Monday, January 27, 2020

Recruitment Methods of ISIS

Recruitment Methods of ISIS Abstract This paper covers a small area of topics on the infamous organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). These topics include: a brief history of the organization, who ISIS is recruiting, why the recruits are joining, and the methods in which ISIS uses to recruit its members. Because of ISIS’s clever and effective recruiters and their methods of recruitment, they are on their way to establishing a caliphate, which refers to uniting all Muslims for the purpose of total, world domination. Recruitment Methods of ISIS According to communication strategist and cyber war expert advisor, James P. Farwell (2014), in the summer of 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) made an ostentatious appearance onto the worldwide stage, with the desire to institute its religious authority across the world (Farwell, 2014, p. 49). ISIS developed a caliphate, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (p. 49). The organization’s primary tool for increasing its influence across the globe has been â€Å"brute violence† (Farwell, 2014, p. 49). However, through their methods of recruitment, they have tried to establish credibility and implement legitimacy by skillfully advertising their propaganda through social networking and cyber technology, making it look attractive to prospective fighters (Farwell, 2014, p. 49). This paper will discuss who ISIS is recruiting, why the recruits are joining ISIS, and the recruitment methods that the organization uses to gather members, in order to accomplish their purpose of conquering the world. The slogan, â€Å"Baqiya wa tatamadad,† as stated by Amanda Borquaye (2016), is the slogan created by ISIS, meaning ‘â€Å"lasting and expanding,’† which has produced fearin many different areas around the world (p. 28). As recorded by author, Patrick Cockburn (2015), during summer of 2014, throughout the course of several weeks, ISIS altered politics in the Middle East (p. 1). Jihadi soldiers intertwined religious â€Å"fanaticism† and military experience to succeed in war against Iraqi, Syrian, and Kurdish forces (Cockburn, 2015, p. 1). ISIS aimed to destroy the Sunni opposition to the regimes in Iraq and Syria while it extended all throughout those areas (Cockburn, 2015, p. 1). ISIS did not show any concern that the list of their enemies grew greater over time, which included such areas as the United States and Iran (Cockburn, 2015, p. 1). As history has shown, ISIS generating enemies has not been a problem.    As Iraq and Syria began to disperse into their separate communities, the Shia, Sunni, Kurds, Alawites, and Christians were struggling to survive (Cockburn, 2015, p. 1). If someone was not in compliance with the ideology of Islam, they were labeled as â€Å"apostates† and â€Å"polytheists† and forced to flee or were brutally murdered (Cockburn, 2015, p. 1). The scare tactics and the forms of public violence that ISIS started using to torment their adversaries were the most extreme that had been seen in several decades (Cockburn, 2015, p. 1). The members of ISIS desire to restructure the world by committing violent acts (Cockburn, 2015, p. 5). Parts of this ideology can be attributed to the war in Iraq in 2003 and the war in Syria in 2011 (Cockburn, 2015, p. 5). Because of events like these, ISIS has discovered a new battlefield in which they are able to fight and flourish (Cockburn, 2015, p. 5). They have managed to accomplish this task by recruiting as many jihadists a s possible. Who are they recruiting? ISIS prompts their recruits to institute and obtain a caliphate, which means ‘â€Å"a unified Muslim state run according to a strict interpretation of Islamic law’† (Borquaye, 2016, p. 28). As believed by dedicated jihadists, violence is the single method in which to achieve this caliphate (Borquaye, 2016, p. 28). Over a significant amount of time, ISIS has developed the abilities of recruiting Westerners, despite viewing themselves as common enemies of the West and everything that Western culture honors and represents (Borquaye, 2016, p. 28). According to Lisa Blaker (2015), of the University of Maryland, there has been an estimated 3,000 or more nationalists from Western countries that have immigrated to the Middle East to join ISIS, contributing to the extremist movement (3). Some of these Western nationalists that ISIS is recruiting are American teenagers. According to Husna Haq, a correspondent for the news organization, The Christian Science Monitor, there are four reasons why teenagers, especially American teens, are being seduced in joining ISIS (Blaker, 2015, p. 4). The first reason is that organizations like ISIS are able to help young people to develop a sense of identity (Blaker, 2015, p. 4). They intentionally target this demographic because these teenagers are lost and have no sense of belonging or purpose (Blaker, 2015, p. 4). Joining groups like these makes them feel like they finally have a family and a purpose in life (Blaker, 2015, p. 4). The second reason is that ISIS functions as an advanced propaganda machine (Blaker, 2015, p. 4). Because we live in the Internet age and it is popular among young people, the Internet is an easy tool to lure members of this age group (Blaker, 2015, p. 4). The third reason is that ISIS creates a sense of religious obligation, which is why it is so attractive to American teenagers (Blaker, 2015, p. 4). Lastly, ISIS has made females one of their biggest demographics that they recruit (Blaker, 2015, p. 4).   The demographic of young Muslim-American females seems to be very popular (Blaker, 2015, p. 4). The most common group of Muslim-American females who join are those who feel isolated from their non-Muslim peers (Blaker, 2015, p. 4). Surprisingly, there appears to be a great desire for the recruitment of females to join ISIS. One of the most popular demographics that ISIS recruits are women. In these cases, they have had success by women recruiting other women (Blaker, 2015, p. 5). One of the most effective recruiters is Umm Ubaydah, who immigrated from Europe to Syria in 2014 (Blaker, 2015, p. 5). She has a blog that she uses as a recruitment tool for women (Blaker, 2015, p. 5). Her posts typically incorporate information on what to bring, the appropriate type of clothing, a sufficient amount of money, and includes information about what everyday life for women is like in Syria (Blaker, 2015, p. 5). Additional information that she posts include support on how to cope when leaving one’s family (Blaker, 2015, p. 5). A Senior Counter Extremism Researcher for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Erin Marie Saltman, claimed that women are successful as recruiters of other women because there is a sense of comfort manifested when communicating with fellow women (Blaker, 2015, p. 5). Conversing with a fellow woman provides a sense of consolation of leaving one’s family (Blaker, 2015, p. 5-6). As reported by CNN, about 1 in 6 ISIS recruits are women (Blaker, 2015, p. 6).   Ã‚  Ã‚   According to Alberto Cerzone and Anita Peresin (2015), professors of counterterrorism at George C. Marshall Center, roughly ten percent of ISIS’s Western recruits are females. As of 2015, it was estimated that there were over 200 Western females who abandoned their homes to join ISIS, the majority of them from France (Cerzone and Peresin, 2015, p. 499). The rest of the women were from other European nations, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, and Belgium, with the numbers constantly rising (Cerzone and Peresin, 2015, p. 499). The International Centre for Study of Radicalization at Kings College London, found the majority of these females are between the ages of 16-24, but some are as young as thirteen (Cerzone and Peresin, 2015, p. 499). The majority of these females run away to the Middle East without telling their parents, which raises concerns and questions for security experts and the general Western culture (Cerzone and Peresin, 2015, p. 499). They typically come from Muslim families or have converted to Islam, but in either instance, families are appalled that their daughters are interested in joining this â€Å"violent jihad† (Cerzone and Peresin, 2015, p. 499).   Ã‚  Ã‚   According to Lauren Vogel (2016), of CMAG News, ISIS has also been recruiting doctors and health workers. The recruitment of these specialists began in 2015 when ISIS increased its focus of establishing control over territory to institute a caliphate, which they believe will bring all of the Muslims together to conquer the world (Vogel, 2016, p. 1). Since the summer of 2015, ISIS had advertised the need for doctors through social media, blogs, splashy magazines, and high-budget videos to showcase the state’s emerging health system (Vogel, 2016, p. 1). The advertisements show off the substantial amount of services they provide, the latest facilities and equipment, experienced professionals, and two medical schools (Vogel, 2016, p. 1). ISIS is especially eager for medical professionals because a numerous amount of local doctors have left the organization’s territory (Vogel, 2016, p. 1). There have been reports of doctors who were forced to treat patients at gunpoint, some who were targeted for arrest, and others who were executed for refusing to provide care (Vogel, 2016, p. 1). Like others that ISIS recruits, there are various reasons why they are recruiting medical professionals. Lorne Dawson, co-director of the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society, said, â€Å"‘It’s a storm of factors, from a quest of significance and identity, to maybe some experience of discrimination’† (Vogel, 2016, p. 1). A popular reason why these professionals join is because of social justice (Vogel, 2016, p. 2). A large number of medical professionals are driven by altruism, and the determination to assist others, and the radical message uses that (Vogel, 2016, p. 2). Dawson says, â€Å"‘People find it amazing that a doctor would want to be part of this ultraviolent group committing atrocities, but on the flipside a lot of what ISIS does looks like humanitarian, social welfare and medical work’† (Vogel, 2016, p. 2). Another possible factor that draws doctors is discrimination (Vogel, 2016, p. 2). An American survey was done that showed that 24% of Muslim doctors often were victims of religious discrimination in their careers and 14% currently were experiencing it in the workplace (Vogel, 2016, p. 2). No matter for what reasons medical professionals are attracted to ISIS, they still go through the same radicalization process as any other recruit (Vogel, 2016, p. 2).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Methods of recruitment ISIS’s skills of maneuvering media is a significant factor in the way that they recruit (Borquaye, 2016, p. 28). ISIS has used the Internet and online social media as a tool of circulating their message (Borquaye, 2016, p. 28). They use these forms of media in hopes of recruiting individuals, especially young people, to join them in the Middle East and fight alongside them with other jihadists, or simply to support the organization (Blaker, 2015, p. 1). These supporting roles typically fall to the young women who join (Blaker, 2015, p. 1). ISIS has designated â€Å"sympathizers† to carry out acts of violence wherever they may be when they are not able to travel to the Middle East (Blaker, 2015, p. 1). Social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube do not have complete sanctions that restrict ISIS propaganda from spreading across the world in real time (Blaker, 2015, p. 1). UK surveillance chief, Robert Hannigan, said, â€Å"ISIS and other extremist groups use platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp to reach their target audience in a language it understands. Their methods include exploiting popular hashtags to disseminate their message† (Blaker, 2015, p. 4). In 2015, John Greenberg, of the Tampa Bay Times, conducted research which found that each day, there are up to 200,000 pro-ISIS tweets per day (Blaker, 2015, p. 1). This study also counted re-tweets and some that were generated through computer programs (Blaker, 2015, p. 1). Some of these tweets even included death threats to Twitter’s CEO and other Twitter employees (Blaker, 2015, p. 2). According to extremism analyst, J.M. Berger (2015), there were 46,000 Twitter accounts that were owned by supporters of ISIS as of the year 2014. Since then, Twitter has suspended a great number of accounts by ISIS supporters, but the supporters simply create other accounts after suspension (Berger, 2015). As of today, there is estimated to be around 40,000 accounts owned by ISIS supporters, with about 2,000 who primarily tweet in English (Berger, 2015).   Ã‚  Ã‚   One form of social media advertising that ISIS uses that is extremely effective is videos. According to a reporter for TheBlaze, Sara Gonzales (2017), ISIS posted a video this past April that featured a boy who seemed to be around the age of six or seven years old, taking part in a double-beheading. The group increasingly uploads videos that are sophisticated, good quality, and with pictures that contain impressive visual effects (Blaker, 2015, p. 1). They post various videos, each one different from another (Borquaye, 2016, p. 28). The goal is to make a different video that will appeal to each of the demographics that they are trying to reach (Borquaye, 2016, p. 28). Their most significant speeches were uploaded to the Internet in seven languages and the videos they post present similar violent characteristics to those used in Hollywood films (Borquaye, 2016, p. 28). Many of the videos that they publish have music with lyrics that have been translated to English and various other European languages (Blaker, 2015, p. 3). The newest videos that they have published feature English-speaking jihadists (Blaker, 2015, p. 3). Sean Heuston, who teaches English and film studies at The Citadel, has done extensive research on extremist video propaganda (Blaker, 2015, p. 3). He said, ‘â€Å"Its actually surprising how contemporary and hip-looking some of these things are, especially considering the fact that the messages that they are promoting are essentially medieval’† (Blaker, 2015, p. 3).    This sort of recruiting technique has enabled the organization to disperse powerful and emotional images (Farwell, 2014, p. 50). This narrative emphasizes that the strength and dominance of ISIS is increasing, asserting that full control is inevitable (Farwell, 2014, p. 50). Many of these images are intended to portray the organization’s members as fearsome warriors by showing gruesome beheadings and executions that are meant to torment their adversaries (Farwell, 2014, p. 50). However, ISIS also post images that display foot soldiers eating candy bars and holding cats, communicating that although ISIS is strictly Islamic, they also advocate for the welfare of people, and not just killing them (Farwell, 2014, p. 50). As written by Imran Awan (2017), ISIS also portrays the fighters in their videos with a â€Å"‘moral conscious’† by showing them helping and protecting civilians (p. 139). A number of their videos feature members visiting fighters in infirmaries and handing out candy to children (Awan, 2017, p. 139). This shows the attempt to showcase the supposed compassionate feature of ISIS.   Ã‚   Additionally, ISIS has developed their own app, which a person could download for free in order to stay updated with current information on the group (Awan, 2017, p. 139). The app was titled â€Å"‘The Dawn of Glad Tidings’† (Awan, 2017, p. 139). However, the app was detected and suspended after it (Awan, 2017, p. 139). Once the app was downloaded, users were able to view tweets, links, hashtags, pictures, videos and comments on their own accounts (Awan, 2017, p. 139). The majority of the information on the app was controlled by ISIS’s â€Å"social media arm† (Awan, 2017, p. 139).   Ã‚   Dr. Anne Speckhard, Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University, and researcher, Lorand Bodo (2017), conducted a short study, measuring the dissemination of ISIS propaganda on the Internet. The study mainly included observing search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). They based their study on prior research that was gathered from Facebook (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). They used hashtags, keywords and phrases in English and Arabic that were familiar to ISIS members, endorsers, and distributors on social networks (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). As they expected, they found a good number of social network accounts, Internet sites, and forums that were promoting ISIS propaganda (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). Interestingly enough, they found that each one of those sources were connected to the same source, which they called the â€Å"Daily Harvester† (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). In this particular situation, the Daily Harvester is referred to as â€Å"Abu Abdellah Al-Ifriqi† (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). It is presumed that Abu Abdella is an official representative of ISIS (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). Speckhard and Bodo observed Abu Abdellah over the course of a month, while determining the keywords and phrases that he was using to spread his message (2017). They found four specific stages that surfaced in monitoring his activity (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). First, Abdellah observed official ISIS media channels, like Amaq News Agency and Al-Hayat Media (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). Second, he gathered audio, files, news reports, pictures, and videos, in which he uploaded into one document (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). Third, Abdellah posted documents only to two websites, which were justpaste.it and addpost.it (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). These â€Å"‘paste-websites’† permit any person to post a link that may be shared (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). Lastly, he posted the generated link on social networking sites, forums, and various different websites to reach as many individuals as he can, with a wide â€Å"compendium† of the latest ISIS propaganda (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). However, Abu Abdellah is not the sole Daily Harvester (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). There are many Daily Harvesters, each one as dangerous as the other (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). They are extremely dangerous because they are able to disseminate large quantities of ISIS propaganda, with just a click of a link, which makes it available to anybody (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). Essentially, anybody who is capable of maneuvering Google can attain this information and simply input it into Google Translator to see and read in their own language (Speckhard and Bodo, 2017). Due to the ease of access of this information, it would be hard to stop or even attempt to counteract these methods that ISIS uses to recruit its members.      Conclusion The goal of ISIS from the beginning was to develop a caliphate, in which they would unite all Muslims to achieve global dominance (Vogel, 2016, p. 1). Thus far, they have taken steps to accomplish that by performing significant acts of violence and making themselves known on the Internet, mainly through social networking sites (Farwell, 2014, p. 49). Popular ways of doing this are creating high-quality videos, and tweeting thousands of times a day from thousands of pro-ISIS Twitter accounts (Berger, 2015). Because of their cleverness and the forms ISIS uses to promote their propaganda, it is not an outrageous thought that total domination could be inevitable (Farwell, 2014, p. 50). References Awan, I. (2017). Cyber-Extremism: Isis and the Power of Social Media. Society, 54(2), 138-148. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs12115-017-0114-0.pdf. Berger, J. (2015, October 23). Tailored Online Interventions: The Islamic States Recruitment Strategy. https://ctc.usma.edu/posts/tailored-online-interventions-the-islamic-states-recruitment-strategy Blaker, L. (2015). The Islamic State’s Use of Online Social Media. The Journal of the Military Cyber Professionals Association, 1(1), 1-9. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=mca Borquaye, A. (2016). Countering the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: Why the West Has it Wrong. JUIS. 2027-34. Cervone, A., & Peresin, A. (2015). The Western Muhajirat of ISIS. Taylor & Francis, 38(7), 495-509. http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=d6ffa458-1214-4bad-96b5-b4c5c0931508%40sessionmgr102 Cockburn, P. (2015). The rise of Islamic State: ISIS and the new Sunni revolution. London: Verso. Farwell, J. P. (2014). The Media Strategy of ISIS. Survival (00396338), 56(6), 49-55 Gonzales, S. (2017, April 18). Latest ISIS recruit video shows young school-aged boy participating in execution. http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/04/18/latest-isis-recruit-video-shows-young-school-aged-boy-participating-in-execution/ Speckhard, A., & Bodo, L. (2017, April 23). How ISIS Disseminates Propaganda over the Internet Despite Counter-Measures and How to Fight Back. http://moderndiplomacy.eu/index.php?option=com_k2view=itemid=2494%3Ahow-isis-disseminates-propaganda-over-the-internet-despite-counter-measures-and-how-to-fight-back Vogel, L. (2016). Why are Doctors Joining ISIS?. Canadian Medical Association.   http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/2016/01/11/cmaj.109-5217.full.pdf

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Interpersonal Communication Essay

I joined Eclairs Molders in 2003 immediately after I finished my studies. I had been attached to the organization for more than 3 months during my field attachment. Therefore I had a prior knowledge of the organization and had interacted with several people. When they considered my application for a job, I was happy to join an organization which I had the values oriented towards outcome achievement and had a high degree of people orientation. I was now part and parcel of the organization. When I joined the organization, I was lucky since I was put under the same department that I had served before. I was under the same supervisor who had supervised me during my field attachment. I did not have to be oriented much in the organization culture and other aspects of its operation since I had gone through the same socialization process before. But there was one person who had oriented me in the organization and who remained relevant to me even after I joined the organization for work. That was the secretary in the Production department where I was assigned as an assistant manager. She was still relevant to me as she showed me how I had to start my work and settled in my job. With time we became very close to one another. This was to end up in romantic relationship. In the development of our relationship, we had undergone the full Knapp’s relationship escalation model. I still remember the initiation stage of our relationship when I was directed to her office where she would orient me to the organization. The first 10 to 15 seconds were spent knowing about each other. There was a mutual attraction that developed between us that time as we observed each other’s appearance and manners. Our experimental phase was marked by the continuous interaction that we has as I worked with her guidance. I had a lot of uncertainties about her although I felt more attracted to her. I had to use several strategies in order to reduce this level of uncertainties. Under the uncertainty reduction theory it took on actives and interactive strategies in order to learn more about her. This helped me to gain knowledge and understanding about her. In active strategies, I enquired about her from her friends and also set up several situations under which I would observe her closely like enquiring a lot about work from her. In the interactive strategies, I talked with her most of the time often brining in other topics not related to work so that I would understand her more. Though our relationship remained at this phase when I was in my field attachment it dramatically changed its course when I started working in the company. Although I was assigned another secretary I would still rely on her most of the time and she was also supportive to orient my secretary to her work. We developed a liking for each other and she would spend some of her time in my office sometimes with no official attachment but just chatting with one another. We sure that our relationship had to go beyond business relationship but there was a sense of romance in the air. Our relationship grew and reached the intensification period. At this time we were closer with one another and we disclosed that were wanted to from a lasting romantic relationship. We knew that it would be hard for us to operate in the work place as lovers but we had to our best in order to keep our relationship rolling. Self disclosure was an important aspect that helped to cement our relationship. We developed from the hidden pane to the open pane of Johari window as we opened ourselves to one another. We came to understand our characters and helped each other to understand their characters as well. By undergoing several windows we were able to know each other. Mutual disclosure helped us to know each other well and the trust in our relationship deepened. Following the social penetration theory, we undertook several practices in order to gain closeness in our relationship. This helped our relationship to progress from superficial to intimate. Self disclosure was an important factor in this theory that helped our relationship to grow. We gave rewards from time to time. We all strived to achieve each others satisfaction to help gain stability in our relationship. At first I was not willing to disclosure myself to her. But with time she started disclosing herself and our trust grew. According other norm of reciprocity, I had to disclose myself to her since she had already disclosed herself to me. I found out that she felt better when I disclosed myself to her since she was able to know me well. In the intensifying phase we were able to disclose our love to one another. Our relationship grew and we found ourselves with each other most of the time. At tea break, she would be at my desk while I found myself entering the manager’s office more than office just to pays by her and greet her. Most of the workers around especially the manager and my secretary started noting that there was a growing relationship between us. We would go for lunch together. Slowly we started integrating with tone another. No one wanted to go for lunch or go home alone. After work, we would go to her house and we would have supper together. We started caring for one another. We were like one person. Mine was hers and hers was mine. With were simply inseparable. Most of the time we had to make personal sacrifice in order to accommodate each other. We involved several pro-social strategies in order to gain compromise with one another behavior. Like in any other relationship, we had to make sacrifices to accommodate the other. We made a lot of promises to one another in order to gain compliance. We expressed our positive and negative feelings in order to gain compliance with one another. This helped to build our relationship more and trust each other more. According to the Relationship Dialectics theory as far as connectedness-separateness is concerned with had to make a lot of personal sacrifice in our autonomy for the sake of our relationship. It is not that we did not experience conflict in our relationship but most of time we had to accommodation strategy in order to overcome our conflicts. Many times we accommodate each other but sometimes we had to compromise on a situation when it became too difficult for us to find a solution to the problem. Other time we had to collaborate with one another in order to find a mutually and completely satisfactory solution of our conflict in a win-win situation. At this stage of our relationship, we were sure that we needed each others in our life. Our parent started pressurizing us to get married and stay together. We though that we had the most romantic relationship on earth. We also felt the same need to get married and stay together. But there were other factors that we had to take into consideration before setting down for our marriage. We considered the fact that we had to take time to build ourselves and our relationship before deciding to get married. It was hectic at work to keep our relationship rolling. It was still more difficult to stay in the same department yet in different offices. I found myself delegating most of my secretary duties to my girlfriend and it was evident that she was not auguring well with it. The manager also felt that her secretary was being overburdened to handle his order and my orders as well. In most cases, it was my girlfriend who delegated her work to my secretary. It was like I had assumed her existence and her roles (West and Turner 2000, p. 32). However we did our best to manage our relationship. We had to set time to be together and time to stay at work and carry out our duties. Most of the time the manager complained we were not getting serious with our work and we seemed to value our relationship more than our work. These were some of the difficulties that we had expected from the begging when we decided to be together. Therefore we had to make a lot of sacrifices and commitment most of our time to our work rather than our relationship. But our relationship was not to stay for long. The more it became evident to coworkers that we were in love, the more it became difficult for us to handle our relationship. There were a lot of conflicts that we were able to go through but others became sticky with time. It was just one of such conflicts between maintaining our relationship and carrying out our duties as required that made our relationship difficult to continue with. The conflict As an assistant production manager, I handled most of the incoming production orders from the sales team. I had to vet those order and decide the one which had to be produced first before the others. The work of the manager was just of authorize the production of the orders. Therefore I acted as the main link between the sale department and the production department. On the other hand my secretary and my girlfriend who was the secretary to the production manager linked me with the manager. When I received the orders, I vetted them and gave them to my secretary who would then give them to the Managers secretary for them to be passed to the manager. After the manager signed them, they would follow the same route and come back to me where I would forward them to the production supervisor. This was a complicate change but there was nothing that I could do to make it simpler since that was the culture of the organization. One day, I received a call from the sales department and I was informed of orders that had to be produced within 24 hours. Although we used to handle such orders they were rare and most of our orders were produced within a period of one week. Therefore at this was an urgent order that had to be completed fast. In a normal condition, I was authorized to vet such an order and pass it direct the manager without involving the secretary so that it would be produced within the stipulated time. When I received the orders I decided to take them direct to the manager to be signed. I went to the manager office but I found that he was engaged with another client. For the past tow days, we had not been in good terms with my girlfriend but this was just a normal conflict in a relationship. Therefore when I found that the manager was engaged, we decided to talk with my girlfriend as we waited for the client to finish so that I would see the manager. But our conversation became deep and emotional and I forgot that I had urgent order to be attended to. I became very emotion as my girlfriend seemed to annoy me through the conversation. I just left the order on her table and hurried back to my office apparently very upset from the conversation we had. I did not remember about the orders again. I spent the day in my office attending to other work and I felt very low. The next day in the morning, I go a call from the sales department calling for the packaging of the products as the cline had come to collect them. This was the beginning of the conflict. I called the sales department and informed them that the manager had not signed the orders and therefore they had not been processed. According to the deception theory, I had to manipulate what had happened in order to shift the blame from my office to the manager office although I knew very well that there was a high level of apprehension about the deception in what I was saying. The sales department tried to assimilate the validity of my explanation and immediately it was clear that this as not true. There was some element of deceit in my message. Therefore the sales manager called the production managers office and enquired about the orders. The manager sought to be explained why production manager had not approved the production and yet the office did not communicate to the sales office in order to cancel the orders. The production manager was not aware of any such order and therefore he immediately called me in order to get to the bottom of what had happened. As per my explanation, I told the manager that I had taken a step of handing over the order sot here secretary so that they could be processed easily and I thought that he had not approved those orders. But the secretary had not handed in the order. Amid the conversation and conflict that we had with her, she had forgotten to hand in the order as a matter of urgency and therefore they had not bee approved. Therefore the conflict degraded to be a dyad conflict between me, my girlfriend and the production manager. I shifted the blame to my girlfriend that as the secretary of the manager she had the duty to hand in the orders. The manager on the other and blamed me since I did not treat order with the needed urgency. My girlfriend also blamed me since I did not inform her that the order was urgent and therefore she concentrated on finishing the work that was on her desk first. It ended up as a blame game but between me and her, it was more emotional and entwined to the other conflicts that we had before. Therefore it was a dyad conflict another it was far reaching as it involved deferent department. To me the conflict was more complicated by the emotional bond that I had with the person to who all the blame was falling. I blamed myself since I didn’t do what was right. I just found myself defending my position and forgot all the sacrifices that we had made in the past in our relationship in order to accommodate the other. There was power of love that was entwined in the conflict that made it difficult for me to come over it. At the same time there were office protocols that had to be followed in carrying out the needed activities. The cause of the conflict was vested in the misunderstanding in our relationship and lack of responsibility to my duties. The conflict was difficult to solve coupled with the emotional bond that was between us. In this case the more we tried to come up with solution on how the production could be achieved within hours in order to deliver the products the conflict went back to the start. With the full understanding of the relationship that was between me and his secretary, the production manager became harsher and his usual criticisms of neglecting our duties for the sake of our live escalated once again. There was just one condition that he put for us. It was either we took our relationship out of the work place or one or both of us resign from work and be left at home. His stance made it more difficult to resolve the conflict. But one again there was also the factor of my secretary who argued that she had been neglected in performance of her duties and she was considered to be under the manager’s secretary. With the full understating that both my office and the office of the manager had their own identify and freedom of operation, the manager could not understand how our relationship had fused the operation of both offices such that come of her office tasks were performed by my secretary and my work was performed by his secretary. We had to find a way out of the conflict. We were able to solve the immediate effect of the conflict and we ordered production of the order in a matter of hours. But there was still the problem our work and our relationship that could not be ignored. The manager wanted us to solve it once and for all. At the end the conflict had a destructive effect on our relationship. Coupled with the conflict that we had earlier with my girlfriend, it became difficult to go over the current conflict that we were facing. She accused me of deception and using her as a scape-goat in order to evade the responsibility of what had happened. The trust she had build on me had been deconstructed by one event and our relationship could not take off against or be the same as it had been before. We had entered into a conflict that we could hardly go over. Earlier we had revealed our conflict through accommodating each other and compromise on one situation. But this time she seemed to have taken an avoidance strategy in our conflict. She did not pay attention to what had happened and the ramification it had on our relationship but all she did was to avoid me altogether. She did not appear to pay close attention in order to match the strategies that we could use to solve the problem to the situation that was at our hand. I thought that with time we could recover from the time pressure that was affecting how we resolved our conflict. To me our relationship was more valued and thereof I was ready to compromise and sacrifice myself in order to overcome the conflict to match the situation. But I had used by relative power strategy in order to put the blame on her and I knew she would not forgive me for this. I realized that I was working and therefore I was ready to accommodate her for the sake of our relationship. But she had already reached interpscyhic phase where although she said noting she was more focused on my faults and show used may faults to withdraw from active participation in our relationship. She felt justified in withdrawing from the relationship. But it was over and our relationship entered the terminal stage. First we had differed as I had a ‘me’ stand instead of ‘we’ in the conflict. We were both responsible for the conflict but I had exempted myself from it and accused her. This had acted as the first warning sign that our relationship was just be ending. It had started to dissolve with our earlier conflict and this conflict as the last final strike that drove the nail in. Since that conflict happened we had less instance of communication. We had less interaction as we took to the workplace procedure. Suddenly we had developed different interests and what had our fun been before was not making sense to the other. Although we continued to be with one another from time to time and many thought that our relationships was normal, I knew inside myself that it was not working and non of us was working to save the situation. We reached as stagnation stage and none of us talked about our relationship again. Sometime we would be together and spend a lot of time without talking. In the office our interaction were reduced and even when we interacted, we talked about office matters most of the time. With time we started to avoid each other. There were efforts to reduce face to face conversation with the other and in case I needed something from the manager I would either send the secretary or if she was busy, I would use the office phone. I also noted that she had the same attitude and she reduced the number of trips she had been making to my office and the phone line became active as the main communication channel. At the end, the termination of our relationship was natural. We stopped seeing each. I used my secretary a lot when I wanted anything from the manager’s office. We simple ended our relationship like that and though with difficult, we tried our best to remain coworkers until the date she left the company for another. Up to date I feel that we didn’t hand our conflict the way it was supposed to have been handled. We didn’t pay attention to the fine details of our relationship and we were too emotional in trying to find a solution to it. But it was compounded by the fact that it had emanated from another conflict and this had the effect of an outsider who had more power than us. The nature of the conflict was also difficult as there were protocols or work procedures that had been overtaken by our emotional involvement.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Compare Traditional Radio Listening with Listening to a Station Via a Mobile App. How Are They Different?

Hayden Cremeens COM 200 Chapter 8 Essay 6. Compare traditional radio listening with listening to a station via a mobile app. How are they different? When the radio became a popular past-time in America, it changed society. The radio industry is a rapidly growing business; the number of stations increased 100% from 1970 to 2010 (Dominick, 2013, p. 189). Traditional broadcastings like talk-shows and National Public Radio announcements eventually shifted into a majority of music-orientated stations; however both formats still remain.Traditional FM radio stations that are available nationally or locally have limitations of the genre of music that one listens to; opposed to mobile app, such as Pandora, that allows you to choose specific genres. Traditional radio stations have more commercials than mobile apps; therefore constant interruption during music streaming. Some traditional radio stations have embraced the apps.Clear Channel, a radio company, has had success with the merge of trad itional radio to a mobile app. Clear Channel has developed the IHeartRadio app; which allows users to listen to local radio stations in over 150 stations where ever their location (Dominick, 2013, p. 188). I prefer mobile apps because they stream directly to a computer, smartphone or other portable device (Dominick, 2013, p. 194).Apps offer choice-based stations like Pandora (Dominick, 2013, p. 194). Choice-based stations â€Å"†¦let listeners choose their favorite artists and types of music to create their own playlists. In effect, listeners program their own unique radio station (Dominick, 2013, p. 194). † References Dominick, J. (2013). The dynamics of mass communication: Media in the digital age (12th ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Analysis of The World Chinese Film Directed by Jia Zhangke Free Essay Example, 1750 words

And economic growth has been rapid and far-reaching even to the remote areas such as the provincial city of Datong in northeast China, From the film, the province symbolizes the ancient cultural society while the city symbolizes the new or modern society of China. Even though at this point China has not attained maximum modernization, it has an average attitude with a desire to modernize in the near future. The film has fundamental foundations of the reality of how people s cultural beliefs and thoughts can affect modernization and urbanization. The characters try to negotiate on difficult it can be to embrace change and let go the traditional culture as the film portrays how its characters migrate into the city to look for jobs. This is what makes Tao herself a figure of great pathos. She does not have an understanding of the other woman s tragedy but because locked inside this false world, Tao does not and suggests Mr. Jia, cannot see her. Therefore, the characters of the film ar e aware of the divide between the real world and the virtual world. We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of The World Chinese Film Directed by Jia Zhangke or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page This happens after Tao finds a text from Qun to her boyfriend Taisheng saying that she finally got a visa to join her husband in France and that their relationship was destined. Social mobility is the movement of individuals or groups in a social position. The dictionary definition of social mobility is the ability of individuals or groups to move upward or downward in status based on wealth, occupation, education or some other social variable. On the other hand, Global mobility is the process through which a company or an organization prepares its employees to work in places outside their own countries.