Democratic contender for Georgia, Stacey Abrams. If she hadn’t lost to Brian Kemp in the 2018 mid-term elections, she might have become the first black woman to serve as governor of the United States. I believe Stacey Adams is morally fit to serve the people well and ethically. Stacey Abrahams is qualified to run for office since she has an impressive educational background. In the year 1995, Stacey Adams graduated with a B.An in Interdisciplinary studies from Spelman College (Mavadiya, 2018, Par 9). At the University of Texas, she studied Public Policy. At Yale Law School, she was awarded a Juris Doctor. Stacey interned at the Environmental Protection Agency. Then at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, she worked as a tax attorney. At the age of 29, she was appointed as Deputy City Council. Stacey Adams co-founded New Corp, a financial service firm where she was a senior vice president (Mavadiya, 2018, Par 10). Stacy founded Nourish as well. It is a baby beverage company. Stacey is also a well-known writer going by the alias Selena Montgomery. In 2007, Stacey was the minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives (Mavadiya, 2018, Par 13). Stacey Adams was the first woman to lead a party in the House of Representatives.
Stacey Adams is a Democrat, and her plan of fighting for voter’s rights, ending poverty, gun control, environmental policy, and better and affordable healthcare align with the Democratic Party agenda (MoneyMaker, 2022, Par 8). She was endorsed by her political party, the Democratic Party. Stacey Adams is an advocate for affordable healthcare. Stacey Adams believes that to promote physical and mental well-being and financial security, and everyone should have access to high-quality, reasonably priced healthcare services. She is vouching for the expansion of Medicaid. Stacey Adams also wants to work towards retaining and maintaining healthcare workers since there is no healthcare service without healthcare workers (The Communications Network, 2019, Par 32). She also wants a health equity team to be established to help with the issue of inclusivity for people suffering from chronic illness to be included in medical research drug trials. Stacy also believes in environmental action as a policy. She believes every individual has a right to clean water and air (The Communications Network, 2019, Par 35). Stacey Adams wants to achieve that through doing and pitching a green energy mapping plan to investors. Also, through expansion of the carbon isolation registry. She also wants to achieve this by protecting our water supply systems and developing an environmental technology workforce. By developing a technology workforce, employment opportunities will increase, therefore dealing with the issue of unemployment as well (Luneau, 2022, Par 4). Lastly, she wants to establish a savings plan for taxpayers known as the green savings plan.
The Human Rights Commission endorsed Stacey Adams; this was for being a great ally to the LGBTQ community (Luneau, 2022, Par 5). She was also supported by Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party candidate. According to Luneau (2022, Par 7), She was also endorsed by Bernie Sanders, who believed that her solutions were fundamental to the lives of working people. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris also supported her. In her politics, she was endorsed by Donald Trump despite different political divisions (AP News, 2022, Par 1).
Stacey Adams is my best candidate because her Agenda caters to the real needs of the people, showing she has the people’s best interest at heart. This is supported by her Agenda on clean air and affordable health care, which is very important to the common person. Stacey Adam’s study and work background show that she’s ready and qualified to handle the tasks that come with the position, making her a fit candidate. Because of her visions and development agendas, she received support from politicians from different political divisions depicting acts of good leadership and governance.
References
AP News, (June 22, 2022) Stacey Abrams backs winners in Georgia Democratic runoffs,https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-georgia-atlanta-9eb076fbdbb352b0de022934ef4e6936.
Luneau, D. (2022, April 7). The human rights campaign proudly endorses Stacey Abrams for governor of Georgia. Human Rights Campaign. https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/human-rights-campaign-proudly-endorses-stacey-abrams-for-governor-of-georgia
Mavadiya, M. (2018, November 7). Stacey Abrams, who could be the first Black female governor, revealed. Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5758089/Who-Stacey-Abrams-Georgia-Democratic-candidate-hoping-1st-black-female-governor-revealed.html
MoneyMaker, A. (2022, May 26). How Stacey Abrams became a fundraising juggernaut. The 19th. https://19thnews.org/2022/05/stacey-abrams-fundraising-georgia-democratic-campaigns/
The communications network. (2019, December 3). Stacey Abrams at ComNet19. The Communications Network. https://www.comnetwork.org/events/stacey-abrams-at-comnet19/
How Post-Pandemic Era Impacted Business Organizations. Free Writing Sample
Introduction
Is any facet of the economy that was not adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic? The business world encountered a dramatic change after the lockdown, and travel bans were declared in most nations worldwide. Most businesses temporarily shut down before working at home was discovered, which birthed all other technological advancements like virtual meetings and online marketing. The new changes transformed organizational culture, structure, and systems into different and almost opposite ones. Most organizations had never encountered those changes, yet there was no resistance since it was a matter of ‘survival for the fittest.’ Therefore, the impact of the COVID pandemic transformed the organizational structure, culture, and systems to incline technological advancements.
Change of Organizational structure
The coronavirus pandemic necessitated long-term and short-term organizational modifications that were not present during the pre-pandemic era. The jolts resulted from different reactions from individuals and the government to contain the health threat like the lockdown and the social distancing. The on-site work was replaced by remote working for numerous employees, which required more delegation of duties than before. Virtual meetings replaced the physical meetings through Zoom, which had not penetrated the market by the end of 2019, empowering the techno- structure model (Spicer, 2020). The impact of coronavirus brought about a new economic design where payment of salaries was based on performance, unlike the previous one where salaries were predetermined even before a performance where independent contractors like freelancers replaced employees. Resultantly, the issue of reward and ownership drastically changed due to the demands of organizational shift necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The short-term effect of the pandemic on the organizational structure was physical changes alongside the techno-structure model.
Secondly, the pandemic brought new long-term organizational structure changes, which were different from the pre-pandemic structures. It led to minimized international labor mobility due to demands laid by immigration and emigration from one nation to another. Several features of the business landscape changed after the emergency of the coronavirus even after everything went to ‘normal’ after the discovery of the vaccines since there was no asymmetry in organizational structures before and after the pandemic. There was a permanent mark left in areas of economic fundamentals: technologies, preferences, and scarcities ( Triemstra et al., 2021). It brought new work organizations with technology at its peak to facilitate the new reforms like the time of the Great Depression, whereby technology played an integral role in changes in the organizational structures. Hence, the long-term impact of the COVID pandemic on organizational design is a change in work organization, work independencies, and technological advancement to support the new changes.
Change of Organizational Culture
COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionized organizational culture across the globe, whereby the jolts have brought positive and negative effects. According to Bragatto et al. (2021), some cultural traits have been over-emphasized, like flexibility, accountability, supportiveness, and confronting challenges, whereas others were downplayed, like individualism and customer and work orientation. Consequently, there was a shift of focus of the leadership from organizational culture to more pressing questions like how to navigate amid the prevailing economic drawbacks. The global lockdown was an eye-opener to new opportunities of working from home and not necessarily on the business premises. People had to adjust and learn to work from home at their own pace, which demanded high discipline since there was no supervision. The business people and employees realize they can be connected in different geographical locations virtually through online platforms, and the impact is almost the same.
In contrast, organizational culture amid the coronavirus pandemic changed for the worst due to the rate at which the changes happened. There was no time for peaceful transition and transference of the good norms. Naturally, culture is developed slowly by incorporating norms that govern a setting instead of the dramatic changes witnessed during the coronavirus era. Organizations witnessed company norms and culture scrapped away to accommodate new norms, creating compatibility challenges and negatively impacting the organizations. For instance, the face-to-face formal way of doing business was replaced by the new sophisticated video conferencing technology (Foss, 2020). While working remotely seems convenient and cost-effective, it has several disadvantages of deteriorating mental health, which is rising in the post-pandemic era. Therefore, some of the changes in the post-pandemic cultural changes are a recipe for crisis.
Change of Organizational Systems
There was an emergency of new organizational systems from post-pandemic implications resulting from the institutions’ response to the outbreak. The remote working depended on electronic devices for communication with other employees and administration, which led to a system of cyber security threats and protection. Businesses had to pay attention to the new post-pandemic system to protect their data from malicious manipulation since the organization’s success depended on it. Another organizational system that resulted from COVID pestilence was adaptability to changes which acted as the determining component for businesses that survived the pandemic era. The disease struck the globe unceremoniously, and not even one business was prepared for the change. Thereby, its impact was felt in every facet of the economy. Fonseca and Ezevado (2020) argue that organizations that were fast to adapt to the new changes had a competitive edge over those with a longer time to adjust. Since then, most businesses have been open to change and can take the shortest time to adopt new opportunities since the pandemic era was a training ground. Therefore, cyber security and adaptability to new changes are organizational systems developed as by-products as businesses try to overcome the pandemic threat.
Another organizational system revealed during the coronavirus era that has increased its significance since then is a shift of business models from physical trade to information intensity matrix. Before the pandemic, the population relied on physical trading; however, with a ban on travel and lockdown, people were forced to move to digital online shopping, where they relied on available information about the product. It explains why telecommunications companies, online stores, and shipping companies made a fortune during the pandemic. There was a shift in business equilibrium which led hundreds of thousands of organizations to migrate to social media platforms for networking with existing and prospective clients to boost physical sales, which were incredibly low (pizzeria et al., 2020). The organizational system has become the norm in the current businesses, with high volume sales coming from online affiliation. Consequently, the pandemic resulted in a shift in business model from physical trading to online trading, which resulted from COVID-19 restrictions.
The Future of the Business World
The post-pandemic era resulted in new organizational structures, cultures, and systems that have become the new business norm in the foreseeable future. I concur with Foss (2020) that most businesses across all sectors of the economy have adapted and invested in new developments brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, and surprisingly, they are making huge profits out of it. Zoom meetings are preferred for internal and superficial purposes in the communication department. Unlike in the past, zoom meeting is esteemed as formal as any business summit and is mostly preferred since it is at par with technological advancements. Secondly, remote working is one of the discoveries that will continue infinitely even after the virus evolves into a less harmful variant. It is convenient for employees and employers and creates a sense of shared responsibilities and liabilities. The era ushered in techno-structure, which is the biggest discovery for the second decade of the 21st century and will last in the market for as long as it is relevant.
Currently, people live in the virtual world and can transact there; otherwise, the physical business is slowly dying a natural death. I believe that the pandemic somewhat forced people to migrate to digital markets where they are glued there, and there is no possibility of reversing back. Studies show the companies making voluminous sales are online oriented; thus, the future of any business relies on their proficiency in navigating virtual markets. Surprisingly, no business is too small or large to trade online, and most social media platforms create pages for the businesses’ large capacity to accommodate tons of fun. After critically surveying the current trends after the post-pandemic era, I conclude that organizational cultures, structures, and systems are aligned with the strategies enforced by a coronavirus, and there lies the future of the business world. It is impossible to retrogress to the era before the pandemic since technological advancements have determined the fate of businesses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated cultural, structural, and systematic facets of business enterprise towards technological advancement, thereby bringing a new norm to the business world. It necessitated the long-awaited migration to the virtual world through remote working, social media trading, and zoom meetings. It has led to developing new systems compatible with technological evolution for new business models. The personal trends that enhance the new norm have been over-emphasized, while those that endanger the same are downplayed. There is no possibility of returning to the pre-COVID era even if situations return to normal. Consequently, I strongly believe that despite the negative impact of the epidemic, the business world evolved rapidly due to the constraints of coronavirus, without which the evolution would have been much slower.
References
Bragatto, P., Vairo, T., Milazzo, M. F., & Fabiano, B. (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the safety management in Italian Seveso industries. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 70, 104393.
Fonseca, L., & Azevedo, A. L. (2020). COVID-19: outcomes for global supply chains. Management & Marketing. Challenges for the Knowledge Society, 15(s1), 424-438.
Foss, N. J. (2020). The impact of The Covid‐19 pandemic on firms’ organizational designs. Journal of Management Studies.
Pinzaru, F., Zbuchea, A., & Anghel, L. (2020). The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Business. A preliminary overview. Strategic. Preparing for Tomorrow, Today, 721-730.
Spicer, A. (2020). Organizational culture and COVID-19. Journal of Management Studies, 57(8), 1737-1740.
Triemstra, J. D., Haas, M. R., Bhavsar-Burke, I., Gottlieb-Smith, R., Wolff, M., Shelgikar, A. V., … & Ellinas, H. (2021). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the clinical learning environment: addressing identified gaps and seizing opportunities. Academic Medicine, 96(9), 1276.
How Social Hierarchy Influenced Sport In Medieval England Free Writing Sample
Medieval England refers to the history of England from the year 1066 through to 1485, which marked the start of the early modern period. This period is also referred to as the middle age or the pre-industrial period. In medieval England, three social groups comprised the nobles, the knights, and the peasants. These social classes influenced the daily way of life, including how individuals dressed and the activities they took part in. Other than many activities that marked medieval England, a variety of sports were also enjoyed, such as archery, golf, and football. These sports were formed to enhance color and life during a monotonous, warlike, and gloomy period. (Karkov, 2018, p.5). For instance, vibrant and energetic sports were influenced by strict social classes, as discussed in this essay.
In medieval England, marks could be used to teach crucial values like overcoming adversity, leadership, and teamwork. Just like today, sports have the ultimate ability to bring society together. It is a passion imitated by the thrill of victor and the distress of loss. Despite their significance, medieval sports portrayed a significant division of the Englishmen based on their social classes (Karkov, 2018, p.4).
Social classes dictated the kind of games and their roles in particular games. At some point, sports in medieval England acted as an identifier of a person’s or family’s social class simply by looking at the sport they engaged with. For instance, the upper class played actual tennis, whereas the peasants played mob football. Most of the sports enjoyed trace today back to the medieval period. However, many medieval games had unclear rules and promised little to no safety for the participants. Due to the hazards linked to many sports, the peasants enjoyed these gaming events more than the nobles.
Moreover, the upper class could not engage in physically demanding sports, unlike the peasants who were used to farming and doing other manual jobs. It is common for upper-class members to avoid sports that require physical contact and hard manual labor but prefer pastimes sports (Henricks, 2018, p.22). The reason would be that the nobles used sports for entertainment while the low-class individuals aimed to strengthen their physical abilities.
The desire for more power and prominence drove medieval sports. The nobles and knights participated in glorious sports to showcase their power and influence. Given that medieval games were geared towards growing and showing the fighting skills of the participants, it was fun competing in them. These sporting events were also the best venues for individuals to win the chance to join the next class in the hierarchy (Karkov, 2018, p.5). For instance, a knight who appeared brave in sports would elevate his prominence to become noble and wealthy. In such a way, sports-inspired those from the lower social classes to participate so as to step up the ranks in the hierarchy. In the same way, a farmer who participated in medieval sports and excelled well had a chance to enhance his worth. Because a lot of free time was secured, people from all over England would gather to enjoy sports alongside other festivals.
Some of the resources were required in various sports, which the peasants could not afford. In this way, social hierarchy influenced transportation, knowledge, and money participation. The expensive sports were meant for individuals in the high ranks (Henricks, 2018, p.24). For example, hunting was mostly for noblewomen. Given that hunting animals like trained hawks and hounds made it expensive to be afforded the nobles. These noblewomen used dogs to sniff other animals within the nobles’ territories. They also rode on a horse during hunting. In the same way, colf was a sport played by the noble class since they could afford a large expanse of land for the game. Due to their social class, the peasants would enjoy rough and risky sports like wrestling, archery, hammer-throwing, shinty, football, and horseshoes (Karkov, 2018, p.4). Nevertheless, ordinary citizens needed more funds to construct courts for playing tennis. Therefore, it was regarded as an elite sport enjoyed by the lords and ladies in their closed quarters. Several manors and castles developed with tennis courts.
The nobles set laws on compulsory sports to be played by lower-class men. For instance, all men between fifteen to sixty years of age belonging to the low class were required by the law to practice archery. In this case, archery was popular among the peasants as every man had to arm themselves with a bow and arrows. This was a strategy to ensure the dominance of the English army during wartime. The Englishmen trained archery in Butts, which were designated specifically for that purpose (Henricks, 2018, p.22). The compulsory training of men in archery sport made the Englishmen defeat the French in the Battle of Crecy.
Different social groups had diverse intentions for partaking in sports. For instance, medieval sports were favorable venues for the nobles to socialize and build their social capital, with several business deals achieved after a match, tennis, or a round of colf (Battente, 2020, p.1). To them, sports were seen as a diversion, and they lacked the motivation to succeed at the subsequent level. Despite their low class, the village members used sports to showcase their teamwork. Despite the risks of the sports linked to the peasants, they still enjoyed the sporting events. For example, folk football was played by peasants as they contested with members from different villages. This competition allowed the winners to take pride in their village (Henricks, 2018, p.25). Moreover, the peasant women were permitted to play certain low-class sports like ball games and footraces. Their participation in such sports was in line with their social rank, unlike the noblewomen who took part in the glorious hunting sports.
The nobles had a significant influence on scheduling specific times for medieval sports. The elementary means of earning in medieval England was either fighting as a soldier or working as a serf or peasant. In this case, the nobles had plenty of free time to entertain themselves (Karkov, 2018, p.6). Therefore, they used their leisure time to participate in or watch sports in conjunction with other festivals. During the sporting events, victorious knights were selected for presented to the king as soldiers to fight the enemies. It was essential for successful knights to achieve exceptional fighting abilities and all war techniques. As a result, sports were encouraged and designed to provide weapon and fighting practices for sportspeople. Moreover, the events motivated ordinary citizens to take better care of their physical abilities (Karkov, 2018, p.6).
Members of the high class enjoyed tournaments, while the peasants were hindered from participating in the elite tournaments. The tournaments were so big and important because the winners would take home significant prizes. The gap between the upper and lower classes dictated who to participate in those tournaments. Members of nobility adored the tournaments as much as they enjoyed hunting. Real weapons like lances, and swords were used to fight, and the nobles enjoyed watching while the knights attacked each other violently (Oggins, 2019, p.50). These tournaments were neither safe for the peasants because innocent bystanders would end up being attacked and wounded. The peasants would suffer tremendously during the medieval tournaments since the participants would horserace through their farms in pursuit of each other, thus squashing their harvest. Normally, an opponent would be stuck in a peasant’s house in search of a hiding place. In this case, the whole house would end up being flamed even though its owner was not involved in the tournament. The sporting event would be an enjoyment to the nobles but a tragedy to the peasants. However, the nobles were not concerned about the peasants’ agony but rather about the winner of the tournament (Magoun, 2018, p.40).
A good way to think of feudalism is as a pyramid of power. Everyone sought to climb the pyramid’s ranks, which they could do by moving up its ranks. A Knight would become wealthy if he showed bravery in war or excelled at jousting in competitions. He could afford a castle with his fortune. He would become more influential in the country and become a member of the nobility. A peasant’s status in life would improve if he or she excelled in Medieval sports since they allowed them to win money at sporting events, develop a significant reputation, and increase in value by their lord.
In conclusion, the social hierarchy of medieval England had a significant impact on sports. The upper class, represented by the nobles, had the ultimate influence on medieval sports. This group participated in luxurious sports since they had sufficient resources and knowledge. The low-class individuals were disadvantaged not only in their living status but also in the sports they participated in. The peasants and serfs could only enjoy violent games, which required little resources. However, the sports were fun and entertaining and also helped the medieval culture grow. Luckily enough, modern society has benefited from those sports because most of the present events date back to the medieval period. For example, colf is considered the mother of present-day golf. Furthermore, the upper class still dominates its influence on sports since it tends to enjoy non-contact sports like tennis and golf. Conversely, the lower class is more inclined to sports that focus on toughness and teamwork, like boxing and football. Moreover, most of the outdoor games considered for the lower echelons steadily advanced into royal pastimes.
References
Battente, S., 2020. The Idea of Sport in Western Culture from Antiquity to the Contemporary Era. Vernon Press..https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-idea-of-sport-in-western-culture-from-antiquity-to-the-contemporary-era-saverio-battente/book/9781648891342.html
Henricks, T.S., 2018. Sport and social hierarchy in medieval England. Journal of Sport History, 9(2), pp.20-37.https://www.jstor.org/stable/43609079
Karkov, C.E.,2018. Art and the Formation of Early Medieval England. Elements in England in the Early Medieval World.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108942935
Magoun, F.P., 2018. Football in medieval England and in middle-English literature. The American Historical Review, 35(1), pp.33-45.https://doi.org/10.2307/1838470
Oggins, R.S., 2019. Falconry and medieval views of nature. In The medieval world of nature: A book of essays (pp. 47-60). Routledge.