Types of Job Description Essay Example for Free

Types of Job Description Essay External The external job description is the one you post for potential applicants. It lists the title and essential functions of the job, outlines duties and responsibilities and may include administrative information such as the responsibilities of the overall department and the position of the jobs supervisor. It should also list necessary qualifications, including skills, education and experience. Most external job descriptions indicate the salary and benefits offered for the position. Though they need to be brief, they should also be specific so that youre not inundated with applications from people who are unqualified. Generic A generic or general job description describes the job in broad terms. Depending on the size of the organization and the number of similar job positions within it, the generic description may be used as a template for department heads to craft more specific descriptions for jobs under their purview. However, the Poindexter Consulting Group warns that generic job descriptions can open a company to problems with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces the Americans with Disabilities Act. This act mandates that employers not discriminate against qualified disabled people who are able to fulfill the essential functions of jobs. If a generic description doesnt detail what the essential functions are, you could create the appearance of discrimination. Moreover, the government uses job descriptions to determine that employers are following legal guidelines regarding equal pay and opportunities for overtime. Generic descriptions that dont specify wages and hours wont protect you if your organization comes under government scrutiny. Internal The internal job description contains the same information as the external one but goes into more precise detail, according to the Grand Roads Executive Search firm. The administrative information, for example, may include the name and job title of the positions supervisor. Internal descriptions of higher level jobs may list metrics such as how much revenue the jobholder is expected to generate, how many clients or accounts she will oversee or service or how many employees she will supervise. A well-written, thorough job description ensures everyone knows what your expectations of the position are so that Human Resources can hire the right person, the person hired understands what to do and youre legally protected if the new hire doesnt meet those expectations. How to Write a Job Description Step 2 Overview Next you write the general overview of the job position. This is the 1-minute elevator pitch. Don’t go overboard here. The rest of the written job description will break down the details. This is where you summarize the nature and overall purpose of the job. How to Write a Job Description Step 3 Essential Functions and Responsibilities This is the job description section that explains the day-to-day of the job. You start by listing out the essential functions of the position. Essential job functions are responsibilities that are 5% or greater of the employee’s workload. All the essential functions should add up to 100% of the job position. They should be listed in order of importance. I like to add at the end of this section â€Å"other duties as assigned† as a catchall for special projects that may come up. How to Write a Job Description Step 4 Job Qualifications This is where you list out the minimum requirements of the job position. Be sure to write the qualifications for the position you need, not the person who may currently be in the position. If a job requirement is listed then those candidates not meeting the minimum standards are not viable candidates for the position. This job qualifications area can be broken down into the further sections listed below. I’ve included some examples of functional job descriptions: 1. Education If the job position requires a degree or certification list it here. Are you willing to substitute years of experience for education? If so, specifically communicate how many years of related experience is an acceptable substitute for a degree or certification. Job description example: 4 years of software development experience with .Net may be substituted for a 4-year degree in computer science. 2. Experience List the amount of industry experience or directly related job experience required. Job description example: 5 years of project management experience in the financial services industry. 3. Supervisory experience If supervisory experience is required, list how many years of supervisory experience are required along with how many employees supervised. Job description example: 5 years experience supervising 10 or more employees. 4. Technical proficiencies This is where you list what technical or software skills are needed to perform the essential functions of the job. Job description example: Must be able to type 80 wpm in MS Word. 5. Communication skills In most jobs, having good communication skills is essential. Maybe you need someone who has excellent written communication skills if you are hiring a technical writer. You may need someone with public speaking experience if you are hiring for your training department. You may need someone who is an exceptional oral communicator for the receptionist position or negotiation skills if they are in sales. These are all examples of communication skills that are required to perform the essential functions of the job. Some job positions may require multiple communications skills in order to perform the work. 6. Decision making Being a good decision maker isn’t something reserved for management. Some jobs require the person to work independently and to make on-the-spot decisions that affect their work and the company. This is where you specify how much freedom the position has to make decisions regarding responsibilities of the job. 7. Other competencies or skills Other competencies or skills necessary to perform the job may be the ability to meet deadlines or work more than 40 hours, as needed. You may need someone who has the ability to work on teams. This is the section where you add these kinds of details. 8. Background checks or licensing requirements Most companies require some sort of background check before hiring a candidate. This is the section where you will include a statement about any background checks or other requirements candidates must pass in order to qualify for the position. Job description example: †¢ Criminal background check †¢ Reference checks †¢ Education verification †¢ Drug test †¢ Physical exam †¢ Driver’s license and proof of insurance 9. Preference Everything in the requirements section of the job description is a minimum job requirement except for this section. In this section you are telling candidates that it would be very helpful if they had particular skills or abilities but it’s not required. Job description example: Experience with MS Visio is highly desired. How to Write a Job Description Step 5 Physical Requirements When most people read this section of the job description they don’t pay much attention. They think that this is just legalese. I can understand that unless you are someone who has physical limitations. Potential job candidates need to know what they physically have to do in the job and in what environment. If they are scared of heights but the job requires them to work several hundred feet off the ground in a warehouse this would not be a good fit and the candidate can self-select out of applying for the job position. Another reason this section is needed is because of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). This is a topic that requires a lot of attention and would sidetrack this article so I’ll summarize to stay on topic. Employers need to list the physical requirements so those with disabilities or physical limitations can judge whether they can perform the job as-is or with reasonable accommodation. For example, someone hard of hearing may be able to perform a call center job if they have a device that amplifies voices on the phone so they can hear customers. Additionally, your current employees’ health may change over time and they may struggle to physically perform their jobs. They may need reasonable accommodations, as well.

The Issue of Informatized Conflict

The Issue of Informatized Conflict Charles H. Rybeck, Lanny R. Cornwell, Philip M. Sagan It took the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936 to awaken many to the threat of the Nazis. In 1957, it took Sputnik to awaken the US to the Soviet threat in space. It took 9/11 to awaken many to the threat of violent Islamist extremism. And it took the Underwear Bomber of Christmas Day 2009 to awaken the White House to the inadequacy of the way the US used its Terrorism Watchlist. What will it take to awaken us to the threat of what the Chinese insightfully call Informatized Conflict[1]? Will we embolden our adversaries through an ineffectual response as the world did when facing the emerging Nazi threat? Or will we respond as decisively and with as much foresight as we did to Sputnik? What will it take to align the United States Government (USG, used here as synonymous with whole of Government as an enterprise construct) and its allies to take effective countermeasures to prevail in Informatized Conflict? In this article, we outline a non-partisan, USG-led strategy for security in the face of that challenge. Information Technology, the quaint and already outdated concept of IT, fails to capture the digital dimension of our world in the Information Age. The concept harkens back to the now-distant days when IT was a sequestered, relatively unimportant, compartment of our world. CIOs reported to CFOs because CEOs pigeonholed computers as simple aids to accounting. In reality, though, as anyone with a smart phone knows, the digital dimension is now integral to every aspect of business and societal interaction on a global scale. Each day we wake up in a world of active Informatized Conflict. Unseen battles are being waged all around us. After the Chinese penetrated our military weapons supply chain, after the North Koreans exposed our corporate vulnerabilities, and after the Russians influenced our national media in the 2016 Presidential Election, how is it that we havent responded strategically to this clear and present danger? What catastrophe would we have to experience to take the steps necessary for our own defense? Sadly, the USG and our entire National Security Enterprise (which includes all stakeholders, public and private) are failing to directly confront the digital threat because it is not constituted to see this issue. Our institutions look at the world as it was, not as it is, and not as it is inevitably becoming in the rapidly emerging world of the Internet of Things (IoT), where machine learning will play an essential role in organizing the growing sea of information in which we live. Every tool we use in national security (from weapons to intelligence to diplomacy), in commerce, and in governance now rests on a rapidly evolving digital foundation. Today we must run to keep up, and tomorrow we will be required to run even faster. This challenge to run is, unfortunately, in an area where we have seldom managed to crawl and our nations leaders have not fully recognized that reality at the highest levels. Senior executives are only beginning to realize that our digital challenges have become mission-critical, that they defy our routine acquisition processes, and that they are too consequential to be left to technologists and acquisition specialists, alone. The pressing need for consideration of Informatized Conflict by non-technologists prompted us to translate what have been internal Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC), IT-based debates into unclassified laymens terms for consideration by informed influencers. This article was written to (1) identify key, progress-limiting issues on which the Executive Branch and Congress need to act, (2) offer a unifying and non-partisan strategy to protect Security and Freedom. In Part II of this series uses two specific examples to illustrate the execution of this proposed strategy. Responding to Global Disruption: How do We Need to Change the Way We Fulfill our National Security Mission? The digital dimension is enhancing and disrupting the fabric of life in every society where modern technology is present. Walter Russell Meads Blue Social Model[2] describes the slow-motion collapse of that part of the 20th Centurys legacy is now accelerating in ways that will likely usher in an historic realignment. This realignment will, of necessity, change the frameworks within which America provides for its security, including how it acquires the goods and services it uses in that effort. 2017s national and international news is unfolding so feverishly that the non-partisan Joint action recommended in this article is in constant jeopardy of becoming overcome by events. As Mead points out, Donald Trumps election can best be understood as part of the Blue Social Models collapse. TAI readers will not be shocked to hear that Government, Industry, and Labor leaders have all, in their rush to preserve the old order, ignored the digital dimensions National Security imperatives. Despite all the Governments talk about the Internet Cybersecurity and all its investment in IT Cyber, our National Security Enterprise has yet to reorient its priorities or its budget to prepare for Informatized Conflict. Right now, our Government has a unique opportunity to reorient the structure, flow, and management of the information for the National Security Enterprise in ways that both ensure the security of our future and reduce the cost of our defense.[3] We have not yet recognized that-even though our challenges have their roots in the technology arena-business-as-usual technological solutions alone will not address these challenges. USG decision makers and influencers, from the Executive Branch to Congress to our citizenry as a whole, will have to consider and adopt a Joint strategy in order to realize the benefits of this digital reorientation. Of course, this will take us outside our national comfort zone, but, given the Informatized Conflict threat, the alternative of continuing with business-as-usual is unthinkable. Wise observers have pointed out that overreaction to catastrophic attack is likely to jeopardize our democracy. So, prevention of such attacks should be a rallying point for citizens of every political persuasion. And we should protect our capacity for non-partisan and bipartisan cooperation on confronting our vulnerabilities as one of our strongest National Security assets. Only the Trump Administrations actions to preserve and rebuild trust across the National Security Enterprise can make that cooperation possible. Vision for a New National Security Jointness: Figure 1: The Joint National Security Enterprise: Combining Capabilities of the DoD, IC, and International Partners Source: USD(I) In the US, we entrust our frontline National Defense leadership to the DoD and the IC, two interconnected but separate chains of command. These entities are chartered to deliver kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities.   Only the Commander-in-Chief (POTUS) controls both. In 2009, Lt Gen James Clapper, as Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence [USD(I)] combined his focus on Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) with all projections of national power that are informed by ISR in a vision for Jointness. This vision (see Figure 1.) has yet to be implemented, but it provides the basis necessary for C4ISR Fusion (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance). This vision summarizes what the DoD and the IC agree on in theory. They agree on Jointness and Fusion in the fields of intelligence, military operations, cybersecurity, and counterterrorism.[4] Jointness has a proud and successful history as a strategy for the US Armed Forces. But here we use the term Joint to refer not only to the combined Armed Services but to the unified actions of all the DoD, IC, and other stakeholders-and ever-shifting alliances-whose efforts combine in pursuit of National Security with all the instruments of national power. Fusion here combines data, data science, and data services to achieve security objectives first outlined by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission. We depend on this Fusion at every stage of conflict. For example, modern ISR depends on Upstream Data Fusion (UDF), not always having to wait for cumbersome sequences to produce a fully-vetted finished document. Similarly, active conflict with near-peer adversaries demands kinetic responses only possible via Fusion-based, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) interoperability. A concerted national application of Jointness and Fusion can break the deadlock that is keeping us from doing what we know we need to do at the enterprise-level to defend ourselves in a world of Informatized Conflict. That Jointness can only be achieved by bringing together the appropriate teams, at the appropriate levels, to ensure a clear commanders intent is realized. Our Three Indispensable Mission-Critical Teams   Ã‚   Figure 2: The National Security Enterprises Three Mission-Critical Teams Source: DMI Three Mission-Critical Teams combine to form the National Security Enterprise and fulfill its mission. The Government teams (Governance Budget, Mission Execution, and Technology) perform functions analogous to their three familiar private sector equivalents (i.e., the CEO, COO, and CIO organizations). The obvious differences between the Governments organization and the private sector (for example, the shared powers of Congress and POTUS) are useful in understanding why common-sense solutions and efficiencies adopted almost universally in the private sector have been rejected within the Government. C4ISR Fusion connects the three Mission-Critical Teams for Informatized Conflict. Acquisition to Support USG Innovation? Eisenhowers farewell address cautioned us to be wary as well as transparent in how we contract with the military-industrial base to improve capabilities. Despite yeoman efforts by the Executive Branch and Congress, Americas system for acquisition has not matched Eisenhowers challenge nor has it kept up with technologys structural transformation. Platforms, sensors, and systems are undergoing widely reported changes, but the USG meet the current acquisition challenge only by understanding the molecular structure of the information or digital substrate underlying them all. Without the discipline imposed by what the private sector calls a business case, the USG has become famous for failed large-scale technology initiatives.[5] Fortunately, though, new, private-sector innovations are creating opportunities to change how the Government conducts its National Security business. Industry observers are all aware that software development has undergone an historic transformation from grand, multi-year Waterfalls to modest, short-term Agile sprints. DevOps is now coming into use to describe software DEVelopment and information technology OPerationS as a way of accelerating the building, testing, and releasing software. Famously taking advantage of microservices and as-a-service infrastructure, private sector leaders (such as Netflix and Uber) are currently showing how new software can be delivered hourly. In contrast, fielding software enhancements in National Security now typically takes years. The USG is adopting Agile development-but within enterprise strictures that are preventing the implementation of many of its most potent benefits. Responding to these global, private sector-led changes, Congress has mandated acquisition change in the National Defense Authorization Acts of 2016 and 2017. [6]   Although such reform has been a perennial subject of conversation, Secretary of Defense Mattis has an opportunity to work with a receptive Administration and Congressional leaders like the Chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), to fundamentally reorient acquisition. In the past, the USG focused primarily on procuring existing products, services, and capabilities to meet known requirements. Now, the USG needs to build the inherently Governmental internal competency to lead a new way of doing business: continuous engineering to take advantage of evolving technology in a data-centric context and to confront evolving threats. In confronting the current strategic and acquisition challenge, the Trump Administration will need to avoid the pitfalls of commercial conflicts of interest, bureaucratic overreach, and unnecessary partisanship. In a dynamic commercial environment involving many vendors offering to sell partial solutions to the USG, the Administration will need to improve its acquisition and orchestration functions. What does an informed USG senior executive need to know about the infinite array of National Security technological and programmatic detail in order to affect such a consequential change? At one level, it is quite simple: Private Sector best practices can guide, regulate, and execute the many functions that are not unique to the USG. Key mission areas, in contrast, demand unique and USG-specific intervention. US law often refers to this as inherently Governmental and specifies how it needs to be handled. Private Sector best practices, here, are inadequate to meet USG needs. This simple distinction can be usefully applied to our current Informatized Conflict challenge. Commanders Intent/ Congressional Intent/ National Strategy:  We Already Know What Works The Trump Administration should begin immediately to remedy the gridlock inherent in so much of the USGs preparation for Informatized Conflict. The Executive Office of the President (EOP) could mobilize the leaders of Governments three Mission-Critical Teams (Governance Budget, Mission Execution, and Technology) across the entire National Security Enterprise. Together, the three Mission-Critical Teams could champion Tightly Aligned core capabilities to enable enterprise functionality and innovation at the Loosely Coupled edge. Figure 3: Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled as an alternative to todays dysfunction and as a Winning Joint Strategy in Informatized Conflict While the Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled approach originated as an engineering concept, it has been successfully applied in concert by the three private sector equivalents of the Mission-Critical Teams to guide similar foundational, Internet-dependent initiatives. Major retailers and service delivery firms (famously, Wal-Mart in the 1990s and Netflix in the 2000s, for example) rebuilt their supply chains using this approach. The Google Android used on smartphones, tablets, and other devices-the operating system (OS) with the worlds largest installed base-is an open source example of this strategy in action. The Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled strategy applied to the USGs digital assets can be what Ernest May and Philip Zelikow called a Capital P Policy[7], a redirection around which the country unites over a long timespan and across political divides. This and subsequent Administrations will need a rigorous Mission/Business Case to sustain alignment among these three Mission-Critical Teams. Fortunately, the mission benefits are so powerful and the cost savings so dramatic that the Mission/Business Case could be strong enough to overcome the entrenched interests who will, of course, fight it with all the tools at their disposal. The essence of the Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled strategy is to agree on those few principles, policies, and standards necessary for the enterprise to function as a unified whole. Then operational units and individual programs can be freed to innovate at the edge in whatever ways best serve their individual missions. Who Needs to Do What? What we are proposing is an approach inspired by extraordinary systems thinkers from each of the three Mission-Critical Teams. Here we give examples with an emphasis on those representing the Governance Budget and Mission Execution teams. The only technologist listed here is Dr. Cerf: Andy Marshall (retired leader of the Defense Departments Office of Net Assessment) Gen Mike Hayden (retired after leading NSA and CIA) Philip Zelikow (former executive director of both the Markle Foundation task force on National Security in the Information Age and then the 9/11 Commission; later Counselor of the Department of State under Secretary Condoleezza Rice) The late Ernie May (senior advisor to the 9/11 Commission) Michà ¨le Flournoy (former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and now head of the Center for a New American Security) Gen Paul Selva (the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Vint Cerf (the co-inventor of TCP/IP, the messaging protocol that underlies the entire Internet) They and we have found that few Government executives have the cross-functional experience to fully appreciate their counterparts frames of reference. But the kind of changes that the USG needs now can only be made by aligning the strategies of all of the three Mission-Critical Teams. Figure 4: Aligning the Three Mission-Critical Teams Source: DMI The three Mission-Critical Teams bring very different foci, levers, and artifacts to the fight. These, in turn, depend on distinctive disciplines, equities, goals, methodologies, timetables, and metrics. In order for the teams to align, each need to accommodate the others demands and battle rhythms. A Call to Action President Dwight Eisenhower personally led the response to Sputnik. Among a series of coordinated initiatives, he formed the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) which changed the Governments approach to procurement of high risk, high payoff advanced technology, ensured US leadership in the Space Race, and funded what eventually became the Internet. Eisenhower demonstrated the power of senior executive decisions in combining the three Mission-Critical Teams under the coordination of the EOP. This article has proposed how the three Mission-Critical Teams Necessary for Security (Governance Budget, Mission Execution, and Technology) can mobilize around a Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled strategy. We have specified roles and responsibilities in language understandable to each of those teams. We have proposed a framework that enables serious, public consideration of issues that have been ignored, enables senior executives to take decisive Joint action, and enables them to authorize unclassified metrics for assessing progress in classified realms.[8] Do we have to wait until adversaries inflict catastrophic damage before we take the steps that we already know we need? Will we allow ourselves to be incapacitated by internal divisions?   In advance of the unthinkable, can we do what it takes to provide for the common defense in this Age of Informatized Conflict? Charles H. Rybeck, Lanny R. Cornwell, and Philip M. Sagan are Senior Advisors to the Intelligence Community and the Defense Department on Enterprise Engineering issues. They are CEO, COO, and CTO of Digital Mobilizations, Inc. (DMI). This is Part II of an Occasional Special Series DRAFT IN PROCESS: Not Releasable in Any Form This requires Prepublication Review before official submission The Figures are in this draft for content only. They are being recreated in forms suitable for publication. This is a continuation of theWhat Will It Take? Part I of an Occasional TAI Special Series. Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled Strategy in Action: Two Illustrative Examples Charles H. Rybeck, Lanny R. Cornwell, Philip M. Sagan The Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled strategy calls for budgetary, operational, and technology changes, but in this article, we only introduce the strategy in broad outline using two representative examples of where the USG has already successfully begun. These two examples underscore the role of the combined three Mission-Critical Teams within the Government in initiatives that require broad popular support. Below we explore two examples in order to illustrate the challenge facing the USG, to show how pockets of excellence within the USG have already pointed the way forward, to demonstrate how the challenge of the digital dimension demands different USG responses, and to underscore what, concretely, will need to be done by the USG. Many achievements are classified, legitimately and necessarily protected from public discussion. But any digital strategy for National Security can and must be agreed upon at the unclassified level, sustaining widespread public support on the basis of sound arguments that include a full defense of our privacy and civil liberties. For that reason, we consider two pathfinding efforts, acknowledging their strengths and sketching what needs to be done next. Our System Can Work: Weve Shown We Can Crawl We assess the US response to the challenge of the digital dimension as requiring a progression from Crawl to Walk to Run. US visions for future defense such as the Third Offset, Integrated Intelligence, Cyber Security, Data-to-Decisions (D2D), and Fusion Warfare all depend on this digital foundation. For the last decade, for example, the DoD has been guided by the Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) construct in planning to confront near-peer adversaries. A2/AD will also need to adjust its view of platforms, sensors, and weapons to accommodate the kinetic and non-kinetic implications of this new digital foundation. Fortunately, much groundwork for this mobilization is already being laid at the Federal level. We can already point to many successes at the Crawl stage. Two examples can illuminate how consequential these decisions can be, how the role of the USG will need to be tailored to the problems, and how much further we have to go in order to Walk and Run. Example #1 Modernizing Infrastructure: In 2012, the IC recognized how it was consuming and delivering IT hardware, software, and services in ways that were unnecessarily inferior to the private sector. They awoke to the fact that the Governments acquisition approach was handcuffing every aspect of National Security. The Congress, the IC, and the Administration supported the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in taking the lead in this initiative. They all deserve credit for the joint effort. The CIA reoriented its office of the CIO. It created a Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) contract to end CIA reliance on internal, outmoded expenditures and shift to purchasing infrastructure services as a utility. And it put the CIO under a new Directorate of Digital Innovation (DDI) to better link it with Mission functions. The contract enables a new, market-based model for acquiring enterprise-level software. C2S-based applications are licensed with fees to software vendors paid on the basis of the utilization of their products. This marketplace allows competing products to be evaluated and adopted by users in their day-to-day decisions as to how best meet the requirements of a specific problem. In the rapidly evolving data craft of the Internet, this method is far more adaptive and effective than a pre-determined, one size fits all solution imposed by a centralized bureaucracy. In technical terms, the IC is shifting much of its infrastructure costs from CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) to OPEX (Operational Expenditure), eliminating recurring CAPEX, paying only for services as needed, and arranging to stay current with hardware and software innovation in ways that were impossible in the old business model. The success of the CIAs C2S initiative results from the Agencys recognition that the effective use of commercial market investments, technologies, and business processes can result in highly effective application of all too precious tax-payer capital, avoiding ineffective, costly duplication. The result of the Agencys strategy has been improved mission effectiveness while freeing scarce technology development funds to meet those needs that are truly unique to the Agencys mission. Example #2 Modernizing Knowledge Management (KM): In marked contrast to Infrastructure, the management of information within Federal systems was recognized by the IC as an inherently Governmental function, a core competence that should not be outsourced. Accepting that responsibility, the National Security Agency (NSA) took the lead in the Smart Data Initiative to identify what standardized labeling of packets of information are necessary in a modern digital environment. The first results, an Enterprise Data Header (EDH), was a signal achievement, admittedly and intentionally minimalist, but sufficient to enable the IC Cloud in its Crawl phase. In both these examples, Infrastructure and KM, success was achieved only because the organizations involved, specifically the Congress, the Administration, ODNI, CIA, and NSA all aligned their three Mission-Critical Teams in the service of a new strategic direction. But Can We Walk Run?    In order to achieve mission benefits well need to stop mistaking Easy for Hard and Complex for Simple. We have selected these two specific Crawl success stories because they also illustrate the executive decisions that need to be made today if we are going to Walk and Run tomorrow. In the case of infrastructure-which can best be thought of as plumbing-something relatively straightforward is being made unnecessarily complex within the DoD acquisition and planning apparatus. In the case of KM, many USG Departments Agencies-including the IC DoD-are mistaking KM as a simple issue. The USG is failing to come to grips with something inherently difficult by, in some cases, inaccurately imagining it is easy: if we just build the plumbing, everything else will take care of itself. It is only by effectively structuring and managing information (KM) that the USG will induce the digital dimension to yield its mission benefits. In both cases (Infrastructure and KM) necessary but insufficient actions have been taken. Creating Cloud repositories for data and minimal metadata standards are achievements, but, in themselves, they cannot produce the Mission Benefits that are needed and that have been promised. Sadly, many executives have bought into an automagic fallacy that these Crawl phase activities would automagically produce Walk and Run results. Figure 5: What is a Responsible Executive to Do? Source: DMI Lower level Government employees are left holding the bag. They are forced to describe classic Quick Wins and low-hanging fruit because it is only their boss bosses who are empowered to make the tough choices and substantial investments that will be required to produce the promised Mission Benefits. In the Agile development environment, where development of software continues apace as long as lower level Government product owners approve incremental progress, mission-critical decisions and investments are often postponed indefinitely. The impediments to the High Road are so formidable that thousands of National Security employees and contractors have adopted the Low Road. The distinction depicted in Figure 5. has actually been rejected by USG employees because it disparages the Low Road. That is the strategy weve adopted, and we need to promote it. Example #1 Enterprise Infrastructure: Private Sector Best Practices Leading the Way for Government Action Due to the disconnect between the DoD and the IC, Infrastructure Modernization is currently being held back at the National Security Enterprise level. Private sector solutions will need to drive this partnership. The DoD and its Armed Services are resisting the massive budgetary/acquisition changes needed to implement the CIA-led strategy. Only the Commanders Intent will be strong enough to clear this impediment. POTUS does not need to wait for a catastrophe to prompt this solution. Example #2 Enterprise Knowledge Management (KM): Government Active Management of a Modularized, Multi-Vendor Competitive Environment for Innovation At the same time that a sound foundation for KM was being laid through the establishment of IC data standards in the EDH, two basic strategies for the acquisition of knowledge exploitation technology were utilized. Weve termed the first approach The Hedgehog and the second The Fox in honor of Berlins 1953 essay on Tolstoy and the philosophy of history, which begins quoting the ancient Greek poet, Archilochus, who wrote The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. The Hedgehog. The hedgehog strategy entailed the acquisition of an all-inclusive solution from a single vendor, what we can think of as a highly-advanced knowledge appliance[9], a comprehensive solution that combined hardware, software, and a particular way of thinking about knowledge, problems, questions, and answers. This approach outsourced all to a single supplier. It fit the existing procurement system well because it focused on a single, big procurement decision. The Fox. The fox strategy entailed the acquisition of a collection of modularized[10], best of breed, highly-advanced devices, each of which solved parts of problems and in combination formed a system capable of solving a particular problem. Hardware, software, and way of thinking about knowledge, problems, questions, and answers could be quickly re-configured as better technologies came along or needs changed a critical capability given the ferment of Internet technologies and applications. This approach limited the amount of hardwa

The role of women in society and the church

The role of women in society and the church Introduction I am going to discuss the role of women in the church and contentious issues, particularly when the passages such as 1 Timothy 2:11-14, and 1 Corinthians 13:34 talk about women should be silent in church. And slightly discuss the women in the society. The Role of Women in the Society Women in the modern society Women today are coming forth in modern social trends. This feminism may appear too extreme and rather threatening to the male ego, yet the role of women in current society has drastically changed. Perhaps there is some explanation for their actions. Women are now regularly performing duties that were traditionally assigned to males. They are attempting to fight the continuing stereotype established during the earlier part of the century. The pretty image of the perfect fifties wife is rapidly evolving into a more suitable projection to accommodate their new role in todays society. More than two generations ago, a girl was expected to abandon her academic pursuits and assume the role of a housewife. She would completely devote herself to the preservation of the female-oriented position of homemaker. As time has progressed, fluctuations in the economy have made it necessary for a woman to obtain a career in order to fit in the society. Strange as it may seem, the family roles have not changed much in todays society. While girls and women (not only Polish) have more opportunities in home based employment, the traditional roles of women are still quite evident. They are still the caring provider and nurturer of young infants and children, the comforter for the crying child and the feminine presence of the household. While the husbands role has diversified into more household chores and the cooking and cleaning up responsibilities, they are still considered the head of the household. In the absence of the man, can the woman really be like the man? I think yes. There are women who are capable in finance, Do-It-Yourself fixtures and fittings, even being a capable single parent and bread winner. In this respect, women will have to be like the man. Of course, the woman cannot match the physical strength of the man. The other aspect of thinking like the man is a definite no. This is through experience. Women generally look at the details and forget about the overall picture. They have the capability of juggling more than one issue at a time unlike the man. And she is more tempered to her feelings. And because of this, the focus is not there to make a sound judgment. Men on the other hand, are more focus and look at one thing at a time. They are less prone to feelings and therefore they are better at seeing the overall picture. I think for this matter, a man balances up the woman and vice versa. If we look at the example of a family with the wife who tries to be like the man, we have a situation where the roles are different now, because of the presence of the man. Man, no matter how gifted or ungifted have a certain ability to say that he is the man in the house. And for the wife to usurp his position there will be certain unrest in the overall relationship. This may not be currently evident but it will become an issue at a later stage. Subtle hints are always there and if the wife chooses not to suspect or confront the situation, it will lead to a crisis. Men and Women in Worship. I will begin by what Paul stated concerning men and women in worship that men should adopt a respectful attitude as they pray and also women should pray with an altitude of respect, just like men. It might be a different thing in that church which Paul was addressing. Women face particular problem, in that it is easy for them to become preoccupied with their appearance and with looks that take time to achieve. It’s true that Descent and Honorable behave matters far more to God than jewels and expensive clothes. Beside if Christian women who posses Gods worship are too concerned about their external appearance they will forget the essential and will have neither the time of doing good deed. It’s important to emphasize that Paul was not forbidding beautiful jewelry or lovely hair styles to all Christian women of all time was warning against becoming so attached to clothes and fashions and forgets the most important thing that is pleasing God by doing good deeds. Paul Advice Women to Be Quite During Teachings This advice has raised much debate among Christians in Africa, especially since the raise of feminist theology that asserts among other things, the right of women express themselves. Certain versions of the Bible have tried to get to get around the problem of translating 2:11 in a more acceptable way while still being true in the spirit of the text. The massage translates this as i dont let women to take over and tell men what to do. This translation assume that Paul give this advice because women were talking positions of authority and even of dominance over men, which was unacceptable in the culture of that day. The requirement for silence in association with teaching may also indicate that the women were talkative during time of teaching and worship. Paul advice women to be silence not because of inferior, but as a sign of their submission to men and of acknowledgment of mens authority. They will then be obeying the Oder that God established at creation. In applying this instruction in Kenya today, we need to think carefully about how women express their submission to authorities and to men. THE ROLES OF WOMEN IN CHURCH IN KENYA TODAY The role of women in the church is a contentious issue, particularly when passage 1 Timothy 2:11-14 is a regarded as laying down absolute rather than general principles within a particular culture. The focus should fall on the biblical call for all human beings to decern what is the will of God in their live ( roman 12:2) Jesus radical mission of transformation for liberation. Means that women and men are equally called and empowered to participate in the same mission in the church. What women and men do depends on our obedience to the guidance and empowerment of the Holy spirit. Because of the entrenched culture and sexist attitude and practices, and the male-dominated leadership in many of the churches especially in the Maasai land, women in Kenya church have critical and prophetic role to play in stirring waters and speaking the truth by asserting their God given humanity and gift not for their own sake of integrity of the gospel. many women in Kenya church have continue to claim their full potential and have taken leading roles. like the Samaritan woman ( John 4:1-42) when women in the Kenya church drink the water offered by Jesus, they go out to witness and spread the word of truth in their homes, villages, communities and churches with determination, boldness, courage and humility. for example the like of Teresia Wairimu, Esther Obasike, Bishop Magret Wajiru and many of great women of God which some have founded churches , preached, taught christian theology seminary schools and translated scripture into different languages in Kenya. Where the church have listen the voice of the Holy Spirit , they have realize that scripture grant women a place in all ministries of the church. And women have been rightly ordeined to serve in all ministries of the church. Conclusion A careful examination of the Bible will yield an understanding of God’s intent for women and men to be full and equal partners to serve and worship Him. Perhaps the easiest point to make and understand is that there are many biblical examples of women leaders. The following women were divinely called to lead, were affirmed by their religious communities, and were specifically recorded in scripture as part of God’s revealed truth. A few examples: Miriam – prophet; played major role in Exodus; led worship singing and dancing. Deborah – prophet; judge; led Israeli troops into battle with Barak Lydia – business woman who became a central leader in the Philippian Church Priscilla – helped Paul establish churches at Corinth and Ephesus; corrected Apollo’s preaching Phoebe – deacon; commended by Paul for her service to the church If by design God created women not to be leaders, then he would be going against his own order and intent to place women in leadership; but God does not violate His own design. In the beginning humans were created male and female in equality and partnership reflecting the image of God both individually and together as a plural unit. The sequence of creation does not signify importance or superiority. Adam is not superior because he is first; Eve is not the new and improved model. Instead, Eve is called Adam’s helper. The word helper, however, is not used as an indication of rank as in â€Å"a boss and an assistant.† The Hebrew word is ‘ezer and is also used to describe God by Moses in Exodus 18:4 when he says, â€Å"My father’s God was my helper: he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.† Since God is called a helper also, we need to maintain the original elevated biblical definition of this word, and not submit to a culturally lowered interpretation in our understanding of God’s creation design Adam and Eve are both punished for disobeying God. One of the consequences of Eve’s sin was a distorted relationship with Adam. However, God in his mercy promised a reversal of the fall and restored divine and human relations through Jesus Christ. Restoration in Salvation: Salvation through Christ reverses or removes the punishment of judgment. Individuals are restored to a relationship with God. While we live in a world where the effects of sin are still playing out, believers are now members of the Kingdom of God where equality in him is restored. But even before Christ, faithful women were already filling places of leadership indicating that one’s relationship with God has an impact that brings about a change on the judgment meted out at the fall. Refrence list 1 The Bible 2 http://www.gci.org/church/ministry/women6b 4.Sanley J. Grenz (1950-2005) :A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry. Wolfhart Pannenberg publisher. 1

Anatomy of Criticism Essay -- Anatomy of Criticism Essays

Anatomy of Criticism  Ã‚   Introduction In his Anatomy of Criticism, Northrop Frye offers a complex theory that aspires to describe a unifying system for literary criticism. It can be argued, however, that in attempting to delineate such an all-inclusive structure, Frye's system eliminates identity in literature. The present essay takes up this argument and offers examples of how identity is precluded by Frye's system as outlined in Anatomy of Criticism. Structure Vs. Identity In Frye's system, the organizing principles that give literature coherence and structure are derived from the myths of ancient Greece and the archetypal imagery found in the Bible. In his Third Essay, Frye suggests that all literature is based on displacements of these myths. In postulating this, however, Frye denies the individual identity of a work of literature: it becomes merely another abstraction of an axial symbol, an embellished copy of an archetypal myth. This tenet essentially annexes the identity of the writer as well, for every work of literature is seen by Frye as being based on or derived from all other works. The originality of a writer's ideas is denied, and the author's identity is therefore negated. There is no such thing as an 'original' literary identity in Frye's system. For Frye, literature must lead back to the Garden, to mythical symbolism; if a literary work does not displace an archetype, then it is not considered to be literature. Although it seems that Fry e is able to find axial imagery in almost any work, we must ask what his theory of myths excludes. If we look at the works cited in the Anatomy, we see that Frye concentrates much of his discussion on the classics of Western literature (Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, T.S. ... ...y in this quote by removing the individual from the question: the immediacy of "Who am I?" is replaced with the more disinterested and impersonal "Where is Here?" But the questioning of identity is central to the Canadian imagination, and is perhaps an axiom of our identity. In decontextualizing and desocializing literature, Frye denies the Canadian literary identity. Conclusion Northrop Frye's theory of literary criticism attempts to include all literature in a structure that totalizes. In doing so, however, identity is excluded: the identity of the writer, the reader, and individual works ofliterature is denied; in denying these identities, Frye perhaps precludes the identity of literature itself.    List of References Used Frye, Northrop (19 ). The Bush Garden. Works Cited: Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957.

Marketing Letter :: Business Marketing Letters Digital Cameras

September 24, 2003 To All Editors and Publishers, Come and See Our Latest Products! Guinea Laser Photo and its network of dealers in the U.S., invite you to drop by our booth at PhotosGalore West for a look at our latest technological breakthroughs in digital camera technology. eyelike twinkleâ„ ¢ - Just released in August, is the first digital camera that enables presentation of multiple exposures with a reliable preview image. Before this innovation it was impossible to overlay a second exposure over another digital image. With twinkleâ„ ¢ it is now possible to overlay several images and display the results in preview mode before the final exposure is made. eyelike windedâ„ ¢ - Also just released, this digital camera software is specially designed to capture and process either moving objects or still portraits. It allows the shooting and capture of multiple images in sequence, at a speed of approximately one image per second. Using windedâ„ ¢ the photographer can later view all of the stored images one shot at a time, in digital contact sheet format, on a computer. These software modules are just the latest additions to Guinea's line-up of products that make eyelikeâ„ ¢ Digital Camera System a world leader. They're available to all users of the eyelikeâ„ ¢ system whether they work in a PC or a Macintosh based computer. 2002 good reasons to check us out! Guinea Laser Photo manufactured its 2002th digital camera in 2002. These cameras are used by professionals worldwide in the fields of: photography, archiving, and microscopy. The basis of this technology is the ProgRes 3000 family of cameras that have evolved over the past decade. In 2000, the ProgRes 3012 camera won the internationally recognized Seybold Award as best digital camera for professional use. The longevity of Guinea Digital Camera Systems is legendary. All new hardware and software developments made over the years have been designed to be compatible with the original base products so that users of the very first modules are able to work with the latest technological advances without having to change and buy new equipment.

Rene Descartes and Lao Tzu Essay

Rene Descartes remains one of the most significant philosophers of the West in the past few centuries. In his lifetime, the fame and popularity of Descartes is just like that of a mathematician or a physicist. But today, he is considered as an original philosopher and his ideas and thought are one of the most studied in philosophy. Descartes made attempts to bring philosophy to a new direction. His school of though has rejected the thoughts of Aristotle and scholastic traditions that had dominion on the whole of philosophical thought during the medieval period. It instead made attempts to integrate fully his philosophy of with sciences that were considered at that time to be new. Descartes altered the relationship between theology and philosophy. These new directions that Descartes had initiated made him a philosopher that is revolutionary, The most famous of his ideas are those that employ a method of hyperbolic doubt. Hi argument consist of the possibility that he may doubt but he cannot doubt that he exists. An essential aspect of this philosophical method is on the first of is ideas. In searching for the foundation of philosophy, whatever that has the possibility to be doubted must be rejected. He resolves the argument by saying that we must only trust what is clearly and distinctively seen that is free from doubt. It is in this way that Descartes peels or takes away the layers of beliefs and ideas that would only obstruct his perspective of the truth. His next philosophical thought is reconstructing knowledge little by little and by piece in such a way that the there will be no instance that doubt will be back. Descartes has proven th he himself should have the basic ability of thinking. This thinking mind is separate from the body, the existence of God, nature and the outside world. Descartes has shown that knowledge is truly possible and that a scientific knowledge of the material world is possible that is based on mathematics. Descartes also speaks about innate ideas. If exterior objects are known to have any clarity and that they really are, then there must be the existence of innate ideas. These ideas do not come from imagination or from the senses. These ideas came from the operation of the mind on its own. Only innate ideas have features of necessity or even universality. Ideas that are experienced are only contingent. He said that ideas do not have any similarity to the objects that they represent. Because of this statement, the mind is essentially a thinking entity and the body is just a substance that is extended and therefore essentially different. There is no idea of extension that can be formed in the mind using the senses. To have a thought of an extended substance, the idea of an extension must be innate or should first belong to the mind. The theory of innate ideas basically speaks about certain pieces of knowledge that are known to exist in man even before birth and not acquired from experiencing the outside world. Descartes used this in his claim that man has innate idea of God’s existence and basic nature. These innate ideas are not immediately made known to man but require reason in their discovery. The knowledge of God is innate because it is a product of the faculty of faith (Kenny 1997). Lao Tzu, a famous Chinese philosopher, treats the acquisition of knowledge is dictated because it is based on language and socialization. The composition of knowledge is of arbitrary, historically, accidental social systems of creating differences, guiding desires and acting. Lao Tzu justifies the abandoning of knowledge as a method of recovering the natural, genuine and spontaneous impulses of humanity. Society will mold the desires through the use of words and differences. The acquisition of a sophisticated taste will shape the desires of man and also actions and choices that man will take. Man will not desire things naturally because they are just simple and few. Lao Tzu accepts the idea of having pre-social desires. If man will forget or abandon the learned desires that rose from language socialization, then man cam return to nature. The social analysis of knowledge come with the conceptualization of the natural or innate knowledge (Henricks 1989). Although the teachings of Lao Tzu cannot be considered as part of dualism, his ideas will seem to support the primary idea of Descartes as evident in his book, Tao Te Ching. The book talks about the way of Tao that does not vary and compared it to something like a bellow that is inexhaustible but empty. In spite of this unchanging way that makes the world to what it is, everything relies on this unchanging way because it completes everything. There are some similarities to the philosophy of Lao Tzu and Descartes on knowledge. Descartes believed on the innate knowledge of things that man has before he was ever born. Lao Tzu also believed on knowledge that is acquired before pre-socialization wherein man has knowledge before he is immersed in the context of a social world and language. They also have similarities in ideas of dualism. Tao is not extensive and to the world’s order, it has a spiritual entity as a factor by affecting it by using the mind. Te will become the tool that the unvarying way will utilize to show the effects in the body or the natural world. Tao is the one controlling Te and Te follows what Tao says. Tao is being depicted here as God. The real Tao cannot be defined for when it can defined then it is not the real Tao. The Tao that cannot be named is the one who created heaven and earth. It is in reference of something that nothing greater can be thought of. Tao already existed before all the other beings. For Descartes, the knowledge of God’s existence is innate because it is the result of the faculty of faith. In man, there is this idea that lies of a perfect being that Descartes is incapable of creating this idea on his own. This kind of idea must have a cause or a formal reality. This cause cold not have come from a less than perfect being or reality. The attributes of God were of being independent, supremely intelligent and powerful and created everything else in this world. God exists necessarily. Note the similarities of Lao Tzu and Descartes of a supreme being. The only difference is that Lao Tzu did not call it a God. Descartes called it a God, being that it is something that cannot be explained or defined and one that existed before the world was created and the One who created everything else that is found in the world. Lao Tzu did not identify with the being as a personal creator.

Horticulture and Landscape Architecture

Fee Penn Interview Report Campus design is an art consisting of multiple and overlapping designs like determining the locations of teaching buildings, residence halls and so on. As a landscape architecture student, I am interested in this topic. I interviewed professor David Michael Barbarism, who is an assistant professor of landscape architecture in Purdue University. Proof. Barbarism earned a bachelor's of landscape architecture from Virginia Tech and a master of science from the department of landscape architecture at State University of New York Environmental School ofForestry. Before he came to Purdue, he worked in design firms from NYC and Washington D. C where he did a lot of different types of landscape designs including campus design. The day I interviewed Proof. Barbarism was a nice day with warm sunshine and blooming flowers everywhere, Purdue campus seemed to wake up from the dead winter. Nice weather leads to a nice mood, as does a nice campus design. When I asked Proof . Barbarism how Virginia Tech campus influenced his study life, he smiled and shared his story with me happily.He said the first time he walked around in Virginia Tech, he just fell in love with it and noticed that this place was the very place he wanted to go without even learning about the programs. He thought the campus Just felt right to him. It had a consistent style, a great level of public students' space from big wide open areas to little shelter private gathering areas. These were all what he thought a college should be like. From his point of view, campus landscape really has an unimaginable effect on students' lives. Proof. Barbarism did some campus design project when he was working for design firms.When I asked the key points when designing a campus, he thought a few seconds and figured out two main points which were a sense of scale and a sense of place. He explained that a sense of scale should bring comforts to people, for example, a sense of enclosure enough to feel like you are not standing in the middle a big field. The designer should leave enough space to let tons of students to walk between teaching buildings during the ten-minute break. When talking about a sense of place, he used a very effective example which I easily understood.He said to me:† k, meet me at the bell tower, you know where we meet? † The answer was obviously positive. In fact, that's the sense of place, the bell tower has its own location and it's very different from the other places. Both a sense of place and a sense of scale were the two key points he mentioned for campus design. After asking some questions about his experience being a student and a landscape architect, we shared some different opinions on Purdue campus design. We reached agreements on some issues. For example, we both thought State Street was kind of annoying because it cut the campus into two pieces.I remember the first time I arrived in Purdue in August, I let this campus was Just the n orth side of State Street. Proof. Barbarism nodded his head when I was talking and added his comments that there should be a special entry sign on State Street to let people know they were arriving in Purdue campus. We both thought State Street should be a good connection between the north and the south parts instead of being an awkward cut line of the whole campus. When talking about the locations of residence halls, we held different opinions.From my perspectives, Purdue should place the residence halls around teaching alluding so that students can have only a 5-minute walk to class Just like Hawkins Hall. However, Proof. Barbarism didn't agree with me. He shifted his chair, thought a few seconds and put some important points which I hadn't thought of before. He said the reason why many campus put academic areas separated from living areas was because their different functions. Purdue clustered most of the residence halls because they shared some facilities like dining courts, lau ndry systems and open space for fun.On the other hand, academic areas need a quite academic atmosphere tit libraries and laboratories. Considering these two different functions, it was better to separate residence halls and teaching buildings Just like what Purdue had done. Though we had different ideas of where to place residence halls, we had the same idea with respect to making the campus more pedestrian-oriented especially the way from residence halls to teaching buildings. Proof. Barbarism told me his first impression of Purdue campus was that it's an automobile-oriented campus. In fact, I couldn't agree more. There are not any interesting views along the street.I Just walk own the street and the only thing could stop me is the crossing. We both think the next step Purdue should consider is the design of State Street corridor. State Street is very important not only because it's a very busy street but also because driving though gives a quick view of Purdue campus especially fo r drivers who Just pass by. This street might be driver's first impression of Purdue campus. The discussion was so involving that I almost lost track of time. Finally, Proof. Barbarism told me the good news was that most of the improvements we talked about will show up in the future master plans.Purdue amp's designers are trying their best to improve the whole environment. He said what we should do was Just to wait and see. Thanks to Proof. Barbarism for his time to let me think about campus design with him together. I learned a lot about not only some specific terms of campus design but also some logical thinking methods to judge things like where to put residence halls. I need to take all factors into consideration and think it not only as a student but also as one of the other people who work or play on campus. We critique Purdue because we love Purdue. I am so proud to witness the growth of our Purdue campus.