Managing Employee Misbehaviour for Promoting Business Ethics

Managing Employee Misbehaviour for Promoting Business Ethics Workplace misbehaviour: Any intentional action by members of organizations that defies and violates Shared organizational norms and expectations, and/or Core societal values, mores and standards of proper conduct (Vardi and Wiener, 1996, p. 153). Misbehaviour in this sense is also said to be about breaching broader, yet far from clearly defined or fully shared societal norms or moral order. In industrial sociology key writers on misbehaviour – Ackroyd and Thompson (1999, p. 2) – borrow Sprouse's (1992, p. 3) definition of sabotage – â€Å"anything you do at work you are not supposed to do† – to define misbehaviour, although questions remain about how useful this definition is. Perspectives on misbehaviour Misbehaviour is also a phenomena discussed in several other academic disciplines. For instance, in gender studies, we see quite a distinct dimension of misbehaviour emerging. Misbehaviour in gender studies tends to concern males defending masculine identities in an organizational context and how masculinity is in reality a crucial, yet often hidden dimension of a broader organizational identity (Collinson and Collinson, 1989; DiTomaso, 1989; Levin, 2001). An account of men trying to preserve the dominance of a masculine identity, sponsored implicitly by senior management, is outlined in the following passage taken from ethnography of a trading floor of a large, American commodities exchange: When the working environment becomes less active, the more overtly sexualized repertoire of joking and getting along emerges. Men and women use jokes to pass time, fit in and relieve tension, but a direct result of men’s sexual banter is to facilitate group solidarity among men to the exclusion of women. Strong heterosexual joking is predicated on men being the sexual agents of jokes and women being the objects (Levin, 2001, p. 126). Further dimensions of gender-related misbehaviour include women subverting dominant masculine identities (Cockburn, 1991; Game and Pringle, 1983; Gutek, 1989; Pollert, 1981), women taking advantage of their sex appeal to get around male supervisors (Pollert, 1981) and female flight attendants feigning responses to lurid comments from male passengers (Hochschild, 2003). Further details of Gutek’s (1989) research highlights the many ways in which sexuality can be the spur for a range of misbehaviour: More common than sexual coercion from either sex are sexual jokes, use of explicit terms to describe work situations, sexual comments to co-workers, and display of sexual posters and pictures engaged in by men at work (Sex and sports, some observers claim, are the two metaphors of business. ) The use of sex can be more subtle than either hostile sexual remarks or sexual jokes. Although this tactic is often assumed to be used exclusively by women, some men, too, may feign sexual interest to gain some work-related advantage (1989, p. 63-64). Commentary on what could be interpreted to be misbehaviour is also a feature of industrial relations research. In industrial relations theorists seem to view misbehaviour as a lesser version of strike action, or action short of strike action (Bean, 1975; Blyton and Turnbull, 2004; Hyman, 1981; Nichols and Armstrong, 1976). From this perspective, misbehaviour is taken to represent the actions of unorganized employees. In effect, misbehaviour is synonymous with a widespread and increasing inability of employees to offer a coherent and organized response to management strategies (Beynon, 1984). As such, industrial relations theorists link misbehaviour to record low levels of strike activity (Hale, 2007). Moreover, some theorists believe acts such as sabotage – in the form of grievance bargaining or deliberate poor workmanship – are intimately bound up in the labour process (Zabala, 1989). Research work in Ethics: 2008 NATIONAL GOVERNMENT ETHICS SURVEY in US: National Government Ethics Survey Shows Employee Misconduct is High Key Findings On all levels of government, there is a lack of programs and incentives to encourage ethical behavior, the report says †¢Six in 10 government employees saw at least one form of misconduct in the last 12 months. †¢One in 4 employees work in an environment conducive to misconduct. According to ERC, this includes strong pressure to compromise standards, a presence of situations which invite wrongdoing, and a culture where employees’ personal values conflict with their values at work. †¢Overall strength of ethical cultures is declining. †¢Almost one-third of employees do not report misconduct. More than one-third of government employees believe government does not demonstrate its values through socially responsible decision-making. Levels of Government Federal Level – The number of incidences of misconduct observed is slightly lower, but reporting is still comparatively low. Only 30 percent of federal government organizations have ethics and compliance p rograms, and only 10 percent have strong ethical cultures. State Level – Workers are most vulnerable to ethical risks as there are more reports of employees who have observed misconduct multiple times. Still 30 percent do not report misconduct to management. Local Level – Employees are the least likely to know the ethical risks since fewer resources are put in place to encourage ethical behavior. Local government organizations have the lowest levels of reporting misconduct, only 67% are reporting. â€Å"In order to encourage high ethical standards within our organizations, we first have to provide an environment that is conducive to ethical behavior,† says Sharon Allen, chairman of the board at Deloitte & Touche. However, management and leadership have a huge responsibility in setting examples for their organizations and living the values they preach if they want to sustain a culture of ethics. † The report, â€Å"2007 Deloitte & Touche USA LLP Ethics & Workplace,† is based on responses from 1,041 U. S. adult workers. Harris Interactive conducted the research in February on behalf of Deloitte & Touche. The top two factors contributing to the promotion of an ethical workplace are the behavior of management and direct supervisors, as chosen by 42% and 36% of respondents, respectively. More surprisingly, emphasis of criminal penalties doesn’t seem to do much to deter unethical behavior, nor does ethics training. There is, however, a strong relationship between ethical actions at work and a healthy level of work-life balance. In fact, 91% of those employees surveyed agreed that workers are more likely to behave ethically at the office when they have a good work-life balance. Allen explains why this may be so. â€Å"If someone invests in all of their time and energy into their jobs, it may have the unintended consequence of making them depend on their jobs for everything – including their sense of personal worth. This makes it even harder to make a good choice when faced with an ethical dilemma if they believe it will impact professional success. † Categories of Employee Misbehaviour: a. Production deviance – includes behaviors that waste time and resources. b. Property deviance – involves either theft or destruction of facility or residents’ property. c. Normative deviance – generally involves talk that hurts or belittles others. d. Personal aggression – mostly involves hitting, fighting, or sexual harassment. Common Employee Misbehaviour: Fighting Theft from the employer or colleagues Fraud or falsifying work documents Accessing and/or distributing pornographic emails or websites Deliberately damaging company property Serious bullying or harassment Bringing the employer into serious disrepute Serious infringement of health and safety rules Serious failure to follow reasonable instructions. Causes of Employee Misbehaviour: Poor Employee selection and orientation procedures Poorly defined employee expectations Poorly understood employee expectations Improperly selected and trained supervisors Incorrect philosophy of discipline Effects of Employee Misbehaviour: oInefficiency oIncreased costs oUnhealthy and unsafe work environment Employee Misbehaviour – To be Punished or leaving it ignored: Handling employee misconduct is a very critical task to be performed by the senior managers. Misconduct and other offensive behaviors often lead to decreased levels of productivity as they affect the individual performance of the employees. To manage discipline among employees, every company opts for a discipline policy which describes the approach it will follow to handle misconduct. When dealing with employee misconduct, companies must keep careful mind of the legislative and common law legal framework that governs the employment relationship. Regard must be made to relevant legislation such as the Employment Standards Act 2000, Ontario Human Rights Code, Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, Occupational Health and Safety Act (reprisal provisions) and to principles such as constructive and wrongful dismissal. To effectively manage the employment relationship and deal with potential misconduct, employers are well advised to develop and maintain reasonable rules of conduct and performance expectations. Communicate these to employees and ensure consistent application and enforcement. Provide appropriate counseling and training to your workforce. Carefully consider each incident of misconduct and the appropriate reaction. Avoid knee jerk instantaneous reactions. These only serve to increase potential employer liability. Management needs to conduct a preliminary investigation. Once the company has completed the investigation, the manager should make the employee aware of the findings. Once again, the manager can ask for the employee's side of the story. Using this evidence, management, with the help of a Human Resources representative, must decide what to do. They must decide how they should discipline the employee or whether they should fire the worker. To conclude, Very surely an action is required quickly if left unattended; misconduct will quickly demoralize the other employees too. While everyone reacts differently, even the top performers are usually going to be the first casualties of demoralization. Dealing with Employee Misbehaviour: The employer must investigate the matter fully (speak to witnesses, collect documentary evidence etc). The employer must also give the employee an opportunity to explain himself. The employee should sufficiently know what the case and evidence is against him before any hearing. Prior warning of the hearing date and that the disciplinary action is under consideration. Give the employee the opportunity to call witnesses. Inform the individual he has the right to be accompanied by a colleague (or a trade union official). Inform the employee he has the right of an appeal. Employee's rights If an employee has been with the employer for over a year they have unfair dismissal protection. Although employees have the right not to be dismissed for an unfair reason, the conduct of an employee is expressly stated to be a potentially fair reason to dismiss. Employees also have the right not to be discriminated against on the grounds of their sex, race or disability. This would include being singled out for a warning about their conduct or receiving harsher penalties than other employees would receive. Employees have the right not to be dismissed in breach of their contractual terms. For example, failure to follow a contractual procedure may result in a claim of breach of contract. Employees are entitled to be dismissed on notice (unless for gross misconduct). Failure to do so entitles the employee to claim damages for breach of contract. This type of claim is also called ‘wrongful dismissal'. Employees should be made aware, either in their contract of employment or in disciplinary procedures what are the likely consequences if they break the guidelines the company has laid down in relation to their conduct. Employers must be consistent. If other employees have previously committed the same offence but have not been dismissed it may be difficult to justify dismissal on a subsequent occasion. Certain offences are contrary to acceptable conduct that discipline is readily accepted or justified upon review regardless of whether there was any prior communication or warning to the employee. Theft Intentional destruction of company property Total refusal to perform safe work Gross or intentional endangerment of the safety of coworkers. Excessive absenteeism is another factor that can lead to termination only after a series of lesser penalties. Dismissal for misconduct to be reasonable: Even though an employer may have strong suspicions that an individual is guilty of misconduct, this may not be enough. Although an employer does not have to show an employee committed the offence â€Å"beyond all reasonable doubt†, there is a threshold that must be reached. In particular: †¢The employer must believe that the employee is responsible for the conduct in question. †¢The employer must have reasonable grounds for this belief. †¢The employer must carry out as much of an investigation into the matter as is reasonable. Charging an Employee with a criminal offence: †¢The employer does not have to wait for the outcome of police investigations or criminal trial. †¢The employer should hold its own investigation into the matter. †¢The employee's rights to have this matter investigated by his employer and to present his side of the story remain regardless of the fact that he is charged by the police. Out of office misconduct: †¢Generally, employees will only be subject to the company's disciplinary rules and procedures during their office hours or when they represent the company. †¢In certain circumstances an employee's behaviour may be subject to the employer's scrutiny if it is deemed to be likely to impact on the performance of his contract or the reputation of the employer. Out of office misconduct must be particularly serious to warrant disciplinary action and the behaviour should also relate to the employee's ability (or perceived ability) to do his job. Disciplinary action The type of disciplinary action that is taken will depend on the employer's disciplinary procedures and the circumstances surrounding the misconduct. The employer will have to follow its written guidelines regarding certain types of misconduct. If historically an employer has always been lenient on a particular matter an Employment Tribunal is likely to find the employer has acted unreasonably and unfairly dismissed an individual if it suddenly decides to invoke its disciplinary procedures in disciplining individuals without warning. Warning tiers in a disciplinary procedure †¢Usually employers will decide to issue a first warning orally. This is appropriate if it is a minor infringement that cannot be dealt with on an informal basis. The employee should be told that this is the first step in the disciplinary procedure and why he is receiving the warning. At this point he should also be informed of his right of appeal against the decision. Although oral warnings will be kept on an employee's personnel file, they should be disregarded for further disciplinary purposes after a specific period of time. †¢If an employer regards an infringement as being more serious then the employee should be given a formal written warning. Again an employee should be given details of the reason for the warning as well as what is required from the individual in the future and the allotted time scale for improvement. Employees should have a right of appeal. Employees also must be warned what penalty there will be if after the allotted time the employer does think there has been a satisfactory improvement. The written warning should also be kept on the employee's personnel file but cannot be considered for disciplinary procedures after a specific period of time. A final written warning is appropriate if there has been a failure to either improve or change conduct while the earlier warning is still ‘live'. This type of warning can also be used if there is a one-off occurrence of misconduct that is deemed by the employer to be sufficiently serious. As always the final written warning should provide details of the misconduct, warn that failure to rectify the situation may lead to dismissal or some other disciplinary ac tion which is short of dismissal (which is explained below). Again employees must be told of their right to appeal. The written warning can only remain live for a specified period of time after which point it must be disregarded, no matter how serious the misconduct. †¢Disciplinary action short of dismissal may include a transfer, demotion, loss of seniority, suspension without pay or loss of increment. An employer cannot take these sanctions unless there is a specific provision in the employee's contract. †¢If an employer decides to dismiss (either because of gross misconduct or failure to rectify behaviour following a final written warning) the employee should be informed as soon as possible of the decision, as well as the reasons for the dismissal. He should also know the date their employment will terminate and the period of notice. An employee should also be told of the fact that he has the right to appeal as well as how he can make that appeal and to whom. Employers should also confirm the decision to dismiss in writing. If an employee has at least one year's continuous service they can request a written statement of particulars of reasons for their dismissal. †¢General considerations for employers when disciplining †¢A good disciplinary procedure will enable an employer to take appropriate steps in the event of misconduct of an employee. The disciplinary procedure should be in writing Consequences of Disciplinary actions: Union Grievance Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Complaint (EEOC) Law Suits Employee Buyouts Having to Reinstate Employee Embarrassment to Leadership Leadership Looses Credibility Employees Don’t Respect the process Creating an Ethical climate in the Organization to avoid Misconduct : The ethical climate of an organization is the shared set of understandings about what is correct behavior and how ethical issues will be handled. This climate sets the tone for decision making at all levels and in all circumstances. Some of the factors that may be emphasized in different ethical climates of organizations are (Hunt, 1991; Schneider and Rentsch, 1991): * Personal self-interest * Company profit * Operating efficiency * Individual friendships * Team interests * Social responsibility * Personal morality * Rules and standard procedures * Laws and professional codes As suggested by the prior list, the ethical climate of different organizations can emphasize different things. In the Johnson & Johnson example just cited, the ethical climate supported doing the right thing due to social responsibility–regardless of the cost. In other organizations–perhaps too many–concerns for operating efficiency may outweigh social considerations when similarly difficult decisions are faced. When the ethical climate is not clear and positive, ethical dilemmas will often result in unethical behavior. In such instances, an organization's culture also can predispose its members to behave unethically. For example, recent research has found a relationship between organizations with a history of violating the law and continued illegal behavior (Baucus and Near, 1991). Thus, some organizations have a culture that reinforces illegal activity. In addition, some firms are known to selectively recruit and promote employees who have personal values consistent with illegal behavior; firms also may socialize employees to engage in illegal acts as a part of their normal job duties (Conklin, 1977; Geis, 1977). For instance, in his account of cases concerning price fixing for heavy electrical equipment, Geis noted that General Electric removed a manager who refused to discuss prices with a competitor from his job and offered his successor the position with the understanding that management believed he would behave as expected and engage in price-fixing activities (Geis, 1977, p. 24; Baucus and Near, 1991). Pressure, opportunity, and predisposition can all lead to unethical activities; however, organizations must still take a proactive stance to promote an ethical climate. The final section provides some useful suggestions available to organizations for creating a more ethical climate. PROMOTING AN ETHICAL CLIMATE: Ethical Philosop hies and Employee Behavior: Recent literature has suggested several strategies for promoting ethical behavior in organizations (Adler and Bird, 1988; Burns, 1987; Harrington, 1991; Raelin, 1987; Stead etal. , 1990). First, chief executives should encourage ethical consciousness in their organizations from the top down showing the support and care about ethical practices. Second, formal processes should be used to support and reinforce ethical behavior. For example, internal regulation may involve the use of codes of corporate ethics, and the availability of appeals processes. Finally, it is recommended that the philosophies of top managers as well as immediate supervisors focus on the institutionalization of ethical norms and practices that are incorporated into all organizational levels. The philosophies of top managers as well as immediate supervisors represent a critical organizational factor influencing the ethical behavior of employees (Stead etal. , 1990). Research over a period of more than twenty-five years clearly support the conclusion that the ethical philosophies of management have a major impact on the ethical behavior of their followers employees (Arlow and Ulrich, 1980; Baumhart, 1961; Brenner and Molander, 1977; Carroll, 1978; Hegarty and Sims, 1978, 1979; Posner and Schmidt, 1984; Touche Ross, 1988; Vitell and Festervand, 1987; Worrell etal. 1985). Nielsen (1989) has stressed the importance of managerial behavior in contributing to ethical or unethical behavior. According to Nielsen, managers behaving unethically contrary to their ethical philosophies represent a serious limit to ethical reasoning in the firm. Much of the research cited in the above paragraph implicitly and explicitly states that ethical philosophies will have little impact on employe es' ethical behavior unless they are supported by managerial behaviors that are consistent with these philosophies. Managers represent significant others in the organizational lives of employees and as such often have their behavior modeled by employees. One of the most basic of management principles states that if a certain behavior is desired, it should be reinforced. No doubt, how ethical behavior is perceived by individuals and reinforced by an organization determines the kind of ethical behavior exhibited by employees. As a result, if business leaders want to promote ethical behavior they must accept more responsibility for establishing their organization's reinforcement system. Research in ethical behavior strongly supports the conclusion that if ethical behavior is desired, the performance measurement, appraisal and reward systems must be modified to account for ethical behavior (Hegarty and Sims, 1978, 1979; Trevino, 1986; Worrell et al. , 1985). According to Nielsen (1988, p. 730): In many cases, mangers choose to do, go along with or ignore the unethical†¦ because they want to avoid the possibility of punishments (or) to gain rewards. Ethical Culture: Organizations and their managers must understand that the above recommendations are key components in the development and maintenance of an ethically-oriented organizational culture. Organizations can also enhance an ethically-oriented culture by paying particular attention to principled organizational dissent. Principled organizational dissent is an important concept linking organizational culture to ethical behavior. Principled organizational dissent is the effort by individuals in the organization to protest the status quo because of their objection on ethical grounds, to some practice or policy (Graham, 1986). Organizations committed to promoting an ethical climate should encourage principled organizational dissent instead of punishing such behavior. Organizations should also provide more ethics training to strengthen their employees' personal ethical framework. That is, organizations must devote more resources to ethics training programs to help its members clarify their ethical frameworks and practice self-discipline when making ethical decisions in difficult circumstances. What follows is a useful seven-step checklist that organizations should use to help their employees in dealing with an ethical dilemma (Schermerhorn, 1989; Otten, 1986): Helping employees in dealing with Ethical Dilemma: (1) Recognize and clarify the dilemma. (2) Get all the possible facts. (3) List your options–all of them. (4) Test each option by asking: â€Å"Is it legal? Is it right? Is it beneficial? † (5) Make your decision. (6) Double check your decision by asking: â€Å"How would I feel if my family found out about this? How would I feel if my decision was printed in the local newspaper? † (7) Take action. An effective organizational culture should encourage ethical behavior and discourage unethical behavior. Admittedly, ethical behavior may â€Å"cost† the organization. An example might be the loss of sales when a multinational firm refuses to pay a bribe to secure business in a particular country. Certainly, individuals might be reinforced for behaving unethically (particularly if they do not get caught). In a similar fashion, an organization might seem to gain from unethical actions. For example, a purchasing agent for a large corporation might be bribed to purchase all needed office supplies from a particular supplier. However, such gains are often short-term rather than long-term in nature. In the long run, an organization cannot operate if its prevailing culture and values are not congruent with those of society. This is just as true as the observation that, in the long run, an organization cannot survive unless it produces goods and services that society wants and needs. Thus an organizational culture that promotes ethical behavior is not only more compatible with prevailing cultural values, but, in fact, makes good sense. Although much remains to be learned about why ethical behavior occurs in organizations and creating and maintaining organizational cultures that encourage ethical behavior, organizations can benefit from the following suggestions: Maintaining organizational cultures that encourage ethical behavior: ** Be realistic in setting values and goals regarding employment relationships. Do not promise what the organization cannot deliver. ** Encourage input throughout the organization regarding appropriate values and practices for implementing the cultures. Choose values that represent the views of employees at all levels of the organization. * Do not automatically opt for a â€Å"strong† culture. Explore methods to provide for diversity and dissent, such as grievance or complaint mechanisms or other internal review procedures. ** Insure that a whistle-blowing and/or ethical concerns procedure is established for internal problem-solving (Harrington, 1991). ** Provide ethics training pro grams for all employees. These programs should explain the underlying ethical and legal (Drake and Drake, 1988) principles and present practical aspects of carrying our procedural guidelines. Understand that not all ethical situations are clear-cut. Like many basic business situations, the organization should recognize that there are ambiguous, grey areas where ethical tradeoffs may be necessary. More importantly, some situations have no simple solution (Cooke, 1991). ** Integrate ethical decision-making into the performance appraisal process. Responsibilities of Employers in accordance with managing the behaviour of Employees: †¢treat all employees equally; †¢give consideration to the employee's general work record including their length of service, position and whether there are any special circumstances; †¢ensure incidents are dealt with without undue delay; ensure the proceedings (including any statements from witnesses and records) be kept confidential; †¢specify what disciplinary sanctions the company may take; †¢state who has authority within the company to take each level of disciplinary action; †¢ensure employees are informed of the allegations against them as well as any relevant documenta tion before the date of any hearing; †¢ensure that employees have the right to state their case before any decision is reached; †¢allow employees to be accompanied either by a colleague or if appropriate, a trade union official; †¢ensure that the sanctions are proportionate to the misconduct; †¢ensure that allegations will be carefully investigated; †¢ensure employees are given an explanation of any sanction; and †¢Specify that there is a right to appeal as well as how and when this must be taken. Finally†¦To conclude†¦ Ethical behavior among the employees can be inculcated by adopting the following principles of ethical climate. oMake the expectations clear oTreat the people employed as if they are adults, which they are. oSpend time meeting with staff members regularly oSevere discipline procedures may back fire. oMake all policies and procedures available to all employees. oEncourage open communication between you and the people who report to you. Human beings prefer to follow their own doctrines- therefore management should be aware that difficulties may crop up and should formulate friendly implementation of policies. â€Å" No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself† – William Penn References: 1. http://www. ethicsworld. org/ethicsandemployees/nbes. php 2. http://www. michaelpage. co. uk/content. html? pageId=15676 3. Managing misconduct By Rob Eldridge of Berwin Leighton Paisner 4. http://www. employeeterminationguidebook. com/ 5. http://www. lbwlawyers. com/publications/employeemisconduct. php 6. http://www. slideshare. net/meetsantanudas/managing-employee-discipline 7. http://www. fsa. usda. gov/FSA/hrdapp? area=home=mgrs=dem 8. http://www. employeemisconduct. com/ 9. Edward J. Tully December 1997 Misconduct, Corruption, Abuse of Power– What Can the Chief Do? 10. http://www. streetdirectory. com/travel_guide/20341/corporate_matters/how_employee_misconduct_affects_all_worker_productivity. html 11. Belt Tightening Tactics Linked to Increases in Employee Misconduct April 27, 2010 by Amy Coates Madsen 12. http://standardsforexcellenceinstitute. wordpress. com/page/2/ 13. W. Edward Stead, Dan L. Worrell and Jean Garner Stead An integrative model for understanding and managing ethical behavior in business organizations Journal of Business Ethics Volume 9, Number 3, 233-242 14. Ethical behavior starts at the top By Amy Schurr, Network World April 24, 2007 12:05 AM ET

Review Literary Terms Essay

Imagination is the power to create. It is the key component to literature. Without imagination, there won’t be an interesting story, I believe. Imagination is not only important to the writer, it helps the reader broaden their interpretation of the story. â€Å"When you allow reading to unlock your imagination, your connection sets the stage for intellectual engagement. It allows the experience of reading literature to include the pursuit of ideas and knowledge.† (Clugston, R.W 2010). With imagination comes genre. Choosing what category or type of literature. It can be a short story, poem, or drama. â€Å"It can be used to make broad distinctions or to identify specific categories within a broad category. The short story and the novel, for example, are specific literary genres within the broad category of fiction.†(Clugston, R.W.2010). I think another very important component to literature is the tone. Setting the tone will let the reader know what attitude the literary work is going. For example, â€Å"the final lines in Updike’s poem create an initial feeling of sympathy, which is likely to become empathy if the reader reflects on the dog’s predicament in not being able to communicate its final struggle.† (Clugston, R.W 2010). Tone is followed by image. Image represents the experience that go through your senses, the idea. Writers use specific language to describe the imagery. Again, in Frost’s and Updike’s poems about the dog, â€Å"In Frost’s image of an old dog there’s an initial feeling of sadness, but if the reader reflects on what the poem has to say about the inevitable life cycle that both the dog and the speaker face, sadness is likely to fade somewhat into acceptance.† Reference Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Characteristics of a National Hero

Executive Summary No jurisprudence. executive order or announcement has been enacted or issued officially proclaiming any Filipino historical figure as a national hero. However. because of their important functions in the procedure of state edifice and parts to history. there were Torahs enacted and announcements issued honouring these heroes. Even Jose Rizal. considered as the greatest among the Filipino heroes. was non explicitly proclaimed as a national hero. The place he now holds in Philippine history is a testimonial to the continued fear or acclaim of the people in acknowledgment of his part to the important societal transmutations that took topographic point in our state. Aside from Rizal. the lone other hero given an implied acknowledgment as a national hero is Andres Bonifacio whose twenty-four hours of birth on November 30 has been made a national vacation. Despite the deficiency of any official declaration explicitly proclaiming them as national heroes. they remain admired and revered for their functions in Philippine history. Heroes. harmonizing to historiographers. should non be legislated. Their grasp should be better left to faculty members. Acclaim for heroes. they felt. would be recognition plenty. 1. Choice and Proclamation of National Heroes 1. 1 National Heroes Committee On March 28. 1993. President Fidel V. Ramos issued Executive Order No. 75 entitled â€Å"Creating the National Heroes Committee Under the Office of the President† . The chief responsibility of the Committee is to analyze. measure and urge Filipino national personages/heroes in due acknowledgment of their sterling character and singular accomplishments for the state. 1. 2 Findingss and Recommendations of the National Heroes Committee In conformity with Executive Order No. 75 dated March 28. 1993. the National Heroes Committee submitted its findings and recommendations. 1. 2. 1 Criteria for National Heroes The Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee held a series of meetings on June 3. 1993. August 19. 1993. September 12. 1994 and November 15. 1995. specifying. discussing and considering upon the virtues of the assorted definitions and standards of a hero. The Committee adopted the undermentioned standards as footing for historical research workers in finding who among the great Filipinos will be officially proclaimed as national heroes: Standards for National Heroes ( Adopted by the Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee on June 3. 1993. Manila. Members of the Committee included Drs. Onofre D. Corpuz. Samuel K. Tan. Marcelino Foronda. Alfredo Lagmay. Bernardita R. Churchill. Serafin D. Quiason. Ambeth Ocampo. so known as Dom Ignacio Maria. Prof. Minerva Gonzales and Mrs. Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil ) 1. Heros are those who have a construct of state and thenceforth aspire and battle for the nation’s freedom. Our ain battle for freedom was begun by Bonifacio and finished by Aguinaldo. the latter officially declaring the revolution’s success. In world. nevertheless. a revolution has no terminal. Revolutions are merely the beginning. One can non draw a bead on to be free merely to drop back into bondage. 2. Heros are those who define and contribute to a system or life of freedom and order for a state. Freedom without order will merely take to anarchy. Therefore. heroes are those who make the nation’s fundamental law and Torahs. such as Mabini and Recto. To the latter. fundamental laws are merely the beginning. for it is the people populating under the fundamental law that genuinely constitute a state. 3. Heros are those who contribute to the quality of life and fate of a state. ( As defined by Dr. Onofre D. Corpuz ) Extra Criteria for Heroes( Adopted by the Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee on November 15. 1995. Manila ) 1. A hero is portion of the people’s look. But the procedure of a people’s internalisation of a hero’s life and works takes clip. with the young person organizing a portion of the internalisation. 2. A hero thinks of the hereafter. particularly the future coevalss. 3. The pick of a hero involves non merely the relation of an episode or events in history. but of the full procedure that made this peculiar individual a hero. ( As defined by Dr. Alfredo Lagmay ) 1. 2. 2 Historical Figures Recommended as National Heroes On November 15. 1995. the Technical Committee after deliberation and careful survey based on Dr. Onofre D. Corpuz’ and Dr. Alfredo Lagmay’s standards selected the undermentioned nine Filipino historical figures to be recommended as National Heroes: a. Jose Rizalb. Andres Bonifacioc. Emilio Aguinaldod. Apolinario Mabinie. Marcelo H. del Pilarf. Sultan Dipatuan Kudaratg. Juan Lunah. Melchora Aquinoi. Gabriela Silang 1. 2. 3 Status of the Report/Recommendations Submitted by the National Heroes Committee. Since the entry of the report/recommendations by the National Heroes Committee to so Secretary Ricardo T. Gloria of the Department of Education. Culture and Sports on November 22. 1995. no action has been taken. This was likely because this might trip a inundation of petitions for announcements. Another possibility is that the announcements can trip acrimonious arguments affecting historical contentions about the heroes. 2. Laws Honoring/ Commemorating Filipino Historical Figures 2. 1 Heros 2. 1. 1 Jose Rizal 2. 1. 1. 1 Decree of December 20. 1898. issued by General Emilio Aguinaldo. declared December 30 of every twelvemonth a twenty-four hours of national bereavement in award of Dr. Jose Rizal and other victims of the Filipino Revolution. 2. 1. 1. 2 Act No. 137. which organized the politico-military territory of Morong into the Province of Rizal. was the first official measure taken by the Taft Commission to honour our greatest hero and sufferer. 2. 1. 2 Andres Bonifacio 2. 1. 2. 1 Act No. 2946. enacted by the Filipino Legislature on February 16. 1921. made November 30 of each twelvemonth a legal vacation to mark the birth of Andres Bonifacio 2. 1. 2. 2 Act No. 2760. issued on February 23. 1918. confirmed and ratified all stairss taken for the creative activity. care. betterment of national memorials and peculiarly for the hard-on of a memorial to the memory of Andres Bonifacio 2. 1. 3 Other Heros 2. 1. 3. 1 Act No. 3827. enacted by the Filipino Legislature on October 28. 1931. declared the last Sunday of August of every twelvemonth as National Heroes Day. 2. 1. 3. 2 Proclamation No. 510. issued by Pres. Fidel V. Ramos on November 30. 1994. declared the twelvemonth 1996 as the twelvemonth of Filipino Heroes as a testimonial to all Filipinos who. straight and indirectly. gave significance and drift to the cause of freedom. justness. Filipino independency and nationhood. 2. 1. 3. 3 R. A. No. 9070. April 8. 2001. declaring the eighteenth of December of every twelvemonth as a particular working public vacation throughout the state to be known as the Graciano Lopez-Jaena Day 2. 2 Other Historical Figures 2. 2. 1 R. A. No. 6701. February 10. 1989. declaring September One of every twelvemonth. the decease day of remembrance of Gregorio Aglipay y Labayan. as Gregorio L. Aglipay Day and a particular non-working vacation in the Municipality of Batac. Province of Ilocos Norte 2. 2. 2 R. A. No. 7285. March 24. 1992. declaring February Nineteen of each twelvemonth as Dona Aurora Aragon Quezon Day a particular nonworking vacation in the Province of Aurora in order to mark the birth day of remembrance of Dona Aurora Aragon Quezon. the first President of the Philippine National Red Cross. and Foundation Day of the State 2. 2. 3 R. A. No. 7805. September 1. 1994. declaring January 28 of every twelvemonth as a non-working particular public vacation in the City of Cavite to be known as Julian Felipe Day 2. 2. 4 R. A. No. 7950. March 25. 1995. declaring December Eighteen of every twelvemonth as â€Å"Araw ng Laguna† and a particular on the job twenty-four hours in the Province of Laguna and the City of San Pablo to mark the memory and decease of the late Governor Felicisimo T. San Luis 2. 2. 5 R. A. No. 9067. April 8. 2001. declaring April 15 of every twelvemonth as President Manuel A. Roxas Day which shall be observed as a particular working public vacation in the Province of Capiz and the City of Roxas *From the Reference and Research Bureau Legislative Research Service. House of Congress WHAT IS A NATIONAL HERO?On our national hero’s 150 birth day of remembrance. I am forced to rethink my reply to this inquiry one time more. In the non so distant yesteryear. there has been a batch of inquiry as to why Dr. Jose Rizal is the country’s national hero. Renato Constantino argues that he is an American-sponsored hero ; that Rizal symbolized non-violence and peaceable promotion of reforms. traits that the American residents wanted for Filipinos to follow and therefore forestall farther rebellions against their hegemony. Others have hailed Andres Bonifacio as the â€Å"true† national hero for forming the first Filipino authorities and taking the first anti-colonial revolution in Asia. The Retraction Controversy has besides placed uncertainties on Rizal’s patriotism and his anti-clerical stance. The inquiries stem from the fact that our usual impression of a national hero is person who is brave. strong. able-bodied. and leads a military force into w ar against a colonial/imperial power — people such as George Washington. Simon Bolivar. or Sun Yat Sen. Apparently. machismo is still in the mind most Filipinos. This impression has to alter in our clip when even the smallest workss of selflessness can be considered gallantry. In my sentiment. for one to be a hero. one must give him/herself for the release its people or as an drift of such release. Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo falls under this class. both holding bravely fought the Spaniards in the battleground. However. Andres Bonifacio neer won any of his conflicts and normally goes off to salvage himself one time his forces are routed. He truly sees it of import that people’s leader remains alive at the terminal of the conflict instead than give life and limb. The same manner with Emilio Aguinaldo who alternatively of confronting the Americans in the battleground. has decided to evade them until his apprehension in Palanan and subsequent pledge of commitment to the United States. Dr. Jose Rizal is possibly the prototype of such self-sacrifice though. He sacrifices his love life and a quiet life to garner cognition around the universe that would be helpful in the battle for reforms in the state. He translates celebrated literary plants into Filipino for his countrymen to see ( such as plants by Hans Christian Andersen and Schiller ) and labours to guarantee a just position about his state abroad ( such as footnoting Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas ) . He uses his ain luck. clip and attempt to care for his countrymen. as he did when he opened his clinic in Hong Kong or in Dapitan. He enlightens his people about their position in society by composing the Noli and the Fili. His ultimate forfeit possibly is when he refuses to be saved by Bonifacio’s revolution and alternatively gives his ain life at executing so that the revolution can hold the ultimate inspiration. Both Bonifacio and Aguinaldo recognized his forfeits by idolizing him as the revolution’s inspiration. Aguinaldo was foremost to declare him national hero in 1898. even before the Americans â€Å"sponsored† it. Rizal’s selflessness has been modeled throughout history by other heroes. such as Manuel L. Quezon ( who sacrificed clip. money and attempt for the constitution of the Commonwealth ) . Jose P. Laurel ( who sacrificed repute to join forces with the enemy and salvage more Filipinos from the Japanese ) . Ninoy Aquino ( who sacrificed his life at blackwash so that the People Power Revolution could force through ) and Efren Penaflorida ( who sacrificed clip. money and attempt to learn the street kids of Cavite ) . In the terminal. there is no uncertainty that Rizal is the first to visualize himself and his state as a state of Filipinos and to continue its autonomy from the residents. At his 150th birth day of remembrance. Dr. Jose Rizal will stay as the bosom o f the Philippine revolution and the Philippine national hero. Originally posted at hypertext transfer protocol: //soksay. blogspot. com On December 20. 1898. Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo. as caput of the Philippine Revolutionary Government. issued a decree proclaiming Dec. 30 of every twelvemonth a national twenty-four hours of mourning in award of Dr. Jose Rizal and the other sufferer of the revolution against Spain. This was merely two old ages after the executing of the hero by the Spanish colonial authorities. On Feb. 16. 1921. the members of the Filipino Legislature passed Act No. 2496. proclaiming Nov. 30 of every twelvemonth a legal vacation to mark the birth of Andres Bonifacio. laminitis of the Katipunan. This was merely 25 old ages after the launching of the nationalist revolution against Spain by the Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan ( Highest Honorable Association of Children of the Nation ) . or Katipunan. Since so. the names of Rizal and Bonifacio have led the parade of celebrated and valiant heroes honored by coevalss of Filipinos for their parts to national integrity. freed om and societal advancement. Revisionist positionsBut since the 1960s. there has arisen a revisionist historical tendency oppugning the standing of both Rizal and Bonifacio in the vanguard of that parade of heroes. One school of idea contends that Rizal was non worthy to be considered our first national hero because he was â€Å"made in USA. † In an article written in 1970. coroneted â€Å"Veneration Without Understanding. † the historian Renato Constantino referred to Rizal as an â€Å"American-sponsored hero. † This point of view was expressed during the period of societal and political activism led by pupils. workers and provincials against the brewing Marcos absolutism and against the American war on Vietnam as an look of renascent US imperialism. Constantino claimed that US Governor General Howard Taft set up Rizal as a national hero because Rizal was considered a â€Å"reformist† and a â€Å"pacifist. † while Bonifacio was a revolutionist who resorted to violence to derive national independency. Since the US colonial swayers of course wanted to deter revolution against their government. they chose Rizal over Bonifacio as the Philippines’ national hero. The message was interpreted by the militants as reflecting their position that it was Bonifacio who most deserved the rubric of No. 1 Filipino hero. The Taft Commission. which functioned as the US colonial disposal in the Philippines from 1900 to 1904. passed Act No. 37. making the State of Rizal out of the military territory of Morong in award of Dr. Rizal. The act did non officially declare Rizal a national hero. nor proclaim a national vacation in his award. Besides. the Taft Commission represented a foreign authorities that had gained power through for ce and could non talk for the Filipino people. Popular sentiment General Aguinaldo. acknowledged leader of the de facto Philippine Republic. proclaimed Rizal a national hero in front of the American colonial disposal. In conformity with his edict of Dec. 20. 1898. the people of Daet. Camarines Norte. instantly started a subscription for the edifice of a memorial for Dr. Rizal at the town’s place. The memorial was inaugurated in February 1899. shortly after the eruption of the Philippine-American War on Feb. 1. Hence. the announcement of Rizal as a national hero was an reliable act of the Filipino people even before the United States officially consolidated its regulation. By no agencies can it be said that he was an â€Å"American-sponsored† hero. If at all. in purportedly taking Rizal as our national hero. Taft was merely staying by the popular sentiment of the Filipino people as already expressed through General Aguinaldo. whose authorities was so autonomous throughout the full state. except in Manila. The announcement of Bonifacio as a national hero was made by the Filipino Legislature. composed of duly elected Filipino representatives of the Filipino Legislature. so basking self-government under the American colonial government. He. excessively. should be considered a echt pick of the Filipinos as a national hero despite the expostulation of the American disposal that he was excessively much of a revolutionist. Bonifacio revisedBonifacio. like Rizal. has besides suffered from historical revisionism. The most recent revisionist composing about Bonifacio was that by Bryan C. Paraiso. a senior historical sites development officer of the National Historical Commission. In Paraiso’s article published by the Filipino Daily Inquirer on Nov. 30. 2012. on the juncture of Bonifacio’s 149th birth day of remembrance. the hero reveals fervor in his Hagiographas. Paraiso described Bonifacio as an â€Å"elusive† historical character. Paraiso went so far as to favourably cite an American historiographer. Glenn Anthony May. that â€Å"the Bonifacio celebrated in history text editions and memorialized in statues around the Philippines is in world something closer to a national myth. † May. who has written a figure of controversial books on Philippine history stressing the function of the elite in the Filipino revolution and in the armed opposition against American business. is a h istory professor at the University of Oregon. Paraiso rejected the judgement of Filipino historiographers like Epifanio de los Santos. who had tried to justify the image of Bonifacio against his disparagers. Paraiso considered the Hagiographas of De los Santos and other Filipino historiographers â€Å"subjective† reading. connoting that the foreigners’ reading of Philippine history is â€Å"objective. † In fact. the observations of the American historiographers on our anticolonial battles could merely every bit good transport prejudice to warrant the colonial conquerings of our state. But is it necessary and helpful for Filipinos to oppose their heroes against each other. infinitely debating who are more deserving of popular worship? Unique function Every hero plays his ain alone function in history. which is that to support and advance the involvements of the state at any peculiar clip of national crisis. giving his or her ain life and opportunism. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are both American primary heroes executing different functions at different times in their country’s historical development. They. excessively. had their critics. Rizal consciously planted and nourished the seed of patriotism. In his novels. essays and announcements he promoted the thought of freedom and the contingency of national independency. At first Rizal advocated reforms. But when the supplication for reforms failed. he advocated independency. even through revolution. This is apparent in his novel â€Å"Noli Me Tangere. † which emphasized reforms. and its subsequence. â€Å"El Filibusterismo. † which preached revolution. Rizal’s chief essays. â€Å"The Indolence of the Filipinos. † and â€Å"The Philippi nes a Century Hence. † argued for an terminal to colonialism. by reforms if possible. and. if non. through revolution. Bonifacio read the novels of Rizal and perchance his two chauvinistic essays that were published by La Solidaridad. the periodical of reformer Filipino emigres in Madrid. which Rizal had joined but which he subsequently left when he eventually realized that their agitation for reforms were falling on the deaf ears. It was so that Rizal wrote the â€Å"Fili. † La Liga Filipina It was Rizal’s Hagiographas and his turning repute as a leader of Filipino patriotism that led Bonifacio in 1892 to fall in Rizal’s La Liga Filpina. an organisation that was in kernel a shadow authorities for an independent state. The organisation of the Liga by Rizal was cited in the indictment against him as one of the Acts of the Apostless of lese majesty he allegedly had committed against the Spanish government. The declared purposes of the Liga. including. â€Å"To unite the whole archipelago into one compact. vigorous and homogeneous organic structure. † were right interpreted by the Spanish governments as an effort at segregation. This led the Spanish authorities to expatriate Rizal to the speeds of Mindanao. He was finally executed upon strong belief of lese majesty. In his memoirs of the Filipino Revolution. Apolinario Mabini recalled that he met Bonifacio at the organisation of the Liga. After Rizal’s ostracism on July 6. 1892. Bonifacio and a smattering of other members of the Liga tried to maintain it alive by go oning to beg parts for La Solidaridad. Mabini. was elected secretary of the Supreme Council of the Liga after Rizal’s apprehension. He subsequently became president of the Cabinet of President Aguinaldo and secretary of foreign personal businesss in the first Philippine Republic that fought the United States for independency. The late former Sen. Claro M. Recto. the greatest Filipino patriot of our clip. in a address in 1960 to a civic convention in Baguio City. identified â€Å"Rizal. the poet. mind. realist ; Bonifacio. the idealist adult male of action ; and Mabini. the solon. † as â€Å"three of the greatest patriots this state has produced. † Katipunan When the Liga eventually dissolved because of dissensions among its officers. Bonifacio formed the Katipunan. which was wholly dedicated to the aim of subverting the Spanish colonial authorities through armed revolution. Bonifacio had come to the decision that the period for requests had ended. and that revolution had become an imperative. The Katipunan was hence a direct branch of the Liga Filipina. Bonifacio used the name of â€Å"Jose Rizal† as one of the watchwords for the members of the secret society. It was an recognition by Bonifacio that Rizal was his wise man and inspiration. if non his leader. All revolutions start out with requests for reforms. Thus it was with the Gallic. Russian and American revolutions. The US Declaration of Independence provinces: â€Å"In every province of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most low footings: Our perennial Requests have been answered merely by perennial hurt. † The rejection of the requests for reforms by the La Solidaridad propagandists. including representation in the Spanish parliament. paved the manner for the bloody Katipunan revolution for segregation. In his seminal essay. â€Å"The Philippines A Century Hence. † published by La Solidaridad from Sept. 30. 1898. to Feb. 1. 1890. Rizal wrote that if the reforms were non granted. â€Å"the Philippines one twenty-four hours will declare herself necessarily and unmistakably independent †¦ . Necessity is the strongest God the universe knows. and necessity is the consequence of physical Torahs put into action by moral forces. † Rizal planted the seed of revolution. and Bonifacio watered it. They were the twins of historical necessity. The moral force of history brought them together. each to carry through doomed functions in the battle of our people for nation-building and independency. That their bequests should be made to vie against each other goes against the jurispru dence of history. which mandates that each historical figure. like every coevals. has a definite function to play in the fate of a state. Divide and regulation Revisionists are using the time-honoured colonial maneuver of â€Å"divide and rule† to enforce and perpetuate their laterality over conquered peoples. Those who play this game. opposing our heroes against each other. and seting seeds of intuition about their worth. are playing the game of our former colonial Masterss. As Recto said in the same address. â€Å"A steadfast belief in the mastermind of our race and in the capacity of the people for advancement toward the attainment of their fate is another basic constituent of patriotism. † Destroy that patriotism and you destroy the state. After all. colonialism does non stop in the mere overthrow of the colonial power. Colonial establishments are left behind. particularly after 400 old ages of foreign domination ( 350 by the Spaniards and 50 by the Americans ) . There are leftovers of colonialism that must be swept off wholly before the colonial topics can be wholly free. particularly when they are embedded in the wonts o f the head. The devastation of the characters of national heroes are equivalent to undermine of the nation’s strength and baronial intents. Continued attempts to eliminate the message of Rizal by prophesying that he had retracted his Hagiographas is a blind to destruct patriotism. The same goes with attempts to mythologise the character of Rizal’s spouse in patriotism and revolution. Bonifacio. Bertolt Brecht. European poet and dramatist. in his drama. â€Å"Galileo. † has written. â€Å"Unhappy the land that needs heroes. † The Philippines is an unhappy land of wretchedness. poorness and underdevelopment. It needs heroes. Why destruct them? Paraiso denigrated Bonifacio even on the juncture of his decease day of remembrance. which the state reverentially observed. Paraiso said. â€Å"Fate has been unkind to Bonifacio. His mystery-shrouded life ended in black decease. † Harmonizing to the American Heritage Dictionary. â€Å"ignominious† means â€Å"marked by shame or shame: dishonourable. † It is bad plenty that this honest and brave â€Å"son of the people† ( anak ng bayan ) should be called a â€Å"myth† by an vague American historiographer. and his decease should be called black or scandalous by an employee of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. The bravery of Bonifacio It is true that Bonifacio was executed by an order of Aguinaldo in a battle for power within the radical motion. But Bonifacio faced his destiny courageously. with the same unbeatable bravery that he had mustered in constructing the radical motion from a smattering of nationalists to 1000s of ill armed avid zealots eager to put down their lives for freedom and independency. Bonifacio did this through four long old ages of painstaking enlisting in secret rites in darkened suites under the very olfactory organs of the progressively nervous colonial and clerical governments. with every minute fraught with the danger of find. anguish and decease. And eventually. when the motion was unwittingly discovered. he launched the revolution armed merely with a six-gun. assailing a military armory. lighting the radical war that vindicated and upheld the award and manhood of coevalss of Filipinos who had been chained in colonial bondage for three and a half centuries. Following dissensions in the ranks of the revolutionists. Bonifacio was shot and wounded as he resisted gaining control by soldiers he considered renegades to the revolution. His capturer. Col. Lazaro Makapagal. claimed that Bonifacio shed â€Å"bitter tears† when. together with his brother. he faced certain decease. but he did non implore for his life. and the cryings he shed were surely due to his defeat that the radical motion that he led to fruition was in danger of catastrophe. Bonifacio’s background showed that whatever his mistakes. deficiency of bravery was non one of them. As the quintessential revolutionist. Mao Zedong said. â€Å"A revolution is non a dinner party. or composing an essay. or painting a image. or making embellishment ; †¦ . A revolution is an rebellion. an act of force by which one category overthrows another. † It is non so orderly like romantic fiction. Ratified by the people Yes. Bonifacio’s decease was a personal calamity. But it was non â€Å"ignominious. † Even as he considered himself a victim of unfairness by some of his fellow revolutionists. he did non abandon the revolution. He decided to go forth Cavite. the state of his factional antagonists. to go on to contend the revolution elsewhere. â€Å"Heroes are those who have a construct of state and hence aspire and battle for the nation’s freedom. † said the proficient commission of the National Heroes Commission in a study to President Fidel V. Ramos on June 3. 1993. Rizal and Bonifacio met that standard wholly. They are. so far. the lone heroes who have been honored by edict and jurisprudence with national vacations. The remainder are every bit honored with particular vacations. The members of the commission who drafted the standards for heroes were recognized historiographers and authors: Dr. Onofre D. Corpuz. Samuel K. Tan. Marcelino Foronda. Alfredo Lagmay. Bernardit o R. Churchill. Serafin D. Quiason. Ambeth Ocampo ( so known as the monastic Dom Ignacio Maria ) . Prof. Minerva Gonzales and Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil. Other historical figures The commission recommended nine other historical figures to be recognized as national heroes in a study to the Department of Education. Culture and Sports ( Decs ) in a study on Nov. 22. 1995. But the Decs took no action on the recommendation for fright that it would stir contention. Rizal and Bonifacio. who had already been declared national heroes by Acts of the Apostless of Congress. led the list of heroes made by the commission. The pick of Rizal and Bonifacio as the first national heroes has been ratified by the Filipino people through many coevalss as evidenced by the statues erected spontaneously in their award in towns and metropoliss throughout the archipelago. Historical revisionism. for whatever ground. will non wipe out this heartfelt fear in concrete and rock by all Filipinos nationwide.

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Small Business Management - Essay Example Virtual Transport is a small business which offers transporting and haulage services and functions with a staff of eight employees and the entrepreneur. Having undergone a financial crisis during its first year of inception, the company has just managed to turn around the company. However the business had to seek additional funding support from its bankers and have given them an undertaking to provide financial information to keep them informed of the progress the business is making. The following proposal of management and monitoring strategy for Virtual Transport which takes in to account the information requirements of various business stakeholders such as the government authorities to meet the statutory requirements; the bankers; business accountants as well as the internal staff and the entrepreneur himself. The strategy takes in to account the need for regular monitoring of business performance in order to assess the actual performance against the initial business plan, through calculation of performance ratios, variance analysis etc. The information required in filing the quarterly tax returns, and annual profitability statements to meet the legal requirements are born in mind. Capturing of all income and expense data on a daily basis to facilitate the business accountant in drawing up the monthly accounts has been a key consideration is developing the information strategy and the proposed information systems. In addition the role which information sharin g plays in building and maintaining employee moral and commitment has also been considered. The information requirements have been identified under main categories of Legal & Taxation Requirements; Internal Business Management; Financial Administration and Financial Monitoring. The information will be in the form of quarterly and annual profit and loss statements; Business Activity

Journal opinion article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Journal opinion article - Essay Example In earlier years, the government followed the policy of increased government expenditure and public debt in order to boost the aggregate demand in the economy of the country. The fiscal policy of the government embraced budget deficits in order to fuel the GDP growth rates of the country. An examination of the demand supply curve would help to explain the previous fiscal policy of the government. With the increase in government spending, the flow of money in the economy increased leading to higher purchasing power which boosted the demand of the market. Thus the demand line shifted upwards as shown in the graphical representation. In order to maintain equilibrium in the markets, the private investments and production in the economy rose thereby resulting in increased GDP growth rates. As a result of the increase in demand against the prevailing supply in the market, the prices of goods and services also increased. With the occurrence of financial recession, the production level in th e economy fell and thus due to the fall of supply in comparison to the demand, inflation cropped up. The slowdown of the economy of US resulted in job cuts and increase in unemployment rates which cropped up to even 9.1% in the periods after the financial crisis. Along with the plunge in economic performance, the displacement in the position of equilibrium resulted in the hike in prices of goods and services. This prompted a change in the policies of the government of US. The occurrence of economic depression highlighted the drawbacks of Keynesian economic policies of increasing government expenditure in order to boost the demand of the economy. In doing so, the US government incurred a deficit of $ 1 trillion (Elwell 50). Thus the fiscal policies adopted by the US government were framed with an objective to achieve economic consolidation and reduce budgetary deficits. After the presidential election of 2012 in US, the democrat government in US adopted the policy of reducing the gov ernment expenditures in order to control the budgetary deficits. The government decided to impose cuts on the military budgets while spending on areas like health care and education. The budgetary deficits have been reduced and it is forecasted that the government would keep the deficit under control in near future. In order to stabilize the economic scenario of the country and to neutralize the effect of decline in government spending, the revenue collection of the government was also decreased by adopting fiscal policies of tax reduction. This fiscal policy of the government is likely to continue in future till the time the economic position of the country is revived. The taxes have earned the highest revenues for the country through ages. The government strategically adopted the policy of reducing the collections through taxes in order to maintain a balance with the reduction of government spending. Leaving the conventional path of boosting private investments though government e xpenditures, the US government focused on the growth of the middle class and the labor markets, thereby encouraging the services industry. In order to reduce unemployment in the country, the government has brought new legislations on outsourcing. The unemployment rates have decreased comparatively post 2012 from 8.3% to 7.6%. In order to gain economic revival, the government has almost doubled its exports in order to tap the opportunities of overseas markets. The growth in exports of

Models of change Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Models of change - Research Paper Example These include increase in urgency for change, team building, vision construction, communication, empowerment, creation of short-term goals, persistence an establishment of permanent change (Kerollos, 2012). This model works best for small organizations and institutions due to its simplicity. It is also applicable in cases where change is intended for reasons of altering the goals of an organization, where it prepares employees for change beforehand. The third change model is that Change Management Model by Lewin and is organized into three stages known as unfreeze, transition, and refreeze (Kerollos, 2012). The model is characterized with hesitation towards change due to the discomfort caused by change in the environment that people work. Therefore, in order to overcome this state, unfreezing must be done to enter the transition zone where the actual change occurs. The refreeze stage occurs in order to stabilize the organization from the change process (Cellars, 2007). It is best suitable due to its nature in motivating employees towards a given goal that would not naturally work. In conclusion, the above three business models of change are diverse in nature with their modes of operation. They also have different suitability concerning use and application in their independent situations. In conclusion, the above three business models of change are diverse in nature with their modes of operation. They also have different suitability concerning use and application in their independent situations. Cellars, Tara. (2007). â€Å"Change Management Models: A Look at McKinseys 7-S Model, Lewins Change Management Model and Kotters Eight Step Change Model†. Yahoo! Voices. Retrieved from http://voices.yahoo.com/change-management-models-look-mckinseys-7-s-model-334598.html?cat=3 Kerollos, Joseph. (2012). The Management and Sustainability of Organizational Change in Primary Care Adoption of Electronic Medical Record

The Merchant of Venice Essay Example for Free

The Merchant of Venice Essay One of the most central issues in The Merchant of Venice is that of the antagonism between the Jews and the Christians. The unconscious, inborn dislike of cultures which jeopardise our way of life. Ever since people have left their homelands to settle in other places there has been conflict between different cultures. So, in the play, Antonio, Bassanio, Gratiano and many more of the Christians feel resentment towards Shylock the alien. This is partly because of the trap that he has led Antonio into and partly because he is different. This seemingly unaccounted for dislike is shown particularly by Shylock who comments: I hate him for he is a Christian (act 1, scene 3, line 38.) and then later on, in the trial scene itself, when asked to explain his actions he states: I give no reason, nor I will not, more than a lodgd hate and a certain loathing, I bear Antonio (act 4, scene 1, lines 59-61.) This speech shows how even Shylock himself cannot explain his deep-rooted hatred of Antonio (the Christian). The opposite of feuds between cultures, are the bonds which are made between people of the same beliefs and habits. This is shown at the beginning of the Act in the form of a conversation between the Duke and Antonio, both of whom are Christian. In this conversation the Duke reveals his feelings on the matter. I am sorry for thee: thou art come to answer to a stony adversary, an inhuman wretch uncapable of pity, void and empty from any dram of mercy. (act 4, scene 1, lines 3-6.) However, Antonio seems to have no hope, and accepts the law without complaint. This opening view of Antonio portrays his temperament throughout the whole scene, right up until the very end when he is released from the fateful bond. Shortly after this conversation ends Shylock enters. The Duke appeals to Shylock to have mercy upon Antonio, but Shylock is stubborn and sticks with his original decision and intention. Shylock informs the Duke about what will happen if he denies him the due and forfeit of his bond. The consequence of denying the bond would be something that Antonio himself talked about earlier in the play: The Duke cannot deny the course of law: for the commodity that strangers have with us in Venice, if it be denied, will much impeach the justice of the state, since that the trade and profit of the city consisteth of all nations. (act 3, scene 3, lines 26-31.) This means that if the course of law is not permitted, then foreigners will question the integrity and fairness of Venetian justice, which would be fateful for Venice, as the citys wealth depends upon international trade. Venice will also lose its reputation as the centre of international trade if the Duke does not grant Shylock his bond. Yet again, Antonio does not try to excuse himself from the bond, but reminds his friends that they are dealing with a Jew, and of how they will not be able to shift his Jewish Heart. Bassanio proposes to repay Shylock with twice the amount agreed in the bond but, yet again, Shylock is unmoved in his decision. The Duke now realises that there is no way that he can legally save his friends life, but, he states that upon his power he may dismiss the court unless Bellario, a famous lawyer whom he has called to the court  to ask him of his opinion, can attend the hearing. Bassanio sees this as a possibility that his friend may live, but Antonio is not optimistic and says: I am a tainted wether of the flock, meetest for death; the weakest kind of fruit drops earliest to the ground; and so let me. You cannot be better employd, Bassanio, than to live still, and write mine epitaph. (act 4, scene 1, lines 114-118.) He almost feels that he deserves to die, and asks Bassanio to carry on with his own life and write his memoirs for him. The lawyers clerk, who is Nerissa dressed as a man, arrives with a letter from Bellario. The Duke reads the letter and in the meantime Shylock sharpens his knife on the sole of his shoe. Bassanio is upset by this and asks him Why dost thou wet thy knife so earnestly?, and Shylock replies that he intends to take what is rightfully his. At this, Gratiano, who until now has been silent, launches a verbal attack on Shylock, accusing him of having the soul of a man-killing wolf. However, as before, Shylock is unscathed by these insults, and reminds Gratiano that he is only here to uphold the law. After reading the letter the Duke informs the court that Bellario has been taken ill and therefore cannot attend the hearing, but that he has sent a young lawyer in his place, whom he has informed with the details of the case. This lawyer of which the letter speaks is called Balthazar, but when Balthazar enters it becomes apparent to the audience that the lawyer is in fact Portia in disguise. The characters in the play, however, do not know this. Portia attempts to persuade Shylock to have mercy but is unsuccessful. Finally, she agrees that it is lawful that Shylock shall have his bond. Shylock, who is gratified with this judgement, compares Portia to Daniel who, in the Apocrypha, was instructed by God to give a verdict against two elders who had tried to rape the celibate lady Susanna. Portia proceeds to gain Shylocks respect by reminding the court that Antonio must pay the bond with A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off nearest the merchants heart.  Portia asks Shylock whether he has the scales ready to weigh the pound of flesh, to which he replies I have them ready. Portia then feels that she may have found a way to save Antonios life, she asks Shylock: Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge, to stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death. (act 4, scene 1, lines 255-256.) Yet Shylock reminds her that it says nothing about a surgeon in the bond, so her statement is void. Portia accepts this, she then turns to Antonio to ask him if he has anything to say. Antonio speaks to Bassanio to try and console him, concluding with a wry joke about the matter: If the Jew do cut but deep enough, Ill pay it (the debt) instantly with all my heart. (act 4, scene 1, lines 278-279.) Bassanio then comments that he would give up his wife if it would save Antonio, and then Gratiano says that he wishes that his wife were in heaven so that she could stop the proceedings by some divine interception. These comments fracture the tension that has built in the court because, unknown to Bassanio and Gratiano, their wives are there in the court with them. Portia emphasises the irony in this further by saying: Your wife would give you little thanks for that, if she were by to hear you make the offer. (act 4, scene, 1 lines 286-287.) Portia gives permission for Shylock to take his bond, but just as he is preparing to do so she finds a weak link in the bond: Tarry a little: there is something else. This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood. (act 4, scene 1, lines 303-304.) Meaning that Shylock is entitled to his pound of flesh but not to any of Antonios blood. She then explains that if Shylock does shed one drop of Christian blood then he will have his lands and goods confiscated by the state of Venice. At this decree Gratiano is overjoyed as he can see a way out for his friend. He mocks Shylock by repeating the very praises that Shylock himself had delivered to Portia. The likening of Portia to Daniel is now more fitting because like Portia, Daniel was not anticipated in the court, and the judgement that he gave freed Susanna and condemned her accusers. Shylock is shocked by Portias words, but he is not defeated, he offers to accept triple the original amount, which was offered to him earlier: I take this offer then: pay the bond thrice, and let the Christian go. (act 4, scene 1, lines 316-317.) Bassanio is about to hand over the money when Portia intervenes again. She states that Shylock shall have only his justice, so she instructs him to prepare to cut the pound of flesh, but she warns him, if he should cut any more or less than a pound, even in the estimation of a hair then he shall lose all that he owns. Gratiano jeers at Shylock even further, and yet again Shylock asks for the money, but Portia reminds us that Shylock had refused the money earlier, so now, he shall have merely justice, and his bond. At this, Shylock attempts to leave the court, yet Portia calls him back stating the law hath yet another hold on you. This hold is yet another law of Venice, which states that any alien or foreigner who attempts to take the life of a Venetian shall have all of their possessions confiscated, one half of which shall go to the endangered Venetian, Antonio, and the other half shall go to the privy coffer of the state. This law also states that the life of the alien shall be in the hands of the Duke, and Portia advises Shylock to get down onto his knees and beg mercy of the Duke. The Duke spares Shylocks life, and Antonio, who is now entitled to half of Shylocks wealth, is asked what mercy he can render him? Antonio, despite Gratianos petition, shows his generosity. He offers to take the money on loan, keeping it in confidence for Lorenzo, a Christian who recently ran away with Shylocks daughter, Jessica. However, Antonio puts two conditions on his offer, firstly, that Shylock must become a Christian and, secondly, that he must make a will leaving all that he owns to Jessica and Lorenzo. In doing this, Antonio has struck the  ultimate blow, forcing Shylock to become what he hates and to leave his wealth to someone who has already robbed him of a lot of money and stolen his daughter. Shylock sees that he has been cornered, and asks permission to leave the court. He agrees to conform with Antonios conditions saying: Send the deed after me, and I will sign it. (act 4, scene 1, lines 394-395.) In agreeing to these conditions Shylock has lost his chance for revenge upon the Christians and has had their revenge cast upon himself. Gratiano now makes his feelings apparent, and he declares to Shylock: In Christening shalt thou have two god-fathers; Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more, to bring thee to the gallows, not to the font. (act 4, scene 1, lines 396-398.) This shows that Gratiano feels that Shylock should have been hanged for, in Christianity, when a child is baptised, two god-fathers are appointed to see that the child is properly educated in the Christian faith. However, at the time, god-fathers, was also a nick-name for the members of a jury, a body of twelve men, who would have been needed to pass sentence on Shylock. Gratiano suggests that there should have been ten more god-fathers in order to make up a jury, who he feels would have condemned Shylock to death.  This statement by Gratiano has a double meaning, firstly, that he feels Shylock should have been punished by death and, secondly, that he will be baptised into the Christian faith. The Duke, yet again showing his liking of Antonio, invites Portia to have dinner at his home with him, but Portia declines his offer because she must away this night to Padua. The only thing left to do now is for Bassanio, Antonio and Gratiano to pay the lawyer for his services. Bassanio offers the three thousand ducats which would have been used to pay Shylock, yet Portia refuses payment declaring: He is well paid that is well satisfied, and I, delivering you, am satisfied, and therein do account myself well paid. (act 4, scene 1, lines 413-415.) Suddenly though, the lawyer catches sight of the ring on Bassanios finger, the very ring which Portia gave him at their wedding. She asks for the ring as payment. Bassanio remembers that Portia had told him never to detach himself from the ring for any reason, and, recollecting this, he refuses. Antonio pleads with Bassanio for him to give the ring, and Bassanio, who almost brought about the death of his friend, does not refuse his companions wish. He then sends Gratiano after the lawyer in order to offer Portia the ring.

Human Sexuality Paper Essay Example for Free

Human Sexuality Paper Essay When I was assigned this paper, I wanted to choose a paraphilia that I misunderstood the most. People who have sexual sadism disorder have frequent fantasies about sexual arousal results from inflicting psychological or physical suffering on a sexual partner, even humiliation and pain. This isn’t just a common act of rough sex. In the worst cases sexual sadism involves rape, torture, and even murder, the death of the victim produces sexual excitement. People who take their sexual addiction to these levels need psychiatric help or to be jailed. The arousal for these people is the terror in which they see in their victims. However, not all cases of sadism are so serious. Some are also people who do not torture so bad. This is known as sadomasochism. With this disorder, people are incredibly aroused by being tied up by their partner. Many normal couples use spanking, tying up, and a bit of force for fore play. This is not to be mistaken with sadism.. This is actually very common and kind of a fad now. There are sex stores that sell the type of products for this type of foreplay such as collars, whips, and all types of toys. There are a number of psychological theories about sadism. Most are based off of cases studies. Freud had two different views on the sadism. First he thought that aggressiveness with sexuality was urges. But he also thought that early in life children may have witnessed a sexual act or sex of their parents when they were just children. There were also psychologists that though that children developed sadism when their caretakers bring sexual pleasure and deny it when initiating toilet training or prevent asturbation. Psychologist sometimes believe that a person develops a psychological imprint during some earlier sexual experience at times.. Others believe that it is a slow process that relates back to when the individual becomes aroused and they then remember and reinforce it later in life during sex. A lot of men when asked are able to remember incidents in childhood or early adolescent that triggered them to become aroused. Treatment Someone with sexual sadism may never become known to the public, treatment or law enforcement. If people can limit their sexual sadism to istinct levels in a relationship, it is very controllable and not harmful if the partner is willing, which often can happen. For the ones who are brought to the attention of police officials the sadism has usually made itself into dangerous activity that have harmed others Conclusion In my thoughts, I feel that many and most people have sexual impulses that they are ashamed of. Most of which are not harmful, however, I do believe that individuals that are harmful to others need other resources and help with their condition to prevent the damage that is possible. Some hold in urges for so long that they are just simply uncontrollable in the heat of the moment. I feel any individual with these feelings need to seek counseling and try to pin point reasons and ways of subsiding their urges right off the bat. If the person affected is a serious danger to society then society needs to take serious measures to assure everyone’s safety. People who choose not to seek treatment could be just your average next door neighbor who looks and acts completely normal. And then suddenly one day they snap and become a danger to who ever is around them. This is concerning for everyone in society.

Fuzzy Logic Based Smart Solar Power MPPT

Fuzzy Logic Based Smart Solar Power MPPT Design and Optimization of a Fuzzy Logic Based Smart Solar Power Maximum Power Point Tracker A. KocabaÃ…Å ¸ and H.Ä °. OkumuÃ…Å ¸ Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon/Turkey Abstract- As the issue of efficiency is one of the most important fundamentals of solar power generation, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) systems have an important duty in solar power management systems in solar power generation. This paper includes study of the design and improvement of fuzzy logic based solar power MPPT, and the methodology to achieve the best system performance. MPPT system was evaluated at the DC-DC power converters ability of impedance conversion point of view and cooperation of fuzzy logic theory. The parameters of fuzzy inference system are optimized to obtain the fastest and accurate system responses. The performance of the proposed fuzzy logic based MPPT under various operating conditions compared and improvement of this performance is dealt with. The fuzzy logic MPPT function realized using a buck-boost power converter. Computer simulations practiced and simulation results also represented. Keywords- Maximum Power Point Tracking, Fuzzy Logic Control, Solar Power Generation. Solar power is one of the most harmless and cleanest, plentiful supply of energy in the world. It is unfailing and like to be our fundamental supply of power in future [1]-[2]. Solar power has already used widely for industrial, commercial, residential and military applications. Performance of solar power generation by photovoltaic (PV) cells depends on the environmental conditions such as insolation, sunlight tilt, load variations, airmass and cell temperature [10]. Power converter units should be associated with the PV cells and the load to control the power flow from the PV cells to the load. PV systems use MPPT systems to maximize power output, by the ability of continually arranging the duty ratio increment command of the switching device in the power converter unit. Algorithms used in MPPT systems maximize power extractions of PV cells by controlling the duty ratio of the power converter with the changing PV cell output variable combinations like changes in power versus changes in voltage etc. MPPT algorithms such as perturb and observe, incremental conductance have been evaluated until now. [3]. Unchanging step size for the control signal, increment of the duty ratio command, used in these methods. Too small steps sizes cause slow tracking process and too large step sizes cause oscillations around the maximum power point (MPP). To perform automatically adjusting step sizes, variable step sizing algorithms such as fuzzy logic has been developed [4]-[7]. Specification of fuzzy logic controllers is made according to their skill of simulating human thinking. Different than conventional controllers, fuzzy controllers have the ability to experimental methods and their results to design variable step sizes of control signals without the need of understanding the systems mathematical model [9]. Effectiveness of the MPPT algorithm is directly related with the input and the output variables that are selected for the system. In general for output variable, duty ratio of the power switch selected. As input variables; power (P) versus voltage (V) slope and changes of the slope, P-V slope and variation of power, variation of power and variation of voltage, sum of conductance and increment of conductance would be selected [8]. In this paper as inputs of the controller variation of power and variation of voltage, as an out put duty ratio of the power switch selected. Sunpower SPR-305E-WHT-D (One series module and one parallel strings) PV panel used for simulations in this paper. The characteristics of the PV panel at 25  °C and at various irradiation levels are shown in Figure 1. The characteristics of the PV panel at 1000 W/m2 and at various temperature levels are shown in Figure 2. To make the analysis simple, we have worked on resistive load. Figure 3 illustrates the circuitry of PV panel and resistive load, and current (I)-voltage (V) characteristics with an irradiation 1000 W/m2 and temperature of 25  °C. The intersection of the I-V characteristic curve (blue) of the PV panel and load I-V curve (red) is the operating point of the system. From this figure it can be observed that the operating point changes with the change of the load value. The maximum power point (MPP) can be achieved through proper selection of the load. Maximum power may be extracted from the PV array by incorporating an intelligent mechanism altering the load resistan ce of the PV array. Power converters are usually used to achieve this purpose. Figure 1. The characteristics of the PV panel at 25  °C and at various irradiation levels. Figure 2. The characteristics of the PV panel at 1000 W/m2 and at various temperature levels. Figure 3. PV system with resistive load Figure 4 shows the block diagram of the investigated MPPT system. The system includes a PV panel, a buck-boost power converter and a fuzzy logic based MPPT controller. The function of controlling power flow from source to the load is carried out by the zeta type buck-boost converter as shown in Figure 5. The values of converter circuit elements are Lin = 11  µH, L1 = 378  µH, CIN = C1 = 1000  µF and CPV = 680  µF. The pulse width modulation (PWM) switching frequency was set to 200 kHz. Internal resistances were ignored to obtain (1) on the converters input and output voltage equation in steady state: (1) If we assume that converter operates lossless with a resistive load RL, the value of the power obtained from this PV system would be: (2) It is demonstrated additionally, in Figure 5, that P-V curves at miscellaneous irradiation levels according (2) and miscellaneous duty ratio commands with the ohmic load 3 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦. The intersections show the operating points of PV system. In this study fuzzy theory is used to design the MPPT controller. Required fuzzy input variables are generated by fuzzy MPPT controllers by reading voltage and current signals obtained from the PV panel. The fuzzy input variables would then can be used to calculate the increment of the duty ratio command for adjusting operating point of the PV panel in order to maximize the power extraction. In Figure 6 the flowchart of the calculation process illustrated. Designs of fuzzy controllers are varies according to the input variables selected. As mentioned before in this paper as input variables, variation of power and variation of voltage of the PV array selected. Figure 4. Solar MPPT system. Figure 5. Power converter and PV power characteristics. Figure 6. Flowchart of calculation process. A. Fuzzy MPPT Tracking Algorithm In this study fuzzy logic MPPT system used variations of PV cell power output (à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  PPV) and variations of voltage (à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  VPV) as the fuzzy input variables. By using MATLAB Simulink proposed solar power maximum power point tracking system implemented and universe of discourse (UOC) of input and output membership functions determined. After determination of UOD membership functions, they are grouped with the names negative big, negative small, zero, positive small, positive big (NB, NS, ZE, PS, PB). Fuzzy rules database is shown in Figure 7. Iterations made by moving on the P-V slopes specified regions as shown in the figure 7. Figure 7. Fuzzy rules for algorithm using à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  PPV and à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  VPV as the inputs. First of all symmetric membership functions used in the simulations as shown in Figure 9 and then asymmetrical membership functions used as shown in Figure 10. The performance difference compared then. For fuzzification; Mamdani method and for defuzzification; centre of gravity method used in this study. Fuzzy interface system evaluated by using MATLAB Simulink fuzzy logic toolbox. Figure 8. Fuzzy controller s surface of rule base. Figure 9. (a) Membership function for à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  PPV (b) Membership function for à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  VPV (c) Membership function for increment of duty ratio command. Figure 10. Asymmetrical input membership functions (a) Membership function for à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  PPV (b) Membership function for à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  VPV (c) Membership function for increment of duty ratio command. Purposed MPPT system is simulated by using different types of membership functions for comparison and validation. MATLAB/Simulink model block diagram of the system is shown in Figure 11. Figure 11. MATLAB/Simulink model block diagram of the system By using membership functions shown in Figure 9 the simulation results obtained as shown in Figure 12 and by using membership functions shown in Figure 10 the simulation results obtained as shown in Figure 13. Figure 12. Simulation results (symmetrical membership functions used) Figure 13. Simulation results (asymmetrical membership functions used) As shown in figures above when symmetrical membership functions used the fuzzy controlling system was unable to respond quickly to the rapid changes of irradiation so that fitting time of output power curve was longer and this is a disadvantage of the controlling system that is undesired. Beside at low irradiance levels MPPT controller couldnt produce accurate control signals and PV panels operating point was different than the maximum power point. The performance difference of the designed system when two types of membership functions used respectively can be seen more clearly from Figure 14. Figure 14. Output power of PV panel. Here we can see the disadvantages of using symmetrical membership functions. To overcome this problem and improve the system response speed to the changes of irradiation then asymmetrical membership functions has developed. Another benefit of developed system is that, at low irradiation levels precision of MPPT is more higher. In this paper a fuzzy logic based solar maximum power point tracking system was designed and different types of membership functions were used to optimize system power generation performance. To achieve the goal of higher precision and fastest system responses to the changes of irradiation levels different types of membership functions of inputs of fuzzy inference system were researched and compared with each other. It was revealed that using asymmetrical membership functions in the fuzzy logic controller had improved system performance at all operating conditions. From the results of simulations it can be inferred that the system performance is directly related with the optimization of the membership functions of fuzzy inference system. This study also leads to the study of the designing methodology of optimization of asymmetrical membership functions for better system performance. References [1] International Energy Agency. Technology Roadmap: Solar Photovoltaic Energy, IEA Publications: Paris, France, 2014. [2] K. Tomabechi, Energy Resources in the Future. Energies 2010, pp. 686-695 [3]N. Femia, G. Petrone, G. Spagnuolo, M. Vitellio, Optimization of Perturb and Observe Maximum Power Point Tracking Method. IEEE Trans. Power Electron. 2005, pp. 963-973. [4]T. Yong, B. Xia, Z. Xu, W. Sun, Modified Asymmetrical Variable Step Size Incremental Conductance Maximum Power Point Tracking Method for Photovoltaic Systems. J. Power Electron. 2014, pp. 156-164. [5]C.S. Chin, P. Neelakantan, H.P. Yoong, K.T.K. Teo, Optimisation of Fuzzy Based Maximum Power Point Tracking in PV System for Rapidly Changing Solar Irradiance. Trans. Sol. Energy Plan. 2011, pp. 130-137 [6]T. Radjai, P.J. Gaubert, L. Rahmani, The new FLC-Variable Incremental Conductance MPPT Direct Control Method Using Cuk Converter. In Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (IEIE), Istanbul, 2014, pp. 2508-2513. [7]R. Rahmani, M. Seyedmahmoudian, S. Mekhilef, R. Yusof, Implementation of Fuzzy Logic Maximum Power Point Tracking Controller for Photovoltaic System. 2013, pp.209-218. [8]J-K. Shiau, Y-C. Wei, B-C. C, A Study on the Fuzzy Logic Based Solar Power MPPT Algorithms Using Different Fuzzy Input Variables. ISSN 1999-4893, 2015. [9]T.J. Ross, Fuzzy Logic With Engineering Applications, vol 2, pp. 1-652. [10]R. Hernanz, C. Martin, Z. Belver, L. Leseka, Z. Guerrero, P. Perez, Modelling of Photovoltaic Module., International Conference on Renewable Energies and Power Quality, 2010.