Xiumei Liu – författare

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,3, University of Kassel, language: English, abstract: Team ability and social competence are crucial in the new economy. In the globalized world, where the workforce is becoming increasingly diverse, working in diverse teams is even more important. What the effects of diversity on teamwork are and how the ability to work in diverse teams can be trained are questions that the author is interested to explore in this research paper. In doing so, Chapter I takes a theoretical approach by starting to explain diversity in the workforce as a trend as well as the types of diversity. Since diversity has contrasting effects on teamwork, both disadvantages and advantages are analysed in the third section. In order to make use of the positive aspects of working in diverse teams and still avoid or minimize the negative effect of differences at the same time, diversity should be effectively managed, which is discussed in the last section of Chapter I. Admittedly, diversity training can only be achieved by working in a diverse team. How can the ability to work in diverse teams be trained at universities? Chapter II intends to answer this question by providing the example of MARKSTRAT as a means of creating heterogeneous learning teams. As the paper shows, by bringing together students from eight universities with seven different nationalities, Markstrat Slagelse 2007 created an opportunity for students to not only teach them skills implementing marketing strategies but also enable them to collect the most valuable experience by working in culturally, socially, gender- and age-diverse teams. In order to present the work process in it, one team has been singled out to depict team development and interpersonal interaction among its team members, including how they became acquainted with one another, where disagreements came from, what was done to resolve conflicts in order to improve common understanding and reach mutual decisions. In order to vividly describe the dynamics of cooperation in this group, four phases including forming, storming, norming, and performing have been differentiated. As a member of this team, the author bases the study of these interactions on direct participation and/ or observations of the work process. By exploring the effects of diversity in teamwork in both theory and practice, the author hopes to shed light on the importance of the constructive use of diversity in teamwork and thereby contribute to creating the awareness of diversity training.

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Kassel, course: Hauptseminar "e;Antebellum in American Short Fiction"e;, language: English, abstract: "e;A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale, ... there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design..."e; Edgar Allan Poe, who was praised as given the title of "e;one of the greatest journalistic critic of his time"e; by literary critics, stressed unity, totality, and prescribed design. And "e;The Fall of the House of Usher"e;, is proved to be a very successful story to demonstrate Poe s adherence of his own principle of constructiveness and his structural art. The intention of this research paper is, therefore, to examine how Poe emphasized unity of effect in theory and how it is fulfilled in practice especially in one of his best-known stories. In a close reading of "e;Usher"e;, the author is above all impressed by the melancholic tone that Poe obviously intends to raise at the very beginning of this story. For this reason, how Poe implements his technique by making tone obedient to the unity of effect will be first of all examined in this paper. Obviously, tone should be identified with atmosphere. According to Poe, unity of setting is another important requirement for achieving the unity of effect in prose writing, which will be studied in the second section. If, as critics maintain, characters are skilfully adapted to the circumstances which surround them are a general device in Poe s tales, it is in "e;Usher"e; in particular. The third section intends to show how characters are made to fit into the desolate house and dreary environment to achieve the desired effect in this tale. Finally, with the ideal arrangement of effective tone, setting, characters, Poe gains his battlefield to carry out unity of effect in plot in "e;Usher"e;. In order to attain the unity of plot in literary writing, Poe stressed both "e;unity of time"e; and "e;unity of action"e;, as essential parts in his theory on unity of effect. In "e;Usher"e;, both of these aspects are completely fulfilled through the brief time span in which the story happens, a coherent plot line and a "e;mutual relationship"e; between incidents. Hence, Poe s emphasis on unity of plot in theory, and how it is accomplished in "e;Usher"e; in the last section will be explored in the last section of this paper. Consistent with Poe s theory of "e;unity"e;, "e;totality"e; and "e;full design"e;, four aspects, namely tone, setting, characters and plot through which Poe attempts to create a vision of "e;unity of effect"e; in this tale are examined in this paper.