Strategic HRM Plan Essay Example for Free

Strategic HRM Plan Essay â€Å"Starbucks is the premier roaster and retailer of specialty coffee in the world and has become a truly global brand† (Starbucks Coffee Company, 2011, p. 3). The strategic Human Recourses Management (HRM) plan will cover cultural HR issues, emerging HR issues, and a chart showing a five-year plan. Cultural training, cafà © culture, and culture of service are the three cultural HR issues that will be covered. Cultural training will cover the need for training with diversity for different markets. Cafà © culture is about the â€Å"values and respect diversity and inclusion† of Starbucks. This area is an issue in other countries while in the United States is doing well. The issue of culture of service deals with providing service to customers, but also to employees by way means of benefits. The emerging HR issues that will be covered are employee tuition assistance, evening sales to include alcohol, and customer complaints. Recently Starbucks has provided a new tuition assistance program; this program will be reviewed because of the age of the program it falls under emerging HR issues. The issue with Starbucks going to evening sales to include alcohol requires special licensing and age requirements for employees selling. The final emerging issue is with customer complaints; HR should find a way to review and take action against complaints. The chart will provide a description of the values, mission, and vision of the company and what they mean for the next five years. The table will also tie into how the emerging issues should be handled in the five years. Addressing the cultural and emerging issues will help Starbucks advance as a company and produce outstanding employees that will exceed the expectations of the company. â€Å"Standards will help ensure that our values continue to be reflected in each Starbucks store and business activity. A commitment to integrity, acting honestly and ethically, and complying with the letter and intent of the law are critical to our continued success† (Starbucks Coffee Company, 2011, p. 3). Strategic HRM Plan Cultural Issues Starbucks continues to grow and expand globally. As the company is doing so, it also sees some cultural human resource (HR) issues arise. These cultural HR issues include cultural training, cafà © culture, and culture of service. It is natural for a company to see and experience such issues when expanding into different regions. The human resources department will examine how these issues and cultural considerations affect the division and the strategic plans. As Starbucks grows and expands into new regions, the company is learning that to be successful in other culture they must provide cultural training. This cultural training is part of the company’s strategic plans. As part of the training and development program there is a cultural training for the store front employees, management, upper management, HR, and global communities. This training teaches the employees on how to interact with different cultures. It also teaches the employees of appropriate ways to interact wit h each other so that there is no discrimination. â€Å"To help make our goals become reality, we have integrated diversity and inclusion into the core of our leadership competencies. The goals of the Diversity and Inclusion team include building a diverse workforce, increasing cultural competencies, shaping a culture of inclusion and developing a diverse network of suppliers† (Starbucks, 2014). This consideration affects the company and their strategic plans because it is a continual topic of conversation as the company grows, expands, and new laws come into practice. This conversation then needs to into training and development programs for employees, as well as adding new policy changes and procedures. Starbuck’s employee cultural training also leads into their cafà © cultural training. The Cafà © culture in the United States is spot on. However, the cafà © culture in other countries is not doing so well and has led to the downturn in business. â€Å"I never go into Starbucks; it’s impersonal, the coffee is mediocre, and it’s expensive,’ Ms. Bayod, a 35-year-old masseuse, said as a waiter greeted her by name and quickly bro ught her usual espresso. ‘For us, it’s like another planet.’ Nearly a decade after venturing into Europe, Starbucks is still laboring to lure people like her. Despite engineering a strong turnaround in the United States and growing steadily in Asia, where Starbucks is still a novelty, the  company has struggled here on the Continent that gave birth to cafe and coffeehouse culture† (Alderman, 2012). Due to this issue Starbucks is now embarking on spending over a million dollars to make-over the European locations to be more up-scale and to win over the European coffee drinkers. The organization has also adjusted the blends and beverages to suit the European palate. This has forced Starbucks to realign strategically the European market to meet customer’s wants and needs. Starbucks has continued to realign the culture of its brand image in this region and continues to add new ideas, training, and beverages for the employees in this region. To maintain its high level of customer service Starbucks has started a culture of service initiative for its employees. The organization is committed to providing â€Å"legendary service† to their customers. To do so the company has gone the route of the employee-centered approach. The employee-centered approach includes providing health benefits, tuition benefits, and stock options to even their part-time employees. The guiding principle behind this move is to motivate their employees. The company feels that by motivating their employees they are creating happy, loyal, motivated employees who in turn will be the driving force to their â€Å"legendary service.† Emerging issues Emerging issues provide areas for improvement for Starbucks. Tuition assistance, selling alcohol, and customer complaints are three current emerging issues Starbucks faces. These issues will be discussed based on the issue and how it can be improved. There are around 54 percent of all companies who offer some form of educational reimbursement to their employees (Kurtgleben, 2014). Starbucks announced they would offer partial tuition of about $6,500 for their employees for the first two years of full-time online students at Arizona State University (ASU) Online. Starbucks College Achievement Plan (SCAP) will replace an older plan that was not as generous but was more flexible (Pyke, 2014). The new plan states that any Starbucks employee that works 20 hours a week or more will be able to have their tuition reimbursed beyond what federal financial aid and ASU covers for juniors and seniors (Pyke, 2014). Some critics of the SCAP say that it may not be a real improvement for the 20,000 wo rkers that the school plans to enroll. The old system required that the students take courses that were beneficial towards their jobs at Starbucks. The new system lets the  employees take any of the degrees, of which there are 40, and it does not have to relate to their jobs at Starbucks. The old system only paid $500-$1,000 per calendar year and that depended on the employees’ tenure. The employees could enroll in any accredited college, not just ACU under the old system. The employees could also attend in-person classes which some critics say are important for low-income workers to succeed in their education, (Pyke, 2014). According to Pyke, Starbuck’s plan compares unfavorably with other tuition assistance plans American companies offer. Sara Goldrich-Rab, professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found Starbucks new system ‘incredibly problematic’ because they limit its tuition assistance to one university online (Pyke, 2014). The emerging issues for Human Resource on this tuition system would be, is it good that Starbucks only lets the employees enroll in only online degrees with only ACU? Will the new system work well with the low-income employees only being able to take the online degrees instead of in-person classes? Starbucks should go through with their plans of having other universities available for their employees to enroll in and offer in-person classes as well as online classes. Starbucks has expanded its sells to Starbucks evening. Starbucks has been testing the sale of alcohol in their stores after four PM, with a menu that includes light snacks. The benefits to Starbucks are an increase in sales when coffee sales are slow, (Dooley, 2014). However, with these sales come the issues of licensing requirements that are different in every state, possible customer resistance because it is not a family-friendly product, new staff training requirements, and the last, product contagion. There are some people that think that products can transfer their characteristics to each other if they are placed side by side, (Dooley, 2014). So in their way of thinking if Starbucks sells alcohol and it sits next to a non-alcohol product it will be tainted with alcohol. To help keep the contagion issue down Starbucks can separate the alcohol from the non-alcohol products and put the alcohol products into their own coolers, in different parts of the room. There is a page on the Consumer Affairs website where people can go to complain about companies and so forth. There are numerous complaints about Starbucks employees. According to Consumer Affairs Starbucks does not monitor their website so that the issues can be resolved. Human Resources should monitor  these complaints and try to resolve them in some way. In the future if nothing is done someone will bring suit and it might be costly for Starbucks. Human Resource Management should make sure that these employees treat customer s the way they should be treated by retraining and if the bad treatment continues disciplinary actions should be taken. Five year plan chart Starbucks has become well-known ever since the company’s establishment in 1971. Because of Starbucks’ many years of success, the company has now grown throughout the world. For the next five years, Starbucks will develop a strategic plan from the completion of the HRM analysis. Reward programs, training, and job design are the HRM involvements that will assist Starbucks to overcome the issues found from the analysis in order to meet the strategic objectives. The first year of the strategic plan will include the placement of processes along with forming two committees. One committee will take care of the three cultural HR issues the other committee will handle the three emerging HR issues. Years two through five will include continuous monitoring and fact finding through internal and external surveying. Each committee will observe these surveys to where adjustment can be made in a timely matter. The recommendation will be that each committee will meet weekly in the first year of the plan, which could later change to monthly and then quarterly. During this time, any modifications within the process will take place based on the information gathering. The chart below offers the five-year strategic plan, which the company believes needs to be taken in consideration in order to obtain internal and external growth, employee fulfillment, and in meeting up to customer expectations. Starbucks Coffee 2014 – 2019 Strategic Plan Values â€Å"Starbucks reputation for the finest coffee in the world, legendary customer service and the highest integrity is the direct result of our collective efforts† (Starbucks Coffee Company, 2011, p. 3). Mission â€Å"To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time† (Starbucks Coffee Company, 2011, p. 3). Vision Continue in being â€Å"the premier roaster and retailer of specialty coffee† (Starbucks Coffee Company, 2011, p. 4). Cultural/ Emerging Issues Internal/ External Analysis Review Findings Strategic Formulation Strategy Implementation Review and Adjust Cultural Training Cafà © Culture Culture of Service Education Reimbursement Sale of Alcohol Employee Complains Two separate committees will divide into teams. A SWOT analysis will be conducted based on customers, competitors, and industry analysis. The external analysis will examine Starbucks opportunities and threats. The internal will look at the strengths and weaknesses. The two committees, department heads, and stakeholders are involved within a group. Reviewing cultural and emerging issues. Reviewing and adjusting the internal and external findings from the SWOT analysis to then create a strategic formulation. The two teams will define strategies from the findings from the SWOT. Starbucks can create a plan for all issues at all levels within the company creating an outline of what should be done. A description of the steps or processes per issue will provide in accomplishing each objective. Over-all communication and monitoring are important in achieving goals. A timeline will offer when the action plan is to be accomplished. Necessary changes will be made swiftly for the company, employees, and customers. The team will ensure that continuous monitoring within the agreed strategic objectives and aim to start on a monthly basis. Ensuring consistency with Starbucks values, mission, and vision. References Alderman, Liz, 2012, In Europe Starbucks Adjusts Cafà © Culture, Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/business/starbucks-tailors-its-experience-to-fit-to-european-tastes.html?pagewanted=all_r=0 Consumer Affairs. Retrieved from: www.consumeraffairs.com/food/starbucks.html Dooley, Roger, 2014. Will Starbucks Alcohol ‘Infect’ Other Products. Retrieved from: www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2014/04/09/starbucks-alcohol/ http://www.cerdian.com/resources/blogs/human-resources-legislation-blog/starbucks-cap-reinventing-education-assistance.html Pyke, Alan, 2014. Thinkprogress. Critics warn Starbucks Employees To Read Fine Print of New

Case Study the Kader Toy Factory Fire

Case Study the Kader Toy Factory Fire GROUP MEMBERS : SHAIKH MOHD AIMAN BIN SEFF AHMAD MUHAMMAD SUHAIL BIN MOHD ISA   MUHAMMAD ABDUL FATAH BIN ABDULLAH   MOHAMAD ZHAFRI BIN ZAILAINI MUHAMMAD ARIF BIN MUSA Case study the Kader toy factory fire Kader toy factory which located near Bangkok, Thailand was a fire on 10 May 1993. It can be considered the worst-ever factory fire in history. There were 188 workers died and 469 others who were injured. Most of them were young female workers and from rural area. The factory was owned by a Thai transnational corporation, Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group and one of Asia’s largest agribusiness firms. The Kader toy factory used to manufacture stuffed toys and plastics dolls mainly planned for export to the United States and other counties. There were produced forDisney,Matteland others. The site that owned and operated by Kader has been destroyed in the blaze of fire. Kader has another two sister companies that on a contract that operated at that location. PART A There were several factors that lead to this fire. Firstly, the factory was designed and built poorly. Fire exits drawn in the map or building plans were not exists; in fact not constructed, and the existing exit doors were locked. Furthermore, the building was strengthened with un-insulated steel girders which rapidly lessened and crumbled when heated by the flames. The malfunctions of fire alarms were the other factors that lead to the fire. There were four buildings on the Kader site, three of which were destroyed by the fire. The three buildings were designed a single E-shaped structure (see figure 1). Close at hand were a one-storey workshop and another four-storey structure pointed to as Building Four. Three buildings which involved in these incident Fire alarms in Buildings Two and Three had sounded and all the workers from these buildings were able to escape. Unfortunately, for Building One, the fire alarm did not sound. This part of the building was wholly committed to the storage of finished products and the fire spread quickly. The other factories were full of raw materials which also burned very quick. The fire spread extremely quickly when the Firefighters arrived at the factory, and found Building One nearly ready to collapse because of the occurrence of the combustible plastics and fabrics. Next, although each building at the plant was provided with a fire alarm system, none of the buildings had automatic sprinklers. The portable extinguishers and hose stations were installed on outside walls and in the stairwells of each building but none of the structural steel in the building were fireproofed.In addition, Kader factory did not provide its workers with decent fire safety training and the rigid security procedures. Fire drills and fire safety training were also minimal. Figure 1.Site plan of the Kader toy factory In Thailand, the Kader fire incident made a great deal for the country’s fire safety measures, especially its building code design requirements and enforcement policies. Thai Prime Minister, Minister Chuan Leekpai has made a tough action for those who violate the safety laws regarding the fire safety issues. According to theWall Street Journal(1993), Thai Industry Minister Sanan Kachornprasart is quoted that saying that â€Å"Those factories without fire prevention systems will be ordered to install one, or we will shut them down†. The leaders, safety expert and officials said that this incident would help fasten building codes and safety regulations but unfortunately, that lasting progress is still far off as employers scoff rules and governments permit economic growth to take priority over worker safety. The fire has also attracted international debate about foreign investors’ obligation for ensuring the safety of the workers in their sponsoring country because foreign interests owned majority of the shares of Kader Industrial (Thailand) Co. Ltd. 79.96% of the Kader shareholders are from Hong Kong, 20% are from Taiwan, and only 0.04% of Kader is owned by Thai nationals. A tragic industrial fire in Thailand the Kader Toy Factory fire was a fire on 10 May 1993 located in the NakhonPathom Province of Thailand. It can be considered the most focused worldwide industrial factory fire in history where officially 188 workers were killed, and over 500 were seriously injured, many seriously and also permanently. To avoid being burnt to death, they were forced to leap from second, third and fourth floors of the buildings. Most of the victims were young female workers from rural families. Moreover, this disaster was assumed as worst accidental that related to the loss of life fire in industry in history of Thailand. In addition, many of the articles was pointed due to the underlying the world changes capitalist economy that causes such a tragedy accident ever. As we all know, the previous worst industrial fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York in 1911. Despite the years between these two disasters, they share striking similarities. In order to take the advantages of newest area of low cost labour, the company such as Kader Holding needs or should replace their operation regularly. As the result the Kader factory outside Bangkok was never intended to be a permanent structure just a temporary structure only as an instance the cheap shoddy buildings, which detected failed to achieve even the minimal Thai construction requirements, were simply packed to overflowing with workers and with their machines. Vitality safety precautions were deemed not necessary overheads. A decade later, the condition that Thailand’s workers and other Asian countries have significantly worst. Moving into a global economy connote that products are manufactured at specific location and used at other locations end-to-end the world.Having a temptation for competitiveness in this new market should not head to settle by concession in fundamental industrial fire safety provisions. There is a moral responsibility to provide workers with a sufficient level of fire protection, no matter where they are located. PART C Three proposals can improve factory safety: 1) the government need to create an independent occupational safety and health (OSH) group with regulatory powers because the government cannot generate enough money to allow civil servants to enforce OSH laws, it is doubtful that an independent group could finance itself, because it would have to be enormous, and consequently cost a fortune, to inspect all the factories concerned. Furthermore in 2000 more than two thirds of Thailand’s factories employed less than 10 workers, who are not legally protected by the Workmen’s Compensation Fund. It is unlikely that OSH standards in these factories could be policed by an outside group. 2) Increase trade union involvement in education and participation unfortunately it is improbable that campaigns by existing trade unions could effectively improve OSH accident or incident rates, since only three percent of workers in Thailand are organised into unions – the prevalence of factories with less than 10 workers as already noted, is a huge obstacle to serious improvement in the rate of worker organisation. 3) the company should Reform the OSH laws, the proposal to reform OSH laws misses the point. In both the Triangle Shirtwaist factory disaster and in the Kader fire, death tolls were so high because the buildings were illegally built or illegally operated or both. Had the laws been followed in 1911 New York and 1993 Bangkok, the fires would not have broken out in the first place, and in the case of Kader, the building would not have collapsed before the workers had escaped. These ideas are valuable components of an OSH system, but the only effective solution is for companies and governments to tackle OSH by letting workers control their own safety. Instead of repressing independent democratic trade unions, they must instead discourage the small companies that are often sweat shops, and alternatively advocate worker participation in democratic trade unions that represent all workers, and allow workers to inspect and bargain working conditions with employers. PART D References

Relationship Between Lennie And George Essay

Relationship Between Lennie And George Essay Analysing the relationship between George and Lennie in Steinbecks Of Mice and Men In the opening section of the novella, Steinbeck wishes to portray the relationship between George and Lennie as leader and follower. Steinbeck highlights that they walked in single file down the narrow path and when they came into the open, one stayed behind the other; which immediately indicates that George is dominant in this relationship, therefore Lennie is somewhat irresponsible, dependent and incapable of looking after himself. This image illustrates that George acts as a parental figure and Lennie is similar to a shy child hiding behind a father. Furthermore, in Chapter 2 this idea is developed when George also carries Lennies work card, knowing that Lennie would lose it if he was responsible for it Think Id let you carry your own work card?. This quote shows how George acts as a parental figure for Lennie; George must look after Lennies important possessions, as George knows that he will just lose them because of his simple-mindedness. The rhetorical question also shows Geor ges frustration with Lennies small mental capacity as he is always creating problems. Also, when we are first introduced to Lennie and George, the main physical differences between them are highlighted. Lennie is huge, shapeless of face and often dehumanized to be that of a bear. However, George on the other hand, is small, quick and thin with, restless eyes and slender arms. This description is a form of juxtaposition, as the two characters contrast in appearance. It would form an image in the readers minds of two characters that differ greatly, and could supposedly be the opposite of one another. I think the authors intentions of using of this language technique, would be to make a point of their differences and suggest that their personalities also greatly contradict each other. So this makes us read on to find out why we find these two opposing characters together in the story. Throughout the passage, Lennie is referred to as a bear, and a huge companion with dragging feet. This creates an image in the readers mind of a man who is giant-like in size and is supposedly clumsy and uncoordinated. The authors use of the animal Bear to compare Lennie to, symbolizes that he can be the dangerous, strong bear, or the cuddly teddy bear. It indicates that whilst Lennie is a big and strong man, he is also just a playful, childish boy who needs guidance. Steinbeck also metaphorically compares Lennie snorting into water like a horse; Lennies actions are similar to an animal, unlike humans who cup their hands to drink water. This emphasizes that he will act upon an animal instinct and his animal characteristics convey Lennies great strength that he is unaware of; this holds immense importance in the novel as it foreshadows the downfall of Lennie due to his powerful strength and animal instincts. Verbs and adverbs are chosen specifically to reflect Lennies and Georges attitudes and characteristics. Generally actions and descriptive words attached to Lennie show a lack of confidence and maturity, for example words such as dabbled and timidly displays Lennies hesitancy and unassertiveness, whilst George on the other hand has words adverbs such as sharply and gently which suggests that he is thinks a lot before all his actions. Overall the reader can deduce without any explanation required, that Lennie most likely needs supervision from George, and looks up to him as a role model because he admires his intelligence and general behaviour/demeanour. In the books dialogue, Steinbeck uses slang,colloquialism, and non-standard terms (aint, would of, brang, and so on) to convey an authentic sense of the characters. This casual dialect(shes a loo loo, Curleys got ants in his pants) helps recreate a particular time, place, and social background that make the book sound real as well as the characters more relatable. Whats more, is that the lack of standard English is constant throughout all speech, characters dont speak with more refinement to other specific characters. Even Lennie, though hes slow, isnt less able to communicate with words than others.This aspect equalizes the characters and gives them a lack of identity or purpose. Overall it addresses the theme of power and each characters lack of control over their own destiny. Readers may interpret these aspects negatively, because it is symbolic of the lack of importance or significance people had back in the contexts day. However, on the other hand you could interpret it as a goo d thing that all of society was equal, everyone had equal chances and people felt a good sense of community and belonging. Towards the end of chapter 6, as Lennies captors advance towards him, Steinbeck gives a brief description, using pathetic fallacy, of the landscape in which the story is unfolding; Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gablian Mountains, and the hill tops were rosy in the sun. I believe Steinbecks desired intentions of using this specific technique, is to reflect that all hope of the American dream has been lost, due to the death of Curleys wife. The sun is the light, which represents hope and happiness, and the fact it has left the valley represents the reality of the situation; that Lennie has ruined any chance they once had of fulfilling the dream. The use of the word already in particular, depicts the idea that all hope vanished as soon as Lennie killed her; there was no way he could have made amends. This would make the reader feel sympathy/pity for Lennie, as they have grown attached to his character throughout the book, and they know the death was unintentional. Also, embedded frequently throughout the book, is the use of structural motifs. In particular, the recurring element of the American Dream, and its dismal achievability, is used to signify the relationship between Lennie and George. It exemplifies one of the reasons why we find the two characters together; their differences are made apparent yet they both share and hold onto this strong sense of longing for this scenario, no matter how out of reach it is. Additionally, each time George repeats this dream to Lennie, his intonation and demeanor in which he says it, reflects its current state of achievability. For example, in chapter one, where Lennie and George have no job and no comfortable sanctuary, George is reluctant to finish describing the dream, I aint got time for no more, this hesitancy shows that he has obvious doubt in fulfilling it due to the current circumstances he and Lennie is in. However, in chapter 3, when Candy offers his savings into the purchasing of the house, George becomes excited as he believes the dream is now within reach. Steinbeck shows this through the use of short sentences and informal dialect, Jesus Christ! I bet we could swing her, because we relate excitement with uncontrollable language, colloquialism and the inability to produce sophisticated sentences, therefore it creates authenticity and pace for the reader, thus making it more believable. Lastly, in chapter 6, the dream is again repeated, back where the story first began. Yet now, the dream is fragmented, separated with the use of ellipses, Youan me. This punctuational technique symbolizes the loss and feebleness of the dream, as well as Georges despair of having to kill Lennie to save him from the oncoming lynch mob. Now, its no longer a chore for George; he wants to take it slow and let Lennie enjoy it fully before he dies, it truly reflects that George needs Lennie just as much as he needs him. Overall the reader would sympathize for both of them, because we can understand that George only did this for Lennies benefit, and despite their disputes; they cared about each other very much. The plot in Of Mice And Men is also an example of a circular narrative; it concludes in the same location, and George and Lennie are once again fleeing from trouble. This structure is used to offer a valuable moral about difficult the American Dream is to fulfill, as well as to reveal the sad absurdity of dreams in general. Overall this highlights Steinbecks pessimistic views towards the dream as he adapts his story to portray the dream to be impossible for all, Curleys wife included. However, on the other hand, Lennies death was inevitable because of the escalating destruction he was evoking, so others could interpret it as a blessing that Lennie died at the hands of a man he trusts, painlessly and still believing in his dream. So readers may believe Steinbeck wrote this to emphasize the beauty of friendships and highlight how important it is for mankind to uphold them.

Carrying A Concealed Weapon, In California, Is A Threat To Society Essa

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Matilda Crabtree, 14, was shot and killed by her father when she jumped from the closet and yelled ‘BOO’ to scare her parents; her last words were, ‘I love you, daddy.†(Rottenberg 87) Laws that regulate carrying concealed weapons (CCW) have been wildly debated in the California and the US. There have mainly been two different types of laws. One is a type of legislation known as â€Å"may need† laws, which issues licenses to people who are in absolute need of carrying a concealed weapon. The other is known as â€Å"shall use† laws, which is a lot more lenient for people and makes it easier for the general public to get a gun. This law gives state authorities to issue concealed weapon licenses to any adult who does not have a felony conviction or history of mental illness. The use of firearms is justifiable only when a person is threatened with serious bodily injury. It does not mean that if a person is stealing your system from your car, you can shoot them. Legalizing concealed weapons to the general public is a direct attack on society’s safety in public places. Too many people will resort to force instead of a chance to runaway; everyone would rather be a hero. At the moment there are 31 states in the United States that permit people to possess a concealed weapon; California is not one of them. Carrying a concealed weapon is a threat to society because there have been too many accidents, concealed weapon laws might cause criminals to act more violently, and finally carrying concealed weapons might stimulate violent confrontation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Shall use† CCW laws do not cut down the amount of gun violence. Even though these laws are pretty recent, studies show that more carefree concealed weapon laws will not decrease the amount of gun related violence. Based on data collected from three states, University of Maryland researchers David McDowall, Colin Loftin, and Brian Wiersema found that the homicide rates did not significantly drop in these states following the adoption of Concealed Carry Laws. Instead, in three of the five cities studied these researchers found a statistically significant increase in the rate of gun related homicides - 74% in Jacksonville, 43% in Jackson, and 22% in Tampa (Ford 65).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Carrying a concealed weapon creates a false sense of security and diverts attent... ...nal, even when well-trained police officers are involved. The idea that poorly trained, self-appointed vigilantes are running through our streets looking to become heroes, should not make any of us feel safer. Arming a society does not create civility nor does it produce solutions to gun violence. We cannot solve our society’s disease of violence by arming ourselves with the epidemic. Work Sited Fisherman, Steve (1993, October). â€Å"What You Know About Guns Can Kill You,† Vogue, 32-38. Ford, Liam T.A. (1994, August/September). â€Å"Gunning for Change,† Reason, 64-66 Kirchner, Paul (1994, February). â€Å"Defending Gun Ownership,† Chronicles, available from 934 N. Main St., Rockford, IL. 61103-7061 Reese, Charley (1996, January). â€Å"You Can’t Beat an (Armed) Woman,† Conservative Chronicle, available from Box 29, Hampton, IA. 50441. Rottenberg, Annette T. (1997). Cease fire advertisement. The Structure of Argument. Boston: Bedford Books a division of St. Martin’s Press Inc. Sojourners (1994, March). â€Å"Annie Get Your Gun,† available from 2401 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009. Voll, Daniel (1995, March). â€Å"The Right to Bear Sorrow,† Esquire, 79-83

Merchant Of Venice Character Diary - Shylock :: Free Merchant of Venice Essays

Today Bassanio came up to me asking for my moneys. Later on I told him that I would lend him the moneys without any interest. I was very cautious in the repeating of his demands. Antonio is naive risking his life hoping the ships will return. I am clever because I am using this opportunity to get revenge. I made Bassanio nervous when I called Antonio a good man and they both probably knew the meaning. I'll show Antonio when his ships fail to return. Lancelot is getting on my nerves again. He is snail-slow in profit and he sleeps by day. My daughter seems to want to get out of the house and might be getting annoyed with me. I am sure that it is just a phase. Because it meant that Bassanio would lose even more of the money he borrowed I decided to attend the feast with all those creepy masks. I took no pleasure in it but I intend to ruin Bassanio. Bassanio will have all the ducats spent in no time. I forgot about my anger over my daughter's flight when I heard about Bassanio's ship wrecked in the English Channel. I then quickly remembered my daughters leaving when Tubal came to me with information on Jessica's reckless spending of my moneys. My heart was broken when I heard about I exchange for a monkey, she traded the ring that was a gift from my wife to me. I should have seen this coming. My hate turned into a disaster in only a short time today. First, Bassanio offered me double the money that was borrowed, but I was too stubborn to accept and reminded the court that the flesh was mine by law. I looked into Antonio's eyes and he seemed to have felt that he deserved what should have come. As I was sharpening my knife, Gratiano started abusing me. I guess I deserved what was happening but what happened next I'm not sure of. A lawyer came in and seemed to be on my side until she mentioned that I could only take Antonio's flesh, no blood. I was shocked to hear this but I then tried to accept the double amount but knew it was too late because that wasn't written on the bond. If that was not enough I could not just go home. The lawyer bent the law and would have taken away my life if it weren’t up to the Duke. Merchant Of Venice Character Diary - Shylock :: Free Merchant of Venice Essays Today Bassanio came up to me asking for my moneys. Later on I told him that I would lend him the moneys without any interest. I was very cautious in the repeating of his demands. Antonio is naive risking his life hoping the ships will return. I am clever because I am using this opportunity to get revenge. I made Bassanio nervous when I called Antonio a good man and they both probably knew the meaning. I'll show Antonio when his ships fail to return. Lancelot is getting on my nerves again. He is snail-slow in profit and he sleeps by day. My daughter seems to want to get out of the house and might be getting annoyed with me. I am sure that it is just a phase. Because it meant that Bassanio would lose even more of the money he borrowed I decided to attend the feast with all those creepy masks. I took no pleasure in it but I intend to ruin Bassanio. Bassanio will have all the ducats spent in no time. I forgot about my anger over my daughter's flight when I heard about Bassanio's ship wrecked in the English Channel. I then quickly remembered my daughters leaving when Tubal came to me with information on Jessica's reckless spending of my moneys. My heart was broken when I heard about I exchange for a monkey, she traded the ring that was a gift from my wife to me. I should have seen this coming. My hate turned into a disaster in only a short time today. First, Bassanio offered me double the money that was borrowed, but I was too stubborn to accept and reminded the court that the flesh was mine by law. I looked into Antonio's eyes and he seemed to have felt that he deserved what should have come. As I was sharpening my knife, Gratiano started abusing me. I guess I deserved what was happening but what happened next I'm not sure of. A lawyer came in and seemed to be on my side until she mentioned that I could only take Antonio's flesh, no blood. I was shocked to hear this but I then tried to accept the double amount but knew it was too late because that wasn't written on the bond. If that was not enough I could not just go home. The lawyer bent the law and would have taken away my life if it weren’t up to the Duke.

The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations

Research Reports The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations Leaf Van Boven, Thomas Gilovich, and Victoria Husted Medvec The authors examined whether negotiators are prone to an â€Å"illusion of transparency,† or the belief that their private thoughts and feelings are more discernible to their negotiation partners than they actually are. In Study One, negotiators who were trying to conceal their preferences thought that their preferences had â€Å"leaked out† more than they actually did. In Study Two, experienced negotiators who were trying to convey information about some of their preferences overestimated their partners’ ability to discern them. The results of Study Three rule out the possibility that the findings are simply the result of the curse of knowledge, or the projection of one’s own knowledge onto others. Discussion explores how the illusion of transparency might impede negotiators’ success. I most cartoon depictions of negotiators in action (a tiny fraction of the cartoon universe, we admit), negotiators are shown with dialog bubbles depicting their overt comments and thought bubbles revealing their private thoughts. These conventions convey the different levels at which negotiators operate: Some of their wants, wishes, and worries are conveyed to the other side, but some are held back for strategic advantage. Because one task in negotiation is deciding how much information to hold back (Raiffa 1982), Leaf Van Boven is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Campus Box 345, Boulder, Colo. 80309. Email: [email  protected] edu. Thomas Gilovich is a Professor of Psychology at Cornell University, Department of Psychology, Ithaca, N. Y. 15850. Email: [email  protected] edu. Victoria Husted Medvec is the Adeline Barry Davee Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Ill. 60201. Email:[email  protected] orthwestern. edu. 0748-4526/03/0400-0117/0  © 2003 Plenum Publishing Corporation Negotiation Journal April 2003 117 it follows that part of the phenomenology of negotiation is monitoring how well one has conveyed what one wants to convey and concealed what one wants to conceal. Do negotiators know how well they have conveyed or concealed their preferences? Typically, negotiators know what they have and have not said, of course, so they may g enerally have a good idea what their partners know about their preferences. But how well calibrated are negotiators’ assessments of what they have conveyed and concealed? We explored one source of potential miscalibration, namely, whether negotiators experience an illusion of transparency, overestimating the extent to which their internal states â€Å"leak out† and are known by others (Gilovich, Savitsky, and Medvec 1998). Most research on the illusion of transparency shows that people overestimate their ability to conceal private information. But there is also evidence that people experience the illusion when trying to convey private information. Individuals who were asked to convey emotions with facial expressions alone overestimated observers’ ability to discern the expressed emotion (Savitsky 1997). Likewise, participants who were videotaped while exposed to humorous material thought they had been more expressive than observers subsequently rated them as being (Barr and Kleck 1995). These findings suggest that, when trying either to conceal or convey information, negotiators may experience an illusion of transparency, overestimating what their partners know about their preferences. Whether they do so is important, because previous research has shown that the likelihood of (optimal) settlement is often contingent on accurate perceptions of what others know about one’s own preferences (Bazerman and Neale 1992; Raiffa 1982; Thompson 1991). We conducted three different studies to examine whether negotiators experience an illusion of transparency in negotiations. Studies One and Three examined whether novice negotiators trying to conceal their preferences tend to overestimate the likelihood that their negotiation partners would be able to identify those preferences. Study Two investigated whether experienced negotiators attempting to communicate some of their preferences also succumb to an illusion of transparency. Study Three was also designed to distinguish the illusion of transparency from the â€Å"curse of knowledge,† or the tendency to project one’s knowledge onto others (Camerer, Loewenstein, and Weber 1989; Keysar and Bly 1995; Keysar, Ginzel, and Bazerman 1995). Specifically, we examined whether observers who are â€Å"cursed† with the same knowledge as the negotiators exhibit the same biases as the negotiators themselves. Study One Method Twenty-four previously unacquainted Cornell University undergraduates participated in pairs in exchange for course credit. Participants learned that 118 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations they would complete a negotiation exercise in which they would each represent the provost at one of two campuses of a multi-campus university system. Because of budget constraints, all of the system’s eight social psychologists needed to be consolidated at the two provosts’ universities. The provosts were to negotiate the distribution of the social psychologists between the two campuses. Participants were informed that some social psychologists were more valuable than others, and that some were more valuable to one campus than the other. These differences were summarized in a report describing the strengths and weaknesses of each psychologist and assigning each a specific number of points. The eight psychologists were among the fifteen most frequently cited in social psychology textbooks (Gordon and Vicarii 1992). To familiarize participants with the psychologist and his or her expertise, each psychologist was depicted on a 2- by 4-inch laminated â€Å"trading card† that displayed a picture of the social psychologist, his or her name, and two of his or her better-known publications. Each negotiator’s most and least valuable psychologists were assigned +5 and –5 points, respectively, and the other psychologists were assigned intermediate values. The experimenter said that all psychologists must be employed at one of the two universities because all were tenured. The most and least valuable psychologists were not the same for the two negotiators; the correlation between how much each of the eight psychologists was worth to the two participants was . 79. Participants were told that they should conceal their report, which was somewhat different from the other participant’s report. Because pilot testing indicated that many participants were unsure how to negotiate, we showed them a five-minute videotape of a staged negotiation in which two confederates bartered over who would get (or be forced to acquire) each psychologist. Confederates were shown trading cards actively back and forth. Participants were given as much time as they needed to negotiate, usually about 30 minutes. They were told that several prizes would be awarded at the end of the academic term (e. g. , a $50 gift certificate to the Cornell book store, dinner for two at a local restaurant) and their chance of winning a prize corresponded to the number of points they earned in the negotiation. We asked participants both early in the negotiation (after approximately five minutes) and at the end to name their partner’s most valuable and least valuable psychologists. At both times, we also asked them to estimate the likelihood (expressed as a percentage) that their partner would correctly identify their most and least valuable psychologists. We pointed out that the probability of correct identification by chance alone was 12. 5 percent. Question order was counterbalanced, with no effect of order in any of our analyses. Negotiation Journal April 2003 119 Results and Discussion Our key analysis was a comparison of participants’ mean estimates to a null value derived from the overall accuracy rate. Participants can be said to exhibit an illusion of transparency if their estimates, on average, are higher than the actual accuracy rate. As predicted, negotiators overestimated their partners’ ability to detect their preferences, but only after the negotiation was complete (see Table One). Early in the negotiation, individuals slightly underestimated (by 2 percent) the likelihood that their partners would correctly identify their most valuable psychologist and slightly overestimated (by 8 percent) the likelihood that their partners would identify their least valuable psychologist. Neither of these differences was statistically reliable. 1 Following the negotiation, participants overestimated the probability that their partners would identify correctly their most and least valuable psychologists by 14 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Both of these differences were statistically reliable. That is, the probability that negotiators overestimated by pure chance how much their partners knew about their preferences is less than . 05 (the t statistics for these two comparisons are 3. 16 and 3. 30, respectively). Negotiators thus experienced an illusion of transparency at the end of the negotiation, overestimating their partners’ ability to discern their preferences. Table One Negotiators’ estimates of the likelihood that their partners would be able to identify their most and least valuable social psychologists, and the corresponding percentages actually able to do so. Estimated % Early negotiation Most valuable Least valuable Post negotiation Most valuable Least valuable 72%* 76%* 58% 63% 69% 58% 71% 50% Actual % Note: * indicates that the estimated percentage is reliably greater than the corresponding actual percentage, p < . 5 120 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations These findings extend earlier research on the illusion of transparency, showing that negotiators believe their inner thoughts and preferences â€Å"leak out† and are more discernible than they really are. This result was obtained only during the second assessment, but we do not wish to make too much of this finding. First, it is hardly surprising because, at the time of the initial assessment, most groups had yet to engage in much discussion of specific candidates, and thus there was little opportunity for participants’ references to have leaked out. Furthermore, it was only participants’ estimates of the detectibility of their least valuable psychologists that rose predictably (from 58 to 76 percent) from early in the negotiation to the end — an increase that was highly statistically reliable (t = 3. 78). Their estimates of the detectibility of their most valuable psychologists stayed largely the same across the course of the negotiation (from 69 to 72 percent) and it was only a decrease in identification accuracy (from 71 to 58 percent) over time that led to the difference in the magnitude of the illusion of transparency. These subsidiary findings may result from the usual dynamics of the negotiation process: Negotiators typically focus initially on the most important issues, postponing a discussion of less important issues or of what they are willing to give up to obtain what they want until later in the negotiation. This would explain why negotiators felt that they had already leaked information about their most important psychologists early in the negotiation, but that a similar feeling of leakage regarding their least important psychologists took longer to develop. This tendency might also explain why it may have been relatively easy for the negotiators to discern one another’s â€Å"top choices† early in the discussion. It may have been harder to do so later on, after the negotiators discussed all of the psychologists and the various tradeoffs between them. Study Two In Study One, participants experienced an illusion of transparency when they were instructed to conceal their preferences from their partners. In many negotiations outside the laboratory, however, negotiators often attempt to communicate rather than conceal their preferences. In fact, negotiation instructors often advise MBAs and other would-be negotiators to communicate information about their preferences. Do negotiators experience an illusion of transparency when they attempt to communicate rather than conceal their preferences? Past research has shown that people experience an illusion of transparency when trying (nonverbally) to convey thoughts and feelings in settings outside negotiations (Barr and Kleck 1995; Savitsky 1997). We therefore examined whether negotiators attempting to communicate some of their preferences, whose efforts at communication are not limited to nonverbal channels, would likewise experience an illusion of transparency. Negotiation Journal April 2003 121 As part of a classroom exercise, MBA students in negotiation courses completed a complex six-party negotiation simulation (Harborco, a teaching tool available from the Clearinghouse of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, www. pon. org). The course emphasized the importance of negotiators communicating some of their preferences to one another in negotiations. Prior to the Harborco negotiation, students had engaged in numerous other exercises in which their failure to convey information resulted in nonoptimal settlements. To verify that the Harborco negotiators were attempting to communicate information about their preferences, we asked 22 Cornell and Northwestern University MBA students (not included in following study) who had just completed the Harborco negotiation to indicate which strategy they engaged in more: an information-sharing strategy (attempting to communicate their preferences to others), or an information-hiding strategy (attempting to conceal their preferences from others). Everyone indicated that they used the information-sharing strategy more. We hypothesized that the same psychological processes that lead novice negotiators trying to conceal their preferences to experience an illusion of transparency would also lead experienced negotiators trying to communicate at least some of their preferences to experience a similar illusion. We thus predicted that participants would overestimate the number of other negotiators who could correctly identify their preferences. Method Two hundred and forty MBA students at Cornell and Northwestern completed the Harborco simulation, negotiating whether, and under what circumstances, a major new seaport would be built off the coast of a fictional city. There were six parties to the negotiation. The negotiator who represented Harborco (a consortium of investors) was most central. A second negotiator, representing the federal agency that oversees the development of such seaports, had to decide whether to subsidize a $3 billion loan Harborco had requested. The other negotiators represented the state governor, the labor unions from surrounding seaports, the owners of other ports that might be affected by a new seaport, and environmentalists concerned about the impact of a new seaport on the local ecology. The negotiation involved five issues, each with several options of varying importance to the six parties. For each negotiator, points were assigned to each option of each issue. Student performance was evaluated according to the number of points accumulated. For example, the most important issue to the Harborco representative was the approval of the subsidized loan (worth 35 points for approval of the full $3 billion, 29 points for approval of a $2 billion loan, etc. ); the second most important issue was the compensation to other ports for their expected losses due to the new seaport (worth 23 points for no compensation, 15 points for compensation of $150 million, 122 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations etc. ). The Harborco negotiator’s preference order for the five issues was somewhat different from the preference order of the other five negotiators. Participants were given approximately one and a half hours to reach an agreement. They were required to vote on a settlement proposed by the Harborco negotiator at three points during the negotiation: after 20 minutes, after one hour, and at the end. A successful agreement required the approval of at least five negotiators. Any agreement that included the subsidized loan required the approval of the federal agency representative. The Harborco negotiator could veto any proposal. The dependent measures, collected after the first and final rounds of voting, concerned the Harborco negotiator’s estimates of the other negotiators’ identification of his or her preference order. The Harborco negotiators estimated how many of the other five negotiators would identify the rank ordering (to the Harborco negotiator) of each issue — for example, how many would identify the approval of the loan as their most important issue? We made clear that one negotiator would guess the exact importance of each issue by chance alone. Meanwhile, each of the other negotiators estimated the issue that was most important to Harborco, second most important, and so on. Figure One Number able to identify each issue 5 4 3 2 1 0 Predicted Number Actual Number ird co nd rth co nd Th ird th Fo ur h Fi rs Fi rs Fi ft Fi rs Th Se Fo u First Round ISSUE IMPORTANCE Predicted and actual number of negotiators able to identify correctly the importance of each issue to the Harborco negotiator after the first and final rounds of voting. Results and Discussion The dashed lines in Figure One indicate that, as predicted, the Harborco negotiators’ estimate of the number of other negotiators who could identify the rank of each issue was greater than the actual number of negotiators able Negotiation Journal April 2003 123 Se Second Round Fi ft h t t t to do so (as indicated by the solid lines). Following the first round of voting, the Harborco negotiators overestimated the number of their fellow negotiators able to identify the importance — to them — of all mid-range issues. All these differences were statistically reliable (all ts > 2. 0). Negotiators did not overestimate the number of negotiators able to identify their most and least important issues. Following the final round of voting, Harborco representatives overestimated the number of negotiators able to identify their four most important issues. This overestimation was statistically reliable for the four most important issues (all t > 2. 25), and was marginally reliable with a probability level of . 14 for the least important issue (t = 1. 5). These findings replicate and extend those of Study One and of previous research on the illusion of transparency. Experienced negotiators who were attempting to convey (rather than conceal) their preferences to other negotiators tended to overestimate the transparency of those preferences. Study Three We contend that negotiators’ overestimation of their partner’s ability to discern their preferences reflects an egocentric illusion whereby negotiators overestimate the transparency of their internal states. An alternative account is that negotiators experience a â€Å"curse of knowledge,† overestimating the knowability of whatever they themselves know (Camerer et al. 989; Keysar and Bly, 1995; Keysar et al. 1995). Negotiators may thus overestimate the discernibility of their preferences because they cannot undo the knowledge of their own preferences, not because they feel like their preferences â€Å"leaked out. † Studies One and Two provide some evidence against this alternative interpretation because participants did not significantly overestimate their partnersâ€⠄¢ ability to discern their preferences early in the negotiation — when they were â€Å"cursed† with the same knowledge, but had little opportunity for their preferences to leak out. To provide a more rigorous test of this alternative interpretation, Study Three employed a paradigm in which observers were yoked to each individual negotiator. The observers were informed of their counterpart’s preferences and thus were â€Å"cursed† with the same abstract knowledge, but not with the phenomenology of having — and possibly leaking — the negotiators’ preferences. After watching a videotaped negotiation between their yoked counterpart and another negotiator, observers estimated the likelihood that their counterpart’s negotiation partner would identify their counterpart’s preferences. We expected that observers’ estimates would be lower than actual negotiators’ estimates because observers would not have the experience of their preferences â€Å"leaking out. † 124 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations Method Twenty-four previously unacquainted Northwestern University undergraduates participated in pairs in exchange for the opportunity to earn between $4 and $13, based on their performance in the negotiation. Negotiators were taken to separate rooms and given instructions for the negotiation. The negotiation was similar to that used in Study One, except that it involved a buyer-seller framework, with which we felt our participants would be familiar. Participants learned that they would act as a provost of one of two campuses of a large university system. Because of budget cuts, the larger of the two campuses (the â€Å"seller†) needed to eliminate fifteen of its 35 psychology department faculty. Because the fifteen faculty were tenured, they could not be fired, but they could be transferred to the smaller of the two campuses (the â€Å"buyer†), which was trying to acquire faculty. Participants were to negotiate over the fifteen psychologists â€Å"in play†; any faculty not acquired by the buyer would remain at the seller’s campus. Participants were given a report that described each psychologist and his or her associated point value. Some of the psychologists had a positive value to buyers and a negative value to sellers, others had a positive value to both, and still others had a negative value to both. Participants were told that they should not show their confidential reports to the other negotiator. Participants earned 25 cents for every positive point and had to pay 25 cents for every negative point they accumulated. To give buyers and sellers an equal chance to make the same amount of money, we endowed sellers with an initial stake of $10 and buyers with an initial stake of $4. If buyers obtained all nine of the beneficial faculty and none of the four costly faculty (two were worth 0 points) they earned an additional $8, for $12 total. Similarly, if the sellers eliminated all eight costly faculty and retained all five beneficial faculty (two were worth 0 points) they earned $2, for $12 total. If no agreement was reached, sellers retained all faculty, losing $6, and buyers acquired no psychologists, leaving both with $4. As in Study One, we gave participants laminated trading cards with a picture of each psychologist and two of that psychologist’s better-known works on the back. The fifteen faculty members, although in reality all social psychologists, were arbitrarily divided into the three subdisciplines of social, clinical, and human-experimental psychology. We designed the payoffs so that the sychologist within each discipline who the buyer most wanted to obtain was not the psychologist the seller most wanted to eliminate. To encourage participants to obtain or retain psychologists across the three disciplines, sellers were offered an additional two points if they eliminated at least one faculty member from each discipline, and an additional four points if they eliminated at least two from each discipline. Similarly, buyers were offered an additional two points if they acquired at least one faculty Negotiation Journal April 2003 125 member from each discipline, and an additional four points if they acquired at least two from each discipline. Thus, maximum earnings for buyers and sellers were $13 (the $12 earned by accumulating all possible positive points, no negative points, plus the $1 bonus). After negotiators understood their task, they were brought together and given as long as they needed to negotiate a division of the fifteen psychologists, usually about 20 minutes. Afterward, buyers estimated the likelihood (expressed as a percentage) that the seller would correctly identify the psychologists from each subdiscipline who were the most and least important for the buyer to obtain; sellers estimated the likelihood that the buyer would correctly identify the psychologists from each subdiscipline who were the most and least important for the seller to eliminate. Participants were told that the chance accuracy rate was 20% percent. Buyers were also asked to identify the psychologists from each subdiscipline who were the most and least important for the seller to eliminate, and sellers were asked to make analogous judgments about the buyers’ incentive structure. Control Condition. Twelve pairs of previously unacquainted Northwestern undergraduates were paid $6 and â€Å"yoked† to one of the 12 pairs from the negotiation condition — one student matched to the buyer and one to the seller. Participants read the instructions given to t heir yoked counterpart (either the buyer or seller) in the actual negotiation before viewing their counterpart’s videotaped negotiation. Participants then made the same estimates as their counterparts in the negotiation condition, identifying the psychologists from each subdiscipline who were most and least important for their counterpart’s negotiation partner to acquire (or eliminate), and estimating the likelihood that their counterpart’s negotiation partner would be able to guess the psychologists in each subdiscipline who were most and least important for their counterpart to obtain (or eliminate). Results Negotiators. As anticipated, negotiators exhibited an illusion of transparency. As can be see in the left and right columns of Table Two, buyers and sellers overestimated their partners’ ability to identify their most important psychologists by 20 percent — both statistically reliable differences (ts= 3. 58 and 3. 45, respectively). Buyers and sellers also overestimated the likelihood that their partner would be able to identify their least important psychologists by 4 percent and 25 percent, respectively, with only the latter result statistically reliable (t = 4. 34). Control participants. Control participants displayed a â€Å"curse of knowledge,† overestimating the likelihood that their counterpart’s negotiation partner would correctly identify their counterpart’s preferences (compare the center and right columns of Table Two). This was particularly true for 126 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations those yoked to sellers: They reliably overestimated the likelihood that their yoked counterparts’ negotiation partners would identify their counterparts’ most and least important psychologists by 12 percent and 19 percent, respectively (ts = 2. 58 and 4. 9). Control participants who were yoked to buyers, in contrast, did not overestimate the likelihood that their yoked counterparts’ negotiation partners would overestimate their counterparts’ preferences. Table Two Participants’ estimates of the likelihood that their negotiators’ partners were able to identify the negotiat ors’ most and least important psychologists, and the corresponding percentages actually able to do so. Negotiators’ Estimates Control Estimates Actual Accuracy Most Important Buyers Sellers Least Important Buyers Sellers 62% 68%* 56% 63%* 58% 42% 70%* 59%* 53% 51%* 50% 39% Note: * indicates that the estimated percentage is reliably greater than the corresponding actual percentage, p < . 05 More important, in every case the control participants’ estimates (overall M = 56 percent) were lower than the actual negotiators’ estimates (overall M = 64 percent) — a statistically reliable difference (t = 2. 53). Thus, negotiators overestimated the transparency of their preferences more than yoked observers who were â€Å"cursed† with the same knowledge, but did not have the same subjective experience as negotiators themselves. Discussion The results of Study Three indicate that negotiators’ overestimation of their partners’ ability to discern their preferences stems from both a curse of knowledge and an illusion of transparency. Observers who were provided with the same abstract knowledge as the negotiators — those provided with Negotiation Journal April 2003 127 abstract information about sellers’ preferences at any rate — overestimated the likelihood that those preferences would be detected. However, this effect was not as strong as that found for actual negotiators’ estimates. Those participants, possessing more detailed knowledge about how it felt to want to obtain some psychologists and avoid others, apparently thought that some of those feelings had leaked out to their partners because they made significantly higher estimates of the likelihood of detection than the observers did. Negotiators experience an illusion of transparency over and above any curse of knowledge to which they are subject. What Does it All Mean? These three studies provide consistent support for an illusion of transparency in negotiations. Undergraduate students who were instructed to conceal their preferences thought that they had â€Å"tipped their hand† more than they actually had (Studies One and Three). Likewise, business students experienced in negotiation who were attempting to communicate information about some of their preferences overestimated how successfully they had done so (Study Three). These results are not due to an abstract â€Å"curse of knowledge† because observers who were cursed with the same knowledge as the negotiators did not overestimate the detectibility of the negotiators’ preferences to the same extent as the negotiators did (Study Three). The illusion of transparency is thus due to the sense that one’s specific actions and reactions that arise in the give-and-take of negotiation — a blush here, an averted gaze there — are more telling than they actually are. These results complement and extend findings by Vorauer and Claude (1998) who examined participants’ ability to estimate how well others could discern their general approach to a joint problem-solving exercise — i. e. , whether they were most interested in being assertive, being fair, being accommodating, and so on. They found that participants thought their goals would be more readily discerned than they actually were. Their findings, however, appear to reflect a curse of knowledge rather than an illusion of transparency because their participants’ estimates of the detectibility of their own goals were just the same as those made by observers who were simply informed of the participants’ goals. The Vorauer and Claude findings should not be surprising since their participants did not actually engage in face-to-face interaction. Instead, each participant exchanged notes with a â€Å"phantom† other, whose responses were crafted by the experimenters. Without interaction, it is difficult see how an illusory sense of transparency could emerge. Vorauer and Claude’s studies, along with the results of Study Three, suggest that the curse of knowledge can likewise lead to exaggerated estimates of how readily one’s negotiation partner can discern one’s own perspective on the negotiation (Keysar et al. 1995). 128 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations It is important to note that both the illusion of transparency and the curse of knowledge reflect people’s difficulty in getting beyond their privileged information. In the curse of knowledge, this information is abstract knowledge of one’s beliefs, preferences, or goals; in the illusion of transparency, this information is more detailed, phenomenological knowledge of how one feels or how difficult it was to suppress a particular reaction. At one level, then, it may be fair to characterize the illusion of transparency as a special case of knowledge — more detailed and affect-laden — with which one is cursed. At another level, however, the differences between the two phenomena may be sufficiently pronounced that there is more to be gained by viewing them as distinct. Ultimately, a more complete understanding of the relationship between the curse of knowledge and illusion of transparency must await the outcome of further research. Future research might also further examine the underlying mechanism proposed for the illusion of transparency. Gilovich et al. (1998) attribute the phenomenon to a process much like Tversky and Kahneman’s (1974) anchoring and adjustment heuristic. When attempting to ascertain how apparent their internal states are to others, people are likely to begin the process of judgment from their own subjective experience. Because people know that others are not as privy to their internal states as they are themselves, they adjust from their own perspective to capture others’ perspective. Because such adjustments tend to be insufficient (Tversky and Kahneman 1974; Epley and Gilovich 2001), the net result is a residual effect of one’s own phenomenology, and the feeling that one is more transparent than is actually the case. This account suggests that the illusion of transparency should be particularly pronounced when the internal state being assessed is one that is strongly and clearly felt, such as when negotiating especially important issues. In addition, future research might examine the impact of the illusion of transparency on negotiation processes and outcomes. Thompson (1991) has shown that when negotiators have different priorities, negotiators who provide information about their priorities to their partners fare better than those who do not. The illusion of transparency may lead negotiators to hold back information about their priorities in the mistaken belief that one has conveyed too much information already. By leading negotiators to believe that their own preferences are more apparent than they really are, the illusion of transparency may give rise to the belief that the other side is being less open and cooperative than they are themselves — which may lead each negotiator to hold back even more. The process can thus spiral in the wrong direction toward greater secrecy. Negotiation Journal April 2003 129 It may be advantageous, then, for negotiators to be aware of the illusion of transparency. If negotiators know they tend to conceal less than they think they do, they may open up a bit more and increase their chances of reaching optimal agreements. In other words, knowing that one’s own â€Å"thought bubbles† are invisible to others can lead to more successful negotiations. NOTES This research was supported by Research Grant SBR9319558 from the National Science Foundation. We thank Tina Rackitt her help in collecting data and Dennis Regan for his comments on an earlier draft. 1. Because the data for each pair of negotiators are interdependent, all analyses in this and subsequent studies used the dyad (or group) as the unit of analysis. 2. A t statistic is a measure of how extreme a statistical estimate is. Specifically, a t is the ratio of the difference between a hypothesized value and an observed value, divided by the standard error of the sampled distribution. Consider negotiators’ estimates, following the negotiation, that their negotiation partner had a 72 percent chance of correctly identifying their most valuable psychologist. Because, in actuality, egotiators identified their partners’ most valuable psychologist only 58 percent of the time, the difference between the hypothesized value (58 percent) and the observed value (72 percent) is 14 percent. The standard error, in this case, is the standard deviation of the difference between a negotiators’ predicted likelihood and the actual likelihood (the average squared difference betw een these two scores), divided by the square root of the sample size. In general, t statistics more extreme than 1. 96 are statistically reliable — that is, the probability that the observed difference is due to chance alone is less than . 5. 3. We also asked negotiators to estimate which subdiscipline was most important to their partner, and to estimate the likelihood that their partner would discern correctly their own preference order vis-a-vis the three subdisciplines. During debriefing, however, participants said they found these questions confusing because they did not parse the 15 faculty according to their subdiscipline, but instead focused on the value of each individual faculty. These responses are therefore not discussed further. REFERENCES Barr, C. L. and R. E. Kleck. 1995. Self-other perception of the intensity of facial expressions of emotion: Do we know what we show? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 68: 608-618. Bazerman, M. H. and M. Neale. 1992. Negotiating rationality. New York: Free Press. Camerer, C. , G. Loewenstein, and M. Weber. 1989. The curse of knowledge in economic settings: An experimental analysis. Journal of Political Economy 97: 1232-1253. Epley, N. and T. Gilovich. 2001. Putting adjustment back in the anchoring and adjustment heuristic: An examination of self-generated and experimenter-provided anchors. Psychological Science 12: 391-396. Gilovich, T. D. , K. K. Savitsky, and V. H. Medvec. 1998. The illusion of transparency: Biased assessments of others’ ability to read our emotional states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75: 332-346. Gordon, R. A. and P. J. Vicarii. 1992. Eminence in social psychology: A comparison of textbook citation, social science citation index, and research productivity rankings. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 18: 26-38. Keysar, B. and B. Bly. 1995. Intuitions about the transparency of intention: Linguistic perspective taking in text. Cognitive Psychology 26: 165-208. Keysar, B. , L. E. Ginzel, and M. H. Bazerman. 1995. States of affairs and states of mind: The effect of knowledge on beliefs. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 64: 283293. Raiffa, H. 1982. The art and science of negotiation. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press. 130 Van Boven, Gilovich, and Medvec The Illusion of Transparency in Negotiations Savitsky, K. 1997. Perceived transparency of and the leakage of emotional states: Do we know how little we show? Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Cornell University. Thompson, L. 1990. An examination of naive and experienced negotiators. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 26: 528-544. ———. 1991. Information exchange in negotiation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 27: 161-179. Tversky, A. and D. Kahneman. 1974. Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science 185: 1124-1131. Vorauer, J. D. and S. Claude. 1998. Perceived versus actual transparency of goals in negotiation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 24: 371-385. Negotiation Journal April 2003 131

Art assignment Essay

1. List and describe three of the technological breakthroughs or discoveries that changed art during the Modern Era, 1800-1945. Indicate specific ways in which these changed the form and/or content, themes, purposes/functions of art, and the lives of artists. Photography Light bulbs Use of metal in construction There have been many inventions since the 19th century that has been incorporated in the artistic realm. Photography has created a new genre of art available to people. This invention allows people to see an image as it was meant to be which may have been something that could only be seen in the moment, like a fox and kits playing in the forest. Lights have affected almost every part of the average person’s everyday life and similarly, lighting has made artwork change and created new options of expression. In ways of architecture, lives and structure have been improved by the production and use of metals in structure and the evolution of architecture that was started in the Crystal Palace. The first true photograph was captured in 1826 with a camera and plate exposed to the sun for eight hours. The creation from this highly impractical form of photography was called a Heliograph. Joseph Nicephore Niepce’s correspondent was able to create a more reasonable medium for the film upon Neipce’s death. The silver iodine coated copper plate, named a daguerreotype after the inventor, gave hope for the creation of photography by allowing a picture to be captured in 10-20 minutes. Before this time only the rich could afford to have portraits done and could only be done by paint (Getlein 197-98). Camera and film was created in more of a form known to us in the middle 1880’s. Film was an important creation, as it allowed an image to be replicated, unlike the daguerreotypes, which were positives and allowed no way of copying. Photography was able to become a hobby and to advance after the creation of the Kodak Camera in 1888 (198-99). Because of this creation the artistic world changed to be able to include photojournalism, movies and artistic photography. Film and cameras have completely changed the way images are captured and who can afford it. During modern times, we can now afford to take pictures of whatever we would like so the content for photographs is now only limited to our own morals and what is available on the physical  plane. This invention allowed many people to share images of the world that many people would not be able to see otherwise and enabled any person who is willing to try, a chance to become an artist. The availability of electricity and the invention of the first functioning light bulb in 1820 by Warren De La Rue (The History of the Light Bulb 1) changed the way art is seen and creates. Light can be the focus of the artwork or change the way the art is seen. The best example of light in artwork is photography. The addition of a light bulb to create a flash while taking pictures has allowed different environments for photography by allowing pictures to have a good light source in the front to counteract any negative lighting, like from the back or too little lighting to allow the film to develop properly. This allowed artists more freedom to take picture wherever they are inspired and in normally inadequate lighting. This also prevented the light from behind the subject from being too strong to create the subject as a shadow, thus allowing breathtaking photographs that would have not been able to be captured otherwise. In other ways, lights have been the focal point of art in modern The first example of metal being used as a construction material for true structures was in England around 1851. Joseph Paxton used his plans for greenhouses and magnified them into a building that spanned over 13 acres, showing the world the first glimpse of modern architecture. Because of the use of pre fabrication, also a new concept, this building was able to be constructed in 16 weeks. (Getlein 295) The uses of metal in construction also lead to a new concept design for buildings: skeleton and skin. Skeleton and skin constructed involved a frame with covering over it. In the Crystal Palace, the skin was glass and in modern housing you have drywall, wood, and metal or plastic siding. The idea for modern buildings is just about the same, using metal as the sturdy skeleton with glass as the main covering but using the more modern element of concrete as a secondary structural base and covering. Through the creation of the Crystal palace, the ideas of architecture were changed forever. The metal structure allowed architects in modern times to create towering skyscrapers that would not have been possible using previous materials and allowed the shape of buildings to change as metal is more flexible has a strong tensile strength (Piggott 78). This allowed the creation of amazing bridges that are supported minimally by vertical bases and buildings that can take almost any shape. The Sydney  Opera house is an amazing structure that is meant to resemble sails, and is constructed of metal rods, to support the specialized concrete called ferroconcrete (Getlein 300). This multipurpose building would have never been thought of as a possibility without the use of a metal skeleton and continues to allow architects more creativity to build structures with intricacy and still have the structural security needed. Works Cited Getlein, Mark. Living With Art 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill, 2010: 197-99, 300. Print Piggott, Jan. Palace of the People: The Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 1854-1936. K. Hurst &Co. 78-79. Print Unknown. The History of the Light Bulb. Arizona State University. http://invsee.asu.edu/modules/lightbulb/meathist.htm. Website