Real Estate Investment Trusts in China

Real Estate Investment Trusts in China Real Estate Investment Trusts in China: how can we learn form American model to develop our REITs system? Ouyang Chun Abstract The real estate market is a burgeon market and is an essential part in the Chinese economy. During the past decades, the government made all their efforts to boost its development by using foreign countries experience. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) model is new method to finance for city development. Since 2007, Chinese government began to test whether this model is suitable for China. The paper addresses the situation of Chinese REITs and the factors influencing REITs operating in China. Using the American REITs model for reference, the paper also discusses how to solve this problems and how to implement REITs model in China. I. Introduction The real estate market is booming in these years, particularly in China. The demand of finance as well as the housing supply makes China searching for other more efficient financing methods to meet the increasing requirements. Recently, with the releasing of the law restrictions and the reform and opening-up, more and more diversified investment methods are being tested in China. The Chinese government is now trying to find a new financing method by learning from foreign experience and integrating it with the Chinese situation. The REITs is considered to be one of the most efficient and suitable investment tools in China. REITs first appeared in the USA in 1960s. With over 40 years of development, REITs was successful in America because of complete laws and professional evaluation agencies. REITs developed rapidly in both their size and numbers since 1990 in America (Chan et al., 2002), and now it is a very mature investment model in the USA, benefiting the individual investors by running properties under the professional institutions. A REIT is a mutual fund to collect money from both individuals and institutional investors, with the exemption of the taxation, investing to different categories of real estate projects in different regions indirectly, and it is also can be traded on the stock markets (Jones. C, 2007). According to the Baker Review (Baker, 2003), the institutional investors prefer to use REITs, which is a tax transparent investment tool, to stimulate and to improve the rent stock as well as to stabilize the market. This tax transparent feature means that there is no need to pay double tax on REITs. Since 2007, the Chinese government established some test spots by choosing several potential projects, examining the feasibility of REITs in China. However, almost all the tests failed by various factors. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors influencing the REITs adapted to the Chinese market. The paper also examines the experience from the USA, which has the most mature REITs model in the world, and contrasts with the Chinese REITs model. As part of the task, the paper addresses the countermeasures for the factors influencing REITs feasibility in China by giving the law supports, improving the REITs models and establishing the professional evaluation system. The paper first examines the definition and the properties of REITs and then addresses the current situation of REITs operation in China. It then considers the factors which influences why REITs did not particularly adapt to China before. The paper then introduces the experience of REITs in America and also the reasons making REITs successful in the USA. The final part of the paper considers the countermeasures for making REITs adapt to China in the future and draws some conclusions. II. The current situation of REITs in China In this section, the paper will first address the potential of REITs in China, giving some reasons why REITs is considered to be the most suitable financial tool in China. The paper will then examine the reasons influencing REITs developed in China since 2007. A. The potential of REITs in China The National Association gave the definition of the Real Estate Investment Trusts as followed (NAREIT): â€Å"[a] REIT is essentially a corporation or business trust that combines the capital of many investors to acquire or provide financing for all forms of real estate. The aim of REITs is to invest to the real estate market and to receive the returns, it just like the stock shares held by the investors, which creates the possibility to indirectly invest to the market with professional management. REITs is suitable for China because of its features, the liquidity, the diversification of risk and the available capital. The Liquidity of REITs is that it can be traded on the open markets just like the stock shares, which means that the individuals or the institution can invest to the real estate market even though they are not the professionals in this area. It also gives them a chance to withdraw their asset quickly when the market is depressed instead of the long period of the direct investment (Eichholtz, 1996, Hoesli et al, 2000,Walpole, 1999). Eichholtz also pointed out that (Eichholtz, 1996) REITs can diversify the risk of the investment. The capital of the REITs will be divided into several parts to invest in different category of properties and in different regions. The development in China is unbalanced even in the metropolitans. Thereby, REITs will spread the risk efficiently for the investors and improve some undeveloped area where the direct investment did not participate in. REITs welcomes all kinds of investors including the retails and the institutions. Because it does not need too much assets to involve, REITs may collects enormous money and becomes a non-ignored capital in the market (Walpole, 1999). REITs can be cultivated stronger in China because of the massive of the retail investors, thereby, the available capital of REITs may become incredible huge and will benefit substantially for the Chinese real estate market. B. The reasons influencing of the Chinese REITs Since 2007, the Chinese government set up several test points to examine whether REITs adapted to China, however, almost all the projects failed, which exposed many factors influencing REITs operating in China. The supporting laws and policies is non-enough. The Chinese government published few supporting laws or policies for REITs. REITs returns are mostly attribute form the exemption of the tax, but there are still not any policies or laws published to exempt the taxes of REITs, which makes the incomes of REITs are very low. Thereby, the investors in China still wait and see to determinate whether invest to REITs market. The complicated properties of the projects make the evaluation difficult. Due to the limited test spots, the competition in Chinese REITs was very sharp since 2007, more and more conglomerates joint or had a will to join at that time, the projects they brought to the test spots is significantly huge for the Chinese REITs system. There was not enough preparations for such big properties in this market, such as the laws, the regulations as well as the evaluations systems, which is considered to be the most important part in REITs investment, did not prepare maturely at that time. Therefore, as the test began, the problems appeared gradually, the valuation of the properties was evaluated incorrectly or the values of the whole project were not easy to evaluate which caused the investor was not able to grasp the information precisely. The unclear ownership of the Property Portfolio reduced the value of the REITs. After the project started, this problem appeared significantly, a larger of buildings which were prepared to be the asset pack existed problems, the use or the property of lands are not correct or the approval process is not complete. Such buildings are not allowed to invest to the Chinese REITs market due to the laws. Thereby, these problems affected the evaluation of the asset directly and also affected launching the REITs definitely. The rental fee can not be collected efficiently. The Chinese government established some development areas in the past decades, in which the investor would be benefited when they established the projects by some policies. These policies exempted the rental fees from their buildings for a particularly period, which effected the operating of REITs dramatically, because the most important factor, the returns, was affected. A non-returnable property would not make and profits for the REITs products obviously and would confuse the investor on how they would get their incomes after they invested, therefore, it would not be approved by the market definitely. Although there were many defects in Chinese REITs, we could avoid these disadvantages by using other countries experience for reference. The American REITs model is one of the most mature models in the world. Their development history, their REITs structure as well as the reason of its success are worth us to reflect our REITs model. III. The REITs model in USA and the analysis of the reasons of the success of RIETs in America In this part, the paper will analyze the reason of the success in the American REITs. The paper will first give a brief history of the REITs in the USA and address its structure. After that, the paper will focus on analyzing the reasons promoting REITs market to boost and boom in recent years. A. A brief history of the REITs in America The modern pattern of the REITs appeared by the Wall Street in 1960s even though the idea of it can be dated back to 1880s. In 1960, in order to stimulate the depressed real estate market, the United State published the Real Estate Investment Trust Act, which gave the supporting law to the new invest model (Klame. P et al, 2001). This Act defined the regulation of REITs and also gave it the exemption from the federal taxation, which means there is no need to pay the double tax while using this investment tool (Klame. P et al, 2001). REITs did not make any significant achievements in the first decades, but grew dramatically from the 1990s, in which erupted a housing market collapse (Harvard University, 2003). Due to the low cost of management and the diversity of risk, more than 200 companies in America invested indirectly to the real estate market, the total assets exceed $ 12,000 billion until January 2000 ,and now, the American public real estate market is the biggest and most mature market in the world (Klame. P et al, 2001). B. The current situation of REITs in America The structure of REITs investors in America are divided into three parts, 55% in the domestic institutions, 25% by individuals and 7% by the foreign investors (Friday, 1999). REITs benefit all forms of the real estate projects, such as office buildings, shopping centers and private housing (Klame. P et al, 2001). The aim for the REITs was first defined for the retail investors, but attracted the institution investor since 2004, which increased the numbers of the trades as well as the liquidity of the REITs (Chan et al., 2002). Moreover, the REITs investors in America can obtain about 90% of the income of the REITs and do not need to pay any tax from their incomes, thereby making the benefits they receive higher than the stock markets (Klame. P et al, 2001). C. The reasons of the success of American REITs With almost 50 years development, REITs in the United Stated became the most mature one in the world. The reasons for that are varieties. The first reason is the government published a lot of supporting laws. With these Acts, REITs developed rapidly. The REITs did not make many achievements at the very beginning, but the American government made all their efforts to push this investment method to success. With the Tax Recovery Act in 1986, the REITs in the USA first grew tremendously after experiencing the bubbles and the depression in 1970s. This Act weakened the limited partnership by restricting their tax exemption and cancelling the accelerated depreciation accounting method of the real estate. The Act also loosened the access standard of the REITs, which made the REITs companies not only owned the real estate assets, but also could manage the properties. Moreover, most of the REITs added the low debt provision in their organizational files, which would absolutely reduce the risk in operation. These changes attracted the investor to join this boom market and promoted the development of REITs. At the end of 1999, the most important Act, REITs Modernization Act, passed and published in 2001. This Act reduced the distribution proportion to 90%, and stipulated the companies could dominate the profits freely after they pay the tax from their un-distributed incomes. Therefore, REITs could use this profit to maintain the existing properties, invested to new properties or pay the debt. As a result of that, this Act increased the investment chance and promoted the business performance. These Acts helped REITs to become more flexible, more focus in customer demands and a more profit-seeking institution. The supporting laws and policies are definitely important, however, REITs needs more supporting from the financial system, and the evaluation system is considered to be the most important systems in REITs development. The evaluation system in the U.S. is quite complete. With the experience of over 100 years financial operation, the Americans accumulated substantial finance evaluation experience. When REITs started, the evaluation of the REITs products were not difficult tasks to finish. Almost all the REITs projects had been evaluated correctly, which provided accuracy information to the investors. Due to the REITs market is not difficult to enroll, most of the investors, including individuals and institutions, could operate readily when they joined the market. That absolutely promoted the REITs boom in the United State during 1990s. In addition, REITs companies in America invest to specific objects. Compared with China, the U.S. REITs concentrated in existing real estate projects, which means the companies preferred to operate the buildings rather than to establish one. That would absolutely reduce the risk for REITs, which attracted a lot of investors. These three factors motioned above supported the REITs developed very fast since 1990s and make it becomes one of the most efficient and mature REITs model in the world. The Chinese REITs may probably enlighten form these experiences and avoid the problems by learning their developing history. IV. Countermeasures To establish a relatively complete environment for REITs investment, China would probably benefits from the American experience. The paper will provide some suggestions which might helpful for improve the REITs in China. A. Exemption of the double tax of REITs As Chinese REITs markets were mainly affected by the investment environment, especially the supporting laws, the Chinese government could refer to the American model to release the law restricting gradually. The most exigent problem which should be solved first is the taxes on the REITs products. The American experience exposed that the transparency feature of the tax is the most important factor promoting REITs market boost. Without the tax transparency, the returns of the REITs would be very low. The Chinese government should use this experience for reference, exempting the double tax on the REITs, stimulating the REITs markets by raising the returns. B. Introduction for the public Due to the returns of REITs are a little bit higher than the stock markets and the investment skill is fairly easy to grasp, both the individual and the institutional investors would be willing to invest to this market. However, the REITs market was not flourishing as the exception, that is mainly because most individuals in China did not understanding what was REITs and how many retunes they could received by the REITs, even the specialists would not invest lightly due to the unclear information of supporting policies of the REITs. If the government really want to boom the REITs market, they should focus on publicize the REITs products to the citizen and publish the very clear supporting policies or law to enhance the investors confidence. In order to extent to market of REITs, it should absorb both individual investors and institution investor to join. However, the Chinese government paid more attention on the institutions instead of considering the individuals, which cause the ins ufficient funds of the REITs markets. Obviously, the institution investors are quite cautious and would not invest their money to the uncertain finance products such as REITs, which would directly lead the depression of the REITs markets and also caused a vicious circle : no investors, no money and no money, REITs market would not attract investors. To change this situation, money from individual investors is necessary because the asset from individuals is fairly huge in China. The government should use this kind of power, just like the U.S. model, to support the unstable REITs market at its very beginning. Using the bank sell model, which is just like the fund sell model in China, and minimizing the unit of REITs just like the American to create the chance for individuals to enroll. C. The clear investment aim The investment object is another severe problem in Chinese REITs model, REITs companies in China used to prefer invest to the big projects. Because the limitation of the test spots, the opportunities are very competitive. Most of the companies used their best properties to join this market, these properties are so huge that could not be evaluated very clearly before they used them to invest. Therefore, due to the unclearly evaluation of these properties, the information for the investors are ambitious, which would definitely cause severe problem in them investment decision-making. Moreover, REITs in China is a relative new investment methods for both individual investors and institutional investors, with the unclear information, investors therefore would not have a willing to buy this kind of finance products, they might consider that REITs is a very risky products for them to invest. That is also a reason why investors enthusiasm for this investment tool is not very high as the expe ctation. However, the situation in America is complete change. At the very beginning, REITs was considered to be a quite popular invest method, the reason for its depression is the only the double tax. Thereby, when the government released the tax and published some supporting laws to regular REITs, its market grew suddenly. That is because almost all the properties, which are provided by the REITs companies in America, were not very huge at the very beginning and were evaluated clearly before they came into the markets. Even some properties are relatively big, having been given exhaustive information for the investors. Therefore, investor could easily invest to these products with this information and would approximately calculate the incomes they would return. Such experience should be used in Chinese REITs market, establishing the professional evaluation agencies to provide the official evaluation reports to the investors, making sure the information they received is true and int act. That might greatly stimulate the investors confidence and give them a positive signal that the REITs is a fairly formal investment tools for them to choose. V. Conclusions The Chinese real estate market is booming these years, but it is by no means that all of the foreign finance methods suitable for China. When we want to use some advance experience to the Chinese market, we should consider it very clearly, not only learn the structure of concept of the new method, but also we may need to figure out the essential of it and in what situation we will use it. According to the REITs, we may understand that even its concept is fairly suitable for Chinese situation, the operation details is also quite difficult to follow. It might need several years to establish our own REITs market and to publicize it to the whole citizen. That is not the task which only to publish some REITs products, it is also a task to build a whole REITs system, including the supporting policies or laws, complete the evaluation system and extending the REITs spots. All of them need time to finish. Therefore, we could not run it so fast but to make sure every step is moderate and effic ient. In this circumstance, we may probably find some new problems and new chance for us to develop our REITs, and also we might discover some new ideas or methods to make the REITs more efficient and more suitable for China. References Barker, K. (2003) Review of Housing Supply: Interim Report-Analysis (London: HMSO). Chan, S. H., Erickson, J. Wang, K. (2002) Real Estate Investment Trusts Structure, Performance, and Investment Opportunities (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Eichholtz, P.M.A., â€Å"Does International Diversification Work Better for Real Estate than for Stocks and Bonds?, Financial Analysis Journal, January-February, 1996, pp. 56-62. Friday, H.S., G.S. Sirmans, and C.M. Conover, â€Å"Ownership Structure and the Value of the Firm: The Case of REITs, Journal of Real Estate Research, 1999, vol. 17, no. 1/2. Harvard University (2003) The State of the Nations Housing 2002 (Massachusetts,

Enablers and Inhibitors to Knowledge Management

Enablers and Inhibitors to Knowledge Management Enabling organizations to capture, share, and apply collective experience and know-how of people is emerging as fundamental to competing in the knowledge economy. There is a growing recognition in the business community about the importance of knowledge management. As a result, there is growing enthusiasm and activity centered on knowledge management. Some organizations have taken initiatives to understand and manage this critical resource. But, in spite of these initiatives, several organizations particularly the Small and Medium Enterprises still have not approached knowledge management activity formally or deliberately. The cause for this sluggishness towards knowledge management could be that most organizations are still struggling to comprehend the knowledge management concept. The reason for this confusion may be attributed to a gap between the emerging concept of knowledge management and the lack of understanding about it. To bridge the gap, the fundamental issue of identifyin g salient characteristics of knowledge management phenomena needs to be addressed. The key thesis is that enablers of the knowledge management paradigm often unravel inhibitors in adapting and evolving knowledge management systems for business environments that are characterized by high uncertainty and radical discontinuous change. This paper thus, explores by presenting a hierarchical model the enablers, inhibitors and identifies critical success factors necessary for a successful knowledge management initiative. The paper uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to ascertain the relative importance of the influential factors towards a successful Knowledge Management implementation. Keywords: Knowledge Management Systems, Critical Success Factors, Analytic Hierarchy Process 1. Introduction The information era has caused enterprises to realize the shift from resource economy of controlling land, machines, factories, raw materials, and labor forces to the knowledge economy of creating business value through utilization of intangible knowledge. This has caused knowledge management to be of crucial importance and it has grabbed peoples attention and generated significant discussions both in the academia and industry. The true creation of business value today mainly comes from knowledge and its management. Knowledge is critical in obtaining competitive advantage within an enterprise (Sang and Hong, 2002), enterprises should consider the knowledge to be a critical resource and leverage it judiciously (Gupta et al., 2000; Liebowitz, 2003). To facilitate the knowledge accumulation process, enterprises must encourage employees to share their experience and knowledge with others meanwhile accumulating their knowledge as an organizational asset. Therefore, the activities of knowledge management should enable the creation, communication, and application of knowledge; and they should drive the capability of creating and retaining a greater value onto the core business competencies (Tiwana, 2001). However, there are concerns about enablers and inhibitors to implementing knowledge management for enterprises. In the process of carrying out knowledge management, organizations face varying conditions of corporate culture, workflow processes, and integration of all the employees knowledge. They also need strong support from top management, because it is possible that during the process they will encounter resistance from employees. Organizations also need to increase the usage of information technology in order to help the problem regarding the flow of information. Wong, (2005) suggest the need for a more systematic and deliberate study on the critical success factors (CSFs) for implementing knowledge management is crucial. Organizations need to be cognizant and aware of the factors that will influence the success of a knowledge management initiative. Ignorance and oversight of the necessary important factors will likely hinder an organizations effort to realize its full benefit. Wong, (2005) also indicate that previous studies of critical success factors (CSFs) for knowledge management implementation have been heavily focused on large companies. This is because most of the early adopters and superior performers of knowledge management were in fact large and multinational corporations. As such, existing factors are mainly large companies oriented, thereby reflecting their situations and needs. Directly applying these factors into the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) environment may not be sufficient without an understanding of their very own and specific conditions. Previous studies fall short of studying and identifying the CSFs from the SMEs perspective. They have not considered the features, characteristics and situations of smaller firms. Nor have they explored other factors, which could potentially be more important for SMEs when accomplishing knowledge management. This paper evolves a model for critical success factors for knowledge management implementations in small medium enterprises (SMEs) based on a questionnaire survey. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework has been developed for finding the importance of the influential factors. AHP is an effective quantitative tool that helps to prioritize problems, issues or variables based on relevant criteria and alternatives. The applicability and usefulness of the AHP approach as a multi-criteria decision-making tool is well acknowledged in the management literature. The present work has adopted this tool for segregating a few critical aspects of knowledge management implementation from the inconsequential many, so that organizations could focus only on those dimensions that are crucial for their success instead of spending a large quantity of time, effort and resources in mindlessly concentrating on peripheral issues. Hence the objectives of this paper are two-fold: To identify the criteria for the AHP model with respect to issues relating to critical success factors for knowledge management implementations in SMEs To present an AHP framework for absolute measurement of priorities in order to critically evaluate the issues relating to critical success factors for knowledge management implementations in SMEs. 2. Review of Literature 2.1 Enablers to Knowledge Management As organizations embark into managing their knowledge they need to be clear of the factors that influence knowledge management, which are known as knowledge management enablers. Enablers are the driving force in carrying out knowledge management, they do not just generate knowledge in the organization by stimulating the creation of knowledge, but they also motivate the employees to share their knowledge and experiences with one another, allowing organizational knowledge to grow concurrently and systematically (Ichijo et al., 1998; Stonehouse and Pemberton, 1999). Knowledge management enablers are the mechanism for the organization to develop its knowledge and also stimulate an environment within the organization for the creation and protection of knowledge. They are also the necessary building blocks in the improvement of the effectiveness of activities for knowledge management (Ichijo et al., 1998; Stonehouse and Pemberton, 1999). Knowledge management enablers include the methods of knowledge management, organizational structure, corporate culture, information technology, people, and strategies, etc. (Bennett and Gabriel, 1999; Zack, 1999; Davenport, 1997; Long, 1997). A study by Yu et al. (2007) identified a set of critical enablers such as knowledge management team activity, learning orientation, knowledge management system quality, and knowledge management reward for developing organizational capabilities of knowledge management. These critical enablers have a significant, positive influence on knowledge management performance. Research done by Yeh et al. (2006) concludes that strategy and leadership, corporate culture, people, and information technology are four of the enablers in knowledge management. They found that for the strategy and leadership enabler the most important part is to obtain the support of the top managers. For the corporate culture enabler, the important part is the forming of a culture of sharing but needs to be supplemented by information technology. For the people enabler, other than the training courses, the channels of learning and the incentive program for the employees are also key factors. As for the information technology enabler, the speedy search of knowledge for its re-use is becoming more and more important. In practice they discovered that the establishment of a dedicated unit is also a key enabler, and this enabler mainly plays the role of furthering knowledge management, taking communication, and coordinating with other departments as its duty. 2.2 Inhibitors to Knowledge Management The biggest inhibitor to knowledge management implementation arises from unwillingness of people to systematically organize their knowledge. Since, this cannot be solved with technology, different kinds of work are needed. Examples include the promotion of knowledge management amongst people, or requiring top management to give their people pressure to implement knowledge management (Yeh et al., 2006). Chatzoglou and Diamantidis (2009) conducted research that focused on the IT impact on firms non-financial IT risk. Their results indicate that IT risk factors affect mainly coordination and partially information ability but not productivity. Furthermore, the most significant risk factors affecting business performance are management ability, information integrity, controllability and exclusivity. Lin et al. (2005) suggest inhibitors in implementing the knowledge management arise out of strategic, perception, planning and implementation issues. The results of their research reveal that: From the strategic aspect, the upper management should address the enterprises strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats, and then formulate a suitable knowledge management strategy. Furthermore, they should be equipped with information about the activities and performance throughout the organization. From the perception aspect, the critical task of the top managers is to identify the core knowledge required to maintain competitive advantage. Employees and top managers work together for a common goal; thus, employee efforts can guarantee a successful implementation of the knowledge management. Therefore, an organization should provide suitable training and resources to the employees, and use information technology to provide a friendly repository to standardize and store knowledge. The organization should also establish an atmosphere emphasizing knowledge sharing and innovation and encouraging employees to form such a culture through a reward system. From the planning aspect, the action plan should include schedule, people involved and resources required, although it is difficult to transfer the necessary knowledge to the knowledge management plan due to non-standardization. Employees orientation toward knowledge management, including the awareness of the importance and benefits of knowledge management and IT skills for knowledge management process, should be completely addressed. Knowledge-oriented employee assessments can also fail if they are not linked closely to existing incentive systems. The company should take steps to build up the trust of the knowledge owners by associating knowledge sharing to pay and incentives. From the implementation aspect, a robust set of metrics that evaluates the value of the knowledge management after implementation will need to be developed. It is essential that the top managers instill in the employees the importance and benefits of knowledge management. Employees often fear that if they pass on their knowledge to others, they will endanger their own position, authority, even power in the organization. Training and communication are essential to calm down employees fears of change, and perhaps to help them to enjoy new ways of working with their colleagues. Thus, firms need to create the right circumstance around the organization, primarily in the areas of knowledge management activities and culture. Jennex and Zakharova (2005) suggest a holistic approach that addresses critical elements such as an effective technological infrastructure; integrating the technology infrastructure into everyday processes; having an enterprise-wide knowledge structure or taxonomy; a knowledge management strategy; knowledge management metrics of success and identification of inhibitors of knowledge usage. Lang (2001) identified several inhibitors to knowledge creation and utilization in organizations. First, there may be inadequate care of those organizational relationships that promote knowledge creation. Second, there may be insufficient linkage between knowledge management and corporate strategy. Thirdly, inaccurate valuation of the contribution that knowledge makes to organizations profits renders the value of knowledge management ambiguous. Fourthly, there may be a pervasive lack of holism in knowledge management efforts. Finally perhaps not something ordinarily considered a problem for managers to deal with -poor verbal skills may hinder the actual processes of knowledge creation. Plessis, (2007) feel that the management of the inhibitors to knowledge management would need to be a mix of cultural, organizational, process, management and technology initiatives. The challenge is to select and combine the methods and approaches available, and harness them to address the organizations business needs. 2.3 Critical Success Factors for Knowledge Management Generic critical success factors exist for knowledge management; however, each organizational environment and culture is unique and presents unique critical success factors. Co-creation with all relevant stakeholders is extremely important on this road to understand the organizational culture and idiosyncrasies well before embarking on a knowledge management journey, as far as possible. Critical success factors specific to an environment are, however, often only identified once the journey has started, and it is thus important for a knowledge management strategy to be flexible to take these factors into account. The end state will be different than the original strategy and roadmap for an organizational knowledge management implementation due to these unique critical success factors. Adaptability and flexibility to take unique critical success factors into account will therefore be a critical success factor in itself (Plessis , 2007). As asserted by Frey (2001), although large organizations have led the way in introducing and implementing knowledge management, it is increasingly important for small businesses to manage their collective intellect. Okunoye and Karsten (2002) stated that knowledge management has indeed become the underlying sources for successful organizations regardless of their size and geographical locations. Therefore, a better understanding of the CSFs for implementing it in SMEs is needed in order to ensure the success of their efforts. Wong, (2005) has grouped the critical success factors into a number of generic factors such as management leadership and support, culture, technology, strategy, measurement, roles and responsibilities, etc. These are common in knowledge management efforts and therefore, they are also believed to be applicable to SMEs. He suggests that one should also consider the needs and situations of SMEs when developing CSFs for them. Wong, (2005) proposes a comprehensive model for implementing knowledge management in SMEs. They are: management leadership and support; culture; IT; strategy and purpose; measurement; organizational infrastructure; processes and activities; motivational aids; resources; training and education; and HRM. Recently (He and Wei, 2009) discussed that Knowledge Management System users beliefs are contextually differentiated, and a distinction between knowledge contribution and knowledge-seeking behaviors and an adequate emphasis on their variance in terms of user belief is needed. Yang et al. (2009) identified crucial knowledge management enablers and examined their impacts on organizational performance. Chen et al. (2009) proposed an approach of measuring a technology universitys knowledge management performance from competitive perspective. Their approach integrates analytical network process with balanced scorecard that contains four perspectives, including customer perspective, internal business perspective, innovation and learning perspective, and financial perspective. Chang et al. (2009) investigates the key factors for knowledge management in the national government of Taiwan. Their study relied on two distinctive dimensions: core KM processes (organizational missions and values, IT applications, documentation, process management, and human resource) and KM performance (knowledge capture and transformation, business performance, and knowledge sharing and value addition). Wen (2009) developed an AHP model for the measurement of the effectiveness of Knowledge Management in Taiwanese high-tech enterprises. Thus, what emerges from the review of literature is the following: There are both enablers and inhibitors to knowledge management implementations in SMEs. Both enablers and inhibitors may be classified essentially into three broad categories technical, human, and financial. Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for knowledge management implementations are different for SMEs from that of large organizations. Critical Success Factors (CSFs) also depend on the management of the enablers and the inhibitors. Thus, it is beneficial for the SME to build a framework that would be used to prioritize the enablers and inhibitors towards a successful knowledge management initiative. For this reason we propose the AHP framework to prioritize influential factors contributing to a SMEs initiative towards the implementation of knowledge management. 3. Framework for Knowledge Management implementation Any successful managerial implementation requires management of enablers and the inhibitors. Similarly, in case of knowledge management it is important to have the information about the influential factors (enablers and inhibitors) for the successful implementation of knowledge management. Not all of the influential factors are equally important for the successful knowledge management. For this reason we have used the AHP framework for finding the importance of the influential factors. AHP has been widely used as an analytical tool for decisions related to knowledge management. Recent work by Wen (2009) in presenting an effectiveness measurement model for knowledge management using AHP is a contribution in this direction. In AHP the complex decision is structured into a hierarchy descending from an overall objective to various influential factors, sub-factors, and so on, until the lowest level. The objective or the overall goal of the decision is represented at the top level of the hierarchy. The factors and sub-factors contributing to the decision are represented at the intermediate levels. Finally, the decision alternatives or selection choices are laid down at the last level of the hierarchy. According to Saaty (2000), a hierarchy can be constructed by creative thinking, recollection, and using peoples perspectives. It should be noted that there is no set procedures for generating the levels to be included in the hierarchy. The structure of the hierarchy depends upon the nature or type of managerial decisions. Also, the number of the levels in a hierarchy depends on the complexity of the problem being analyzed and the degree of detail of the problem that an analyst requires to solve. As such, the h ierarchy representation of a system may vary from one person to another. In the present study the influential factors are determined via widespread investigations and consultations with various experts, and owner/managers of SMEs. Synthesizing the literature review from (Chang et al., 2009; Chatzoglou, and Diamantidis, 2009; Chen et al. 2009; He and Wei, 2009; Lai et al., 2009; Wen, 2009; Yang et al., 2009), the opinions of the experts and owner/managers are employed to obtain the two main factors: enablers and inhibitors. From these factors, 6 influential sub-factors for the successful implementation of knowledge management are briefly described as follows (refer to Figure 1 for complete hierarchical structure): Enablers (C1): This factor includes three sub-factors, C11: technical; C12: human; C13: financial. Inhibitors (C2): This factor includes three sub-factors, C21: technical; C22: human; C23: financial. According to the AHP methodology, weights (priorities) can be determined using a pair-wise comparison within each pair of factors. To determine the relative weights, owner/managers can be asked to make pair-wise comparisons using a 1-9 preference scale (Saaty, 2000). However, in the present study for the pair-wise comparison, we have relied on actual data, that is, the data extracted from the questionnaire survey. The advantage of using actual data (quantitative data) over preference scale for pair-wise comparison eliminates the need for consistency checks (Saaty, 2000). Technical Human Financial Enablers Inhibitors Successful Knowledge Management Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Figure 1: Framework for Successful Knowledge Management Implementation 4. Methodology Data Source: The research used both secondary and primary data. An extensive literature survey was undertaken, which helped in framing the questionnaire for the primary data collection. The focus of the study was on primary data. Research approach: The survey method was used for the study. Our primary data has been gathered using questionnaire technique. Our target population is all small firms in the National Capital Territory of Delhi (India) with turnover ranging from Rs. 50 million to Rs. 250 million and employment levels between 15 and 50 employees. Specifically, we are targeting the owners or top managers at these firms. For the purposes of this research, we used a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire included 60 questions in two sections such as: [A] Enablers to Knowledge Management [B] Inhibitors to Knowledge Management Contact Method: The questionnaires were sent via email and were telephonically followed up. Sample Size: Amongst the 4263 companies (as per Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Prowess database) that belonged to the criteria in the entire country, 1039 such companies were located in the National Capital Region of Delhi, which included New Delhi, Delhi, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and NOIDA. Due care has been taken to include only those companies that made the sample more representative thus, e-mail questionnaires were sent to 500 amongst these 1039 companies. 119 responses were received that formed the sample for the study. This is a 23.8% response rate, which is acceptable. Data Analysis: The data so collected were analyzed with the AHP techniques to arrive at weights (priorities). The following procedure has been adopted on the collected questionnaire survey data for pair-wise comparison of AHP. Firstly, we calculated the average value of 119 responses (preferences based on 5- point Likert scale) obtained for each question. These average values were calculated to describe the central location of an entire distribution of responses. Then for every said category we calculated the Composite Preference Value (out of 5) using the following relation: Composite Preference Value (CPF) = (Corrected Value à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Maximum Value) x 5 where, Calculated value = sum of the average values for the questions considered in a category. Maximum value = sum of the highest possible values that a respondent can choose for the questions considered in a category. 5. Research Findings The pair-wise comparison matrices showing the measure of each factors relative importance with respect to the overall objective of successful knowledge management is summarized in Table 1. For the pair-wise comparison of the factors and sub factors, we relied on inputs obtained from the survey. We consider two critical factors important for successful knowledge management: enablers and inhibitors. From the pair wise comparison the picture emerges that for successful knowledge management, enablers (50.86%) are marginally important over inhibitors (49.14%). The difference of relative importance being marginal suggests that enablers are important and inhibitors cannot be ignored. Thus it is important to harness the enablers about knowledge management and its associated benefits amongst owner/managers without loosing sight about the inhibitors for a successful knowledge management. Based on investigations and consultations with various experts and owner/managers of SMEs these critical factors (enablers and inhibitors) were further decomposed into three sub factors, namely, technical, human and financial for capturing reality (see Figure 1 for complete hierarchical structure). On pair-wise comparison of technical, human and financial sub factors corresponding to enablers; technical (37.07%) dominates the other sub factors, i.e. human (36.26%) and financial (26.67%). It implies that owner/managers of SMEs consider investments in technology as the ultimate solution to all problems. It may be noted that when the same technical, human and financial sub factors are compared pair-wise corresponding to inhibitors, financial sub factor (38.36%) dominates the other sub factors, technical (31.64%) and human (30.01%). The result suggests that financial considerations are predominant inhibitor towards embarking into knowledge management implementations. In what follows next, we use the bottom up approach to get the global relevance of technical, human and financial aspects towards successful knowledge management. Towards this we multiply the local relevance of technical, human and financial sub factors corresponding to their parent factors with the local relevance of the parent factors corresponding to overall objective, i.e. successful knowledge management. Finally, the obtained relevances of technical, human and financial aspects corresponding to the critical factors, i.e. enablers and inhibitors are added to get the global relevance. The results obtained for the global relevance of technical, human and financial aspects incorporating relevance of the critical factors, i.e. enablers and inhibitors; technical (34.40%) is most important followed by human (33.19%) and financial (32.41%). Owner/managers of SMEs need to prioritize their efforts towards successful knowledge management in terms of technical, human and financial aspects necessarily in that order: The owner/mangers of SMEs should work out strategies for successful knowledge management by optimizing the enablers aspect of technical sub factor while mitigating the inhibitors emerging out of the same sub factor. The owner/managers may focus on process improvement, system improvement, and business intelligence development on a priority basis. Simultaneously they should keep a watch on damage to knowledge infrastructure, copyright/patent infringement and data pilferage and theft. In terms of human sub factor the owner/managers should make necessary efforts to enhance employee competencies, satisfaction, and retention. At the same time they should endeavor to reduce employee turnover, corporate espionage and withdrawal of efforts on the part of the employees. Regarding financial sub factor the owner/managers should try their best to enhance return on investments on building knowledge infrastructure and promoting knowledge management practices while keeping operational costs under control. 6. Conclusion We have developed a hierarchical model for the implementation of successful knowledge management. In the proposed model, first we identified the influencing factors and sub factors for the implementation of successful knowledge management. For this we relied on critical literature review and opinion of experts, and owner/managers of SMEs. Survey has been conducted for getting responses of owner/managers towards the influential factors and sub-factors with a view to successfully implement knowledge management. Finally, these responses have been collated to find the composite preference value (CPF) used as weights for the pair-wise comparison of the factors and sub-factors in AHP. Based on the AHP results, we conclude the following for successful knowledge management in SMEs: Managing enablers and inhibitors are critical success factors for knowledge management in SMEs. Owner/managers need to harness the enablers but not be complacent towards inhibitors. Owner/managers consider technology implementation as a major enabler towards successful knowledge management. Owner/managers consider financial considerations as a major inhibitor towards successful knowledge management. Owner/managers need to prioritize their efforts towards successful knowledge management in terms of technical, human and financial aspects necessarily in that order The key thesis is that enablers of the knowledge management paradigm often unravel inhibitors in adapting and evolving knowledge management systems for business environments that are characterized by high uncertainty and radical discontinuous change. Specifically, the study identified the critical success factors as: process improvement, system improvement, and business intelligence, enhancing employee competencies, satisfaction, and retention, return on investments on building knowledge infrastructure. The study also identified that success cannot be achieved unless damage to knowledge infrastructure is prevented, copyright/patent infringement and data pilferage and theft is stopped, employee turnover, corporate espionage and withdrawal of efforts on the part of employees is reduced, and operational costs are under control. In the present study the model considered influential factors such as enablers and inhibitors. The subject of knowledge management being vast, many other factors may influence knowledge management besides the ones considered in the present study. Future research may be directed towards identifying several other influential factors with a view to identifying a comprehensive list of critical success factors for knowledge management. Also the present work has considered only the top down approach. Clear identification of influencing factors would need to consider a bottom up approach as well.

Essay --

â€Å"Minister’s Black Veil† and â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† both written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, are representations of sin that linger in our world. Mr. Hooper, the minister, has secret sin and wears a black veil over his face until the moment he dies, while Young Goodman Brown walks alongside the devil himself. Through these two dark and somewhat uncomfortable story lines, we can see how evil affects these two men and how their view of the world changed after their encounter with sin. Hawthorne uses dark and mysterious settings to explain how evil lingers everywhere and any man could be a victim of its psychological effects, which could dramatically change his character. In both short stories, Hawthorne uses tone and characters to show the nature of evil. In â€Å"Minister’s Black Veil,† Hawthorne creates a scene where the minister shows up to a wedding with the black veil. The presence of sin symbolized by a simple object â€Å"portends nothing but evil to the wedding.† A ceremony so sacred and pure, and blessed by God, can be contaminated with the dark existence of evil. Similarly, words such as â€Å"dark,† â€Å"awful,† â€Å"evil,† â€Å"shudder,† and â€Å"wicked† are used throughout both stories and show how evil lingers everywhere we go. Along with tone, Hawthorne uses characters to show how evil works within us. The old man with the staff in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† can be interpreted as the devil. Like all evil, the devil tempts and torments us. The old man uses his staff, frequently referred to as a serpent, to tempt Young Goodman Brown, in the same way that the ser pent tempted Adam and Eve in to eating the apple of good and bad, as told in the Bible. Evil not only lingers in all places, but also works its way into everyone. The victims of evil in b... ...at the minister and young man experience ins the two short stories causes psychological discomfort and change in character. Hawthorne wrote the â€Å"Minister’s Black Veil† and â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† to display the nature of evil. He uses dark words and mysterious and uncomfortable settings to show the presence of evil lingering everywhere. The two stories display how evil is capable of attacking anyone, no matter how righteous and innocent he/she seems to be. Knowledge of evil and people’s sins can have a significant psychological effect on an individual, which can change his/her character entirely. In our world today, we encounter many trials concerning evil and sin each day. Even the people we love so dearly could be a victim, without us knowing, like Goodman Brown and his wife, Faith. The nature of evil works its way into every human being; it is inevitable.

Comparing the Quest for Self in Jane Eyre and Villete Essay -- compari

Quest for Self in Jane Eyre and Villete      Ã‚   "Why is Villette so disagreeable? Because the writer's mind contains nothing but hunger, rebellion and rage." Matthew Arnold, 1853.    Matthew Arnold was certainly forthcoming about the defects of both Charlotte Bronte's   mind and of her novel. Indeed he was not alone in his reaction to her; Anne   Mozley in The Christian Remembrancer ;in April 1853 wrote in reaction to   Bronte's other great work of "rebellion", Jane Eyre, that she had to make   "a protest against the outrages on decorum, the moral perversity, the   toleration, nay, indifference to vice which deform her picture of a   desolate woman" (my italics). Mozley even went far enough to label Jane Eyre a "dangerous book", a sentiment which Arnold's comments show that he shared.   Yes both Villette and Jane Eyre are pervaded by "hunger, rebellion   and rage" but it is this very factor which allows Bronte's protagonists to   explore their own identities in, crucially, their own terms.    That both Jane Eyre and Villette are first person narratives is highly   important. Unlike Catherine Earnshaw, Maggie Tulliver and Isabel Archer, Lucy   Snowe and Jane Eyre are able to define their own stories, and subsequently, to   define themselves. As Tony Tanner stated, Jane's "narrative act is not so much   one of retrieval as of establishing and maintaining her identity" and this can   easily be extended to Lucy. Indeed in Villette the importance of language   to proclaim identity, and therefore power, is demonstrated by Lucy's inability   to speak French when she arrives in Villette " I could say nothing whatever". Of course the role of teaching Lucy to speak French falls to M. Paul  Ã‚   demonstrating the masc... ...ion and rage.    BBIBLIOGRAPHY The Bronte's: The Critical Heritage, ed. Miriam Allott (1974).    "Person, Narrative and Identity in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre", Tony Tanner   in Teaching the Text ed. S Kappeler.    "Jane Eyre's Interior Design", Karen Chase in Jane Eyre (New Casebook), ed.   Heather Glenn.    "Introduction" to Villette (Penguin,1979), Tony Tanner.    "The Buried Life of Lucy Snowe" and "A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane's Progress" in The Mad Woman in the Attic, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar (2000).    "Charlotte Bronte as a 'Freak Genius'", David Cecil in Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyreand Villette (A Casebook Series) ed. Miriam Allot.    "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism", Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in The Feminist Reader ed. Catherine Belsey and Jane Moore (1997).

Philistinism In England And America :: essays research papers

Comments on Matthew Arnold’s "Philistinism in England and America" In his essay, "Philistinism in England and America," Matthew Arnold examines the ancient ideas of Plato in the context of a twentieth century, capitalist society. As he agrees with almost all of what Plato had to say, he also admits that he is outdated, and that some of his teachings cannot be applied to us, living in an industrial superpower such as the United States. Still, though, Arnold defends the ancient philosopher. Education as a route to mental and physical righteousness is always a good idea, whether it is in modern America or Ancient Greece. I disagree with this, and it is here that I must contest the writings of Plato, as well as the essay by Arnold, for he is definitely a strong backer of the ancient ideals. In Plato’s mind, the value of an education is to clear one’s mind of impure thought, bring it to a higher lever than at the start, and attain a certain level of righteousness. This may have been a good idea 2300 years ago, but today, I see it as very limiting and impractical. In his time, only the rich aristocrats went to school. It’s purpose was not for the students to learn skills or ideas that would help them later in life, but to expand their minds, thus making them into ‘better people.’ There was no need for them to learn any job skills. Back then, if you came from a rich family, you were rich. Working at simple jobs was for the peasants and slaves. Today, life is different. Our society is completely unlike that of the ancient Greeks. We have no caste system limiting the wealth and prominence of any citizen, we have no slavery to handle all the manual labor, our army is proportionately smaller and much less honored, and religion is a part of one’s private life, not a dominating public force as it was to the Ancient Greeks. Most people today have a regular, day to day job, whether it be in an office, store, factory, or anywhere else. We have to earn our wealth by working, not inheritance. That is why most people go to school today. I am attending NYU so that I can get a job later in life. I study chemistry and engineering, in the hopes that I can become a chemical engineer.

DDT and Pesticides Directions

American School of Guatemala Secondary SectionDate: 08/31/2012 APESTrimester 1 Activity # 1- DDT and Pesticides Directions: read carefully each statement and answer it. Watch the following video – DDT and Pesticides, and write a short reflection paragraph about the topic. If you want to see again this video, you can find it on the following direction. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=LQ64sV0nSVU This video shows how DDT was used in the world to help humans. Later on people started to notice that this pesticide was very strong that was able to kill plagues and insects rapidly that they started using DDT even more.Even though it was helpful in some way it was also harmful. It was harmful because it had a chemical that was not bonding and was the one that made the harmful changes like in frogs that had 5 legs and in humans the harm that was caused was that it created cancer and mutations on people like the boy that was born without eyes. DDT may change in a way some peopleâ€⠄¢s life but it really affects humans and their genes. Go to the following address and watch Biocides: Rachel Carson. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=vbtp2B-IFmw. Go to the following address and DDT: Weapon Against Disease – Documentary Film (1945) http://www. outube. com/watch? v=RmeqHs4svbQ and write a short paragraph for the most important aspects covered on the video. In the video above it shows the creation of DDT. This particular product is characterized by a white insecticide and was formulated in many forms, it tells that DDT is taseless and almost odourless. It was first created in 1874 and used with great success during World War II in order to control malaria and thyphus within civilians and U. S troops. DDt was also used in agricultural insecticide and later its production. It shows how people were taking advantage of DDT without knowing the harm it would cause.On the following address http://www. naturalnews. com/DDT. html you would be find some articles about DDT and its relation with human health. Choose two articles, read it write a short paragraph. Study shows DDT to be toxic to nervous systems of babies: This article talks about how Africa used DDT to fight malaria spread by mosquitos. It tells how a link between chemicals and the development delays in infants that were in utero when their mother were exposed. An important fact is that despite that DDT was transferred by breast milk, children who were breast feeding developed more normally even though the mother had high levels of DDT.It proves that it is not clear that DDT has ever killed anyone but they are still investigating DDT ‘s effects on humans. High levels of DDT still present in fish: Waters in the U. S still possess high levels of DDT contamination. This shows that the pesticide is still found with high levels in fish caught near Los Angeles area. It is also told that it’s associated with increase risk of liver cancer, and affect the human reproductive and ne rvous systems, and toxic to many animals, specially aquatic life. All this means that the amount of DDT in fish has not decreased by the last years.It concludes with how many companies have released a large quantity of DDT in water systems. On the following address http://www. epa. gov/aboutepa/history/topics/ddt/01. html you would be find some articles about DDT and its relation with human health. Choose two articles, read it write a short paragraph (Just Read) A sweet relaxing time for you on this weekend, if you like the video games go to the following direction and play it. Write your score. http://www. mofunzone. com/online_games/pest_attack. shtml 7,500 Vocabulary: write the definitions. Bioaccumulation:The accumulation of a substance, such as toxic chemical, in various tissues of a living organism. Takes place within an organism when the rate of intake of a substance is greater than the rate of excretion or metabolic transformation of that substance. Biomagnification: The inc reasing concentration of a substance, such as a toxic chemical, in the tissues of organisms at successively higher levels in a food chain, As a result of biomagnification, organisms at the top of the food chain generally suffer great harm from a persistent toxin or pollutant than those at lower levels Example of the DDT on food chain

My Thoughts About Worldviews

A worldview, in my opinion, is the way you look at the world and how you see God; a worldview is a set of beliefs that directs the way you act. To determine your worldview, you must ask yourself a few questions. Some of these questions include: Who is God? Where did I come from? Why do I exist? What is my purpose in life? Answers in Genesis defines a worldview as â€Å"the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. A worldview is a collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group. †[1] To make this definition easier to understand, I’ll use an analogy. A worldview is like a pair of glasses.If you get the right prescription, you’ll be able to see really clearly. If you get the wrong prescription, it could make your eyes worse and make everything blurry. Just like how the glasses make a big difference in your life, your worldview makes an even bigger difference. Your worldview influences the way you live and m ake choices. For example, the worldview can show how a teen could do their homework. If he was Christian and wanted to do everything for the glory of God, he would do his homework the best he could. If he was a Post-Modernist and wanted to please himself, he might not do his homework to do something â€Å"fun†.Having the right worldview is very important. The Christian worldview includes monotheism which is the belief in one God. Not only do Christians believe in a personal, knowable Creator but he believes in the Trinity. The Trinity is God being in three parts: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. To most people, this is very confusing because they don’t understand how God can be three in one. In this case, Christians go to heaven not because of their works but because of God’s grace. God displayed His grace when He died on the cross for us. Christians get most of their information from the Bible.This is the foundation for a Christian’s philosophy. Since Christians believe in God, their philosophy includes believing in the supernatural. As for the Christian view of metaphysics, one would go to John 1:1-4 for an answer: â€Å"All things were made by God. †[2] For their view of cosmology, they believe that there was no accident; God created the world with a purpose and it shows how great God is. Christian philosophers also believe the mind is a reflection of God, and that it is evidence of Him. Some great Christian philosophers are C. S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer.A Christian’s ethic is grounded in the character of God, which is known because of the Bible. This is the reason why ethics goes hand in hand with theology. Christians do not have rules that differ for each person, instead, they have moral absolutes. This is â€Å"the belief that an absolute ethical standard exists for all individuals regardless of era or culture. †[3] As followers of Christ, Christians have a huge responsibility: â€Å". . . lov e the Lord your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. [4] Jesus tells us to love our neighbor because loving your neighbor is like loving your Lord, and when we serve our neighbors, we’re serving Him. Biology, however, starts with the creation of the world in six literal days. The Bible states that â€Å". . . God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. †[5] If you kept reading, you would find that God created the world with order, design, and purpose. Michael Behe, the author of Darwin’s Black Box, came up with the phrase â€Å"irreducible complexity. † A bacteria flagellum is irreducibly complex.This means that if the flagellum lost one of its parts, the flagellum would not work. This denies evolution by saying that the flagellum could not have evolved because it needed every part to work. â€Å"Th e biblical worldview is about viewing everything-our friendships, careers, property, environment, interaction, ultimate responsibilities, even our homework-the way God views it and talks about it in Scripture. †[6] Muslims believe in monotheism, just like Christians, but they believe in a different god. They believe that Allah is god and that Muhammad is his messenger.They do not think Allah is a knowable god and they do not believe in the Trinity. They do not believe in heaven but they believe in a paradise and to go there you must do a certain amount of good deeds. Also, Muslims must complete some tasks, often called pillars. These pillars include: confession, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, pilgrimage, and in some cases, jihad. Like Christians, Muslims have a book of scripture, called the Qur’an, written by Muhammad. Islam philosophy also believes in the supernatural because of Allah. Muslim philosophers, and some Christian philosophers, use the Kalam Cosmological Argum ent for the existence of God.Although Muslims do believe in miracles, Muhammad never performed any. This created some doubts but they still had faith in Muhammad. Some great Islamic philosophers are Ahmad and Yusif Ali Hammuda Abdalat. Like Christians, Muslims believe in moral absolutes. However, these absolutes come from Muhammad and the Qur’an (or Hadith), rather than Allah, because Muslims believe that Allah cannot be known. To help Muslims follow moral obligations, they follow the Five Pillars. Unlike Christians, Muslims are motivated to do good because of their fear of judgement.Another similarity with Christians and Muslims is the belief that a god created the earth with order, design, and purpose. Sometimes, there can be contradictions. Some Muslims think the earth was created in six days and others think it was eight days. Also, some think the days were ages instead of 24 hours. There is one big difference between Christians and Muslims: the fall of man. Muslims belie ve that man sinned but they do not believe that man was cursed. Secular Humanists believe in atheism. This means they do not believe in a god. God is not the only thing the Secular Humanists do not believe.They do not believe in Satan, angels, or souls. They think instead of God creating us, we created Him just like we created Santa Claus. Although they do not believe in a god, they still tolerate religions. Unlike Muslims and Christians, they do not believe in an afterlife. Books that are very popular among Secular Humanists are the Human Manifestos I, II, and III. Secular Humanist philosophy does not believe in the supernatural. They only believe in things that are made out of matter; this is also called naturalism. Since Secular Humanists don’t believe in the supernatural, they deny all miracles.Another problem for not believing in supernatural things is the mind and body problem. This is a problem because they do not believe in supernatural. Secular Humanists believe the mind is a â€Å"manifestation of the brain. †[7]If you do not believe in the supernatural, you could not think because it is not made of matter. Some famous Secular philosophers are Corliss Lamont and Carl Sagan. The ethics of a Secular Humanist is that everyone has their own ethics. Unlike in Christianity or Islam, Humanists avoid absolutes. Everyone chooses what is right by what they think is right or whatever fits the situation. This is also called moral relativism.Secular Humanists use reason to determine what is right or wrong. As for Secular Humanists, they believe in Neo-Darwinism. This is â€Å"the theory that new species were made from natural selection acting over vast periods of time on chance genetic mutations in reproductively isolated populations. †[8] They also believe in spontaneous generation and the big bang theory. Both of these ideas talk about how everything was made randomly without a god. Secular Humanists have six â€Å"planks† they hold their biology on: spontaneous generation, natural selection, struggle for existence, beneficial mutations, adaptations, and the fossil record.Marxists and Leninists, like Secular Humanists, are called scientific atheists. Unlike the secular humanists, they do not tolerate religion, they hate it and want to get rid of it! Karl Marx said that we created religion in order to worship ourselves. He said this but he also believes that we are gods so we should take reality and use to our liking. Like Secular Humanists, Marxists-Leninists do not believe in an afterlife. They believe the book related to Marxism-Leninism is the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxist-Leninist philosophy isn’t called naturalism or supernaturalism.It is called Dialectical Materialism. There is no god in this philosophy but they call many Christian attributes, dialectical matter. This means that something begins with a thesis. Eventually, an antithesis is made and then the thesis an d antithesis combine and make a synthesis. This process repeats many times. For a Marxist-Leninist, their epistemology has faith in science. Their view of metaphysics is that the earth is all that exists and the only thing that will exist. As for the mind/body problem, Marxists and Leninists think the mind is a reflection of matter and then it is translated into thought.Some famous Marxist-Leninist philosophers are Frederick Engels and Vladimir Lenin. Marxists-Leninists have a different kind of morality: proletariat morality. This is â€Å"the ethical belief that whatever advances the proletariat and the cause of communism is morally good and whatever hinders the proletariat or communism is morally evil. †[9] This is pretty much saying that people who are trying to get rid of the class system are good, and whoever is trying to interfere is evil. Marxists-Leninists also believe that morality is constantly changing. Lastly, Marxists-Leninists want a classless society, also call ed utilitarianism.They believe that if we have a classless society, we will all be considered moral. Like Secular Humanists, Marxists-Leninists believe in spontaneous generation but, contrary to Darwinism, they believe in punctuated evolution. This is â€Å"the theory of evolution that proposes that evolutionary changes occur over a relatively quick period of time, followed by periods of little to no evolutionary change. †[10] Cosmic Humanism is a little different than the worldviews we have talked about so far. Cosmic Humanists are not monotheists or atheists; they believe in pantheism.This means they believe everything is God (eg. nature and humans). Also, they do believe in an afterlife but they believe in reincarnation. Not only do you live after you are dead but you have had previous lives. For Cosmic Humanism, there is no book like other worldviews. In my opinion, I think they just look at movies. Cosmic Humanist philosophy is also different from previous philosophies. They believe everything is supernatural (non-naturalism). They also embrace Zen Buddhism. This is the belief that you can become enlightened through meditation and self-contemplation.A Cosmic Humanist’s ontology is, in a way, like a Marxist or a Secular Humanist. A Marxist/Secular Humanist believes everything is material and a Cosmic Humanist believes EVERYTHING is spiritual. As for their view of epistemology, they believe we need to get in touch with our higher self. Since we are all gods, Cosmic Humanists believe in truth relativity. This means, truth is whatever each person thinks it is. A couple of Cosmic Humanist philosophers are Joseph Campbell and Neale Donald Walsch. Out of all the ethical systems, the Cosmic Humanist’s is the easiest to understand.Since everyone is God, we all do good all the time. Everyone does what they feel is right so you can’t judge. This is another example of moral relativism. As for their system of justice, they believe in karma. They think that if you do good, good things will come but if you do bad, you will be punished for it. Cosmic Humanists believe in something very different. This is called cosmic evolution. Cosmic evolution is the idea that â€Å"all humanity is going toward a new age of higher consciousness. †[11] All Cosmic Humanists are trying to get into an age of higher consciousness and become gods.Also, they believe in the idea that all living things make up one, complex living organism ( The Gaia Hypothesis). Postmodernists are also atheists. Not only are they atheists but they believe in something called the â€Å"Death of God† theology. This is â€Å"a movement that was essentially promoting the idea that religion did not need to invoke ‘God’ in the area of theology. †[12] Something that is different from the other worldviews is that Postmodernists like to be ambiguous. They also believe there are no universal truths (relativism) so they, like Secular Huma nism, tolerate religion (pluralism).Finally, Postmodernists have a â€Å"trend† called emergent churches. It is a church that is incorporating Postmodernism into a Christian’s theology. Post-Modernists’ philosophy is called Anti-Realism. This means reality is anything a human can think up. Since a human can think up reality, a human can also have their own truth (subjective truth), and when they read something, it can mean whatever they want it to mean (deconstruction). Because a human can have their own truth and reality, there is no metaphysics, ontology, cosmology, or epistemology. Strangely, there are still influential philosophers.A couple of them are Jean-Francois Lyotard and Jacques Derrida. As for Postmodernists, they follow cultural relativism. Cultural relativism is â€Å"the belief that truth and morals are relative to one’s culture. †[13] Although they believe that Postmodernism is the best worldview, they still call it relative. Commun ity morals are determined by coercion and consensus. Like Marxists-Leninists, Postmodernists think morality evolves with society. Lastly, Post-Modernists affirms in punctuated evolution. They believe in evolution because they like the idea that man is insignificant and because they like the thought of chance.