Difference between poems Essay

Both poems are a response to other people’s idea of the poet’s cultural identities. The poems are written as though the poet is replying to some one directly. ‘Half-Cast’ is about a multi cultural person who is standing up against racism and against people look down upon them because of their ethnicity. John Agard is arguing with the person who is being racist to him by questioning if ‘Half-Cast’ means he is half a man. ‘Still I rise’ is about a woman, Maya Angelou who has had a traumatic personal and cultural history but still she rises above it. She has had to face racial and sexual prejudice, but she still stands strong. In ‘Half-Cast’ John Agard opens the poem with a polite but angry request. This opening is only an angry one because of the following lines. ‘Excuse me; standing on one leg, I am half-cast’ This sarcasm is showing that he is trying to be nice but is annoyed about it. The first line is very polite but immediately after the poet is acquiring the ‘reader’ of suggesting he is half a man by using the words ‘half-caste’. He uses informal language throughout the poem, the language is also written in john Agard’s dialect. It makes you say the words how it sounds. This could be the poet celebrating his culture. ‘Explain yuself, Wha yu mean’ This also makes you as the reader feel the anger, annoyance and sadness through the Agards tone. The structure of the poem is simple but effective by using a three line opening two quite large stanzas then closes with three lines. One poetic technique he uses in each stanza is repetition of his points. ‘Explain yuself, Wha yu mean’ This is repeated also so that Agard could give his reasons for being insulted and emphasises his argument. In each stanza he uses comparisons; ‘When yu say half-caste, Yu mean Tchaikovsky, Sit down at dah piano, an mix a black key Wid a white key, Is a half-caste symphony’. This is questioning it Tchaikovsky’s music should be seen as inferior because he mixed black and white notes. The poem is well structured and the language is perfectly composed. I have keep using this quote as it very strong and uses a lot of poetic techniques. ‘Explain yu self, Wha yu mean’. The comparisons are very good because you can understand and relate to his point as he compares his situation using metaphors. ‘Still I rise’, it is set out in 8 stanzas, and in which 7 out of 8 are all the same lengths except the eighth as it is the last stanza and is the climax of the poem. The language she uses is mostly formal but it very up beat. ‘You may kill me’, but she is not bothered. In some stanzas it seems as she is mocking the person/people who are putting her down; like they are pathetic. ‘Does my sexiness upset you’ the word ‘sexiness’ in this context does not only imply that she is beautiful and believes that she is, but that she feels proud of her culture, which makes her confident. Maya uses many techniques in her writing such as through out the poem she uses rhetorical questions. ‘Did you want to see me broken? ‘ These questions force the reader to think and imagine about there own views on racism and what it would be like to be in her shoes. She also uses personification; ‘You may kill me with your hatefulness’. This is effective because ‘kill me’ is a very strong phrase and keeps creating the image of her arriving back at her town after the sager. Throughout the poem she has used a rhyming pattern of every first and last lines this is successful as it builds a flowing structure to the poem. The poet uses repetition to emphasise her point ‘Out of the hut of history’s shame I rise Up from a†¦. I rise’. This shows that once again she has risen above it. ‘History’s shame’ this is a direct reference to the struggles faced by her ancestors in her cultural history. I think that Maya’s technique clearly puts her point across and the last stanza finishes the poem with a strong phrase of ‘I rise, I rise, I rise, I rise’ presenting that life is hard but what ever it throws at you, you shall rise above it. In each of the poems Maya Angelou and John Agard use repetition which emphasises their subliminal messages in the poem. John Agard gets quite defensive and angry, whereas Maya Angelou although angry and annoyed she stays calms and ‘rises’ above it. I think the message of the two poems is that even when we are faced with prejudice and discrimination we can be the better people by not complying with it. I also believe the most effective techniques used to present their opinions of their cultures and peoples perception of them were repetition, similes and rhetorical questions; this created the tense moments that draw the reader in to go on and finish the poem.

Booze and Loose essays

Booze and Loose essays Alcoholism is a disease which can be found in many American homes. It can have both short and long term effects on the way a person thinks and acts. This in return can destroy a families relationship, a persons mental health as well as a person future. Both my mother and my father were alcoholics so I have a first hand experience with alcoholism in a family environment. Even though they both drank, they were two different types of alcoholics. My mother was they type that, when she drank, she would become depressed and lay around the house all day. This effected her relationship with her kids because anytime we wanted to do something she would complain about having to get out of bed. This in return effected her relationship with my father. She rarely cleaned or cooked super. This was all my father wished for when he got home for work. Before long, our happy family of five was a not so happy family of four. Now that my mom and my dad divorced, he would frequently come home three sheets to the wind raising hell about the lawn not being mowed or the dishes not being washed. Since my mom had left our dad expected us to do all the house work. Anytime he was not working he had an Old Milwaukee in his hand. He spent his spar e time yelling at my two brothers and me. Before long they moved in with my mother, who has been sober for 2 years. Now it is only my dad and I, a couple of bachelors. Even though our family will never be the same, we try not to let alcoholism ruin our lives. Another effect alcoholism has on a person is it alters their mentality. Alcohol changes the way someone thinks and acts. A person who frequently drinks only thinks of themself, not the family worried sick at home. While they are out killing brain cells their family is at home sitting by the telephone hoping that something bad has not happened. Many times the bartender at Renegades has called me and ask if I could come and pick ...

Quality Management Five Components of Service Management

Quality Management Five Components of Service Management Service management is usually defined as the point in a supply chain that connects sales and customers, but in recent years the concept has morphed from a fairly narrow aspect of overall management and strategy to a broad management orientation that addresses all facets of an enterprise, particularly in service industries. Beginning in the early 1980’s, Christian Grà ¶nroos of the Hanken School of Economics in Finland started developing a â€Å"framework of values† for service management, a set of principles which, if integrating correctly into the company’s strategy and operations, leads to good service delivery. There are five parts to the framework of values for service management: An overall management perspective This requires a shift in the broad priorities of the firm from an internal focus on process efficiencies, economies of scale, and cost management to an external focus on customers’ perspectives on core product quality and total firm performance. Grà ¶nroos’ entire thesis is that the classical scientific management handed down to us by the likes of Adam Smith emphasizes division of labor, which can and often does result in separate parts of the enterprise working at cross-purposes. The service management perspective, by comparison, establishes customer service as the overall goal throughout the organization so that even if the efficiencies of the division  of labor are employed, they are necessarily done so in the context of their impact on the broader objective. At first blush, this particular part of the framework might sound like a vague motherhood statement, but it is actually important because it establishes the basis for the other parts of the framework of value s. Customer- or market-driven performance measures The big difference between a ‘service management’ orientation and the best practices suggested by classical scientific management is that performance measurement must have an external perspective, rather than being based on goals related to internal efficiencies. Well-known performance management and planning tools such as CSFs and KPIs still work very well from a service management perspective, but only if the success factors and performance indicators down to the level of the individual employee are expressed in terms of what each segment or position in the organization contributes to customer service. In essence, every role within the organization in some way becomes a customer service position. You can also be interested in: Management or Leadership? Stock Markets and Seasonal Effects in Them Management and Exchange Rates Management Essay Quality management is not segregated from ‘normal’ management functions This part of the framework is perhaps more applicable to manufacturing or other production firms where a distinct quality control process is required, but otherwise, the concept of integrating quality control functions into normal workflow simply reinforces the perspective of the first two parts of the framework. This aspect of the service management perspective is also perhaps more familiar than most; we see it in practice quite often through ideas such as Total Quality Management.   The biggest change it requires from the organization lies in operational planning, because quality control functions – where distinct procedures are required – must be broken down and smoothly fit into a unified, overall process. Internal development of personnel This concept has become almost canonical in human resources management  and relates to service management in two critical ways. First, it is the primary means by which customer service perspectives and goals can be properly spread throughout the entire organization, and is a key link in the service-profit value chain (discussed in greater detail in another article). Higher levels of employee experience, skill, and satisfaction lead to greater efficiency and employee loyalty, which positively affect service quality in a number of ways. Second, it is virtually impossible to effectively implement quality management functions as described above into an enterprise-wide process without using internal human resources; the best people for the job in any organization are the ones the organization already has. Just as with quality management, personnel development requires the integration of HRM functions that are usually treated separately into mainstream processes, at least at the planning level. Flat organizational design The service management framework emphasizes cross-functional abilities, internal collaboration, and lateral communication, and as a result,  tends to discredit the effectiveness of hierarchical organizations for achieving customer service quality. This presents a significant management challenge in organizations where the scientific management perspective of specialization and division of labor is an unavoidable necessity, such as in businesses where core functions require highly skilled workers who have intensive specialized training. Cross-functional training at an airline, for example, can only go so far;   it would be ridiculous to consider putting ticket counter  personnel behind the controls of a jet airliner just â€Å"to get a feel for what others’ job roles are like†. But on the other hand, there is little to prevent a highly-skilled airline pilot from spending a few days behind the counter to experience a different side of customer service. Some criticisms of the service management framework of values One implication of the service management perspective is that it greatly increases the complexity of planning and strategy in an organization; many of the boundaries between different departments or functions disappear entirely, and everything initiative from the level of individual employees upward must be complementary. This is the underlying reason why the framework has never been modeled in any great deal; an effective model would require consideration of a very large number of variables, and might be too unwieldy to be useful. And without a model, the framework is just another qualitative concept that does not give much direction for practical application. Another reason the framework has not received as much academic or practical attention as it deserves is somewhat unfair; Professor Grà ¶nroos’ discipline is marketing, not management, and in his various writings, he tends to stay in his comfort zone when seeks examples to illustrate the points he is making. Management scholars seem to have a bias that relegates marketing to a niche within the broad realm of business studies, and so have possibly overlooked the greater application of the ideas developed by â€Å"a marketing teacher.† Which, if nothing else, is a good reminder for business students not to impose limits on their explorations of knowledge – just as the framework of values suggests, one’s own effectiveness can be greatly increased by cross-training. Read more about service management: Grà ¶nroos, C. (1994). From Scientific Management to Service Management. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 1(5).

Moneyball. Sabermetric-Based Player Evaluation by Beane Term Paper

Moneyball. Sabermetric-Based Player Evaluation by Beane - Term Paper Example Some of the major baseball teams in the world include the Pirates, Red sox, Yankees that play in the Major League Baseball, the American League, or the National league. Subject to the publicity, stiff competition, and economies of money involved in this sport, team managers adopt various strategies to win most games. Moneyball by Michael Lewis is a book that seeks to divulge information on how baseball teams should conduct their businesses in order to remain effective. However, a review article â€Å"Who’s on First?† by Thaler & Sunstein (2003) draws some criticism on the book. This paper will hence examine and evaluate the review article â€Å"Who’s on First?† by Thaler & Sunstein (2003). Sabermetric-Based Player Evaluation The sabermetric-based player evaluation used by Beane was a great shocker to other executives in baseball. In his evaluation, Beane took interest on how much a player was likely to contribute to his team's chances using scientific anal ysis (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003). In doing this, he relied on objective evidence rather than subjective evidence used by other executives. With the limits of human rationality and inefficient labor markets, Beane chose to ignore baseball's conventional wisdom in evaluating the performance of players to the surprise of other baseball executives. Indeed, in a conflicting situation between Beane and DePodesta's statistical methods of evaluation and other evaluation strategies by other baseball experts, statistical methods proved efficient to conventional statistics that were inefficient and often misleading (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003). As a result, Beane produced an amazing performance despite working on lower payrolls compared to other baseball teams. Indeed, Beane’s team, the Athletics was ranked eleventh in payroll(out of fourteen teams) and fifth in wins in the American League in 1999 but jumped to twelfth in payroll and first in wins in 2002 to the shock of other baseball execu tives. Ideally, Beane evaluation on players proved that players drafted out of high school are much less likely to succeed than players drafted out of college. Hence, against the practice of other executives, Beane did not recruit any talent from high school. Nevertheless, the new recruits that other teams neglected became great performers and other teams ended up buying them from Athletics thus improving its payroll. His ability to evaluate and recruit first-rate talent without a lot of money and using statistical methods to replace the lost players was also a great shock to other executives. In addition, the way Beane evaluated the performance of players in the field was also intriguing to other executives. He notes that the use of errors to evaluate the fielding ability of a player is so crude (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003). To this, he argues that a player may accumulate errors due to luck and thus in appropriation in evaluating his ability based on this. In addition, he notes that t here might be luck in batting many runs subject to playing in good teams or having many opportunities. All this was a negation to the conventional beliefs adopted by other executives. Most shockingly, is the fact that Beane’s statistical evaluation of players led to his team’s greater success on the American League although Athletics had a low pay roll. Subsequently, major teams in the league like Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays are now hiring general managers who adopt Bean’s mode of evaluation (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003). Why Beane is Much More Effective in His Success Beane was much more effective in his success as compared to other baseball executives. This was subject to his statistical evaluation of players, disregard of the conventional wisdom in baseball, and

Work of the Prophets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Work of the Prophets - Essay Example Rather God encourages Isaiah and Jeremiah to stress on different issues of the same truth with a view of different concerns of their times. Some foretold historical events have already come true, but the God’s truth spoken by two prophets stays timely nowadays. Timely character of two prophecies is mainly observed when reading about those sins of Judah and Israel Isaiah and Jeremiah point on. Thinking about analogies between modern times and â€Å"more than 2  500 years ago† Friedman (2011) fairly points that none of prophets speaks directly on economic markets, great unemployment or etc., but on false leaders, a general lack of justice, a lack of fair treatment and peace, and these issues are among modern Christian concerns. House (n.d.) admits that Isaiah firstly expresses concerns because nations are sinning against each other suffering from mutual oppressions. Isaiah claims that by sinning against each other humankind sins against God. Thus, nowadays, until there’re nations engaged in conflicts with other nations, or oppressing one another, it’s still sinning against God. Friedman (2011) points that Jeremiah’s preaching generally, is for â€Å"loving-kindness† however, about half of his prophecy’s dedicated to descriptions of sins of Israel and Judah nations. House (n.d.) refers it to Jeremiah’s â€Å"turbulent times† when neither common Judah nations, nor Israel rulers were listening to true words spoken by God through Jeremiah instead, listening to false words of false prophets. â€Å"People have gone away from the Lord† so much that Jeremiah himself was constantly threatened and hatred though his preaching was based on Ten Commandments (House, n.d.). Thus, Jeremiah’s mostly concerned with false idolatry. Worshiping â€Å"chiefs of Sodom† had already been a matter of concerns for Isaiah, and Friedman (2011) says sadly it has stayed so nowadays when Christians appreciate those powerful because of their wealth, and at the same time, there’re

Case project Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project - Case Study Example Basically, Enron Corporation was established in 1985 and it dealt with issues related to energy. The executives practised off-book accounts which negatively impacted on the operations of the organisation. The executives of the company capitalised on the use of loopholes in the accounting system as well as poor financial reportage Hanson (1). Debts amounting to billions of dollars in projects and deals which did not succeed were hidden in the process. The company misrepresented its financial statements in order to portray a positive picture to the shareholders about its performance. Interestingly, the company sought to appeal to investors through falsehoods. In actual case, this was not the situation obtaining on the ground given that it hid its financial statements from public scrutiny. Such practice was blessed by the Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Fastow and other executives. The system adopted by the organisation in its operations contributed to a malfunction of the corporate culture. Emphasis was shifted to short term earnings which resulted in bad accounting practices. This came to light when the company refused to be censured about its performance by its unwillingness to reveal its balance sheet as well as other financial records. This practice is mainly viewed as unethical in business. The concept of ethics plays a significant role in shaping the operations of an organisation in different situations. Basically, business ethics refers to the values, principles and standards that operate within business and these attempt to make a distinction between something that is morally good from bad (Rossouw, 6). The value system of an organisation mainly shapes its ethical code of conduct. Thus, Desjardins (5), describes values as â€Å"essential and enduring tenets† that help define the company and are â€Å"not to be compromised for financial gain or short term expediency,† (DesJardins 2006:5). The opposite is exactly

Characteristics of problems

Characteristics of problems Characteristics of Problems Determining the type of problem to be solved is particularly difficult. From the scientific point of view it has not been treated sufficiently yet.   It is, nevertheless, of fundamental importance because it covers the whole field of creativity, and the problem solver(s) heuristic behavior is contingent on the type of problem.   What is a problem?   This question was asked and answered by Karl Duncker (1945).   Duncker, who was a Gestalt psychologist, defined a problem in these words: â€Å"A problem arises when a living organism has a goal but does not know how this goal is to be reached.†Ã‚   This definition is, no doubt, very useful, because creativity tasks and activities always strive to address a problem.   Yet, Dunckers definition and formulation poses these caveats:   It is necessary to distinguish between a task and a problem.   It is the subjects level of domain knowledge, including his ability to find pertinent knowledge, if necessary, that makes the difference between the two. A task set by a researcher or experimenter may be a problem to certain subjects and no problem to others.  Ã‚   A problem may vanish or be resolved if the subject changes his goal.   A problem does not exist de facto, unless the subject observes discrepancies between his current situation and the goals he pursues. Reitman (1965) proposed that problems be viewed as three-component entities, having an initial state, a final (goal) state, and a set of processes that facilitate reaching the goal, starting from the initial state.   Minski (1961) proposed a distinction between two types of problems, those that according to the nature of the conditions of acceptability of solutions are either well defined or ill-defined.   A problem satisfying Reitmans conditions (Reitman, 1965) is a so-called well-defined problem: it can be solved by applying a systematic procedure that makes it possible to decide whether a proposed solution is correct or not.   It means that it is totally decidable: all pertinent solutions can be evaluated strictly using one binary variable: right or wrong.   The solution can thus be described as an all-or-nothing phenomenon.   There are no intermediate solutions between the functional and non-functional ones.   In general terms, any tests for which there exists a rigorous method of comparison between what is proposed and what is required is a well-defined problem. Examples of well-defined problems are board games, problems in mathematics, or problems in logic.   They may be very difficult to resolve, nevertheless.   Taking mans limited resources, psychologists face the task of explaining how human beings manage to solve problems in chess, mathematics or geometry within reasonable time.   Ill-defined problems are those that are not well-defined.   They result in a multitude of solutions that cannot be classified by using a binary truth-value, but by using a relative qualitative scale.   The response to a requirement thus allows grades, the determination of which is left to the referees.   The majority of problems occurring in everyday life are ill-defined problems: the improvement on an object or an apparatus, a new use of what already is known, the search for a sales idea or a marketing idea, etc. Ill-defined problems arise when some components of the problems statement, in the sense of Reitman, are unspecified, or are vague or fuzzy.   The definedness of problems varies in degree (Reitman, 1965, Ch. 5).   For instance, ‘take a little flower and bake bread for these people, which is vague in terms of the quantity of flower and the number of people, but specifies clearly the method: bake.   Another statement may run like this: ‘Let us overcome the current economic crisis.   This statement does not specify the method: what should be done to overcome the crisis?   ‘Do not just hang around, maximize something is an exhortation taken from a cartoon, in which both the initial state, the method and the goal are shrouded in a mental fog.   Ill-defined problems are more common than are well-defined problems, but it is all the more difficult to explain how to tackle them. It is worth noting that Minskis postulate does not necessarily cover the distinction between problem solving and creativity. For instance, the discovery of a new algorithm, or a new combination of known algorithms, is a creative act. But well-defined problems in the sense of Minsky may lead to an opposition between algorithmic procedures and inferential procedures. As for the ill-defined problems, Reitman (1964) proposed a typology of six classes of problems comprising the transformation or generation of states, objects, or collections of objects.   This taxonomy is not presented as a universal tool covering the whole field of creative situations, but simply as a general structure making it possible to collect the largest number possible of the creative situations.   This attempt at systemization has mainly a descriptive value, but it is not unlikely that it could also be used for deducing hypotheses related to the behavior of effectual solutions. Reitmans work is based on the introduction of the following three concepts: let A be an initial state or object (one which is expected to undergo transformation, modification, complementing, improvement, etc.) and let B be a final state or object (the solution to be obtained, elimination of problem).   Let the symbol à ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã…’ denote a process, program, or sequence of operations.   It is then possible to represent a large number of problematic situations parting from these three symbols by representing them by a general vector [A, B, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¡Ã¢â‚¬â„¢].   Using these three concepts, six types of poorly defined problems can be distinguished. Type I.   The initial and terminal states A and B are well specified: the relevant data are known and the requirements to be satisfied are explained precisely.   The problem then consists in discovering the process à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¡Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ that makes it possible to pass from the well-specified state A to a well-specified state B.   For instance: how can a given function be incorporated in a specific device?   This type seems to cover a large class of problem situations. Type II.   The terminal state B is less precisely specified than in the previous type, while A is left entirely at the discretion of the experimenter.   In fact, nothing is said about the state, object or assembly of objects from which to part.  Ã‚   The initial material is largely undetermined and admits only one constraint to aid in constituting the one possible solution.   For instance: what should be done to make traveling by train more pleasurable? Here, obviously, the current state represents some level of train travel comfort or pleasure, and this should be increased.   But what exactly is to be achieved is an open question. Type III.   The initial state A consists in this case of an assembly of constituent parts each of which represents a concrete entity, while B represents a state or object to be achieved which is defined vaguely and is characterized by the fact that one or several of constituent parts of A have lost their separate identities after reaching B.   Reitman cites as an example Napoleons cook who was charged with the task to â€Å"make a good dish† B to celebrate the victory at Marengo using only available ingredients A.   This type is undoubtedly less general than the preceding ones.   Type IV.   A and B are presented as consisting of sub-components and are rather poorly defined.   This type differs from type II in that in the latter case there are no restrictions imposed on search, different analogous paths, and different associative paths the exploration of which can be relatively fruitful.   In type IV it is not like that.  Ã‚   The distinction between sub-components provides constraints within which the problem solution has to take place.   The research is, in other words, more strictly restrained than it is in the problems of type II. Type V.  Ã‚   The initial state A is given by reference to a well defined object, the final state B is given by a set of similarities and dissimilarities with respect to A.   An example given by Reitman to illustrate this type is the following: manufacturer ÃŽÂ ± of some equipment encounters a serious competition from ÃŽÂ ²-companys product.   The first company, ÃŽÂ ±, decides to change the design of the product in point to offer a price that is lower for a comparable quality than what its competitor ÃŽÂ ² asks.   The task thus does not necessarily require an entirely new manufacturing process, because the added cost of the new process would not help to slash the price according to original estimates.   Besides, the modification must be implemented fast because the competing product already is in the market while ÃŽÂ ±-companys sales decrease with each passing day.   The exigencies of this example illustrate the general type V product as a new device that m ust be functionally similar to the old version but must be cheaper. Type VI.   In this case, the final state B is well specified while the initial state A remains essentially empty, unstructured and largely undetermined.   Characteristic examples cited by Reitman comprise: to explain a new phenomenon, discover an alibi for a criminal deed, etc.   This type differs from type II in the degree of precision of the task.   It is thus possible to distinguish among six categories of poorly defined problems resorting to almost formal properties of their application.   A research activity the results of which would show that these categories incite heuristically different behavior on the part of individuals and groups still has to be accomplished.   A relevant taxonomy establishes first some ordering, i.e. introduces some logic in the pertinent knowledge field.   For this purpose the taxonomy distributes the phenomena or the entities considered according to their relevant characteristics, with no ambiguity involved.   It appears that, in general, each taxonomy displays at least two different utility values: First of all, the taxonomy presents a reference value that provides a framework for a certain subset of the universe.   The information already available about the elements of this subset thus cease to be fragmented and simply accumulated: in the continuation they are ordered with respect to one another.   They can be integrated and complemented.   Fragmented knowledge thus becomes systematic. This knowledge also represents an â€Å"operational† or heuristic value of the taxonomy in point. This value becomes apparent when the taxonomy leads to empirical research in order to validate its structure, its principle and its extent, or to uncover which variables of the taxonomy can be expected and unified.   In the case of problem solution and creativity research, one can try to establish some correspondence between certain types of tasks with certain behavioral phenomena, particularly those of psycholinguistic nature.   The first problem differentiation might take into consideration the different objective properties of problems: The problem is algorithmic: it can be resolved using an ordered sequence of specific operations.   It allows, in this sense, a truly coordinated division of labor, and is particularly suitable for groups with the centralized communication structure.   The problem is inferential: it can be visualized by means of trees, but the process of generalization of the trees cannot be decomposed into concatenated elementary operations.   A homogeneous structure is, however, more appropriate.   It can be seen that groups facing a specific situation adopt spontaneously the optimum organization to respond to this situation. Most authors, however, have resorted to local dichotomies based on a multitude of imprecise criteria.   The straightforward problem typologies are the following: Verbal and non-verbal tasks.   Verbal tasks are supposed to mobilize important cultural experience and imply the use of specific functions or hypothetic factors.   Non-verbal tasks are symbolic, or in other ways dependent on non-verbal perceptions. Intellectual and manipulation-dependent tasks.   In intellectual tasks, the principal operator is the brain.   Manipulation-dependent problems require a coordination of the brain and muscular factors.   Unique-solution and multiple-solutions tasks.   Then there are problems having a unique solution and problems having multiple solutions.   The totality of distinctions pertinent to a particular solution domain cannot be generalized, because their underlying criteria are too coarse and do not allow more than just a very summary control of the situation.   Shaws dimensional analysis In an attempt to present various aspects of group tasks in a systematic manner, Shaw (1963) collected a very eclectic set of 104 statements mostly taken from experimental literature.   The statements relate to both ill-defined and well-defined problems, to verbally and non-verbally formulated tasks, etc.   These various statements were evaluated according to six a priori defined dimensions, which can be visualized as continuously varying intervals in which each task occupies a point.   The six dimensions are characterized in the following manner: Requirements of cooperation.   This dimension permits to define the degree to which it is required that members of the group act in a coordinated manner to complete the task successfully.   It is thus a measure of dependence between the goal and the coordinated activity of the subjects.   Verifiability of the decision.   It is the degree to which the â€Å"rightness† or adequacy of the solution can be proved, either by reference to an authority, or by logical procedures (usually a mathematical proof), or by feedback (for instance by examining the consequences of the decision taken). Difficulty.   This is defined by Shaw abstractly as the quantity of effort necessary for executing the task.   Specifically, an indicator of difficulty can be the time required for solution, the number of errors made, etc. Clarity of purpose.   This denotes the degree of precision with which the requirements of the task are presented to members of the group, and how the members perceive the requirements. Multiplicity of approaches to the goal.   This dimension expresses the more or less great possibility to resolve the problem by various procedures.   It is thus a matter of possible paths to the solution, i.e. of the number of alternative solutions. Relationship between mental and motor requirements.   A task that only requires the implementation of intellectual activities will be among the strongest on this dimension.   Conversely, tasks requiring only motor abilities will be among the weakest.   A task requiring both intellectual and motor activities occupies an intermediate position between the two extremes. Intrinsic interest.   Problems are not equally attractive, i.e. they do not mobilize the same motivation.   This dimension is thus assigned the degree to which a particular task appears interesting to the subjects. Operational requirements.   This dimension was introduced to evaluate the number of different kinds of operations, knowledge or abilities required for the completion of the task. Familiarity within the population.   Individuals might have had a previous experience of the task in point, either direct or by means of an analogous task.   This dimension thus evaluates the relative â€Å"rareness† of a class of problems to a population. Multiplicity of solutions.   It is the number of different correct solutions for the problem in point.   That number can in general be evaluated exactly in a well-defined problem, but not if the estimate is very intuitive. This family of dimensions is intended to cover the maximum of traits occurring in every heuristic situation.   Certain dimensions thus relate to formal properties of the task, for instance numbers 2, 5, or 10, while others, e.g. numbers 7 and 9 refer direct to the consequences of applying a particular semantics (second level of determination).   Forty-nine referees, mostly graduate students of psychology, got the task of distributing the 104 sample tasks according to the 10 dimensions shown above.   Eight positions or degrees ordered by their magnitude were defined.   The judgments were consistent, except for the dimension â€Å"clarity of purpose†. With these data, Shaw got two factor analyses that resulted in disclosing five significant factors for task analysis: Difficulty, (factor I), the quantity of required effort displays a close relationship to the number of operations, knowledge, and required abilities for solving the problem.   The forth dimension, the â€Å"clarity of purpose† is equally an important aspect of difficulty: the less clear the goal is, the more difficult is the task judged to be.   Multiplicity of solutions (factor II) is a complex dimension that relates both to the number of acceptable solutions, to the diversity of paths leading to the solutions, and to the verifiability of a solution.   Shaw thinks that the essential aspect is the number of solutions, while the other two merely are its consequences.   While there are several solutions available, there also are several ways how to reach them. Proving the adequacy of each solution rigorously is hardly possible. Cooperation requirements (factor III) correspond exactly to the dimension of the same name.   The degree of completing a task successfully implies a coordinated action on the part of group members. The relationship between intellectual requirements motor requirements (factor IV) constitutes no doubt an independent dimension.   But it only shows a very weak correlation with the familiarity with the task within the population.   Familiarity in the population is considered a separate dimension for the same reason.   Nevertheless, it is necessary to point out that the familiarity seems relatively irrelevant, at least under the particular conditions of this work, where the majority of the tasks were somehow familiar to the subjects. Intrinsic interest (factor V), which corresponds to the intensity of motivation and the attraction exerted by the problem on the group members, too, is a dimension permeated with factor II. The first three of the six dimensions obtained finally seem to be both the most important and the least ambiguous ones.   It is of course possible, as Shaw himself notes, that there are other dimensions, equally important, which continued research could bring forth.   This first attempt will make it possible largely to control the principal components of the situation that comes into being as a problem to be solved is given to the subjects.   This is the only condition under which accumulation of experimental data in this field can be transformed into scientific knowledge. Categorization by Roby and Lanzetta Roby and Lanzetta (1958) proposed a model intended to define and highlight the most important characteristics of a group task.   For this purpose, they distinguish four sets of events occurring in the functioning of any group task system: a. A set Tiof task input data.   Here belong, for instance, the formulation of the problem to be solved and of the material it implies. b. A correlative set Giof initial activities of the group.   These comprise, among others, waiting times, observation, data recording, communication associated with input variables, etc. c. A set Goof outputs produced by the group.   In the creative process these comprise the traces of the heuristic process and solution suggestions. d. A set Toof environmental changes following from the groups activities. Roby and Lanzetta define three general types of properties: Descriptive aspects, including the qualitative nature of various events, their number, and metric properties. Distribution of the events in the space or by relation to other events. Functional aspects of events, i.e. their temporal occurrence as a function of foregoing events (sequential analysis). Each set of events, Ti, Gi, Go and To, can be studied and related to according to these three types of properties.   In theory at least, it is possible to characterize any group task, and in particular any creative situation, using a double-entry table for 12 cases. This is the formal equipment of the descriptive system of group tasks proposed by Roby and Lanzetta.   In an abstract analysis, however, this representation does not make the understanding of a truly psychological meaning of a specific task possible.   This remark led the authors to propose a complementary notion of â€Å"critical exigencies†.   This concept was introduced to cover the fact that each task requires certain behavior on the part of the group to be correctly executed, and calls for certain specific types of activities to be carried out.   The implementation of these requirements should thus help to reduce the discontinuity mentioned between the structural properties of the task and the psychological or psychosocial phenomena generated by its handling.   It is a different manner of contrasting the general and the particular.   In a way, this is what was above called the â€Å"second level of determination†. Roby and Lanzettas intention was not to put forward a theory permitting to characterize the problems rigorously, but rather to present a table for the analysis of systems of group tasks.   Their framework thus permits theoretically to classify any task parting from the values relevant to the task in the 12 boxes of the analysis table, but it does not make it possible to classify the types of tasks using a specific corpus of formal properties.   Thus, Roby and Lanzetta did not forge a typological tool, but, rather, a descriptive tool the general purpose of which is found precisely in the fact that the tool is deemed able to adapt itself to any task.   The goal of their work was not to distribute the generalized variable â€Å"task structure† on an arbitrary scale, but rather to find a set of invariant characteristics that would make it possible to situate the various problems that appear in the life of a working group.   Creative problems constitute in this context evid ently merely a special case.   It follows that the effort to determine the â€Å"invariants† of the analysis is probably of utmost importance and should complement any typological effort. Finally, an adequate taxonomy of poorly defined problems must comprise a meta-linguistic analysis of their formulation in the natural language: it must be possible to establish a rigorous correspondence between a formal type and the multitude of its verbal expressions or concretizations and, in parallel, part from a specific semantics to reach a logical class it illustrates.   Roqutte (1975) sketches the first attempt in this respect. Psychologists studying the ways people solve problem have adopted a reasonable strategy.   They study how people handle seemingly well-defined problems, and then apply theprocedure to the study of ill-defined tasks.   In some instances shortcuts to solving an ill-defined problem are possible: seek a well-defined version of the same problem and try to solve it, or find a new definition of the problem.   Defininition or interpretation of the problem is as important in tackling well-defined tasks as it is in working with ill-defined tasks.   Adversary and non-adversary problems This is another distinction between problems.   An adversary problem is one in which the problem solver is competing with a thinking opponent, or a seemingly thinking opponent, like a chess-playing computer.   In non-adversary problems the battle goes between a thinking problem solver and inert problem features.   The latter may be symbolic or real, but they do not react to what the problem solver does, in order to â€Å"defeat† him, and they do not care about what the human problem solver feels.   Semantically rich and semantically impoverished problems This distinction seems to be increasing in importance.   It was elaborated by Chi and his coworkers (1982).   A problem is semantically rich for the problem solver who brings a significant relevant knowledge to the problem.   The opposite is true of semantically impoverished problems.   As an example, consider a problem given to two problem solvers.   For the domain expert it is a semantically rich problem, for the novice it is a semantically impoverished problem.   This distinction thus expresses the problem-solvers view of the problem situation, or Shaws familiarity within the population. Most puzzles, IQ-tests, and the like, are semantically impoverished for most subjects.   Much of psychological research has been focused on solving semantically impoverished puzzles of the non-adversary type.   The semantically rich non-adversary tasks are increasing in importance.   This category comprises most tasks in computer programming and in physics.  Ã‚  Ã‚