Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty

Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty, love, and sexuality. She is sometimes known as the Cyprian because there was a cult center of Aphrodite on Cyprus [See Map Jc-d]. Aphrodite is the mother of the god of love, Eros (more familiar as Cupid). She is the wife of the ugliest of the gods, Hephaestus. Unlike the powerful virginal goddesses, Athena and Artemis, or the faithful goddess of marriage, Hera, she has love affairs with gods and mortals. Aphrodites birth story makes her relation to the other gods and goddesses of Mt. Olympus ambiguous. Family of Origin Hesiod says Aphrodite arose from the foam that gathered around the genitals of Uranus. They just happened to be floating in the sea after his son Cronus castrated his father. The poet known as Homer calls Aphrodite the daughter of Zeus and Dione. She is also described as the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys (both Titans). If Aphrodite is the cast-offspring of Uranus, she is of the same generation as Zeus parents. If she is the daughter of the Titans, she is Zeus cousin. Roman Equivalent Aphrodite was called Venus by the Romans as in the famous Venus de Milo statue. Attributes And Associations Mirror, of course she is the goddess of beauty. Also, the apple, which has lots of associations with love or beauty (as in Sleeping Beauty) and especially the golden apple. Aphrodite is associated with a magic girdle (belt), the dove, myrrh and myrtle, the dolphin, and more. In the famous Botticelli painting, Aphrodite is seen rising from a clam shell. Sources Ancient sources for Aphrodite include Apollodorus, Apuleius, Aristophanes, Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Diodorus Siculus, Euripides, Hesiod, Homer, Hyginus, Nonnius, Ovid, Pausanias, Pindar, Plato, Quintus Smyrnaeus, Sophocles, Statius, Strabo and Vergil (Virgil). Trojan War and Aeneids Aphrodite / Venus The story of the Trojan War begins with the story of the apple of discord, which naturally was made of gold: Each of 3 goddesses: Hera - marriage goddess and wife of ZeusAthena - Zeus daughter, wisdom goddess, and one of the powerful virginal goddesses mentioned above, andAphrodite thought she deserved the golden apple, by virtue of being kallista the most beautiful. Since the goddesses couldnt decide among themselves and Zeus wasnt willing to suffer the wrath of the females in his family, the goddesses appealed to Paris, son of King Priam of Troy. They asked him to judge which of them was the most beautiful. Paris judged the goddess of beauty to be the loveliest. In return for his verdict, Aphrodite promised Paris the fairest woman. Unfortunately, this fairest mortal was Helen of Sparta, wife of Menelaus. Paris took the prize that had been awarded him by Aphrodite, despite her prior commitments, and so started the most famous war in history, that between the Greeks and Trojans. Vergil or Virgils Aeneid tells a Trojan War sequel story about a surviving Trojan prince, Aeneas, transporting his household gods from the burning city of Troy to Italy, where he founds the race of the Romans. In the Aeneid, the Roman version of Aphrodite, Venus, is Aeneas mother. In the Iliad, she protected her son, even at the cost of suffering a wound inflicted by Diomedes.

John Steinbeck essays

John Steinbeck essays John Steinbeck was a controversial and award-winning author who was considered to be one of the most significant authors of all time. He wrote many books throughout his lifetime and is known for his sharp, forceful writing style and wry humor. This paper will discuss Steinbecks childhood and early career as it influenced his writing. Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, and was the son of John Ernst Steinbeck and Olive Hamilton. He grew up in Salinas, California where most of his stories and novels take place. He used the surrounding Salinas Valley as an example of a serene and fruitful place in his books (DISCovering Authors 3,4). In school Steinbeck was considered to be a wonderful student by his writing teachers and they often read his essays aloud in class. When Steinbeck graduated high school in 1919 he went to Stanford University to get a degree in English since he liked writing so much. When he got there, Steinbeck ignored Stanfords set curriculum and took whatever courses interested him (Verde 102-103). In 1925 Steinbeck gave up the idea of getting a degree and moved to New York City to be an author. At first he went to work on a construction crew for the new Madison Square Garden. He hated that so Steinbeck went to work as a reporter for the New York American. He ended up getting fired because he was more of a storyteller than a reporter. Eventually Steinbeck moved to California where he got a job on Lake Tahoe as a caretaker. While there he worked on his fiction and published his first short story in a magazine called The Smokers Companion. It was a fantasy story called Butler 2 The Gifts of Iban. Steinbeck later lost the job and moved to San Francisco. There he wrote and published his first novel, The Cup of Gold. Steinbeck also married a woman named Carol Henning while there. Steinbecks second novel...

Your Development as an Educator Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Your Development as an Educator - Essay Example This is arguably true because teaching nursing, for example involves teaching adults and this call for confidence. Deliberations here are that these students already have some knowledge on how to interpret and contemplate various concepts during the learning process. Therefore, it is paramount that teachers have confidence that would help them answer and respond to students questions especially during discussions. In another dimension, since teaching nursing involves teaching adults, it is necessary for teachers to be patient with them. Some students have other issues to attend to before they come to class, and this means that they might at times be late for lessons. Others may be preoccupied by other issues, something that may lead to slow learning and concentration. Therefore, it would be necessary for the teacher to learn how to adapt to their pace of learning as they continue to encourage and mentor them on how they can overcome such issues (Ironside, et al., 2005). In this regard, it is apparent that the teacher has to be dedicated in order to overcome such challenges. Although teaching nursing is a bit challenging, I have gained several insights that have helped me function more effectively as a nurse educator. Firstly, it is apparent that although being patient with students is one of the strategies of successful teaching, it is not as easy as it sounds. This means that one has to adjust his/her personality in order to be compatible with this strategy. In this regard, one would find it necessary to engage students in setting out learning goals, which would fuel their motivation hence facilitating learning. Conversely, when students perform well, it is for their own benefit and that of the nursing practice. In fact, nursing theory posits that nursing is a call that requires people to take care of others (Bonnel

Telecommunications Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Telecommunications Paper - Essay Example In certain CS and BS digital broadcasts, one popular movie title is repeatedly put on air almost daily so that the users may watch the image seamlessly from the start till end whenever they want. This has contributed to the popularization of near-on-demand system. Meanwhile, it has become more important for the clients given the continuous media data can be run seamlessly from start till end, and therefore various methods to broadcast continuous media data under the division based broadcasting scheme have been studied widely. In the division based broadcasting scheme, data is divided into several segments and broadcast via multiple channels. Broadcasting the forepart of data repeatedly in a channel increases the clients’ likelihood of watching the data, and the waiting time is reduced accordingly. These methods calculate the appropriate channel bandwidths and allocate them to each channel. However, in many broadcasting systems, each channel bandwidth is fixed for the reason of transmission scheme. In case bandwidth of each channel of a broadcasting system and the bandwidth calculated in conventional techniques differ from each other, the waiting time is not reduced effectively. For instance, there are thirteen 1.79 Mbps channels called segments for terrestrial digital TV broadcasting, each four of which together broadcast a high-bit rate image while the other segment alone broadcasts a low-bit rate image (one-segment broadcasting). For digital radio broadcasting, there are eight 300 kbps segments, three of which form a channel (three-segment broadcasting), while the others are used for audio broadcast. As described above, the scheme commonly employed is the one that uses multiple channels with fixed bandwidths to broadcast one image. In this paper, a method under the division based broadcasting scheme considering the channel bandwidths has been proposed, that divides the data into several segments, so that the clients can

Case Study Physical Assessment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Case Study Physical Assessment - Assignment Example the different forms of data and assessment procedures that a health assessment should take, which should follow the elements that â€Å"form the database of the assessment of the person’s health† as provided in chapter 1 in Jarvis (2012, pg.2). There are two types of data collected, the subjective data and the objective data. The subjective data is collected through collecting and analyzing what the patient is saying while conducting the examination. On the other hand objective data is the data collected by the medical examiner through inspecting, percussing, palpating, and auscultating while performing the medical examination (Jarvis, 2012). While it is crucial for an objective assessment to be conducted, the subjective data that allows one to understand the patient better is essential in understanding the patient better and come up with the best diagnosis as well as the treatment process for the patient. One of the main assessments that need to be analyzed is the cultural considerations of the patient. In the case study, the patient is an African American adolescent that has been exposed to different conditions that are not favorable to the development and well-being of the child. JP lives with the grandmother and was raised in a violent family where the mother and father were in constant altercations. The mother died of Heroin overdose and has also lost his father who died five years ago. These factors affect the normal up-bringing of JP and with the sickle-cell disease that he is currently enduring the cultural background is one of the main factors that will affect his condition. According to Jarvis (2012) the musculoskeletal function is affected by the cultural background and the life of the patient. According to Jarvis chapter 15, the musculoskeletal system â€Å"provides locomotion, an upright posture, and protection for the body† (Jarvis, 2012, pg. 177). In this regard looking at JP is African-American the muscles are deemed to be different and hence the

Analysis Of Empathy And Sympathy

Analysis Of Empathy And Sympathy In relationships, people were around often found something unpleasant emotional problem sometimes or needs to be understood by someone, then how to deal with these situations. Empathy is the cognitive process of identifying with or vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. (Verderber, 2004, p. 211). Empathy is an important element in understanding and maintaining good interpersonal relationships. Therefore, empathy is tried to understand and experience that other people experience what is the kind of understanding. Sympathy and empathy are different, that is change the role of empathy seek to understand each others experience, feeling, thoughts and attitudes. When empathizing, there was representative the position of the position has already been converted in another persons place to try understand what is happening to other. But that will might find it difficult to avoid making judgments when is listen to someone elses problem, it is fail to empathize with others, however, that is also fail to understanding with other. So that have to exactly what must do to listen with empathy and more approaches or how to improving. (Seiler, 2005, p. 150). In the addition, when empathizing, empathy has identified some different approaches that people can use. That is empathic responsiveness, perspective taking, and sympathetic responsiveness. Firstly, Empathic responsiveness is experiencing an emotional response parallel to another persons actual or anticipates display of emotion. (Verderber, 2004, p. 211). For example, when employer tells employee will lose their job, employee will have experienced empathic responsiveness. Employer should be senses the sadness of that employee, that deeply sad feeling is the feels of employee. The empathic responsiveness approach is the most easy to use, when people have a close or intimate relationship with other person, they will have a strong relationship bond between each other, which can identify more easily with the others feelings, emotion and experiences it along with other. So back to the example, if they have a good relationship between employer and employee, the employer may know what the e mployee is feeling. The position of the employer should understands and feelings the employee feel, employer has to empathy the feelings of employee is loses their jobs. Clearly understanding of feelings of employee is a point of a successful employer must be known. So in general, empathic responsiveness is most easily with close person with each other. (Verderber, 2004, p. 211). Secondly, perspective taking is one of approaches to empathy, that defined is imagining yourself in the place of another. (Verderber, 2004, p. 212). That means is with another position of imagination, consider the situation of other, feelings of others is expected, and then assume that other people will feel similarly. For example, imagine if the employer was fires, and is expected to what the experience of their emotions if that is happens, the employer will be feelings same with that employee, then that is using empathizing by perspective taking. Sympathetic responsiveness is the one of approaches to empathy, a feeling of concern, compassion, or sorrow for another because of the situation is the defined. (Verderber, 2004, p. 212). Sympathetic responsiveness is differs with other two approaches before. That is no attempt to experience and understand each others feelings or imagine be in the place of another, however, that is rather focus on emotionally understanding what the speakers has said and experience feelings of concern, compassion, or sorrow for the that person. (Verderber, 2004, p. 212). For example, if the employer have sympathy and understanding of employee when employee is feels like embarrassed and worried, and also trying to feels emotions or experience of employee, employer will feels concern and compassion for that employee, relationship for both of them will be build up to each other . So these three approaches will be able to make accurate judgments in the cognitive process of identifying with or vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of another. Beside that, empathizing is hard to communication with other from different culture, especially with strangers. So empathic listening will improve the ability to empathize. Listening skills also is including one of approaches. Listening with empathy occurs when have listened to what someone else is experiencing and seek to understand that persons thoughts and feelings. (Seiler, 2005, p. 149). The most effective way is by listening to feelings of other people to want to hear the voice inside the heart, which try to understand and know what it was, people or things from the perspective of others to feel and reflect these feelings back. (Hybels, 2001, p.85). So what is the procedure of empathizing, show respect for the person by actively attending to what the person says; concentrate on observing and understanding both the verbal and nonverbal messages, using paraphrases and perception checking to the aid; experience an emotional response parallel to another persons actual or anticipate d display of emotion, imagine yourself in the place of the person, feel concern, compassion, or sorrow for the person because situation or plight. (Verderber, 2004, p. 215). Furthermore, empathy is as important as element of effective interpersonal communication and the listener also is very important too. And empathy is closely related with a listener task, listeners task have to be put away their own feelings and prejudices as those of others to listen what they speaker talking about. Listener must be to do this, listener need to know and understand what the feeling by speakers say out their mind is and listen carefully the speakers say what had happened, and then comforting sympathy or encouragement to help find a solution of the problem. (Hybels, 2001, p.85). Identify the emotions is often the most difficult part for listener, listener needs to listen carefully and know what the speaker is really saying that real meaning. For example, an employee in the matter of unhappy encounter some setbacks, the employee is too excited that wanted to kill the employer. That employee said that apparently has no plans to kill the employer. In the case, it is reason able to assume that the speaker is feeling angry. If someone responded to that employee, or someone will try to replace the role of that employee to think, let that employee to say out what has happened, there might the tragedy will not happen. Moreover, listeners task besides listen attentively, also want to use an empathic-listening response way to reach is through paraphrasing, restating the other persons thoughts or feelings in the words. Back to the example, let the employee say out the whole story, listener is no need to respond with more or specific, just wants to be listened to, and show the interest and concern if listener listen and look sympathetic, let the employee finish the whole story, and discover other feelings in addition to anger. This response not only helps identify the feelings; it also helps find out whether the hearing accurately and shows that is paying attention. A paraphrasing response provides a mirror for the other persons remarks. (Hybels, 2001, p. 86). Again, sometimes listener just listening for peoples feeling and explains how to solve the problem. People are feel better when their after frequently want to vent their feelings, but sometimes just listening is not enough. The last one in empathic listening is to give the person a chance to work out the problem. Empathic listening is includes helping the other person find a way to solve the problem. In the case of that employee, the important has to solve the problem. So listener has to use the good attitudes to help that employee and have the ability to help that employee to deal with the problem. To be a good listener is required to taking on more responsibility and rather focusing on solution with that employee, also have to try focusing on feeling and listening empathically, so that is the responsibility of a good listener. (Hybels, 2001, p. 87). Therefore, everyone also a different point of view but they only stand at their own angel to see their own view. They are not use the time to assess property; it is very easy to make assumptions and jump to conclusion. This often leads to misunderstandings, bad feelings, conflict, poor morale and even divorce. Without empathy, people do not feel heard ad understood. So empathy is so important on our daily life. Beside that, empathy also so important in the workplace, if without empathy, people will not thought other persons feeling, thought and attitudes, and also including all experience moods, pain and hurt, joy and sadness. To be a leaders must seriously using the empathy to understand what the person is thinking or feeling by not trying to change or amend, and empathy to solve the problems, understand what the person think or feel, people feel valued, they will feel safe. For the example, when the employees feel value, they are feeling safe. So that indicates employees are more p roductive when they are feel valued. In the following, we have to choose to improve, to care, to get out of own way, and to bridge the gaps between-generation, cultures, religions, socioeconomics, etc. So empathetic can help to manage and avoid disruptive and assault behaviors. The 5 simple steps have provided the speaker with that undivided attention. That is one time multi-tasking will get in the trouble; Second, Be non-judgmental, maximum or rise up the speakers issue; Third, read the speaker, observe the emotion behind the words. Is that the speaker afraid, frustrated, angry or resentful and respond to the emotion as well as the words. Four, be quiet, dont give an immediate reply, often if aloe foe some quiet after the speaker has vented, they themselves will break the silence and offer a solution; Last, assure understanding, ask about clarifying questions and restate what the speaker to be saying; That is the following these simple steps will place in a better situation for addressing the key issue. Next, is followed by how to improve the empathy skills in interpersonal communication. First, stop to recognize other peoples emotions, empathy is the ability to share in their emotional experience. There are some people who have an easier time observing connecting to another persons emotions, and there is some evidence that some people have a genetic predisposition to being empathetic. For example, understanding emotional states of others will helps deepen their understanding. It helps to create the connections that are sharing in the experience. Second is imagine yourself in their position, that is once recognize what the other person feels, empathy requires that feel what are they are feeling. The means you need to put yourself in their position. But it doesnt mean you put yourself in their position in the logical sense of word. There have the ability helps create the connection and the foundation of trust. Third one is listen and accept their interpretation. Emotional intelligenc e and empathy requires the ability to listen to others and to accept that their interpretation of events, facts, or ideas is true for them. To truly exercise that empathy and that emotional intelligence, there have to be listen without immediately passing judgment on the facts or the meaning of what is being said. They have to accept their interpretation as being valid and worthwhile. That was sped a lot of time trying to change peoples minds and trying to move people from taking no action to taking action. Empathy and emotional intelligence allow to suspend the mind changing until that have built the connection that will allow to work with their point if view. Four is pause between stimulus and response and consider the outcome. Leading others and changing minds means that not only have to exercise these skills with others, and also have to emotions. Before that cans manage the emotions of others, that had to be able to manage their own emotions. One of the most powerful ways to de al with highly emotionally charged events is to simply pause before responding. Use pause to decide hoe that response will help or hurt that achieving the outcome that need. Dont focus on the emotion; focus on a response that moves you closer to you needed outcome. And the last is use emotions to drive action. Negative emotions to create a case for change and to drive their teams to take actions and positive emotions to build high-performing cultures that believe that by user will be can succeed. In the conclusion, these attributes combine to generate trust and confidence, and they are the foundation of long-term relationships. Remember it is better to learn how to become an empathetic person. Your communication skills will only become better. You social awareness will only become better. Your ability to relate to other people and understand their point of views will become much better. No one says changing is easy, but when you know there is something you need to change about yourself, taking the steps necessary is a good idea

Cicero and Stoicism :: History Philosophy Philosophical Cicero

Cicero, was truly a man of the state. His writings also show us he was equally a man of philosophical temperament and affluence. Yet at times these two forces within Cicero clash and contradict with the early stoic teachings. Cicero gradually adopted the stoic lifestyle but not altogether entirely, and this is somewhat due to the fact of what it was like to be a roman of the time. The morals of everyday Rome conflicted with some of the stoic ideals that were set by early stoicism. Thus, Cicero changed the face of stoicism by romanizing it; redefining stoicism into the middle phase. Of Cicero it can be said he possessed a bias towards roman life and doctrine. For Cicero every answer lay within Rome itself, from the ideal governing body to the place of divination. Cicero does not offer any alternate answers to roman society, which robs him of being truly a unique and bold political philosopher. This is not to say however some of his doctrines are untrue, just that he is somewhat blinded by his roman beliefs and assumptions. The assumptions of Cicero can be noticed when one inspects his view of the ideal governing body, which he expresses through Scipio (in the commonwealth). Although Cicero presents very convincing arguments for a Composite government, clearly his view is possibly only due towards his belief in the roman structure of government.1 Cicero was limited to roman borders of experience, and this point was best illustrated by his disagreement with Aristotle's writings on the decay of states. Cicero was unable to think on the level of Aristotle's logic. He quite simply used roman history as a mapping of the paths of the decay of states. In contrast, Aristotle understood the underlying forces and influences that transpired when a state degraded. Cicero quite frankly could not understand the forces which Aristotle so eloquently denoted. For Cicero, history offered the only possible paths of outcomes; the forces and behaviors played little part on the resulting state.2 A further point of philosophical belief which Cicero contradicted the stoic lifestyle, is religion. Roman tradition conflicted greatly with stoic doctrine, and the two philosophies could never truly harmonize with one another. This point brought the distinction between the Greek learned world of intellect, and the traditional religious roman patronage. This observation literally draws a line between the two worlds, that of knowledge and reason opposing that of tradition and sentiment.

Balanced Scorecard Development

Abstract The balanced scorecard was introduced in 1992 as a performance measurement tool and has developed now to form a strategic management system. This paper uses eight articles, identified in Figure 1 along with extra materials to track and analyse developments in the design and implementation. The paper shows examples of the scorecard in practice and concludes that developments have been beneficial overall. It also highlights problems encountered along the way and further areas for improvement.For years managers have used financial measures to monitor performance however a study carried out in 1990 led to the development of the first generation balanced scorecard (BSC); a strategic planning and management system. By including financial and operational measures,it solved the issue that managers were beginning to reject financial measures during the 1980s and 1990s (Letza, 1996). The BSC originated analysing four perspectives; customer, internal, learning and financial,with focus driven by four questions shown in Figure 2.The BSC encouraged managers to focus on few critical measures to prevent complexity and information overload, however ensured several areas were looked at simultaneously as organisations became more complex (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). Choice around the measures allows adaptability and flexibility when using the model. This is vital in order to keep up with global competition and the ever changing environment. Companies must acknowledge this flexibility and as their strategy changes, so must the measures to stay in line with overall aims. The introduction of the BSC coincided with the recession in the 1980’s and 1990’s.Therefore companies will have been more enthusiastic about performance measurement and seen this as a good way to track progress towards strategy, growth and profit. Today, 20 years on, the core perspectives have stayed with the individual measures being adapted and perspectives added depending on the companyâ€℠¢s strategic goals. The BSC has evolved from a performance measurement tool enforced by few, to a strategic management tool used worldwide; with the main developments being ‘driven primarily by observed weaknesses in the design process rather than in the architecture of the original idea’ (Cobbold&Lawrie, 2002).Financial measures were satisfactory for the industrial era however adapting to change in skills and competencies allowed the scorecard to produce ‘richer and more relevant information about activities they are managing than is provided by financial measures alone’ (Cobbold&Lawrie, 2002). No individual measure produces adequate information to plan. When planning a journey, the objective is to get from one point to another with lots of dials producing information on the likelihood of succeeding. The fuel gage alone doesn't set the scene however collectively the measures allow a judgements and decisions to be made.For example, to increase the likelihoo d of success you may add more oil or fuel. In business with the objective to boost sales you may increase quality and therefore sales. Introducing operational measures to performance measurement, allows these factors be monitored as the drivers of future financial performance. As the number of measures is limited, companies must identify the factors that are key performance drivers in order to achieve successful implementation. With the first generation scorecard, very little was known about the implementation of the BSC.This meant companies were not gaining the full effects of improved performance. ‘What you measure is what you get’ (Kaplan ;Norton, 1992). Therefore if you measure things that have no influence, directly or indirectly to profitability and growth then it will be impossible to improve. Hence the measures must be in line with a company’s strategic objectives. Kaplan and Nortonintroduced the four processes for managing strategy shown in Figure 3 to e mphasise the need for the BSC to be linked to strategy, but there was no clarity to the importance and effect of this.Many would have good measures in place such as customer satisfaction but would not analyse this further to improve profitability, therefore a wasted opportunity as there was no real vision of making it happen. The design however, was taken on successfully by many companies as it brought everything together in one clear report. Words were kept minimal and visual aids were used to represent and explain measures. This proved effective as few words paint huge pictures, and people are designed to accept pictures and often remember these better.The BSC also looks at the whole organisation as opposed to separate departments therefore bringing all silos together. Many organisations have individual cultures within each silo and therefore departments are often driven towards targets at departmental level as opposed to overall corporate objectives. Therefore it is crucial that all measures are monitored to ensure that the targets are met through the right objectives, and not at the expense of another. For example the production department may increase productivity leading to more sales and potentially higher profits however the quality may slack causing customer satisfaction to fall.This could cause reputational damage leading customers to go to competitors who offer higher quality. The second generation scorecard expanded on this highlighting filtering and clustering as areas of concern. This took the BSC from the measurement system to an integrated management system while still focussing on strategy and performance drivers. Often this involved relating measures to key performance indicators. The second generation scorecard introduced strategic objectives and developed causality further.This development addressed the issue of an ‘inability to link a company’s long-term strategy with its short term actions’ (Kaplan ; Norton, 1996). Add ing phrases to the four perspectivesallowed companies to select measures around their strategic vision. This selection method provided more thoroughness and made implementation clearer and more defined. Causality was included in the first generation scorecard with the four statements shown in Figure 4 but the second generation developed this by indicating relationships between the measures across the perspectives shown in Figure 5; as opposed to just vague links between the perspectives.This increased the urge to ‘prove’ links (Kaplan ; Norton, 1996). This could have been bad for companies as employees may have tried to link movements in the performance measures that weren’t related trying to show one as the causation of one another; simply to reach targets. This would be more common when financial rewards were linked to performance. Even with this is mind, the linkage model became an important part of the BSC design. Introduction of software reporting systems im proved managers’ ability to react with fast diagnosis and quick interventions when problems occurred.The early software provided by AT;T, and later by companies including IBM; used email and diary programs to fasten this process. Software caused confusion as many believed it would enable design and implementation of the BSC. However, it is performance management software to use after implementation to ensure performance information gets ‘to the right people at the right time’ (Balanced Scorecard Institute, 2013). As it allowed data to be stored, objectives could be allocated to owners and measures to objectives; allowing managers to make historical comparisons to measure performance accurately over time.It also helped communicate the information effectively and enforced more control and organisation. Some packages allow performance to be measured and tracked at departmental level, project level or the organisation as a whole. This only works if there is strategic alignment throughout the hierarchy. Organisations can then narrow down the specific areas that are underperforming in order to increase focus to improve or divest that part. Although the software has many benefits some find it ‘difficult to adapt to the needs of a growing and dynamic company’ (IBM, 2013).Hence, many prefer to use self-developed software however it sometimes lacks required functions and solutions to the cause and effect; as the specialist skills are not there to develop the program. Difficulties still arose in selecting relevant measures and target setting due to conflicting thoughts amongst management. There was also difficulty communicating the linkage model to lower level staff if they did not already have knowledge of the model. This could cause problems when trying to motivate teams as there will be different interpretations of aims and targets; therefore employees working towards different goals.The late 1990’s saw the third generation and the development of the destination statement (Figure 6) in order to achieve clarification through checking the measures, objectives and targets selected. The destination statement is a form of ‘what if’ analysis that brought the tool closer to company strategy, it's management and implementation. By estimating quantified amounts of consequences and achievementsfor a set future period; companies could easily compare actual achievements to targets and benchmark against others externally, in the case it was to stick with objectives from the linkage model.For example the destination statement would predict a rate of customer satisfaction for 3 years that you could check back against annually. This will identify under achievements, perhaps where you can enhance quality to boost satisfaction; and over achievements where you can identify what successful policies to keep. Management teams could easily relate to the statement to communicate down the hierarchy in order to gain a single interpretation, as it did not include looking at complex strategic objectives. Therefore a reversal of design as it was seen as an early stage in the process, as opposed to the final,making selection of measures and ausality easier. Companies have proven success without financial measures. Svenska Handelsbanken, while not disclosing use of the BSC; have gone over thirty years with ‘no budgets, no absolute targets, and no fixed plans' but with specific performance measures in place (Daum, 2001). More recently, in 2003 a new CEO adopted the BSC for Lloyds TSB in order to ‘show employees how their actions impact their colleagues and customers and how this, in turn, translates into our overall performance’ (Lloyds TSB, 2013). This linked objectives of 80,000 employees, emphasizing the advantage of aligning the whole organisation.By involving employees at every level in some aspect of the process generates ‘acceptance of and commitment to the concept' (War d, 2005). Implementation proved successful to drive the company towards growth and away from being sales and cost driven, which had caused them to lose their strong market position. ‘The cause and effect chain of events’ was critical for them to see that would drive the revenue up as opposed to just a target of increased sales (Ward, 2005). As Lloyds are large and have overseas staff they could have faced technical and strategic challenges including cultural conflict and difficulties selecting measures.Companies with a diverse workforce should ensure they measure things that can be influenced and changed by employees. Lloyds also highlighted the point that implementation takes time and resources to ensure thoroughness. A tight deadline imposed ‘danger of completing the task while missing the goal’ (Ward, 2005). They recognized the importance employees understanding the concept before implementation so brought in a BSC specialist, who had worked closely with Kaplan and Norton to run seminars and lectures; in order to reduce this danger.Not only do employees need to understand the concept and accept the process; they should include feedback including how many employees see it as motivational and effective. If employees do not enjoy what they are doing they will be inclined to only meet targets and not excel further. The strong focus of the scorecard encourages companies to focus on what they really need to measure as opposed to what is easy to measure; resulting in all decisions being made around the strategy. The BSC changed the way people looked at performance measurement. Previously it was seen as a method to ontrol employees but the tool encourages targets in order for employees to work towards. The idea was that employees would adapt their behaviour accordingly to reach goals; hence giving them more freedom, motivation and involvement in the process. However, some may argue that the focus has shifted too far towards operational mat ters that there is not financial involvement. Adaptability should allow those companies to change to their needs. The BSC will vary for each company depending on how dynamic the industry is and what the individual aims and strategy include.Lloyds TSB added a fifth perspective as they felt it was a key driver to the company's strategic direction. Although there are BSC failures, the advances in the design have allowed more successful implementations over the years. There is now more knowledge and literature available because more companies have adopted this management tool; but more importantly there are significant successes documented for teams to learn from. With corporate social responsibility being so highly regarded nowadays due to greater awareness and regulation, modern scorecards have seen a fifth sub-perspective introduced; environment/external.This shows the broader impact on society than is indicated through the customer perspective; hence giving more in-depth analysis. A s long as the process is carefully planned, communicated and regularly monitored it should prove successful however there is always room for improvement with the uncertainty in the ever changing environment. The scorecard, instead of providing single destination outcomes could include risk and probabilities related to various possible outcomes.In conclusion, the economic environment is only going to become more dynamic but the last twenty years has proven that continuous developments should ensure the BSC is kept up to date in order to stay a useful management tool. Figure 1 – Main Articles Used Author| Title| Daum. J| Beyond Budgeting: A Model for Performance Management and Controlling in the 21st Century? | Cobbold. I ; Lawrie. G| The Development of the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management tool| Kaplan. R ; Norton. D| The balanced scorecard – measures that drive performance| Kaplan. R ; Norton.D| Transforming the Balanced Scorecard from Performance Measuremen t to Strategic Management: Part 1| Kaplan. R ; Norton. D| Using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system| Letza. S| The design and implementation of the balanced business scorecard| Schneiderman. A| Why Balanced Scorecards Fail| Ward. A| Implementing the Balanced Scorecard at Lloyds TSB| * Full references for the articles are shown in the reference list at the end of this paper* Figure 2 – Four Perspectives for Balanced Scorecard Perspective| Why? | Customer| â€Å"To achieve our vision, how should we appear to our customers? | Internal Business Process| â€Å"To satisfy our shareholders and customers, what business processes must we excel at? â€Å"| Learning and Growth| â€Å"To achieve our vision, how will we sustain our ability to change and improve? â€Å"| Financial| â€Å"To succeed financially, how should we appear to our shareholders? â€Å"| Figure 3 – The Balanced Scorecard Process Adapted from – Kaplan, R. S. and Norton, D. P. , Using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system, Harvard Business Review, January-February 1996, 75-85. Available from: http://scholar. google. co. uk [Accessed 23 February 2013]Figure 4 – First Generation Balanced Scorecard Source – Antunes. G et al. , Process improvement measures in social area organisations: A study in institutions for elderly: survey results, The TQM Journal. Available from: http://www. emeraldinsight. com [Accessed 15 February 2013] Figure 5 – Second Generation Balanced Scorecard/Linkage Model Source – Cobbold, I. C. and Lawrie, G. J. G. , 2002. The Development of the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management tool, 2GC Website. Available from: http://www. 2gc. co. uk [Accessed 19 February 2013] Figure 6 – Third Generation Balance Scorecard/Destination StatementAndersen. H. , Effective quality management through third-generation balanced scorecard, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Manageme nt, Available from: http://www. emeraldinsight. com [Accessed 21 February 2013] References Andersen. H. , Effective quality management through third-generation balanced scorecard, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Available from: http://www. emeraldinsight. com [Accessed 21 February 2013] Antunes. G et al. , Process improvement measures in social area organisations: A study in institutions for elderly: survey results, The TQM Journal.Available from: http://www. emeraldinsight. com [Accessed 15 February 2013] Balanced Scorecard Institue, 2013. The Balanced Scorecard & Technology: Strategic Performance Management Automation. U. S. Balanced Scorecard Institute. Available from: http://www. bala ncedscorecard. org/software/balancedscorecardsoftware/tabid/61/default. aspx Balanced Scorecard Institue, 2013. What is the Balanced Scorecard. U. S. Balanced Scorecard Institute. Available from: http://www. balancedscorecard. org/bscresources/aboutthebalancedscore card/ tabid/55/default. aspx Cobbold, I. C. and Lawrie, G. J. G. , 2002.The Development of the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management tool, 2GC Website. Available from: http://www. 2gc. co. uk [Accessed 19 February 2013] Daum, J. H. , Beyond Budgeting: A Model for Performance Management and Controlling in the 21st Century? , Controlling & finance, July 2002. Available from: http://scholar. google. co. uk [Accessed 4 March 2013] Drury, C. , 2008. Management and Cost Accounting. 7th Edition. London: Cengage Learning. IBM, 2013. Balanced Scorecard Software. U. S. IBM. Available From: http://www-01. ibm. com/ software/analytics/cognos/balanced-scorecard-software. tml IBM, 2013. Innovation Center. U. S. IBM. Available From: http://www-01. ibm. com/software/ data/cognos/innovation-center/advisors. html Kaplan, R. S. and Norton, D. P. , The balanced scorecard – measures that drive performance, Harvard Business Review, January-February 1992, 71-79. Available from: http://schola r. google. co. uk [Accessed 21 February 2013] Kaplan, R. S. and Norton, D. P. , Transforming the Balanced Scorecard from Performance Measurement to Strategic Management: Part 1, American Accounting Association Accounting Horizons, 15 (1), 75-85. Available from: http://scholar. google. co. k [Accessed 23 February 2013] Kaplan, R. S. and Norton, D. P. , Using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system, Harvard Business Review, January-February 1996, 75-85. Available from: http://scholar. google. co. uk [Accessed 23 February 2013] Letza, S. , 1996. The design and implementation of the balanced business scorecard. Business Process Re-engineering & Mangement Journal, 2(3), 54-76. Available from: http://www. emeraldinsight. com [Accessed 15 February 2013] Lloyds Banking Group plc, 2009. Annual Report 2008. United Kingdom: Lloyds Banking Group plc. Available from: http://www. lloydsbankinggroup. om/investors/financial_performance/ company_results. asp#2007 Lloyds Banking Group plc, 2013. Performance Management. United Kingdom. Lloyds Banking Group plc. Available from: http://www. lloydstsb-annualreport. com/businessreview/our_people/ performance_management/ Schneiderman, A. M. , Why Balanced Scorecards Fail, Journal of Strategic Performance, January 1999, 6-11. Available from: http://scholar. google. co. uk [Accessed 6 March 2013] Ward, A. , Implementing the Balanced Scorecard at Lloyds TSB, Strategic HR Review, 4 (3), 16-19. Available from : http://www. emeraldinsight. com [Accessed 28 February 2013]

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