Raskolnikov V. Svidrigailov - 1393 Words

Gunnar Stoddard Ms. Spicer AP Literature and Composition 27 May 2011 We Are Not So Different, You and I Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a psychologically charged novel in which the primary element that plagues the protagonist, Rodion Raskolnikov, is not a person but rather an idea; his own idea. Raskolnikov has an unhealthy obsession with rendering himself into what he perceives as the ideal, supreme human being, an à ¼bermensch. Raskolnikov forms for himself a theory in which he will live purely according to his own will and transcend the social norms and moralities that dominate society. Raskolnikov suggests that acts commonly regarded as immoral are to be reserved for a certain rank of â€Å"extraordinary† men. Raskolnikov’s faith†¦show more content†¦Keeping this in mind, it comes as no surprise that Raskolnikov would feel utterly abhorred when Svidrigaà ¯lov refers to them as â€Å"birds of a feather†(p.340; Part 4, Chapter 1). While Svidrigaà ¯lov is rather keen of their shared similarities, such as their status as murderers, Raskolnikov willingly fails to realize these associations. Raskolnikov’s better side objects to the hedonistic behavior of Svidrigaà ¯lov, decrying him as a man of the most abject nature. The dramatic irony lies in the fact that Raskolnikov desires to be an â€Å"extraordinary† man, the very epitome of Svidrigaà ¯lov, a man he holds in no high regard. Despite their superficial variances and dissidences, Raskolnikov had slowly rendered himself into a facsimile of the man he detested, Svidrigaà ¯lov. Although both men, whether knowingly or unknowingly, desire to transcend above the ordinary masses, it is only a matter of time before self-realization indicates the folly of their ways. Raskolnikov’s brusque affectation eventually yields to his predilection for salvation and redemption. He ultimately comes to the realization that he is not worthy of being â€Å"extraordinary† because of the crippling guilt that followed his murder of the pawnbroker. Raskolnikov reflects upon the implications of his crime on his psyche, â€Å"I murdered myself, not her! I crushed myself once for all,Show MoreRelatedRaskolnikov Internal Conflict1831 Words   |  8 PagesChloee Henley, Period 5 Part I: Reader’s Journal Part I: Comment on a Character I find it very interesting how suspicious of everything Raskolnikov appears to be at the beginning of the novel. Obviously in the first few pages of the novel readers can quite easily identify his internal conflict and the way he goes back and forth on whether or not he should commit his crime, but I find it odd that this intense level of suspicion comes before he has even committed the crime. Most would think that his

Leadership, Power and Politics Free Essays

Leadership is the process of influencing others to act to accomplish specific objectives. Leaders are the key movers of an organization and they are able to inspire and motivate their members to work towards the attainment of goals. In the past, leadership have been thought of as a quality that only the elite managers possess, however reality is, each one of us possess and may develop our leadership skills. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership, Power and Politics or any similar topic only for you Order Now Being a leader is not an easy job, it takes creativity, innovativeness, discipline, passion and an open mind. It is said that leaders emerge in times of change and turmoil; it is a fact that when the going gets tough, leaders are there to get things done. Opportunities for change however must be sought out and seized by the leader. It is a necessary element in the exercise of leadership, for leadership is at its best when there is an opportunity to grow, innovate and to improve. A leader can accomplish this by treating every job as an adventure, by deciding that each day is an opportunity to learn something new or to discover better ways of accomplishing things, the leader is more able to initiate changes that would be for the greater good of the group. When a leader seeks meaningful challenges, it allows the leader to work with passion and commitment that is personally gratifying and hence is able to effectively work for the group. With that, the leader also find and create meaningful challenges for others, when members feel that they are valued and trusted by their leaders to be able to accomplish realistic and challenging goals, they become more committed and become better workers. This means that the leader provides his/her members too become intrinsically motivated to rise to the challenge. As a leader, it is important that he/she make the workplace fun, happy people are more productive and they like going to work everyday because it is a happy place. as such, when an organization is so used to doing things in the same way, it leads to complacency and even deterioration, thus a leader must be able to question the status quo, this would mean that as a leader he/she must actively look for systems or programs that have outlived its usefulness and be creative enough to provide new ideas. Renewing teams in any organization is necessary in order to breathe new life to the team, a shuffling of departments or the movement of positions would reenergize the team and possibly generate new ideas and opportunities. Lastly, the leader should adopt an open approach to searching for opportunities. It is an acceptance of the leader that he/she does not have the monopoly of ideas and it is necessary to be aware of what is happening outside and inside the organization. Being an effective leader also takes the ability to experiment and takes risks and to learn from mistakes. Leaders if for some twist of fate have always been thought of as someone who can transform any organization form the brink of death to greater heights. But in reality, it is the scientific and objective leader who is able to appreciate the importance of carrying out mini experiments of new processes that would in the end be more cost-effective than to rush and implement a program or process that have not been tested. Experiments are for introducing new products while creating or developing models in specific departments of new processes will give the leader an objective assessment of the possibility of success or failure of the new process. The leader is not the sole experimenter, he/she must encourage other to experiment also, but at times it is faced with fear and apprehension, thus the leader should assure the members that it is safe to experiment. When a person is so set in his/her ways then it is difficult to initiate change, the leader therefore must be able to break the mind set of its people, to become more open to new ideas and change. An enormous change may be anxiety provoking for members, the leader thus should break up the changes into small challenges that members can accomplish one at a time. People work better if they know that their ideas and feelings are respected and that if what they are doing is of their own choice, a leader should give each person the opportunity to make their own choices. A leader must learn how to say yes to the ideas and opinions of its members, by saying yes more frequently than but or no, it would be easier for the leader to also solicit the cooperation of its people. A leader is not a Greek hero who has supernatural powers, he/she can make mistakes and a true leader has the grace and humility to accept his/her mistakes and to learn from it. Lastly, a leader should also be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the new programs or changes that he/she has carried out in the company and this exercise should be a collaborative effort with input from the different members of the organization. Knowing what may cause the failure of an innovation would go a long way in improving that product or process. It is true that leaders emerge out of the difficulties or major changes in an organization, and being a leader is no easy job, and one can always make use of information that would help enhance or develop our leadership skills. I found this as the advantage of the concepts, it provides true-to-life examples of how a leader is able to seize opportunities for change and why it is important to experiment and learn from mistakes. The disadvantages of the concepts however is that it is too abstract and sometimes it is difficult to relate to a job as mundane as selling cigarettes and that most of the examples involve large organizations wherein leaders are often the head of the department or the organization. Although the chapters do provide pointers on what an ordinary person could do to become a leader and it is a practical guide. The chapters present the concept as a series of things to do or things to learn, and not all could be applied at the same time to a single organization. In my experience as a cigarette store owner, I am limited by the products that sell the most; I may provide my customers with new brands or novel cigarettes but since smokers tend to stick to one brand. I may be able to innovate probably in giving freebies to loyal customers or be creative by using bonus coupons that they could exchange for premium brands. Moreover, I do not have a staff and hence my leadership skills are not harnessed. On the other hand I work part time in a gasoline station and work with other people but again a gasoline station is one of the most normal and stable organization there is. Thus, unless if the gasoline station gets sold or merged with another store, then maybe it would be time for me to rise to that challenge. On the other hand, learning about leadership has been exciting and very challenging, it tells me that I can be a leader someday; it also made me become aware of some of my personal characteristics that is akin to leaders. I would like to share to others what I have learned about leadership, sometimes we do not know that we possess the ability to be leaders if other people don’t acknowledge it, I would also tell them of the things that a good leader should be able to accomplish. That said, there are different leadership styles which a person may favor and use in different situations. Leadership styles include autocratic leadership, bureaucratic leadership charismatic leadership, participative leadership, Laissez-faire leadership, relations-oriented leadership, servant leadership, task-oriented leadership, transactional leadership and transformational leadership. Personally, I think that participative leadership is the best among the styles because although the leader has the final say in the decisions concerning issues on organizational change; it allows the members of the organization to contribute their ideas and thoughts. This communicate that the leader value and respects its members and thus increase job satisfaction of members and cultivates a culture of collaboration and cooperation that every organization needs to get things done. Reference Kouzes, J. Posner, B. (2002). The Leadership Challenge.   California: Jossey-Bass       How to cite Leadership, Power and Politics, Essay examples Leadership, Power and Politics Free Essays Conflict,   Management and leadership Conflict is a natural outcome originating due to individual and group interaction. It is a ‘friction’ produced due to emotions and behaviors of people working closely rubbing against each other. When people from various backgrounds and beliefs work together, consciously or unconsciously they try to pass their own principles in work aspects creates conflict. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership, Power and Politics or any similar topic only for you Order Now However, conflict is not always destructive or regressive. When well managed and directed, it has great utility in substantially improving an organization’s functional and production aspects, along with helping individuals to evolve a joint   philosophy of work and cooperation. However, poorly managed conflict situation impairs the organizational outcome, creating stress, introducing   dissatisfaction and reducing efficiency. Characteristics of Conflict The round the clock work schedules, trans-national nature of jobs, and strain in today’s world have worked together to make conflict an unavoidable part in life of people. Work related stress, with pressures of deadline, critical levels of responsibility, problems of resource allocation and management, setting, defining and achieving challenging goals, and all the time trying to coordinate with different individuals give rise to perfect conditions for   conflict to emerge within organizations (Bergman and Volkema, 1989). But before any attempt to resolve conflict it is important to understand the characteristics of conflict that an organization generally faces. According to Baron (1990), a study of various organizational parameters indicated towards five characteristics of conflict . These are 1. Conflict due to contrasting or opposing field of interests between or among individuals or groups. 2. Recognition of these opposing interests by the interested parties 3. Conflict centers on a perception by each side that its opposing party would injure its interests 4. Conflict is not a stage, rather a process and it results from the way individual and groups define their relations through the past interaction 5. Actions and efforts by each party with the intention of negating other’s goals. Conflict management and leadership Leadership has a great role to play in conflict resolution. A leader with qualities with excellent communication, understanding and negotiation can be instrumental in bringing the positive outcome through the issues involved in the conflict. As the business and corporate management has realized, leadership greatly helps to alleviate conflict situation due to its inspirational value. Leadership essentially about encouraging   people to pool themselves together towards achieving common goals and objectives (Rosenbach and Taylor, 1998, 1. Leadership further empowers individuals, helps them to rise above their rank and position within the organization to associate themselves and their colleagues with specific works, duties and responsibilities and enables them to identify and set their own directions, work on commitment and take challenges.   (Day and Halpin, 2004, 3). Its not surprising then that companies are ready to invest hugely in leadership development program, as a guaranteed way to emerge ahead than their competitors. Within every social, institutional or organizational structure, a leader is always looked upon the person with abilities to broach reconciliation and resolution in situation of conflict. Leadership entails elements of power and authority that are critical to acquire influence. There are five power bases for a leader, as identified by French and Raven (1959). They are 1. Legitimate power: the power that comes by virtue of the position and command to control behavior. 2. Coercive power: It is the leader’s control over persuasion and ability to take symbolic punitive actions in case of dissent 3. Reward power: It is the leader’s control over granting rewards 4. Expert power: These are the specialties that a leader attains due to knowledge and experience and that he is expected to possess and use in conflict resolution 5. Referent power: This is the power over over subordinate or group members to identify the leader Leaders may opt for one, some or   a combination or all of these power bases to attain conflict management and resolution by influencing the psychological and social dimension of conflict, trust, and authority (Johnson and Short, 1994 :Leadership (Power and Politics) Leadership is not a characteristic that exists in isolation. As it is defined, leadership implies establishing coordination, orientation, cooperation, and collaboration among the followers to accomplish designated objectives and goals. It is   possible when leaders can inspire their followers with respect, admiration, discipline, confidence in the abilities of the leader while being helped to envision themselves as empowered individuals (Brown and Lord, 2004, 2). A good leader has the ability to take over even most complex, demanding and otherwise impossible condition by exhibiting personal integrity, ethical and moral traits and values that other can relate to and aspire to imbibe in their own conduct (Laurie, 2000, 53). Here it is important to distinguish personal charisma from leadership, as personal charisma, being an person specific phenomena, can awe people but hardly give them impetus to follow in the footsteps of the leader. Leadership is also means natural acquisition of power and potential to change its equation affect over the leaders and their followers. There inherent dangers associated with power, and for most of the people, the timeless adage-‘power corrupts’ suits justly. Power contains a temptation that is hard to resist and has potential to become the ultimate goal for a person rather the tool that was designated in helping to achieve the goals.   But a genuine leader understands this irony of power and therefore believes that power should be shared with others so that it can grow. The real power of leaders is their   ability to inspire others with a sense of power and confidence (Champy and Nohria, 1999, 165). According to Reigel’s (1979) theory of development, the relevant categories to leadership practices and conflict management are: 1. Optimism-faith in goodness of humanity. It works on the principle of faith in inherent goodness of humanity with a sense that goals and objective are achievable. 2. Interconnectedness-responsibility for the whole. The principle is extension of sense of responsibility to greater issues affecting the world that connects individual with the entire humanity. 3. The contradictory nature of things. It teaches about recognizing and respecting that contradiction occurs in people, their experience and circumstances. 4. Life is characterized by crises. Recognition that crises and conflicts are inbuilt of component of life and progress is achieved by incorporating them in the philosophy towards life. 5. Kinship with others. It stresses on building associations and help in realizing that every one is important and deserves equal respect from others. 6. The opposition. It teaches about taking opposition as contradiction, instead of viewing it in negative perspective. 7. Acknowledging other’s contribution. It stresses on frank and appreciative acknowledgment of success and achievements of others Reference Baron, R. A. (1990). Conflict in organizations. In K. R. Murphy F. E. Saal (Eds.), Psychology in organizations: Integrating science and practice (pp. 197–216). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Bergmann T. J., and   Volkema R. J. ( 1989). â€Å"Understanding and managing interpersonal conflict at work: Its issues, interactive processes, and consequences†. In M. A. Rahim (Ed.), Managing Conflict : An inter-disciplinary approach (pp. 7-19). New York: Praeger Brown DJ and   Lord, RG,   2004, Leadership Processes and Follower Self-Identity,   Lawrence Erlbaum Mahwah, NJ. Champy J, Nohria N, 1999, The Arc of Ambition: Defining the Leadership Journey, Perseus Books (Current Publisher: Perseus PublishingCambridge, MA. Day DV and Halpin SM, 2004, Leader Development for Transforming Organizations: Growing Leaders for Tomorrow,   (edit) David V. Day, Stanley M. Halpin, Stephen J. Zaccaro, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,   Mahwah, NJ. French, Jr., J.R.P., Raven, B. (1959). The bases social power. In Dorwin Cartwright (edit.), Studies in social power (pp. 150-157). Ann Arbor, MI: Researc Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan Johnson, P.E and Short, P.M (1994). Exploring the Links among Teacher Empowerment, Leader Power and Conflict. Education. Volume: 114. Issue: 4. Page Number: 581+. Laurie DL, 2000, The Real Work of Leaders: A Report from the Front Lines of Management, Perseus Books (Current Publisher: Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, MA Riegel KF. Foundations of Dialectical Psychology. New York: Academic Press, 1979. Rosenbach WE and Taylor RL, 1998, Contemporary Issues in Leadership, (edit) William E. Rosenbach, Robert L. Taylor, Westview Press,Boulder, CO.                   How to cite Leadership, Power and Politics, Essay examples

Auditing Assests of Worth A$900

Question: Discuss about the Auditing for Assests of Worth A$900. Answer: Introduction: The banking industry in Australia is comprised of the forty-three banking groups and has assets of worth A$900 billion. Banks are the financial institutions and the regulatory authorities recognize them. The banking industry intends to promote the banking business, insurance, trading in the financial markets, and provide the platform to the consumers to manage the funds. The monetary policy in the country, issuing of the currency, and the financial system of the country is conducted by the banking industry. The other purpose of the banking industry is to control the risk in the financial system. The competition in the market for the payment of the services is promoted b y the bank and this has to be consistent with the financial system stability. The efficiency of the payment system is promoted by the banks. The system policy regarding the payment system of banks provides the greatest advantage to the citizens of Australia. The auditing of banks requires special consideration of audits because of the banking operation and the significant exposures for the short period, in order to process the transactions, the excessive dependence of banks on the computers. Another reason attributable to this is that there is banking practices and the continuous development of the new products that may not align with the concurrent development with the auditing practices (Carnegie, 2016). The main objective of performing the audit of banks is to render such opinion that is of the national standard or it is in accordance with the framework of financial applicable to the banks. The research has been conducted form the article published online. Discussion: Background of the banking industry: The background of banking industry of Australia has the four era that is the common wealth bank, private banks, reserve bank and the era of deregulation. The first bank opened in the Australia was intended to provide a sound currency. This bank was faced with the competition and this leads to the opening of the private banks. However there was no central bank. The emergence of the financial crisis led to the establishment of the common wealth bank and with the introduction of this, the issues concerning currency was solved and there emerged era when the power of the commonwealth bank was transferred to the Reserve bank. Many financial companies emerged with was introduced by the banks. The planning of audit covers several things such as performing the assessment of risk procedures, internal control and the operating environment of the banking industry. The procedure of risk assessment would require the auditor to have an in depth understanding of the banking industry and the environment of its operation. The market condition of the banking industry in which it operate has also to be well understood by the auditors. The auditors need to have a good working knowledge about the services and the products offered by the banks. In developing the audit plan, the auditors needs to have to seek insight into the materiality determination, assessing the risk related to the material misstatement, whether there is any related transactions with the party, representation of management and work of supervisors, the extent of EFT and CIS used by the banks (Bis.org.com, 2016). The portfolios of banks generally have high concentrations of credits to the specialized industries such as shipping, natural resources and the real estate. The auditors need to have knowledge about the reporting practice of these industries and business understanding in order to understand the nature of these businesses. The performance of audit depends upon the ability of the auditors to assess the business risks associated with the banking industry. This is regarded as fundamental because it would enable the auditors to assess the risk associate with the operations of the banks (Hay, 2015). Assessment of the risks associated with the banking industry: The assessment of risk is an important part of the auditing procedures and the auditor needs to include in the audit plan. The auditor has to assess several risks associated with the organization. The industry taken for which the auditor needs to prepare the audit plan is the banking industry. The risk associated with the banks is mainly attributable to the services and the products offered by them for which the auditors needs to prepare the audit plan to carry out the procedures. The risk, which is associated with the banks, is mainly related to the services and products offered by it and the operating risk. The banking industry is faced with some degree of inherent risk and the risk is mainly attributable to the services and the product that is offered by the bank, its entities and customers and the area of operation of the customer as well as the institution. The first step in the development of the audit plan is the identification of inherent risk. The assessment of such inherent risk of the banks is very essential for the planning of audit. The stability of the banking system is assessed form the probability of failure of individual banks due to the inherent risks associated with it (Khlif Achek, 2016). Some of the risks consider by the auditors in assessing the inherent risks of banks are as follows: A large portion of assessing the risk is contributed to the credit risk assessment. Such risk of banks is attached to commitments of off balance sheets, balances, investment apart from any loans. The credit risk is the most significant risk. There are operating risks also which is because of the marker risk exposure because of the financial information which is not available in an up to date form. There might be an interference of unauthorized data in to the system. Due to the resultant geographic dispersion of the transactions of the banks and the internal control involved in the conduct of operations and due to this the exposure of the banks by the products and the customers comes with the risks that it may not be adequately monitored (Lodhia, 2015). Due to the physical separation between the management and the person who handle the transaction may lead to the control breakdown and this may result in not correcting and not detecting the errors. Banks have risk of intraday payment and such risk is mainly due to the exposures of the transactions of the counterparties and the customers. The employees of the banks to the other related parties face the banks with the risk of loss arising from fraud and theft. The high gearing ratios used by the banks also expose them to the risks such as due to the loss in the value of asset by a small percentage due to the significant capital resources erosions. Another risk is the failure of the banks to adhere to the newly framed regulations and rules. This leads to the restrictions on operating part of the banks due to the exposure to transactions (Moradi-Motlagh et al., 2015). The materiality in the financial statements of the banks also needs to be assessed by the auditors and he has to keep several things in mind while assessing such risks. The points to be noted by the auditor in this regard are: The statement of earnings may be affected with small errors due to high gearing, though the balance sheet would remain unaffected. The auditor needs to set materiality level which would help in identifying the audit differences and the audit errors. Therefore, in assessing the risk of the banks, the designs of the internal control of the bank are need to be evaluated and their implementation is to be determined by the auditors. However, the auditors cannot control the material misstatement and it exists independently (Tadesse, 2015). The audit ability of the financial statements of the bank would be doubtful because of the understanding of the internal control by the auditors. The internal controls of banks are needs to be placed with the significant reliance and this is because he cannot solely depend on the substantive procedures. The source of revenue and the exposure of the banks need to be reviewed by the auditors. There might be risks with the transactions of the related parties and such risks are to be considered by the auditors (Gooneratne et al., 2013). Control environment: The management control systems of banks are required to be submitted to the APRA. The controlling of the credit risk, measurement, monitoring of the policies and procedures needs to provided. The control environment of the banking business ha to commensurate with the business activities which are being undertaken by the banks. In order to ensure that the policies of the banks are adhering to the framework, the internal control mechanism of the Banks has to be in proper place. The banks need to develop the control system to recognize the impaired assets. The lending activities of the bank also need to be aligned with the control system. All the internal control system controlling the baking activities has to be in compliance with the established policies. Recommendations: In order to mitigate the risks there needs to be adequate internal control which ensures effective implementation of policies. This includes the appropriate governance which would monitor and control the staff integrity and would test the efficiency of banks to identify and assess the risks. Several inherent risks while carrying out an auditing of the banking industry have been identified and there is a need to mitigate those risks to carry out the auditing to form a correct opinion about the banks in Australia. Some of the recommendations are the banking industry needs to commit itself to the highest standards of the business conduct and such standard is maintained through all of its operations. The reporting and the fraudulent activities should be resolved using supporting group policies. The hierarchical reporting and the process of control of self assessment need to be established for a documented trail of accountability. Conclusion: Form the above discussion, it is very clear that the auditors are faced with several issues and risk in carrying out the auditing of the banking industry. Some of the risks associated with the banks are inherent in nature and some of the risks arise from its operations and the auditors faces these risks in carrying out the audit procedures which needs to be mitigated in order to form a fair audit opinion. Reference: Bis.org. (2016)Retrieved 9 September 2016, from https://www.bis.org/publ/bcbs06a.pdf Carnegie, G. (2016). The accounting professional project and bank failures: the case of the early 1890s Australian banking crisis.Journal of Management History,22(4). Gooneratne, T. N., Hoque, Z. (2013). Management control research in the banking sector: A critical review and directions for future research.Qualitative Research in Accounting Management,10(2), 144-171. Hay, D. (2015). The frontiers of auditing research.Meditari Accountancy Research,23(2), 158-174. Khlif, H., Achek, I. (2016). IFRS adoption and auditing: a review.Asian Review of Accounting,24(3). Lodhia, S. (2015). Exploring the transition to integrated reporting through a practice lens: an Australian customer owned bank perspective.Journal of Business Ethics,129(3), 585-598. Moradi-Motlagh, A., Babacan, A. (2015). The impact of the global financial crisis on the efficiency of Australian banks.Economic Modelling,46, 397-406. Moradi-Motlagh, A., Saleh, A. S., Abdekhodaee, A., Ektesabi, M. (2012). Performance and stock return in Australian banking.Journal of Modern Accounting and Auditing,8(5), 616. Seamer, M., Choi, B. B., Doowon, L. (2015). Determinants of the rigour of enterprise risk management. Strategies: evidence from Australia. Tadesse, M. (2015).The Role of Internal Audit in Promoting Good Governance: The case of Dashen Bank(Doctoral dissertation, St. Mary's University).