia Chase, and younger sister of Caleb Chase is trying to understand what is going on around her. Mary Chase will not be drawn into the scandal of the Salem Witch Trials, instead she is persistently trying to free her mother from the lies set against her, while trying to help her family survive this crazy time of false accusations and incrimination. Mary Chase is unlike the other girls in Salem Town. She never has any free time to become drawn into the mischeif going on in the town. "And they find the days long. They're not like you, young Mary. You're so busy helping your dear mother on the farm you never have time to think about such things" (Lasky, 32). Mary must help her mother with running the family business, since her father died, and her older brother is being apprentice at the same shipyard where her father was master carpenter before he died. Mary has set chores, which she must perform daily in order to keep the farm properly running. Her daily chores include, mucking out the barn, shimming the fence, helping with the cooking, and sopping the runt piglets. These must be done everyday, or else the farm will not be able to properly function, and if the farm cannot properly function then they will lose money and become poor. The chores are a necessity to the survival of the Chase farm. Persistance seems to be Mary's middle name. She never lets anything rest, even when it seems that everyone else has given up hope. "Mary seems to have more energy, more imagination. Her mind is endlessly working on a plan for escape. But Caleb's mind locks on those terrible stuffed bundles swinging from the tree limbs on Gallows Hill" (Lasky, 214). Continually, Mary is try...

Free Essays on Free On Balance

Free on Balance What does one mean when he/she makes the statement, â€Å"John is more free than Richard†? Joel Feinberg suggests that making such a statement means grouping different kinds of freedoms together. A more complete statement is perhaps; â€Å"John is freer on balance than Richard.† Free on balance means that all one’s freedoms are, in a sense, summed up, and that a certain value may be given to all one’s freedoms as a collective group. The fact that this grouping may be inappropriate is demonstrated by the difficulty in comparing someone who is free to do x but not y with someone else who is free to do y but not x. To logically choose which person is freer (on balance) requires an assessment of freedom x and freedom y and a placing of value on both. For example, if a person is free to leave the house but not free to make criticism of anything he/she sees, saying he/she is less free than someone else who cannot leave the house but can make any criticisms he/she wishes simply means that the freedom to criticize is more valuable than the freedom of movement. This point is important philosophically because one problem with â€Å"free on balance† statements is that they are inherently formal, or ambiguous, and therefore cannot stand alone, but rather needs other values to assist in the â€Å"ranking† of freedoms. Feinberg points out that the values used to supplement a free on balance comparison  "†¦are not external to freedom in the manner of such independently conceived rival ideals as justice and welfare,† instead, they are an internal filling-in of the ambiguity of most â€Å"free on balance† ideas. A relevant philosophical application of such an idea might be looking at a noise pollution debate as a conflict of freedoms of a different nature. The freedoms in conflict are 1) the freedom of a person to listen to what he/she wants to listen to, at whatever volume grants maximum satisfaction for that individ... Free Essays on Free On Balance Free Essays on Free On Balance Free on Balance What does one mean when he/she makes the statement, â€Å"John is more free than Richard†? Joel Feinberg suggests that making such a statement means grouping different kinds of freedoms together. A more complete statement is perhaps; â€Å"John is freer on balance than Richard.† Free on balance means that all one’s freedoms are, in a sense, summed up, and that a certain value may be given to all one’s freedoms as a collective group. The fact that this grouping may be inappropriate is demonstrated by the difficulty in comparing someone who is free to do x but not y with someone else who is free to do y but not x. To logically choose which person is freer (on balance) requires an assessment of freedom x and freedom y and a placing of value on both. For example, if a person is free to leave the house but not free to make criticism of anything he/she sees, saying he/she is less free than someone else who cannot leave the house but can make any criticisms he/she wishes simply means that the freedom to criticize is more valuable than the freedom of movement. This point is important philosophically because one problem with â€Å"free on balance† statements is that they are inherently formal, or ambiguous, and therefore cannot stand alone, but rather needs other values to assist in the â€Å"ranking† of freedoms. Feinberg points out that the values used to supplement a free on balance comparison  "†¦are not external to freedom in the manner of such independently conceived rival ideals as justice and welfare,† instead, they are an internal filling-in of the ambiguity of most â€Å"free on balance† ideas. A relevant philosophical application of such an idea might be looking at a noise pollution debate as a conflict of freedoms of a different nature. The freedoms in conflict are 1) the freedom of a person to listen to what he/she wants to listen to, at whatever volume grants maximum satisfaction for that individ...

How to Kill Creativity Essay Example

How to Kill Creativity Essay Example How to Kill Creativity Essay How to Kill Creativity Essay How_to_Kill_Creativity_www. hbrreprints. org How to Kill Creativity by Teresa M. Amabile Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief- the core idea The Idea in Practice- putting the idea to work 2 How to Kill Creativity 12 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications Product 98501 How to Kill Creativity The Idea in Brief If the mantra for the current business climate is Innovate or die, why do so many companies seem to be choosing the latter option? Creativity gets killed much more often than it gets supported. The problem is not that managers smother creativity intentionally- the business need for coordination and control can inadvertently undermine employees’ ability to put existing ideas together in new and useful ways. To foster an innovative workplace, you need to pay attention to employees’ expertise, creative-thinking skills, and motivation. Of these three, employees’ motivation- specifically, their intrinsic motivation, or passion for a certain kind of challenge- is the most potent lever a manager can use to boost creativity and his company’s future success. The Idea in Practice In business, it isn’t enough for an idea to be original- the idea must also be useful, appropriate, and actionable. It must somehow influence the way business gets done- for example, by significantly improving a product or service. Within every individual, creativity exists as a function of three components: 1. expertise (technical, procedural, and intellectual knowledge). The broader the expertise, the larger the intellectual space a person has to explore and solve problems. 2. creative-thinking skills. These aptitudes, shaped by an individual’s personality, determine how flexibly and imaginatively someone approaches problems. 3. motivation. Expertise and creativethinking skills provide an individual’s natural resources for creativity; motivation determines what a person will actually do. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside the individual- whether it’s the offer of a bonus or the threat of firing. Extrinsic motivation doesn’t prevent people from being creative, but in many situations it doesn’t boost their creativity either. On its own, it can’t prompt people to be passionate about their work; in fact, it can lead them to feel bribed or controlled. Intrinsic motivation, by contrast, comes from inside the individual. It’s a person’s abiding interest in certain activities or deep love of particular challenges. Employees are most creative when they are intrinsically motivated- in other words, when the work itself is motivating. It can be time consuming to try to influence an employee’s expertise or creative-thinking skills. It’s easier to affect someone’s intrinsic motivation- and the results are more immediate. Activities that enhance intrinsic motivation fall into a few general categories: challenge, freedom, resources, work-group features, supage 1 pervisory encouragement, and organizational support. Some specific recommendations: Match the right people with the right assignments, so employees are stretched but not stretched too thin. Work teams that have diverse perspectives will generate more creativity than homogenous groups. Give people freedom within the company’s goals. Tell them which mountain to climb, but let them decide how to climb it. Keep the objectives stable for a meaningful period of time- it’s hard to reach the top of a moving mountain. Allocate appropriate amounts of time and project resources. Organizations routinely kill creativity with fake deadlines- which cause distrust- and impossibly tight ones- which cause burnout. Let employees know that what they do matters. This will help them sustain their passion for the work. COPYRIGHT  © 2000 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Keep doing what you’re doing. Or, if you want to spark innovation, rethink how you motivate, reward, and assign work to people. How to Kill Creativity by Teresa M. Amabile COPYRIGHT  © 1998 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. When I consider all the organizations I have studied and worked with over the past 22 years, there can be no doubt: creativity gets killed much more often than it gets supported. For the most part, this isn’t because managers have a vendetta against creativity. On the contrary, most believe in the value of new and useful ideas. However, creativity is undermined unintentionally every day in work environments that were established- for entirely good reasons- to maximize business imperatives such as coordination, productivity, and control. Managers cannot be expected to ignore business imperatives, of course. But in working toward these imperatives, they may be inadvertently designing organizations that systematically crush creativity. My research shows that it is possible to develop the best of both worlds: organizations in which business imperatives are attended to and creativity ? urishes. Building such organizations, however, requires us to understand precisely what kinds of managerial practices foster creativity- and which kill it. What Is Business Creativity? We tend to associate creativity with the arts and to think of it as the expression of highly original ideas. Think of how Pablo Picasso reinvented the conventions of painting or how William Faulkner rede? ned ? ction. In business, originality isnâ⠂¬â„¢t enough. To be creative, an idea must also be appropriate- useful and actionable. It must somehow in? ence the way business gets done- by improving a product, for instance, or by opening up a new way to approach a process. The associations made between creativity and artistic originality often lead to confusion about the appropriate place of creativity in business organizations. In seminars, I’ve asked managers if there is any place they don’t want creativity in their companies. About 80% of the time, they answer, â€Å"Accounting. † Creativity, they seem to believe, belongs just in marketing and RD. But creativity can bene? t every function of an organization. Think of activity-based accounting. It was an invention- an accounting invention- and its impact on business harvard business review september–october 1998 page 2 How to Kill Creativity Teresa M. Amabile is the M. B. A. Class of 1954 Professor of Business Administration and senior associate dean for research at the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts. has been positive and profound. Along with fearing creativity in the accounting department- or really, in any unit that involves systematic processes or legal regulations- many managers also hold a rather narrow view of the creative process. To them, creativity refers to the way people think- how inventively they approach problems, for instance. Indeed, thinking imaginatively is one part of creativity, but two others are also essential: expertise and motivation. Expertise encompasses everything that a person knows and can do in the broad domain of his or her work. Take, for example, a scientist at a pharmaceutical company who is charged with developing a blood-clotting drug for hemophiliacs. Her expertise includes her basic talent for thinking scienti? ally as well as all the knowledge and technical abilities that she has in the ? elds of medicine, chemistry, biology, and biochemistry. It doesn’t matter how she acquired this expertise, whether through formal education, practical experience, or interaction with other professionals. Regardless, her expertise constitutes what the Nobel laureate, economist, and psychologist Herb Simon calls her â€Å"network of possible wanderings,† the intellectual space that she uses to explore and solve problems. The larger this space, the better. Creative thinking, as noted above, refers to how people approach problems and solutions- their capacity to put existing ideas together in new combinations. The skill itself depends quite a bit on personality as well as on how a person thinks and works. The pharmaceutical scientist, for example, will be more creative if her personality is such that she feels comfortable disagreeing with others- that is, if she naturally tries out solutions that depart from the status quo. Her creativity will be enhanced further if she habitually turns problems upside down and combines knowledge from seemingly disparate ? lds. For example, she might look to botany to help ? nd solutions to the hemophilia problem, using lessons from the vascular systems of plants to spark insights about bleeding in humans. As for work style, the scientist will be more likely to achieve creative success if she perseveres through a dif? cult problem. Indeed, plodding through long dry spells of tedious experimentation inc reases the probability of truly creative breakthroughs. So, too, does a work style that uses â€Å"incubation,† the ability to set aside dif? ult problems temporarily, work on something else, and then return later with a fresh perspective. Expertise and creative thinking are an individual’s raw materials- his or her natural resources, if you will. But a third factor- motivation- determines what people will actually do. The scientist can have outstanding educational credentials and a great facility in generating new perspectives to old problems. But if she lacks the motivation to do a particular job, she simply won’t do it; her expertise and creative thinking will either go untapped or be applied to something else. My research has repeatedly demonstrated, however, that all forms of motivation do not have the same impact on creativity. In fact, it shows that there are two types of motivation- extrinsic and intrinsic, the latter being far more essential for creativity. But let’s explore extrinsic ? rst, because it is often at the root of creativity problems in business. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside a person- whether the motivation is a carrot or a stick. If the scientist’s boss promises to reward her ? nancially should the blood-clotting project succeed, or if he threatens to ? e her should it fail, she will certainly be motivated to ? nd a solution. But this sort of motivation â€Å"makes† the scientist do her job in order to get something desirable or avoid something painful. Obviously, the most common extrinsic motivator managers use is money, which doesn’t necessarily stop people from being creative. But in many situations, it doesn’t help either , especially when it leads people to feel that they are being bribed or controlled. More important, money by itself doesn’t make employees passionate about their jobs. A cash reward can’t magically prompt people to ? d their work interesting if in their hearts they feel it is dull. But passion and interest- a person’s internal desire to do something- are what intrinsic motivation is all about. For instance, the scientist in our example would be intrinsically motivated if her work on the blood-clotting drug was sparked by an intense interest in hemophilia, a personal sense of challenge, or a drive to crack a problem that no one else has been able to solve. When people are intrinsically motivated, they engage in their work for the challenge and enjoyment of it. The work itself is motivating. In fact, in our creativity research, my students, colleagues, and I have found so harvard business review september–october 1998 page 3 How to Kill Creativity much evidence in favor of intrinsic motivation that we have articulated what we call the Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity: people will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by the interest, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself- and not by external pressures. (For more on the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, see the insert â€Å"The Creativity Maze. †) Managing Creativity Managers can in? ence all three components of creativity: expertise, creative-thinking skills, and motivation. But the fact is that the ? rst two are more dif? cult and time consuming to in? uence than motivation. Yes, regular scienti? c seminars and professional conferences will undoubtedly add to the scientist’s expertise in hemophilia and related ? elds. And training in brainsto rming, problem solving, and so-called lateral thinking might give her some new tools to use in tackling the job. But the time and money involved in broadening her knowledge and expanding her creative-thinking skills would be great. By contrast, our research has shown that intrinsic motivation can be increased considerably by even subtle changes in an organization’s environment. That is not to say that managers should give up on improving expertise and creative-thinking skills. But when it comes to pulling levers, they should know that those that affect intrinsic motivation will yield more immediate results. More speci? cally, then, what managerial practices affect creativity? They fall into six general categories: challenge, freedom, resources, work-group features, supervisory encouragement, and organizational support. These categories have emerged from more than two decades of research focused primarily on one question: What are the links between work environment and creativity? We have used three methodologies: experiments, interviews, and surveys. While controlled experiments allowed us to identify causal links, the interviews and surveys gave us insight into the richness and complexity of creativity within business organizations. We have studied dozens of companies and, within those, hundreds of individuals and teams. In each research initiative, our goal has been to identify which managerial practices are de? itively linked to positive creative outcomes and which are not. For instance, in one project, we interviewed dozens of employees from a wide variety of companies and industries and asked them to describe in detail the most and least creative events in their careers. We then closely studied the transcripts of those interviews, noting the managerial practices- or other patterns- that appear ed repeatedly in the successful creativity stories and, conversely, in those that were unsuccessful. Our research has also been bolstered by a quantitative survey instrument The Creativity Maze To understand the differences between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, imagine a business problem as a maze. One person might be motivated to make it through the maze as quickly and safely as possible in order to get a tangible reward, such as money- the same way a mouse would rush through for a piece of cheese. This person would look for the simplest, most straightforward path and then take it. In fact, if he is in a real rush to get that reward, he might just take the most beaten path and solve the problem exactly as it has been solved before. That approach, based on xtrinsic motivation, will indeed get him out of the maze. But the solution that arises from the process is likely to be unimaginative. It won’t provide new insights about the nature of the problem or reveal new ways of looking at it. The rote solution probably won’t move the business forward. Another person might have a different approach to the maze. She might actually ? nd the process of wandering ar ound the different paths- the challenge and exploration itself- fun and intriguing. No doubt, this journey will take longer and include mistakes, because any maze- any truly complex problem- has many more dead ends than exits. But when the intrinsically motivated person ? nally does ? nd a way out of the maze- a solution- it very likely will be more interesting than the rote algorithm. It will be more creative. There is abundant evidence of strong intrinsic motivation in the stories of widely recognized creative people. When asked what makes the difference between creative scientists and those who are less creative, the Nobel prize–winning physicist Arthur Schawlow said, â€Å"The labor-oflove aspect is important. The most successful scientists often are not the most talented, but the ones who are just impelled by curiosity. They’ve got to know what the answer is. † Albert Einstein talked about intrinsic motivation as â€Å"the enjoyment of seeing and searching. † The novelist John Irving, in discussing the very long hours he put into his writing, said, â€Å"The unspoken factor is love. The reason I can work so hard at my writing is that it’s not work for me. † And Michael Jordan, perhaps the most creative basketball player ever, had a â€Å"love of the game† clause inserted into his contract; he insisted that he be free to play pick-up basketball games any time he wished. Creative people are rarely superstars like Michael Jordan. Indeed, most of the creative work done in the business world today gets done by people whose names will never be recorded in history books. They are people with expertise, good creative-thinking skills, and high levels of intrinsic motivation. And just as important, they work in organizations where managers consciously build environments that support these characteristics instead of destroying them. harvard business review september–october 1998 page 4 How to Kill Creativity Deciding how much time and money to give to a team or project is a judgment call that can either support or kill creativity. called KEYS. Taken by employees at any level of an organization, KEYS consists of 78 questions used to assess various work-place conditions, such as the level of support for creativity from top-level managers or the organization’s approach to evaluation. Taking the six categories that have emerged from our research in turn, let’s explore what managers can do to enhance creativity- and what often happens instead. Again, it is important to note that creativity-killing practices are seldom the work of lone managers. Such practices usually are systemic- so widespread that they are rarely questioned. Challenge. Of all the things managers can do to stimulate creativity, perhaps the most ef? cacious is the deceptively simple task of matching people with the right assignments. Managers can match people with jobs that play to their expertise and their skills in creative thinking, and ignite intrinsic motivation. Perfect matches stretch employees’ abilities. The amount of stretch, however, is crucial: not so little that they feel bored but not so much that they feel overwhelmed and threatened by a loss of control. Making a good match requires that managers possess rich and detailed information about their employees and the available assignments. Such information is often dif? cult and time consuming to gather. Perhaps that’s why good matches are so rarely made. In fact, one of the most common ways managers kill creativity is by not trying to obtain the information necessary to make good connections between people and jobs. Instead, something of a shotgun wedding occurs. The most eligible employee is wed to the most eligible- that is, the most urgent and open- assignment. Often, the results are predictably unsatisfactory for all involved. Freedom. When it comes to granting freedom, the key to creativity is giving people autonomy concerning the means- that is, concerning process- but not necessarily the ends. People will be more creative, in other words, if you give them freedom to decide how to climb a particular mountain. You needn’t let them choose which mountain to climb. In fact, clearly speci? ed strategic goals often enhance people’s creativity. I’m not making the case that managers should leave their subordinates entirely out of goal- or agenda-setting discussions. But they should understand that inclusion in those dis- cussions will not necessarily enhance creative output and certainly will not be suf? cient to do so. It is far more important that whoever sets the goals also makes them clear to the organization and that these goals remain stable for a meaningful period of time. It is dif? ult, if not impossible, to work creatively toward a target if it keeps moving. Autonomy around process fosters creativity because giving people freedom in how they approach their work heightens their intrinsic motivation and sense of ownership. Freedom about process also allows people to approach problems in ways that make the most of their expertise and their creative-thinking skills. The task may end up being a stretch for them, but they can use their strengths to meet the challenge. How do executives mismanage freedom? There are two common ways. First, managers tend to change goals frequently or fail to de? ne them clearly. Employees may have freedom around process, but if they don’t know where they are headed, such freedom is pointless. And second, some managers fall short on this dimension by granting autonomy in name only. They claim that employees are â€Å"empowered† to explore the maze as they search for solutions but, in fact, the process is proscribed. Employees diverge at their own risk. Resources. The two main resources that affect creativity are time and money. Managers need to allot these resources carefully. Like matching people with the right assignments, deciding how much time and money to give to a team or project is a sophisticated judgment call that can either support or kill creativity. Consider time. Under some circumstances, time pressure can heighten creativity. Say, for instance, that a competitor is about to launch a great product at a lower price than your offering or that society faces a serious problem and desperately needs a solution- such as an AIDS vaccine. In such situations, both the time crunch and the importance of the work legitimately make people feel that they must rush. Indeed, cases like these would be apt to increase intrinsic motivation by increasing the sense of challenge. Organizations routinely kill creativity with fake deadlines or impossibly tight ones. The former create distrust and the latter cause burnout. In either case, people feel overcontrolled and unful? lled- which invariably damages motivation. Moreover, creativity often harvard business review september–october 1998 page 5 How to Kill Creativity In many companies, new ideas are met not with open minds but with time-consuming layers of evaluation. takes time. It can be slow going to explore new concepts, put together unique solutions, and wander through the maze. Managers who do not allow time for exploration or do not schedule in incubation periods are unwittingly standing in the way of the creative process. When it comes to project resources, again managers must make a ? t. They must determine the funding, people, and other resources that a team legitimately needs to complete an assignment- and they must know how much the organization can legitimately afford to allocate to the assignment. Then they must strike a compromise. Interestingly, adding more resources above a â€Å"threshold of suf? ciency† does not boost creativity. Below that threshold, however, a restriction of resources can dampen creativity. Unfortunately, many managers don’t realize this and therefore often make another mistake. They keep resources tight, which pushes people to channel their creativity into ? nding additional resources, not in actually developing new products or services. Another resource that is misunderstood when it comes to creativity is physical space. It is almost conventional wisdom that creative teams need open, comfortable of? es. Such an atmosphere won’t hurt creativity, and it may even help, but it is not nearly as important as other managerial initiatives that in? uence creativity. Indeed, a problem we have seen time and time again is managers paying attention to creating the â€Å"right† physical space at the expense of more high-impact actions, such as matching people to the right assignments and granting freedom around work processes. Work-Group Features. If you want to build teams that come up with creative ideas, you must pay careful attention to the design of such teams. That is, you must create mutually supportive groups with a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds. Why? Because when teams comprise people with various intellectual foundations and approaches to work- that is, different expertise and creative thinking styles- ideas often combine and combust in exciting and useful ways. Diversity, however, is only a starting point. Managers must also make sure that the teams they put together have three other features. First, the members must share excitement over the team’s goal. Second, members must display a willingness to help their teammates through dif? ult periods and setbacks. And third, every member must recognize the unique knowledge and perspective that other members bring to the table. These factors enhance not only intrinsic motivation but also expertise and creative-thinking skills. Again, creating such teams requires managers to have a deep understanding of their people. They must be able to assess them not just for their kno wledge but for their attitudes about potential fellow team members and the collaborative process, for their problem-solving styles, and for their motivational hot buttons. Putting together a team with just the right chemistry- just the right level of diversity and supportiveness- can be dif? cult, but our research shows how powerful it can be. It follows, then, that one common way managers kill creativity is by assembling homogeneous teams. The lure to do so is great. Homogeneous teams often reach â€Å"solutions† more quickly and with less friction along the way. These teams often report high morale, too. But homogeneous teams do little to enhance expertise and creative thinking. Everyone comes to the table with a similar mind-set. They leave with the same. Supervisory Encouragement. Most managers are extremely busy. They are under pressure for results. It is therefore easy for them to let praise for creative efforts- not just creative successes but unsuccessful efforts, too- fall by the wayside. One very simple step managers can take to foster creativity is to not let that happen. The connection to intrinsic motivation here is clear. Certainly, people can ? nd their work interesting or exciting without a cheering section- for some period of time. But to sustain such passion, most people need to feel as if their work matters to the organization or to some important group of people. Otherwise, they might as well do their work at home and for their own personal gain. Managers in successful, creative organizations rarely offer speci? c extrinsic rewards for particular outcomes. However, they freely and generously recognize creative work by individuals and teams- often before the ultimate commercial impact of those efforts is known. By contrast, managers who kill creativity do so either by failing to acknowledge innovative efforts or by greeting them with skepticism. In many companies, for instance, new ideas are met not with open minds but with timeconsuming layers of evaluation- or even with arvard business review september–october 1998 page 6 How to Kill Creativity harsh criticism. When someone suggests a new product or process, senior managers take weeks to respond. Or they put that person through an excruciating critique. Not every new idea is worthy of consideration, of course, but in many organizations, managers habitually demonstrate a reaction that damages creativity. They look for reasons to not use a new idea instead of searching for reasons to explore it further. An interesting psychological dynamic underlies this phenomenon. Our research shows that people believe that they will appear smarter to their bosses if they are more critical- and it often works. In many organizations, it is professionally rewarding to react critically to new ideas. Unfortunately, this sort of negativity bias can have severe consequences for the creativity of those being evaluated. How? First, a culture of evaluation leads people to focus on the external rewards and punishments associated with their output, thus increasing the presence of extrinsic motivation and its potentially negative effects on intrinsic motivation. Second, such a culture creates a climate of fear, which again undermines intrinsic motivation. Finally, negativity also shows up in how managers treat people whose ideas don’t pan out: often, they are terminated or otherwise warehoused within the organization. Of course, ultimately, ideas do need to work; remember that creative ideas in business must be new and useful. The dilemma is that you can’t possibly know beforehand which ideas will pan out. Furthermore, dead ends can sometimes be very enlightening. In many business situations, nowing what doesn’t work can be as useful as knowing what does. But if people do not perceive any â€Å"failure value† for projects that ultimately do not achieve commercial success, they’ll become less and less likely to experiment, explore, and connect with their work on a personal level. Their intrinsic motivation will evaporate. Supervisory encouragement comes in other forms besides rewards and punishment. Another way managers can support creativity is to serve as role models, persevering through tough problems as well as encouraging collaboration and communication within the team. Such behavior enhances all three components of the creative process, and it has the added virtue of being a high-impact practice that a single manager can take on his or her own. It is better still when all managers in an organization serve as role models for the attitudes and behaviors that encourage and nurture creativity. Organizational Support. Encouragement from supervisors certainly fosters creativity, but creativity is truly enhanced when the entire organization supports it. Such support is the job of an organization’s leaders, who must put in place appropriate systems or procedures and emphasize values that make it clear that creative efforts are a top priority. For example, creativity-supporting organizations consistently reward creativity, but they avoid using money to â€Å"bribe† people to come up with innovative ideas. Because monetary rewards make people feel as if they are being controlled, such a tactic probably won’t work. At the same time, not providing suf? cient recognition and rewards for creativity can spawn negative feelings within an organization. People can feel used, or at the least under-appreciated, for their creative efforts. And it is rare to ? nd the energy and passion of intrinsic motivation coupled with resentment. Most important, an organization’s leaders can support creativity by mandating information sharing and collaboration and by ensuring that political problems do not fester. Information sharing and collaboration support all three components of creativity. Take expertise. The more often people exchange ideas and data by working together, the more knowledge they will have. The same dynamic can be said for creative thinking. In fact, one way to enhance the creative thinking of employees is to expose them to various approaches to problem solving. With the exception of hardened misanthropes, information sharing and collaboration heighten peoples’ enjoyment of work and thus their intrinsic motivation. Whether or not you are seeking to enhance creativity, it is probably never a good idea to let political problems fester in an organizational setting. In? ghting, politicking, and gossip are particularly damaging to creativity because they take peoples’ attention away from work. That sense of mutual purpose and excitement so central to intrinsic motivation invariably lessens when people are cliquish or at war with one another. Indeed, our research suggests that intrinsic motivation increases when people are aware that those around them are excited by their jobs. When political problems abound, people feel that their work is threatened by harvard business review september–october 1998 page 7 How to Kill Creativity others’ agendas. Finally, politicking also undermines expertise. The reason? Politics get in the way of open communication, obstructing the ? ow of information from point A to point B. Knowledge stays put and expertise suffers. From the Individual to the Organization Can executives build entire organizations that support creativity? The answer is yes. Consider the results of an intensive research project we recently completed called the Team Events Study. Over the course of two years, we studied more than two dozen teams in seven companies across three industries: high tech, consumer products, and chemicals. By following each team every day through the entire course of a creative project, we had a window into the details of what happened as the project progressed- or failed to progress, as the case may be. We did this through daily con? dential e-mail reports from every person on each of the teams. At the end of each project, and at several points along the way, we used con? dential reports from company experts and from team members to assess the level of creativity used in problem solving as well as the overall success of the project. As might be expected, the teams and the companies varied widely in how successful they were at producing creative work. One organization, which I will call Chemical Central Research, seemed to be a veritable hotbed of creativity. Chemical Central supplied its parent organization with new formulations for a wide variety of industrial and consumer products. In many respects, however, members of Chemical Central’s development teams were unremarkable. They were well educated, but no more so than people in many other companies we had studied. The company was doing well ? nancially, but not enormously THE THREE COMPONENTS OF CREATIVITY Expertise is, in a word, knowledge- technical, procedural, and intellectual. Expertise Creativity Creativethinking skills Motivation harvard business review september–october 1998 page 8 How to Kill Creativity Some creative ideas soar; others sink. To enhance creativity, there should always be a safety net below the people who make suggestions. better than most other companies. What seemed to distinguish this organization was the quality of leadership at both the topmanagement level and the team level. The way managers formed teams, communicated with them, and supported their work enabled them to establish an organization in which creativity was continually stimulated. We saw managers making excellent matches between people and assignments again and again at Chemical Central. On occasion, team members were initially unsure of whether they were up to the challenge they were given. Almost invariably, though, they found their passion and interest growing through a deep involvement in the work. Their managers knew to match them with jobs that had them working at the top of their competency levels, pushing the frontiers of their skills, and developing new competencies. But managers were careful not to allow too big a gap between employees’ assignments and their abilities. Moreover, managers at Chemical Central collaborated with the teams from the outset of a project to clarify goals. The ? al goals, however, were set by the managers. Then, at the day-to-day operational level, the teams were given a great deal of autonomy to make their own decisions about product development. Throughout the project, the teams’ leaders and top-level managers periodically checked to see that work was directed toward the overall goals. But people were given real free dom around the implementation of the goals. As for work-group design, every Chemical Central team, though relatively small (between four and nine members), included members of diverse professional and ethnic backgrounds. Occasionally, that diversity led to communication dif? ulties. But more often, it sparked new insights and allowed the teams to come up with a wider variety of ways to accomplish their goals. One team, for example, was responsible for devising a new way to make a major ingredient for one of the company’s most important products. Because managers at Chemical Central had worked consciously to create a diverse team, it happened that one member had both a legal and a technical background. This person realized that the team might well be able to patent its core idea, giving the company a clear advantage in a new market. Because team members were mutually supportive, that ember was willing and eager to work closely with the inventor. Together, these individuals hel ped the team navigate its way through the patent application process. The team was successful and had fun along the way. Supervisory encouragement and organizational support were also widespread at Chemical Central. For instance, a member of one team received a company award as an outstanding scientist even though, along the way, he had experienced many failures as well as successes. At one point, after spending a great deal of time on one experiment, he told us, â€Å"All I came up with was a pot of junk. Still, the company did not punish or warehouse him because of a creative effort that had failed. Instead, he was publicly lauded for his consistently creative work. Finally, Chemical Central’s leaders did much to encourage teams to seek support from all units within their divisions and to encourage collaboration across all quarters. The general manager of the research unit himself set an example, offering both strategic and technical ideas whenever teams approached him for help. Indeed, he explicitly made cross-team support a priority among top scientists in the organization. As a result, such support was expected and recognized. For example, one team was about to test a new formulation for one of the company’s major products. Because the team was small, it had to rely on a materials-analysis group within the organization to help conduct the tests. The analysis group not only helped out but also set aside generous blocks of time during the week before testing to help the team understand the nature and limits of the information the group would provide, when they would have it, and what they would need from the team to support them effectively. Members of the team were con? dent that they could rely on the materials-analysis group throughout the process, and the trials went well- despite the usual technical dif? culties encountered in such testing. By contrast, consider what we observed at another company in our study, a consumer products company we’ll call National Houseware Products. For years, National had been well known for its innovation. But recently, the company had been restructured to accommodate a major growth spurt, and many senior managers had been ? red or harvard business review september–october 1998 age 9 How to Kill Creativity transferred. National’s work environment had undergone drastic changes. At the same time, new product successes and new business ideas seemed to be slowing to a trickle. Interestingly, the daily reports of the Team Events Study revealed that virtually all creativity killers were present. Managers undermined autonomy by continually changing goals and interfering with processes. At one quarterly review meeting, for example, four priorities that had been de? ned by management at the previous quarterly review meeting were not even mentioned. In another instance, a product that had been identi? ed as the team’s number one project was suddenly dropped without explanation. Resources were similarly mismanaged. For instance, management perennially put teams under severe and seemingly arbitrary time and resource constraints. At ? rst, many team members were energized by the ? re-? ghting atmosphere. They threw themselves into their work and rallied. But after a few months, their verve had diminished, especially because the pressures had proved meaningless. But perhaps National’s managers damaged creativity most with their approach to evaluation. They were routinely critical of new suggestions. One employee told us that he was afraid to tell his managers about some radical ideas that he had developed to grow his area of the business. The employee was wildly enthusiastic about the potential for his ideas but ultimately didn’t mention them to any of his bosses. He wondered why he should bother talking about new ideas when each one was studied for all its ? aws instead of its potential. Suggested Readings Teresa M. Amabile, Creativity in Context: Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity (Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1996). Teresa M. Amabile, Robert Burnside, and Stanley S. Gryskiewicz, User’s Manual for KEYS: Assessing the Climate for Creativity (Greensboro, N. C. : Center for Creative Leadership, 1998). Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Frontiers of Management (Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School Press, 1997). Through its actions, management had too often sent the message that any big ideas about how to change the status quo would be carefully scrutinized. Those individuals brave enough to suggest new ideas had to endure long- often nasty- meetings, replete with suspicious questions. In another example, when a team took a new competitive pricing program to the boss, it was told that a discussion of the idea would have to wait another month. One exasperated team member noted, â€Å"We analyze so long, we’ve lost the business before we’ve taken any action at all! † Yet another National team had put in particularly long hours over a period of several weeks to create a radically improved version of a major product. The team succeeded in bringing out the product on time and in budget, and it garnered promising market response. But management acted as if everything were business as usual, providing no recognition or reward to the team. A couple of months later, when we visited the team to report the results of our study, we learned that the team leader had just accepted a job from a smaller competitor. He con? ded that although he felt that the opportunities for advancement and ultimate visibility may have been greater at National, he believed his work and his ideas would be valued more highly somewhere else. And ? nally, the managers at National allowed political problems to fester. Consider the time a National team came up with a great idea to save money in manufacturing a new product- which was especially urgent because a competitor had just come out with a similar product at a lower price. The plan was nixed. As a matter of â€Å"policy†- a code word for long-held allegiances and rivalries within the company- the manufacturing division wouldn’t allow it. One team member commented, â€Å"If facts and ? gures instead of politics reigned supreme, this would be a no-brainer. There are no de? able cost savings from running the products where they do, and there is no counterproposal on how to save the money another way. It’s just ‘No! ’ because this is the way they want it. † Great Rewards and Risks The important lesson of the National and Chemical Central stories is that fostering creativity is in the hands of managers as they harvard business revie w september–october 1998 page 10 How to Kill Creativity Fostering creativity often requires that managers radically change how they build and interact with work groups. think about, design, and establish the work environment. Creativity often requires that managers radically change the ways in which they build and interact with work groups. In many respects, it calls for a conscious culture change. But it can be done, and the rewards can be great. The risks of not doing so may be even greater. When creativity is killed, an organization loses a potent competitive weapon: new ideas. It can also lose the energy and commitment of its people. Indeed, in all my years of research into creativity, perhaps the most dif? cult part has been hearing people complain that they feel sti? d, frustrated, and shut down by their organizations. As one team member at National told us, â€Å"By the time I get home every day, I feel physically, emotionally, and intellectually drained. Help! † Even if organizations seemed trapped in organizational ecosystems that kill creativity- as in the case of National Houseware Products- it is still possible to effect widespread change. Consider a recent transformation at Procter G amble. Once a hotbed of creativity, PG had in recent years seen the number of its product innovations decline signi? cantly. In response, the company established Corporate New Ventures (CNV), a small cross-functional team that embodies many of the creativity-enhancing practices described in this article. In terms of challenge, for instance, members of the CNV team were allowed to elect themselves. How better to make sure someone is intrinsically motivated for an assignment than to ask for volunteers? Building a team from volunteers, it should be noted, was a major departure from standard PG procedures. Members of the CNV team also were given a clear, challenging strategic goal: to invent radical new roducts that would build the company’s future. Again departing from typical PG practices, the team was given enormous latitude around how, when, and where they approached their work. The list of how CNV broke with PG’s creativity-killing practices is a long one. On nearly every creativity-support dimension in the KEYS work-environment survey, CNV scored higher than national norms and higher than t he pre-CNV environment at PG. But more important than the particulars is the question: Has the changed environment resulted in more creative work? Undeniably so, and the evidence is convincing. In the three years since its inception, CNV has handed off 11 projects to the business sectors for execution. And as of early 1998, those products were beginning to ? ow out of the pipeline. The ?rst product, designed to provide portable heat for several hours’ relief of minor pain, was already in test marketing. And six other products were slated to go to test market within a year. Not surprisingly, given CNV’s success, PG is beginning to expand both the size and the scope of its CNV venture. Even if you believe that your organization fosters creativity, take a hard look for creativity killers. Some of them may be ? urishing in a dark corner- or even in the light. But rooting out creativity-killing behaviors isn’t enough. You have to make a conscious effort to support creativity. The result can be a truly innovative company where creativity doesn’t just survive but actually thrives. Reprint 98501 To order, see the next page or call 800-988-0886 or 617-783 -7500 or go to www. hbrreprints. org harvard business review september–october 1998 page 11 How to Kill Creativity Further Reading ARTICLES One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? by Frederick Herzberg Harvard Business Review September–October 1987 Product no. 88X Originally published in the January–February 1968 issue of HBR, this classic article offers enduring insights into the psychology of motivation, providing further explanation for why intrinsic motivation is more powerful than extrinsic. In common-sense, often humorous terms, Herzberg explores myths of motivation, outlines steps for job enrichment, and discusses the merits of various forms of the KITA (â€Å"kick in the ass†). This article includes an update by the author. Job Sculpting: The Art of Retaining Your Best People by Timothy Butler and James Waldroop Harvard Business Review September–October 1999 Product no. 282 Butler and Waldroop demonstrate how intrinsic motivation can help companies address one of the thorniest problems in today’s economy: retaining top talent. Many managers are dangerously unfamiliar with the psychology of work satisfaction, which holds that employees are the most engaged when their responsibilities coincide with their â€Å"deeply embedded life interests. † These interests- the authors identify eight- don’t determine what people are good at; they drive the activities that make people happy. Once an employee’s life interests are known, manager and employee can customize work responsibilities through job sculpting- matching the employee to a job that allows her deeply embedded life interests to be expressed. BOOK Harvard Business Review on Breakthrough Thinking Harvard Business School Press 1999 Product no. 181X Amabile’s â€Å"How to Kill Creativity† is one of the eight articles in this collection. Other topics explored include identifying customer needs that customers themselves have not yet recognized, promoting new understanding of the competitive environment, and fostering innovation. Another article, â€Å"A Film Director’s Approach to Managing Creativity,† is an account of the filming of Night Moves. It describes how director Arthur Penn successfully managed stress, conflict, motivation, and other elements familiar to businesses. To Order For Harvard Business Review reprints and subscriptions, call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500. Go to www. hbrreprints. org For customized and quantity orders of Harvard Business Review article reprints, call 617-783-7626, or e-mai [emailprotected] harvard. edu page 12

The Purpose of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Essay

The Purpose of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) - Essay Example The object of analysis for the purpose of this assignment is alternative dispute resolution (ADR) as any means of settling disputes apart from by means of a lawsuit. Alternatively, ADR is the finding a workable solution to a conflict outside the courtrooms. In many public courts, a request may be submitted to review the validity of ADR methods, but time and again, the court would hardly overturn the ADR decisions and awards if the disputing parties opted for the formation of a valid contract by which to abide. There are two major forms of ADR, namely arbitration, and mediation. Typically, Tansley observed that ADR comprises of early neutral evaluation, negotiation, conciliation, mediation, and arbitration. Owing to the burgeoning court queues, and the increased fees for litigation as well as time delays that have plagued litigants for many years, more national states have opted for ADR programs to solve disputes. Albeit scholars have noted that there are two main forms of ADR, negoti ation has been a most outstanding mode of dispute resolution approach that has gained great popularity. Negation as a means of dispute resolution allows the parties involved to meet within their own conveniences so as to settle the dispute between them. As such this approach provides an excellent platform where both the involved parties are in control of the whole process and the ultimate solution. Notably, Mediation is another sort of an informal alternative to litigation. Nicol observed that most often the mediators are also well-trained negotiators and can bring two opposing parties together. As negotiators, mediators attempt to work out a strategic settlement or agreement approach that is/ are somehow acceptable to both parties. In mediation, the one who always takes the lead in the process, the mediator in most cases do not decide on behalf of the parties neither does he/she decides the dispute. However, the mediator’s sole role in the process is always to aid the partie s involved in the dispute communicate as they try to settle the dispute themselves. In other words, the mediation process leaves the control of the outcome with the parties involved in the dispute.

Mafia politics in italy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mafia politics in italy - Essay Example They manage to control entire markets and take a cut of every part of the operation. They buy off police officers, prosecutors, and judges, and continue to leach from the economy. As one boss once described Mafia operations in Sicily: â€Å"Mafia organizations entirely control the building sector in Palermo – the quarries where aggregates are mined, site clearance firms, cement plants, metal depots for the construction industry, wholesalers for sanitary fixtures, and so on.†3 Often, in order to generate the maximum amount of revenues, the mafia will use â€Å"fronts organizations†Ã¢â‚¬â€legitimate business ventures that are developed in order to hide illegal activities.4 It is not hard to see, based on this information, why the mafia must be rooted out and destroyed. They undermine the rule of law. We need politicians who are strong enough to stand up to these people who are willing to do anything and buy anyone in order to stay in power. They must be stopped. I n some countries, the problem of the mafia is taken very seriously. In the United States, the Kefauver Committee in the 1950s travelled around the country and sought to inform citizens about the numerous problems caused by the mafia and by mafia politics.5 Actions in the U.S.

Why did the Native Americans failed to unify against the Europeans Research Paper

Why did the Native Americans failed to unify against the Europeans during the 1800's - Research Paper Example They arrived from where we now call Alaska2. Their culture was substantially different from the Europeans that arrived and later colonized the Americas and the differences led to much tension and conflict between the two races. By the 1800s a short time after the revolutionary war the colonists were beginning to push heavily west, encroaching on Native American land in an aggressive manner, causing heavy casualties in the already decimated population and forcing relocation on many Native Americans from their native lands to reservations as well as the enforcement of the colonists ideas and ideals on the natives3. One question that can be asked of this is why did the Native Americans not band together and fight back against their oppressors? The answers to this question are varied and complex and will be addressed in the following sections. The first is as a consequence of the culture and dispersed nature of the race. In addition, they paid a heavy price for any rebellion against the Europeans demands, and by this point in time the Native American population was already heavily decimated. ... The arrival of Columbus to the Americas, or as he identified them, the Indies, introduced a new form of culture and values into the area. As a race the Native Americans had a substantially different culture than the Europeans. Native Americans focused on the community as a whole, there was no ownership of property or possessions, rather these were shared among the tribe in order to meet needs6. Culture and history was largely passed on through oral tradition which involved the telling and re-telling of stories and lessons rather than writing, and as a consequence few documents remain from the race. In contrast, European culture centered on money, private property and individual ownership. The Native Americans were not one uniform race as the Europeans generally viewed them as. Instead they consisted of many distinct tribes and villages, although aware of each other’s presence, there was little interaction between them except during war. Tribes living on the plains were nomadic in nature, moving frequently in order to follow their sources of good. In contrast, Native Americans in the Southwest lived in brick villages and depending on farming as a food source7. Native American religion was not clearly defined, but there was a strong concept of a Great Sprit which provided for everyone and to whom every individual needed to show respect. This was in contrast to the European culture which held faith in a single God. Europeans were aggressive in nature and towards the religion too. They believed that it was their duty to convert the natives into Catholicism or Protestantism8. Both the Natives and the Europeans had completely different social structures as

Coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Coursework - Essay Example The harshest reaction is a condition called coelliac disease. Some other forms of reactions include non-coelliac gluten sensitivity, gluten intolerance or gluten sensitivity. Persons with coelliac disease and gluten sensitivity feel improvement when they pursue a gluten free diet. This Genius Gluten Free advert has presented this entire idea in a simple, attractive and tempting way, which has the potential to grab its target consumer within an instant. Meaning of the Advert Genius Foods has launched what it promises to be the first TV advert for a gluten free bakery brand in the United Kingdom. The theme of the advert offers a wholesome and tasty option for those looking for a gluten free diet. It has been presented with a quite homely touch, particularly with a mother expressing her delight in the product. The layout is attractive and appealing as consumers would love to try the product. The line at the bottom is convincing and drives the consumer to know more about gluten free prod ucts and related benefits and eventually end up in buying the brand. It is a very strong motivator for the consumers to try the brand after realising the importance of instilling gluten free products in their daily diet. The slogan ‘Surprise! I bake you a cake’, as pictured in the ad, is expressing a simple gluten free seeded loaf to be as tasty and tempting as a cake. There is a mother standing beside with a cake, and surprised expressions tell the audience about the goodness of the Genius Gluten Free brand, which is not only delicious but also wholesome (Locker & Kienzler 2009). Denotative and Connotative Meaning Genius Gluten Free bread offers full sized slices that are ideal for sandwiches. It has been created for people who rely on a gluten free lifestyle and can enjoy a pleasant tasting gluten free bread option. The advert has been expressed through a perception of a common consumer who lives on a gluten free diet and looks forward to having a daily diet free from gluten but does not want to compromise taste. This bread brand has delivered its message successfully to its target market, which is a common health conscious consumer. The meaning of a mother with a cake captures the common household attention to buy a better option of daily bakery requirements with a much better taste in comparison to other gluten free products available in the product (Martin & Chaney 2012). The advert also emphasises the fact that there are some people who wish to switch their diet to a gluten free one but are hesitant to bear the unpleasant taste it might offer. For these types of people, the Genius Gluten Free has offered a complete healthy solution with supreme taste and health at the same time. Moreover, a strong aspect in the advert is the information it is offering to its consumers to check further knowledge about the gluten free products through a website link provided (Mead & Andrews 2009). This enables the consumers, especially the dubious ones, to lea rn more about the special diet option, and what benefits a gluten free diet can offer them if they incorporate it in their daily diet plan. The complete advert is aimed to target its market with a convincing idea simple enough to understand and attractive enough to buy the brand. Most importantly, the advert is capable of retaining in the minds of those who watch it, which becomes a great factor in making an actual purchase by the consumer. Cultural Aspect and Consumer Accessibility The Genius Gluten F

Economic history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Economic history - Essay Example setting up policies like maximizing the use of domestic resources, limiting wages, export subsidies, all aimed at accumulating monetary reserves (Brue & Randy 42). David Hume disagreed with mercantilism on their trade restrictions by stressing that trade restrictions are restriction of innovation, and so these opened avenues for uniform market competition. Physiocrats stressed the importance of agriculture in the economy; he proposed that agriculture is a vital organ in the development of any economy. He suggested an economic environment free of government restrictions when it comes to transactions between two private parties; the only regulations he proposed are those that protects property rights. Since individuals have a natural right to freedom, it should be understood that nature is a self-regulating system and harmonious so human control should never be factored in. Adam smith proposed the idea of artificial stimulation of manufacturing and trade; he made it clear that real wealth of a country not only consist of gold and silver, but also in its houses, lands and consumable goods of all different kinds (Brue & Randy 45). He fueled foreign trade by recognizing that it could explore the overseas markets and largely promote development of production capabilities of the nation and consequently lead to a rise in real wealth owned by a country. He also contributed to the idea of a free market by proposing to the government to reduce and abandon control over foreign trade, and he suggested for the implementation of free trade policies. David Ricardo shed light on the importance of agriculture, by analyzing the importance of diminishing returns. He postulated that a utility is mandatory for exchange values, but does not determine it. He promoted extreme industrial specialization by proposing that a nation should put more efforts on industries in which it is more internationally competitive. Ricardo suggested trade with other countries to obtain goods not produced

Coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Coursework - Essay Example The harshest reaction is a condition called coelliac disease. Some other forms of reactions include non-coelliac gluten sensitivity, gluten intolerance or gluten sensitivity. Persons with coelliac disease and gluten sensitivity feel improvement when they pursue a gluten free diet. This Genius Gluten Free advert has presented this entire idea in a simple, attractive and tempting way, which has the potential to grab its target consumer within an instant. Meaning of the Advert Genius Foods has launched what it promises to be the first TV advert for a gluten free bakery brand in the United Kingdom. The theme of the advert offers a wholesome and tasty option for those looking for a gluten free diet. It has been presented with a quite homely touch, particularly with a mother expressing her delight in the product. The layout is attractive and appealing as consumers would love to try the product. The line at the bottom is convincing and drives the consumer to know more about gluten free prod ucts and related benefits and eventually end up in buying the brand. It is a very strong motivator for the consumers to try the brand after realising the importance of instilling gluten free products in their daily diet. The slogan ‘Surprise! I bake you a cake’, as pictured in the ad, is expressing a simple gluten free seeded loaf to be as tasty and tempting as a cake. There is a mother standing beside with a cake, and surprised expressions tell the audience about the goodness of the Genius Gluten Free brand, which is not only delicious but also wholesome (Locker & Kienzler 2009). Denotative and Connotative Meaning Genius Gluten Free bread offers full sized slices that are ideal for sandwiches. It has been created for people who rely on a gluten free lifestyle and can enjoy a pleasant tasting gluten free bread option. The advert has been expressed through a perception of a common consumer who lives on a gluten free diet and looks forward to having a daily diet free from gluten but does not want to compromise taste. This bread brand has delivered its message successfully to its target market, which is a common health conscious consumer. The meaning of a mother with a cake captures the common household attention to buy a better option of daily bakery requirements with a much better taste in comparison to other gluten free products available in the product (Martin & Chaney 2012). The advert also emphasises the fact that there are some people who wish to switch their diet to a gluten free one but are hesitant to bear the unpleasant taste it might offer. For these types of people, the Genius Gluten Free has offered a complete healthy solution with supreme taste and health at the same time. Moreover, a strong aspect in the advert is the information it is offering to its consumers to check further knowledge about the gluten free products through a website link provided (Mead & Andrews 2009). This enables the consumers, especially the dubious ones, to lea rn more about the special diet option, and what benefits a gluten free diet can offer them if they incorporate it in their daily diet plan. The complete advert is aimed to target its market with a convincing idea simple enough to understand and attractive enough to buy the brand. Most importantly, the advert is capable of retaining in the minds of those who watch it, which becomes a great factor in making an actual purchase by the consumer. Cultural Aspect and Consumer Accessibility The Genius Gluten F

The International monetary and finance structure Essay

The International monetary and finance structure - Essay Example The appreciation of the Euro can be attributed to increasing trade surpluses in the Eurozone countries for the past years and the low rates of inflation in the Eurozone countries. For the past years, countries in the Eurozone such as France, Germany and the other seventeen countries have experienced an increase in the amounts of exports compared to imports than other countries. For instance, in 2013, the Euro Zone exports accounted for about 13.2% of GDP while import stood at 12.6% leading to a 2.7 current accounts deficit (De La Dehesa 4). On the other hand, during the same year, U.S. exports accounted for about 13.5% of GDP while imports stood at 16.2% leading to a 2.7 current accounts deficit (4). For this reason, the Euro has been gaining strength especially in the last six years due to better current accounts compared to the U.S. Conversely, the move by the European Central Bank (ECB) to wipe out about â‚ ¬1 trillion two years out of the economy of the Eurozone in a move to withdraw loans taken by banks during the debt crisis is another significant factor that has led to a higher appreciation of the Euro relative to other world currencies (De Grauwe and Paulson). In addition, De La Dehesa argues that short-term rates in the U.S. react mainly to trends in the U.S.’s equity markets. He goes ahead to say that, for this reason, short-term interest rates have a higher impact on exchange rates in the Euro area unlike in the U.S. For instance, from a historical perspective a rise of 100 basis points in U.S. short-term interest rates leads to an appreciation of the dollar by 1.7% compared to 5.7% in the Euro area (De La Dehesa 4). For this reason, De La Dehesa conclude that the Eurozone economy is more open than the U.S. economy. The Yuan has been appreciating in recent past due to the massive growth of the Chinese economy. China has grown to become the second-largest

Mongol Brutality Essay Example for Free

Mongol Brutality Essay Although the Christian and Muslim warriors were of extreme cruelty, the Mongols brutality and carelessness was far greater because of their battle tactics, physiological warfare, and weaponry. These ‘barbarians’ captured a surplus amount of land in a stunning amount of time with questionable war tactics. Despite the brutality of the Mongols, Christian and Muslin warriors began to become more and more merciless. All three of these groups of warriors prove to be dangerous and cruel, but the Mongols seem to have the perfect mix of terror and destruction to make them the most brutal. The Mongols warfare tactics, although quite cruel, proved effective. When the Mongols wanted a village or town to expand their empire, they attacked with full force. The devastating thing about these attacks though, was the ‘no mercy’ kind of mindset they showed. These warriors were known to kill everything to get what they wanted, men, women, and children alike. The Muslim and Christian warriors were thought to have slaughtered whole towns before, but unlike the Mongols, it was not a tactic they were known for. The Mongol people were feared everywhere they went as word spread about these ruthless attacks. The fear these warriors inflicted on some people was enough to surrender attacks and turn over cities before a battle even began. Although whenever the Muslim or Christian warriors approached a battle, it was fought. This proves just how cruel yet skilled these Mongol warriors must have been. However, in most cases, just surrendering seemed to be the better idea, because in the case you didn’t, your city may have been looted and burned with all your people slaughtered. The Mongols success and expansion is largely due not only to their war tactics but also to their advanced weaponry. The Mongols were expert horsemen and masters of the bow and arrow, therefore adding to their success. These warriors used special ‘long bowsâ€℠¢ to have more powerful and precise a weapon; they also used horses to charge into villages and slaughter those inside. Worst of all, the Mongols were thought to have catapulted dead bodies infected with the plague over city walls to kill all of the residents through biological warfare. The Christian and Muslim warriors, although with good weapons, could not match the expertise, power, and experience the Mongols had with their weapons. Their weaponry was simply more advanced and powerful adding to the brutality of these cruel Mongols. The Mongols were extremely powerful warriors, with disturbingly merciless attacks. These warriors’ slaughtered entire towns,  looted cities, and then burned them to the ground. The Christian and Muslim ways of warfare could in some aspects be similar to that of the Mongols, but not nearly to the extent of the Mongols. These warriors who made cities surrender before an attack even began and who had advanced weaponry matched with expert and experienced weapon holders were practically unstoppable. These cruel slaughtering’s, feared attacks, and powerful weap ons used with no mercy outweigh any opposition in the argument of why the Mongols were more brutal than Christian and Muslim warriors.