Tuesday, December 31, 2019

The Overlooked Area Of Poverty Essay - 1292 Words

The overlooked area Looking at the MDGs as the whole, poverty reduction was the central theme in the development agenda; it was aimed to cut in half proportion of the population living below $1 a day from around 30 percent of the developing countries by 2015 (United Nations, 2005). Even though these targets have been almost achieved; it was predicted that there are about 825 million of citizen still live in extreme poverty and 800 million still suffer from inadequate hunger (FAO, 2015). Thus, fighting against poverty and hunger remains the enormous challenge. Then, an inevitable question arises as to whether the persistence of poverty was well-defined. FAO (2015) also have noticed that extreme poverty mainly occurs in rural areas where the majority of poor people depend on agriculture. The condition of relying on agriculture means that primary source of food and income for those poor people come from agriculture that they have made. Unfortunately, agriculture was not prioritized at the goal and target l evels. Agriculture was mentioned at the indicator level under target three of goal eight (Develop a Global Partnership for Development). It was set to measure market access, which was seen as a huge gap that agriculture was overlooked in the MDGs. The relevance of agriculture to other goals Relooking at the connection between agriculture and each of the goal is considered as a reflective process for better implications in the next goal development. For goal 1, EradicateShow MoreRelatedSummary of on the Meaning of Plumbing and Poverty Essay893 Words   |  4 PagesBryce Gray English 1103 Summary amp; Strong Response On The Meaning Of Plumbing and Poverty Summary In her essay â€Å"On The Meaning Of Plumbing and Poverty,† Journalist Melanie Scheller examines the cultural identity of the rural poor. The author brings the readers attention to her call to action about poverty in America while using facts and personal background. While caring for a woman in a psychiatric ward, Scheller witnesses the woman’s obsession for flushing the toilets in her unitRead MoreIlliteracy is a Common Problem Amongst Children and Adults in the World664 Words   |  3 Pagesthe ability to read and comprehend is a fault of the school systems. Many people assume that illiterate Americans are concentrated in large cities with troubled schools. Although this may be true in some cases, there are rural areas where illiteracy is often times are overlooked. 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Shaw and McKay discovered that neighborhoods with the highest crime rates all have the same common problems-- dilapidated structures, poverty, a high rate of turnover in the population, or residential instability, and mixes of p eople from different cultural backgrounds and cultures, or ethnic diversity. Shaw and McKay determined that that juvenile delinquency was not caused by the individualRead MoreThe Vietnamese Youth Development Center1429 Words   |  6 Pagesof Vietnamese American youth experienced gang-related violence, extreme poverty, numerous stereotypes, and even depression. I never knew how common all of these problems were within their community. In addition, their problems existed even within their own families through generational conflicts and cultural differences. These problems are real, and occur within real families, real communities. These problems are overlooked by almost everyone, and it saddened me that barely anyone bothered to addressRead MoreKeny Economic Engine And Key Driver Of Strength1136 Words   |  5 Pagesrates† (Masha, 2013). According to the Human Development Index, Kenya has been declining on the developmental scale ever since 1980. Most of Kenya’s popula tion lives under extreme poverty which is an average of 30 percent of the country. These facts will show a drastic picture for Kenya and their fight against poverty. Believe it or not, Kenya has one of the highest growing population in the world. â€Å"As a result of the booming population growth, the country faces a serious unemployment problem, whichRead MoreThe Global Distribution of Economic Activity Cuased by Globalization1114 Words   |  5 PagesGlobalization is currently a very hot topic and many people have an awful lot to say about the matter, creating different theories and points of view. 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Monday, December 23, 2019

How Corporate Communication Influences Strategy...

Corporate Reputation Review Volume 8 Number 3 Top of Mind How Corporate Communication Influences Strategy Implementation, Reputation and the Corporate Brand: An Exploratory Qualitative Study Janis Forman Anderson School at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA Paul A. Argenti Tuck School at Dartmouth, Amos Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH ABSTRACT This paper reports the ï ¬ ndings of a qualitative ï ¬ eld study of ï ¬ ve ï ¬ rms from diverse industries on best practices in corporate communication, especially as they concern the links between a company’s corporate communication function, on the one hand, and its implementation of strategy, its reputation and its corporate branding, on the other. The overarching question addressed in†¦show more content†¦The corporate communication function is the actual department or unit whose purpose is to implement an organization’s stra- tegies through communication. The unit also serves as the antenna of an organization, receiving reactions from key constituencies to various strategies of the ï ¬ rm. By strategic implementation, in this study, the authors mean how a company executes its corporate strategy or its plans for the overarching identity and direction of the ï ¬ rm. By reputation, the authors mean how all constituencies, collectively, view the organization. The idea of ‘brand’ is central to this work and merits further discussion. David Aaker (1991), Emeritus Professor of Marketing at the Haas School of Business, deï ¬ nes brand as follows: ‘A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol (such as a logo, trademark, or package design) intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers, and to diï ¬â‚¬erentiate those goods or services from those of competitors. A brand thus signals to the customer the source of the product, and protects both the cus tomer and the producer from competitors who would attempt to provide products that appear to be identical.’ Aaker (1991: 7) Tom Blackett (2004) of Interbrand, a world-leading brand consultancy, points out that, regardless of its use, the word ‘brand’ has always meant ‘in its passive form, the

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Printing Press Consequences Free Essays

The Consequences of a Forgotten Invention There have been people who have influenced every person in the world yet a seldom few know their contributions let alone their names. Of these people was a man named Johannes Gutenberg; the man who invented the printing press. The printing press is one of those inventions that most people take for granted and do not realize their importance. We will write a custom essay sample on Printing Press Consequences or any similar topic only for you Order Now Without the press we would still be handwriting every single copy of any book every written and so the question is what were the main consequences of the printing press? That is, what happened as a result of the invention of the printing press? The answer is that it marked the transition from script to printing and it allowed the mass production of information, which in turn allowed ideas to spread quicker. The ability to have a mass production of information has transformed almost all aspects life and all fields of study. Two of these topics include religion and geography and exploration. This essay will first explain the importance of the transition from script to printing and then will go on to explain the impact the press had on literature and geography and exploration in order to elaborate on the latter consequence listed above. Perhaps the absolutely most important thing about the invention of the printing press is that it marked the transition from script to printing. As seen in Document A, whilst comparing the two images, the effect of Gutenberg’s invention is very clear. In the top visual, which shows the dictation method, it can be seen that the process is very lengthy and tiring. Also, only a few books are visible. Whereas, in the bottom visual, which shows the printing method, there are many papers in sight and the process seems to be a lot less time-consuming. From this it can be concluded that printing is a lot more efficient method of producing books and no longer required laborious hours of writing manuscripts. This conclusion can be supported by the next document: Document B. By looking at the maps it becomes apparent that the people back then also had similar opinions about the printing press as, with-in thirty years, the number of printing presses in Europe more than quintupled. In 1471, there were about a dozen presses but by the end of the century, there were upwards of 65 in the continent. However, Document C represents a contradicting opinion. This source claims that people still liked hand-written documents over those that were printed. This was bound to happen because, even like today, hand-made items are always considered more precious but the more practical solution will always prevail, which, in this case, was the printing press. In the subsequent paragraphs, the consequences of this transition on various aspects of life will be explained. ‘Gutenberg’s invention probably contributed more to destroying Christian concord and inflaming religious warfare than any of the so-called arts of war ever did. These twenty-four words written by Elizabeth Eisenstein in her book, ‘Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe,’ (Document E) perfectly describe the consequence of the printing press on religion. Around the same time as the birth of the printing press, a desire for reformation in the Church was also arising amongst the people. According to history, Martin Luther lit the fire of desire by posting h is 95 Theses on a Church door. However, what is not being taken into account is that Luther’s ideas spread quickly solely because of the printing press, as John Man explains in Document D. Had his ideas not spread all over Europe with-in a month, reform would have come much later or perhaps never. Similar to Luther’s 95 Theses, the Polyglot Bible, which allowed ordinary people to understand the Bible as it was written in nine different languages, would not have spread around Europe so rapidly if it were not for the press. Both, the Polyglot Bible (Document G) and Luther’s 95 Theses (Document D), fueled the Protestant reform but would not have even close to as big of an impact if it were not for the printing press. The map in Document F verifies this statement because it shows how quickly Protestant ideas spread around Europe. In merely 60 years, Europe went from being completely Catholic to roughly half Protestant and half Catholic. This in itself further emphasizes how mass production of information allows ideas to be spread faster and therefore demonstrates the one of the consequences of the printing press. Along with the religious turmoil came times of great exploration. Partially credited to Renaissance ideals, Europeans began to explore the world. Perhaps the most famous explorer of all is Christopher Columbus. In 1492, he did indeed sail the ocean blue to discover the Americas. After Columbus, came other great sailors from various other European nations who explored other parts of the world. Believe it or not, the printing press served a great purpose in exploration too. Columbus sent a letter to the King of Spain, which talked about the New World. According to Document H, this letter was translated and published over and over again and with-in a year it reached places as far as Antwerp. In the succeeding years Europeans embarked upon a great number of voyages. This indicates that Columbus’ letter was likely to have sparked curiosity or even jealously into the hearts of other Europeans and so they to began to explore the world. There was an obvious correlation between exploration and maps. As seen in Document I, the more people that explored, the more accurate the maps were became. The relationship goes the other way too. The more accurate the maps were, the better the explorer can judge where they were, which then allowed them to have a better sense of direction. The printing press played a huge role in the publication of maps. With the press, maps now looked the same, unlike before when they were drawn by hand, which allowed for inconsistencies amongst copies of the same work. Once again, this highlights both consequences stated above: the press allowed the mass production of information and marked the transition script to printing. In conclusion, it can be clearly seen that the printing press revolutionized the world on a countless number of levels. It transformed the way people communicated and the way information was dispersed. The transition from script to print was huge because the press was far more efficient for publishing any kind of information. As a result, there could now be a mass production of information. It was made obvious, through the examples given, how mass production fueled the Protestant Reformation and perhaps even sparked the age of exploration. Taking all this information into account there is no doubt that the consequences of the printing press were that it marked the transition from script to printing and it allowed the mass production of information, which in turn allowed ideas and information to spread over a large distance in a short period of time. How to cite Printing Press Consequences, Essay examples

Friday, December 6, 2019

Alice Walker Essay Example For Students

Alice Walker Essay My Daughter Smokes Essay My daughter smokes is about Ms. Walker daughter smoking. She relates her smoking to how her father and grandfather used to smoke as well. In fact the brand of cigarettes that her daughter smokes is in fact the same brand that her father and grandfather used to smoke. She describes the horrific story about her father addiction to cigarettes. She goes on to tell us hoe cigarettes changed him; physically and emotionally. Ms. Walker father gained weight, looked as though he was poor, and ad a discolorations to his skin. After a while, he started developing a cough. He was getting weaker and weaker by the day to the point where couldnt barely move anymore. Eventually her father died due to the addiction. Ms. Alice tries to attempt to talk to her daughter about the outcome of smoking and how addicting it is. She told the story about her father addiction and hoe it changed him and how he died from the addiction. As an attempt to get through her daughter, she told the story about how she used to smoke. Ms. Her hair it stand straight up like hair the wool on a sheep(Walker 283). Dee greets her family with a Swahili good morning. Her companion offers a Muslim greeting and tries to show Maggie a ceremonial handshake that she does not understand. Dee mother tried to start a conversation with Dee by calling her name. Dee explain that shes change her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, because I couldnt bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me(Walker 283). Wangero mother attempted to explain to her how far back her name go into the family history. Dee had been embarrass of her mothers house and possessions when she was younger (the mother believe she was happy when the old house burn down), but now she seem to be happy with the old way of life. With her newfound joy with her cultural heritage, she takes photographs of the house, including her mom, sister, and a wandering cow. Dee, while eating, remembered she wanted to ask her mother if she could have the butter churn top whittled by her Uncle Buddy, do she may use it as a centerpiece for her table. Dee, after getting the churn top, she then ask for the dasher. Now her attention turns to a trunk at the foot of her mothers bed. After she goes through the trunk, she returns with two quilts. The quilts become symbolic of the storys theme; in a sense, they represent the past of the women in the family(Master Plots 733). Dee asks if she can have the quilts. Maggie in disbelief that Dee asked for the quilts slammed the kitchen door. The mother offers some other quilts that were in the trunk to her, she refused because the quilts because they were made with a machine. Then she tells Dee that she had promised the quilts to Maggie a wedding present. Dee tells her mother that Maggie would not appreciate the quilts and that she would use them in everyday use.. Dees mother says she hope Maggie would use the quilts. The two sisters values concerning the quilt represent the two meaning approaches to art appreciation in our society. Art can be valued for financial and aesthetic reasons, or it can be valued for personal and emotional reasons

Monday, November 25, 2019

Best Summary and Analysis The Great Gatsby, Chapter 3

Best Summary and Analysis The Great Gatsby, Chapter 3 SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips In Chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby, we finally - finally! - we get to see one of Gatsby’s totally off the hook parties! And, it more than lives up to the hype as far as Nick is concerned. Even more excitingly, we finally get to meet the man, the myth, the legend himself - Gatsby, in the flesh! So why then does this reveal, which the novel has been building toward for 2.5 chapters, seem so anticlimactic? Read on for our Great GatsbyChapter 3 summary, coveringthe highs and lows of the Gatsby Saturday night experience. Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. The Great Gatsby: Chapter 3Summary Nick describes watching endless parties going on in Gatsby’s house every weekend. Guests party day and night and then on Mondays servants clean up the mess. Everything is about excess and a sense of overkill. Each weekend, guests are ferried back and forth to Manhattan by Rolls-Royce, crates of oranges and lemons are juiced, an army of caterers sets up tents and lighting, food is piled high, the bar is overwhelmingly stocked, and there is a huge band playing. It's an even bigger deal than it sounds because all this is happeningduring the Prohibition, when alcohol was supposedly unavailable. The first night Nick goes to Gatsby’s for a party, he’s one of a very few actually invited guests. Everyone else just crashes.At the party, Nick is ill at ease. He knows no one. There’s a surprising number of English people at the party, who seem desperate to get their hands on American money. No one knows where Gatsby himself is. Nick hangs out near the bar until he sees Jordan Baker.Nick and Jordan chat with other party people. A young woman tells them that at another one of these parties, when she ripped her dress by accident, Gatsby sent her a very expensive replacement.They gossip about what this odd behavior means. One rumor has it that Gatsby killed someone, another that he was a German spy. Food is served, which Nick and Jordan eat at a table full of people from East Egg, who look at this insane party with condescension. Theydecide to find Gatsby since Nick has never actually met him. In his mansion, they end up in the library, which has ornately carved bookshelves and reams of books.A man with owl-eyed spectacles enthuses about the fact that all these books are actually real – and about the fact that Gatsby hasn’t cut their pages (meaning he’s never read any of them). Back out in the garden, guests are now dancing, and several famous opera singers perform. Some partygoers also perform relatively risquà © acts. Nick and Jordan sit down at a table with a man who recognizes Nick from the army. After talking about the places in France where they were stationed during the war, the man reveals that he is Gatsby.Gatsby flashes the world’s greatest and most seductive (not sexually, just extremely appealingly) smile at Nick and leaves to take a phone call from Chicago. Nick demands more information about Gatsby from Jordan, who said that Gatsby calls himself an Oxford man (meaning, he went to the University of Oxford). Jordan says that she doesn’t believe this, and Nick lumps the info in with all the other rumors he’s heard (that Gatsby had killed a man, that he was Kaiser Wilhelm’s nephew, that he was a German spy, etc.). The orchestra strikes up the latest number one hit.Nick notices Gatsby looking over his guests with approval. Gatsby neither drinks, nor dances, nor flirts with anyone at the party. When Jordan is suddenly and mysteriously asked to speak to Gatsby alone, Nick watches a drunk guest weep and then pass out. He notices fights breaking out between other couples. Even the group of people from East Egg are no longer on their best behavior. Despite the fact that the party is clearly over, no one wants to leave.As Nick is getting his hat to leave, Gatsby and Jordan come out of the library. Jordan tells Nick that Gatsby has just told her something amazing – but she can’t reveal what. She gives Nick her number and leaves. Nick finds Gatsby, apologizes for not seeking him out earlier. Gatsby invites him to go out on his hydroplane the next day, and Nick leaves as Gatsby is summoned to a phone call from Philadelphia. He waves goodbye from the steps of his mansion, looking lonely. Outside, the man with the owl-eyed spectacles from the library has crashed his car. An even drunker man emerges from the driver’s seat of the wreck and is comically but also horrifyingly confused about what has happened. Suddenly, the narrative is interrupted by present-day Nick. He thinks that what he’s been writing is probably giving us the wrong idea. He wasn’t fixated on Gatsby during that summer – this fixation has only happened since then.That summer, he spent most of his time working at his second or third-tier bond trading company, Probity Trust, and had a relationship with a coworker. He started to really like the crowded and anonymous feel of Manhattan, but also felt lonely. In the middle of the summer, Nick reconnects with Jordan Baker and they start dating. He almost falls in love with her and discovers that under her veneer of boredom, Jordan is an incorrigible liar. She gets away with it because in the rigid upper-class code of behavior, calling a woman out as a liar would be improper. Nick suddenly remembers the story he had read about her golfing career: Jordan was accused of cheating by moving her ball to a better lie, but the witnesses later recanted and nothing was proven. When Nick complains that Jordan is a terrible driver, she answers that she relies on the other people on the road to be careful instead of her.Nick wants to take their relationship further, but reigns himself in because he hasn’t fully broken off the non-engagement back home that Tom and Daisy had asked him about earlier. He claims that he is one of the few honest people that he’s ever met. So, lots of car accidents, and talk about car accidents, all in the vicinity of alcohol? Can you say foreshadowing? Key Chapter 3 Quotes I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited- they went there. They got into automobiles which bore them out to Long Island and somehow they ended up at Gatsby's door. Once there they were introduced by somebody who knew Gatsby and after that they conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks. Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission. (3.7) Gatsby’s parties are the epitome of anonymous, meaningless excess – so much so that people treat his house as a kind of public, or at least commercial, space rather than a private home. This is connected to the vulgarity of new money– you can’t imagine Tom and Daisy throwing a party like this. Or Nick for that matter. The random and meaningless indulgence of his parties further highlights Gatsby's isolation from true friends. As Jordan says later, large parties are great because they provide privacy/intimacy, so Gatsby stands alone in a sea of strangers having their own intimate moments. A stout, middle-aged man with enormous owl-eyed spectacles was sitting somewhat drunk on the edge of a great table, staring with unsteady concentration at the shelves of books. †¦He waved his hand toward the book-shelves. "About that. As a matter of fact you needn't bother to ascertain. I ascertained. They're real†¦."Absolutely real- have pages and everything. I thought they'd be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they're absolutely real. Pages and- Here! Lemme show you." Taking our skepticism for granted, he rushed to the bookcases and returned with Volume One of the "Stoddard Lectures." "See!" he cried triumphantly. "It's a bona fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop too- didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?" (3.41-50) Belasco was a renowned theatrical producer, so comparing Gatsby to him here is a way of describing the library as a stageset for a play – in other words, as a magnificent and convincing fake. This sea of unread books is either yet more tremendous waste of resources, or a kind of miniature example of the fact that a person’s core identity remains the same no matter how many layers of disguise are placed on top. Gatsby has the money to buy these books, but he lacks the interest, depth, time, or ambition to read and understand them, which is similar to how he regards his quest to get Daisy. He smiled understandingly- much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced- or seemed to face- the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished- and I was looking at an elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he introduced himself I'd got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care. (3.76) Lots of Gatsby’s appeallies in his ability to instantly connect with the person he is speaking to, to make that person feel important and valued. This is probably what makes him a great front man for Wolfsheim’s bootlegging enterprise, and connects him with Daisy, who also has a preternaturally appealing quality – her voice. Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply- I was casually sorry, and then I forgot. (3.161) The offhanded misogyny of this remark that Nick makes about Jordan is telling in a novel where women are generally treated as objects at worst or lesser beings at best. Even our narrator, ostensibly a tolerant and nonjudgmental observer, here reveals a core of patriarchal assumptions that run deep. Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known. (3.171) There are layers of meaning and humor here. First, the humor: While in Christian tradition there is the concept of cardinal virtues, honesty is not one of them. So here, since the phrase â€Å"cardinal sin† is the more familiar concept, there is a small joke that Nick’s honesty is actually a negative quality, a burden. Nick is telling us about his scrupulous honesty a second after he’s revealed that he’s been writing love letters to a girl back home every week despite wanting to end their relationship, and despite dating a girl at his office, and then dating Jordan in the meantime. So honesty to Nick doesn’t really mean what it might to most people. Second, the meaning: What does it mean to have our narrator tell us in one breath that he is honest to a fault, and that he doesn’t think that most other people are honest? This sounds like a humblebrag kind of observation. But also, we need to question Nick’s ability to understand/empathize with other people if he thinks he is on such a removed plane of existence from them. And of course since he just showed us that he is not actually all that honest only a paragraph ago, we need to realize that his narration is probably not completely factual/accurate/truthful. Plus, this observation comes at the end of the third chapter, after we've met all the major players finally - so it's like the board has been set, and now we finallt have enough informationto distrustour narrator. I guess we’re going with â€Å"Nick Carraway: World’s Most Honest Liar† on this one? Chapter 3 Analysis This is a good time to step back from the plot and the text to see how this chapter connects to the book's bigger picture. Themes and Symbols Money and Materialism. Nothing says Roaring 20s excess like the insane party Gatsby throws. In Nick’s description, it’s an explosion of decorations, food, alcohol, music, and anonymous guests who don’t even know the host. This, combined with the over-the-top level of entertainment he provides is jarring even for the wealthy West Egg crowd, and speaks to the materialism and conspicuous display of consumption the novel deplores. It’s interesting that Gatsby orchestrates but doesn’t participate in his extravaganzas – even the guests become display pieces of his wealth as he stands above them and watches. Society and Class. At the same time, we get a sense of the West Egg/East Egg divide as Jordan Baker’s East Egg friends stick together and do not mix with the rest of the guests, regarding them as vulgar and beneath them. Mutability of Identity. The beautifully decorated libraryfilled with books that have never been read speaks to Gatsby’s theatrical approach to crafting his new identity. He can create the trapping and appearance of an Oxford man, but doesn’t have the background or inner resources to actually be one.At the same time, the mystery around Gatsby deepens. We get new theories about his background - he killed a man, he was a German spy during the war, he went to Oxford. And we also see him doing all sorts of inexplicable things – taking business phone calls from Chicago and Philadelphia, telling Jordan something secret and fascinating, not actually partying at his own party. At the same time, we get the first glimpse into the â€Å"great† Gatsby – that dazzling smile that captivates Nick with its empathy and connection. Motifs: Sports.We get our second mention of organized sports in Nick’s brief description of a golf cheating scandal that Jordan was involved with. He chalks it up to her general tendency to lie. Golf is the perfect sport for Jordan to play. It is a game that is highly ordered by social rules and customs, so it fits neatly into her lying MO- she relies on the idea that accusing a woman of cheating is seen as ungentlemanly. Jordan Baker: using the staid rules of the behavior of the upper crust to leverage her golf game, like a boss. Crucial Character Beats Nick and Jordan meet the man with the owl-eyed spectacles (a mysterious and yet somehow important minor figure - later, he will be the only person who will show up to Gatsby’s funeral) who shows them Gatsby’s library of unread books. Like the rest of Gatsby’s life, this library is just window-dressing. We finally meet Gatsby! The title character of the book doesn’t appear until Chapter 3 – and by this point, he’s no longer just a man. He’s a myth and a legend. His actual appearance doesn’t dispel the mystery, but deepens it: why is he getting business phone calls on a weekend? How does a man as young as he is have this kind of money? Why doesn’t he participate in his own party? Why doesn’t Nick describe what he looks like (the way he does every other person in the book)? The owl-spectacles man and his even drunker companion crash a car that they have no idea how to drive. This alarming combination of driving and alcohol is here played for laughs, but is also an important bit of foreshadowing. The foreshadowing is laid on even thicker when Jordan says that as a careless driver, she relies on other people to watch out for her, and Nick points out the danger of two careless people meeting on the road. Present-day Nickinterrupts his story to let us know that the things that he is describing as significant now didn’t appear so at the time. This both shows how much his fascination with Gatsby has grown over time, and makes the novel’s heavy use of foreshadowing all the more significant. Nick and Jordan start dating, and he realizes that she is a compulsive liar. What’s Next? Learn more about what makes Jordan tick in preparation for the next chapter, when she will take over narrator duties for a while. Consider the role the motifs of music, alcohol, and sports play in the novel. Think about how Gatsby’s parties have been portrayed in the movie adaptations of this novel, since these are the scenes that have become iconic in the way Gatsby has seeped into the larger culture. Move on to the summary of Chapter 4, or revisit the summary of Chapter 2. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Preferential Trade Agreements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Preferential Trade Agreements - Essay Example Though the prime motive behind the formation of these groups was to prevent any form of discrimination among member nations, it is being witnessed that this is not being followed in practice. In fact, existing imbalances on a regional basis have driven nations to form Preferential Trading Arrangements (PTAs) that has been the trend since the past half century. During the same period, it has also been witnessed that there has been a major growth in the degree of multilateral openness within the above organizations. The question being asked by the authors of the paper Mansfield and Reinhardt is as to why nations have relied on preferential liberalization when the prime objective of the above organizations has been to advocate non-discrimination. Additionally, the authors have also performed requisite theoretical and mathematical analysis to determine the various factors that have led to such deviations, which forms a substantial part of the paper currently under review. The major aim of the current review is to analyze the findings, claims and arguments of this paper and to determine the extent to which these claims are justified. On the backdrop of such analysis, the paper attempts to provide a suitable set of recommendations on the basis of which further analysis may be initiated. 2. SUMMARY The authors, by way of the paper, have identified that the international trading system has witnessed a rapid increase in the formation of numerous Preferential Trading Agreements (PTAs). Moreover, the authors have also expressed agreement over the fact that there has been an increased multilateral openness by way of the formation of the GATT and the WTO. However, the authors have expressed that little research has been done for determining how and due to which reasons the multilateral regime has helped in the conception and formation of PTAs by the members of these organizations themselves. The paper claims that the prime reason behind nations preferring for the formation of PTAs is to enhance their bargaining power. The formation of these agreements is perceived as providing the member nations with an opportunity to help them gain strength against any future policies of the GATT/WTO that may not go well with the economic interests of the member states. Moreover, the presence of PTAs provides the member nation with extra muscle that would help it in being more vocal and provide an opportunity to the member for greater market power and share. The authors argue that the past few years has seen a major increase in the number of members of these organizations, thereby making it more and more difficult to allow the organizations to allow at multilateral agreements and hope for any sort of collective actions. In this backdrop, the authors state positively that the formation of PTAs also helps members with similar vested economic interests in solving common problems and achie ving common objectives. In this backdrop, the authors argue that the prime reason for the rise and formation of these preferential agreements is the existence of the GATT/WTO themselves. In

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Dubai Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Dubai - Essay Example Dubai has a unique new exciting story of more than fifty years. The city has emerged from a poor fishing village to the fastest growing city in the world. Going back to the history, education was given priority in the different Emirates prior to the confederation. The Emirate of Dubai started educating it children in 1954. A few facts about the simplest basics of the country are men out number man in the male to female ratio of the country. All university tuitions are paid for by the states. All books stationary and study materials provided free of charge to the student. If the student works and studies, he/she is paid the salary for the job. From this, the business and infrastructure success story of Dubai is not hard to establish. 'In the 1990s the three fastest growing cities in the world were Dublin, Las Vegas and Dubai. This has accelerated in the 21st century with 23% population growth in Dubai in the past four years. The present real estate boom is obvious enough, particularly in the Jebel Ali-Dubai corridor. Today Dubai is the trading, business and increasingly financial hub of the Middle East, and for parts of Africa, the CIS and even the Indian subcontinent. It's a vast hinterland for such a small place' (Peter J. Cooper 2006).In the 1970s oil wealth turned the UAE from a desert kingdom to a modern metropolis, and its rulers took a keen interest in this development. Not for them the idleness and corruption that afflicted some nations blest with oil wealth. While the oil wealth can be considered as one of the reasons for the growth of Dubai, there are also other factors which could be considered as the key factors in developing the city state to be one of the best in the world. In Dubai the late Sheikh Rashid developed his tiny emirate into a trading hub with the timely development of port infrastructure and a driving ambition to invest oil wealth back into the local economy. Again this was sharply at variance with the policy of investing oil wealth ab road pursued in many countries (Peter J. Cooper 2006). In a yet another move towards the success, Dubai was to become the business and commercial hub of the Middle East. The Dubai Government and the leading local families invested even more into the physical infrastructure of the emirate and pursued more and more ambitious plans. 'Surprisingly, to many observers, most of them succeeded, usually better than expected. Perhaps it was because the Government could act decisively, eliminating red-tape and shortening the planning process to a simple 'build it there' decision by the CEO of Dubai Inc. as Sheikh Mohammed is often known' (Peter J. Cooper 2006). The Modern History of Dubai in BriefWithin recorded history, Dubai started as a fishing village probably some time in the 18th century. It was a dependency of the sheikhdom of Abu Dhabi and its inhabitants were probably mostly Bani Yas. In 1833 a group of about 800 people of the Al Bu Falasah subsection of the Bani Yas seceded from Abu Dhabi and settled in Dubai. The leaders of the exodus, Ubaid bin Saeed and Maktoum bin Buti, remained joint leaders until the death of the

Monday, November 18, 2019

New HIPAA Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

New HIPAA - Term Paper Example It is codified under Part 160 and subsections C, D and E of the Act document. Negligence and ignorance towards privacy and security standards under the HIPAA act accounts to civil penalty coming under general category and amounts to fines of up to $ 25K for all violations within a year. In case of willful negligence and wrongful misuse of patient’s healthcare information, it is considered as a criminal offense under HIPAA and both fines and imprisonment apply. The fine can reach up to the limit of $ 250 K and imprisonment of maximum 10 years or both (McGraw Hill n.d). HIPAA generates awareness amongst healthcare consumers regarding the safety of their private and confidential information and knowing about who is handling that information. With fast paced technological advancement in medical field, use of patient’s private information can be made in medical research, reproductive rights or developing any new medicine or treatment. In this regard, HIPAA mandates both the practitioners and patients of the importance of the healthcare information and its

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Implementing Strategic Decisions and Analysing Effects

Implementing Strategic Decisions and Analysing Effects Although formulating a consistent strategy is a difficult task for any management team, making that strategy work implementing it throughout the organization is even more difficult (Hrebiniak, 2006). A myriad of factors can potentially affect the process by which strategic plans are turned into organizational action. Unlike strategy formulation, strategy implementation is often seen as something of a craft, rather than a science, and its research history has previously been described as fragmented and eclectic (Noble, 1999b). It is thus not surprising that, after a comprehensive strategy or single strategic decision has been formulated, significant difficulties usually arise during the subsequent implementation process. The best-formulated strategies may fail to produce superior performance for the firm if they are not successfully implemented, as Noble (1999b) notes. Results from several surveys have confirmed this view: An Economist survey found that a discouraging 57 percent of firms were unsuccessful at executing strategic initiatives over the past three years, according to a survey of 276 senior operating executives in 2004 (Allio, 2005). According to the White Paper of Strategy Implementation of Chinese Corporations in 2006, strategy implementation has become the most significant management challenge which all kinds of corporations face at the moment. The survey reported in that white paper indicates that 83 percent of the surveyed companies failed to implement their strategy smoothly, and only 17 percent felt that they had a consistent strategy implementation process. Modern organizations operate in an increasingly complex environment and the magnitude of the consequences of decisions at the strategic level demands high quality responses from the management. The ever-changing and turbulent internal and external environments of the organization demands extreme sensitivity from the management in their reactions towards change. This often requires rapid response and the consequence of one course of action could be dramatically different from an alternative course of action. Strategic decisions are a reflection of the a ttitude, values and expectations of the decision-makers at the top level. They have a long term effect on the direction and future activity of the organization, and have resource implications, affecting decisions at the lower levels and initiating a wave of other, often lesser decisions (Hickson et al. 1986). The uncertainties and complexities of strategic decisions direct the decision makers to reduce the infinitely large problem into a manageable one. This conversion to a manageable model of reality inherently involves a great number of assumptions, many of which rely on the judgement of the decision maker. But the scale of the complexity and variety of variables surrounding the decision is such that some of the assumptions are ill-defined and possibly wrong. To combat these problems the managers categorize the uncertain decisions into a number of criteria: Laplace, insufficient reason to believe otherwise; Minimax, making the best out of worst possible conditions; Maximax, the best out of the best alternatives; Savage, the best of the regrets for not taking the right actions; and Hurwicz, giving a range of attitudes from optimistic to most pessimistic (Turban 1993). The choice of the approach is linked to decision-makers conservatism. This question is crucial since decisions, especially those of a strategic nature, tend to have widespread effects on organizational members, processes, and structure. This paper is concerned with one foundation of strategic decision making: More specifically, we aim to empirically address the why, what, how and where of this process. Thus, we conceive a firms external environment to be a source of information (Aldrich and Mindlin, 1978) but also its internal environment, sometimes referred to as invironment. To scan the environment in order to make better-informed decisions (Choo, 1996) is an important task on the corporate agenda. Environmental scanning, whether or not it is referred to as such (Frishammar, 2002), may be defined as the activity of acquiring information (Aguilar, 1967, p. 1) and is the method by which managers perceive events and trends (Hambrick, 1982). Acquiring information is imperative in ascertaining environmental change and has implications for strategic decision making (Lozada and Calantone, 1997). In this study, strategic decisions are concerned with long-term direction and are normally about trying to achieve some advanta ge for an organization (Johnson and Scholes, 1999). A decision is, in accordance with Mintzberg et al. (1976), defined as a set of actions and dynamic factors beginning with the identification of a stimulus for action and ending with a specific commitment to action. Strategic simply means important, in terms of the actions taken, the resources committed, or the precedents set (Mintzberg et al., 1976). Formulating strategy is difficult. Making strategy work executing or implementing it throughout the organization is even more difficult. Thompson Strickland (2003) have stressed that the strategy-implementing/strategy-executing task is the most complicated and time-consuming part of strategic management (cited in Schaap, 2006). CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Strategic Decision Making By definition, decision making is the process through which managers identify organizational problems and attempt to resolve them (Bartol Martin, 1994). Crook, Ketchen, and Snow (2003) stated that the purpose of strategic management research is to help find ways to improve their performance. Further, strategic decision makings are those that determine the overall direction of an enterprise and its ultimate viability in light of the predictable, the unpredictable, and the unknowable changes that may occur in its most important surrounding environments. They ultimately shape the true goals of the enterprise (Mintzberg Quian, 1991). Pearce and Robinson (1997) underlined the characteristics of strategic decision making as corporate level decisions (greater risk, cost, profit potential; greater need for flexibility and longer time horizons), functional level decisions (implement the overall strategy formulated at the corporate and business levels), action oriented operational issues; sh ort range and low risk. Modest cost; dependent on available resources, and business level decision (bridge decisions at the corporate and functional levels; which is less risky, costly, and potential profitable than corporate level decisions, but more risky, costly, and potentially profitable then functional level decisions). Tatum et al. (2003) stated that managers make day-to-day decisions, or resolve immediate problems. They also elaborated that managers have different decision styles due to the amount of information, number of alternatives, and attempt to integrate and coordinate multiple sources of input. Vroom (2003) in his study quoted Nutt (2002) on a study of 400 decisions that had been made by managers in medium to large organizations in the USA, Canada and Europe. Surprisingly, half of the decisions failed; either never implemented or subsequently unraveled during the two-year observation period. Nutt (2002, in Vroom, 2003) stated that effective decision making is not merely a matter of decision quality but also of ensuring that the decision will have the necessary support and commitment for its effective implementation. Nevertheless, all strategic decision making must go through the decision making process in order for managers to come up with a good decision. 2.2 Decision Making Process Decision makers and managers need to allow themselves to be in the process of decision making. This decision making process will give the opportunity to decision makers and managers to come up with the alternatives, evaluate each alternatives, and select the best alternative or solution to the problem. Decision making process comprise of the steps the decision maker has to arrive at his choice. The process a manager uses to make decisions has a significant impact on the quality of those decisions (Certo, 2003). Moreover, Provan (1989) stated that people who participate in the strategic decision making process are at a high level in their organization, are competent, and are reasonably intelligent and articulate. Strategic decision making process can be and is influenced by those major groups in the organization that are most powerful and that a rational consideration of external environmental factors may have little direct impact on how strategies are actually formulated and implemen ted (Provan, 1989). Basi (1988) stated that type of decision is a function of administrative level, and the style is a function of organizational culture. Administrative level is classified as institutional or executive or upper level, organizational or managerial or middle level, and technical or lower level. Meanwhile organizational culture is known as paternalistic, bureaucratic, and synergistic. Meanwhile, Nutt (1976) indicated in his study on the decision making models. He discussed 6 models of decision making of which bureaucratic model, normative decision theory, behavioral decision theory, group decision making, equilibrium-conflict resolution, and open system decision making. Nutt (1976) also discussed on the limits and ways to select the appropriate model for decision making for organization. As such organizations perform unique functions; the levels identified were technological or primary level, managerial level, and institutional level. Thus, factors which characterize the decision making e nvironment will stipulate the appropriate model that can be optimally used (Nutt, 1976). 2.3 Approaches to Strategy Implementation There are different factors that affect strategy implementation. These factors can be divided into soft, hard, and mixed factors. Soft factors (or people-oriented factors) include the people or executors of the strategy, the communication activities (content and style issues) as well as the closely related implementation tactics, the consensus about and commitment to the strategy, while the hard (or institutional) factors include the organizational structure, the administrative systems. The way in which the strategy was developed and articulated (strategy formulation) contains hard and soft factors alike and is thus considered a mixed factor. Relationships among different units/departments and different strategy levels also is treated as a mixed factor. In the following paragraphs we discuss these factors and how they affect strategic implementation of decisions. 2.3.1 Strategy Formulation It is clear that a poor or vague strategy can limit implementation efforts dramatically. Good execution cannot overcome the shortcomings of a bad strategy or a poor strategic planning effort (Hrebiniak, 2006). Several studies mention the fact that the kind of strategy that is developed (Alexander, 1985; Allio, 2005) and the actual process of strategy formulation, namely, how a strategy is developed (Kim Mauborgne, 1991, 1993; Singh, 1998) will influence the effect of implementation. Alexander (1985) believes that the need to start with a formulated strategy that involves a good idea or concept is mentioned most often in helping promote successful implementation. As Allio (2005) notes, good implementation naturally starts with good strategic input: the soup is only as good as the ingredients (Allio, 2005). Whether a strategy itself is consistent and fitting or not is a key question for successful strategy implementation, but even a consistent strategy cannot be all things to all peop le. Bantel (1997) suggests that particular product/market strategies are effective at achieving particular performance goals to the exclusion of others. One of his conclusions is that synergies between strategy types and implementation. 2.3.2 Relationships among Different Units/Departments and Different Strategy Levels Several studies treat institutional relationships among different units/ departments and different strategy levels as a significant factor that affects the outcome of strategy implementation (Walker Ruekert, 1987; Gupta, 1987; Slater Olson, 2001; Chimhanzi, 2004; Chimhanzi Morgan, 2005). Walker Ruekert (1987) divide business strategy behaviors into three types: prospectors, differentiated defenders and low cost defenders. These distinctions are based on the strategy categories introduced by Miles Snow (1978; prospectors, defenders, analyzers, reactors) and by Porter (1980; overall cost leadership, differentiation and focus). Walker Ruekert stipulate that corporate-business unit relationships, inter-functional structures and processes, marketing policies and processes may all significantly influence business strategy implementation. Three aspects of the corporate-business unit relationship are especially likely to affect a units success in implementing a particular strategy: bus iness unit autonomy, sharing programs and synergies across SBUs, as well as control and reward systems. In addition, functional competencies, allocation of resources, decision-making participation and influence, inter-functional conflict and coordination may have vastly different effects on the implementation of different kinds of strategies. Walker and Ruekert also assume that decision-making and coordination structures in the marketing department, and marketing policies and programs within the business unit, affect the performance of different business strategies in different ways. Chimhanzi (2004) suggests that cross-unit working relationships have a key role to play in the successful implementation of marketing decisions. Implementation effectiveness is affected negatively by conflict and positively by communication and specifically, interpersonal, not written. In turn, these interdepartmental dynamics are affected by senior management support, joint reward systems, and informal integration. Chimhanzi (2004) also points out that the marketing and RD interface remains the most extensively researched dyad within the specific context of the new product development (NPD) process. Chimhanzi provides a multitude of references to such studies in his 2004 article. Other relationships that have received empirical attention, albeit to a lesser extent, include marketing, and accounting, finance, manufacturing, engineering, quality, and sales. There are also those studies, according to Chimhanzi, that have not focused on dyadic and multiple relations, but rather on marke ting as the only one of many departments within a network of relationships. Chimhanzi Morgans (2005) findings indicate that firms devoting attention to the alignment of marketing and human resources are able to realize significantly greater successes in their strategy implementation. Specifically, these findings imply that marketing managers should seek to improve the relationship with their HR colleagues by emphasizing two of the process-based dimensions: joint reward systems and written communication. 2.3.3 Executors Executors are comprised of top management, middle management, lower management and non-management. Effectiveness of strategy implementation is, at least in part, affected by the quality of people involved in the process (Govindarajan, 1989). Here, quality refers to skills, attitudes, capabilities, experiences and other characteristics of people required by a specific task or position (Peng Litteljohn, 2001). Viseras, Baines, and Sweeney (2005) group 36 key success factors into three research categories: people, organization, systems in the manufacturing environment. Their intriguing findings indicate that strategy implementation success depends crucially on the human or people side of project management, and less on organization and systems related factors. Similarly, Harrington (2006) finds that a higher level in total organizational involvement during strategy implementation had positive effects on the level of implementation success, firm profits and overall firm success. Next to these overall findings regarding the who of strategy implementation, we will now review the individual groups of strategy executors at different hierarchical levels. 2.3.3.1 Top management Top management refers to senior-level leaders including presidents, owners, and other high ranking executives (CEO, CFO, COO etc.) and senior-level managers. Several researchers have emphasized the effect of top management on strategic decision implementation (Hrebiniak Snow, 1982; Smith Kofron, 1996; Schmidt Brauer, 2006; Schaap, 2006). Most of them point out the important figurehead role of top management in the process of strategy implementation. Schmidt and Brauer (2006), for example, take the board as one of the key subjects of strategy implementation and discuss how to assess board effectiveness in guiding strategy execution and decision making. Hrebiniak and Snow (1982) find that the process of interaction and participation among the top management team typically leads to greater commitment to the firmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s goals and strategies. This, in turn, serves to ensure the successful implementation of the firmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s chosen strategy (cited in Dess Priem, 1995). Smith and Kofron (1996) believe that top managers play a critical role in the implementation not just the formulation of strategy. 2.3.3.2 Middle management We can divide the viewpoints and approaches regarding middle managements effect on strategy implementation into three categories: The first one emphasizes the match of strategy and middle managers leadership style (Gupta Govindarajan, 1984; Guth MacMillan, 1986; Govindarajan, 1989; Judge Stahl, 1995; Heracleous, 2000). This viewpoint assumes that personality is the primary determinant of strategy implementation actions. The second perspective considers the effect of context on behavior (Waldersee Sheather, 1996). The third one analyzes the impact of relationships between top management and middle management on strategy implementation (Wooldridge Floyd, 1990, 1992b, 1997; Qi, 2005). There are also studies that have examined the ambiguous relationships between top management and middle management in the context of strategy implementation: On the one hand, middle managers expect direction and support from their top management. If they receive this guidance, then they will provide s upport for the strategy in return. One of the key factors determining their level of support is their demographic situation (such as age, gender, educational background, and business experience) (Qi, 2005). On the other hand, top management should expect middle-level managers to question strategic decisions (Wooldridge Floyd, 1990). Middle managers expect top management direction, but frequently feel that they are in a better position to start and evaluate alternative courses of action. Wooldridge Floyd (1992b) consequently classify middle management involvement in strategy into four types: championing alternatives, synthesizing information, facilitating adaptability and implementing deliberate strategy. The first two represent upward forms of involvement, while the last two are downward forms. Floyd Wooldridge (1997) investigate the relationships between middle managersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ formal position, their strategic influence and organizational performance. 2.3.3.3 Lower management and non-management Unfortunately, few authors study the impact of lower management and non-management on strategy implementation. Gronroos (1985) believes that an organization must first persuade its employees about the importance of the strategy before turning to customers (cited in: Rapert Lynch Suter, 1996). Alexander (1985) suggests that there are many problems which over half of the corporations experienced frequently, such as the involved employees have insufficient capabilities to perform their jobs, lower-level employees are inadequately trained, and departmental managers provide inadequate leadership and direction. These three are the most frequent strategy implementation problems in relation to human resource. Line-level employees may use delay or prevent attempts toward change that they find particularly threatening or disagreeable. Nutt (1986) suggests that managerial tactics and leadership style can play a crucial role in overcoming the lower-level obstructionism that is prevalent (to so me degree) in many implementation efforts. Strategic decisions are nevertheless formulated by senior-level managers of the firm and then administratively imposed on lower-level management and non-management employees with little consideration of the resulting functional-level perceptions (Nutt, 1987). If lower-level management and non- management personnel are not aware of the same information, or if information must pass through several (management) layers in the organization, consensus regarding that information may never come about. Thus, the lack of shared knowledge with lower-level management and non-management employees creates a barrier to successful strategy implementation (Noble, 1999b). 2.3.4 Communication Forman and Argenti (2005) rightly note that, although an entire discipline is devoted to the study of organizational strategy, including strategy implementation; little attention has been given to the links between communication and strategy. But Forman and Argenti also note that business communication researchers have become increasingly interested in the contribution of corporate communication to a companys ability to create and disseminate its strategy in the last decade. However, very few authors have investigated the link between corporate communication and strategy, and when they have their focus has primarily been on how corporate communication affects the firms relationship with its various stakeholders. At least, numerous researchers have already emphasized the importance of communication for the process of strategy implementation (Alexander, 1985; Rapert Wren, 1998; Peng Litteljohn, 2001; Heide Grà ¸nhaug Johannessen, 2002; Rapert Velliquette Garretson, 2002; Forma n Argenti, 2005; Schaap, 2006). Rapert and Wren (1998) find that organizations where employees have easy access to management through open and supportive communication climates tend to outperform those with more restrictive communication environments. 2.3.5 Implementation tactics Bourgeois à Ã‚ ¨ and Brodwin (1984) examine five process approaches used to advance strategy implementation: Commander model, Change model, Collaborative model, Cultural model, Crescive model. The first approach addresses strategic position only, and should guide the CEO in charting a firmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s future. The CEO can use economic and competitive analyses to plan resource allocations to achieve his goals. The change model emphasizes how the organizational structure, incentive compensation, control systems and so forth can be used to facilitate the implementation of a strategy. The collaborative model concentrates on group decision-making at a senior level and involves top management in the formulation process to ensure commitment. The fourth approach tries to implement strategy through the use of a corporate culture. The final approach draws on managersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ inclinations to want to develop new opportunities as see them in the course of their day-to-day management. The first three models assume implementation as after-the-fact. This implies that the number of strategy developers is few and that the rest of the organization is somehow manipulated or cajoled into implementation. For the latter two models, most of the energy is used for strategy formulation and the strategy requires relatively little effort in its implementation. Lehner (2004) takes implementation tactics as genuine organizational behavior based on the assumption that implementation in general is dependent on the environment, and various strategic and organizational variables. 2.3.6 Consensus Many authors focus on the role of consensus for strategy implementation (Nielsen, 1983; Floyd Wooldridge, 1992a; Dess Priem, 1995; Rapert Lynch Suter, 1996; Noble, 1999b; Dooley Fryxell Judge, 2000). Nielsen (1983) contends that firms must achieve consensus both within and outside their organization in order to successfully implement business strategies (Noble, 1999b). The consensus about a companys strategy may differ across levels: If members of the organization are not aware of the same information, or if information passes through different layers in an organization, a lower level of consensus may result. This lack of shared understanding may create obstacles to successful strategy implementation (Noble, 1999b). Floyd and Wooldridge (1992a) label the gulf between strategies conceived by top management and awareness at lower levels as implementation gap. They define strategic consensus as the agreement among top, middle-, and operating-level managers on the fundamental priorities of the organization. Consensus, in their approach, has four levels: strong consensus, blind devotion, informed skepticism and weak consensus. Floyd and Wooldridge argue that strong consensus exists when managers have both, a common understanding of, and a common commitment to their strategy. If, however, managers are committed to something, but do not share an understanding what that something is (they are well-intentioned but ill-informed) blind devotion is the likely result. If, by contrast, managers share an understanding of their strategy, but are not really committed to it, they are well informed yet unwilling to act. Floyd and Wooldridge call this realistic condition à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾informed skepticismà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸. Of course when neither shared understanding nor commitment is high, weak consensus is the likely result. Improving understanding and commitment can close this dangerous implementation gap. 2.3.7 Commitment Shared understanding without commitment may result in counter effort and negatively affect performance (Wooldridge Floyd, 1989, cited in Rapert, Lynch and Suter, 1996). Some authors take shared understanding as a commitment. MacMillan Guth (1985) and McDermott Boyer (1999) all think that the shared understanding of middle management and those at the operational level to the top management teams strategic goals is of critical importance to effective implementation (Rapert Velliquette Garretson, 2002). Strategy implementation efforts may fail if the strategy does not enjoy support and commitment by the majority of employees and middle management. This may be the case if they were not consulted during the development phase (Heracleous, 2000). Alexander (1985) thinks obtaining employee commitment and involvement can promote successful strategy implementation Some CEOs believe that one way to accomplish this is to involve employees and managers right from the start in the strategy fo rmulation process. Involvement and commitment should also be developed and maintained throughout the implementation process. If middle and lower level managers and key subordinates are permitted to be involved with the detailed implementation planning, their commitment will be likely to increase. 2.3.8 Organizational Structure Factors relating to the organizational structure are the second most important implementation barrier according to Heide Gronhaug Johannessenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s (2002) study. Drazin and Howard (1984) see a proper strategy-structure alignment as a necessary precursor to the successful implementation of new business strategies (Noble, 1999b). They point out that changes in the competitive environment require adjustments to the organizational structure. If a firm lags in making this realignment, is may exhibit poor performance and be at a serious competitive disadvantage. Gupta (1987) examines the relationships between SBUs strategies, aspects of the corporate-SBU relationship, and implementation and finds that structures that are more decentralized produce higher levels of SBU effectiveness, regardless of the strategic context. Schaap (2006) also suggests that adjusting organizational structure according to perfect strategy can ensure successful strategy implementation. 2.4 Decision Support Systems So and Smith (2003) stated that a major component of any information system is the individuals that supply, manipulate, access and rely on the system. Individuals information needs and requirements for decision making are the reasons information systems exist. Bounds, Dobbins, and Fowler (1995) defined decision support systems (DSS) as information systems that use decision rules, decision models, a comprehensive database, and the decision makers own insights in an interactive computer-based process to assist in making specific decisions. Pourvakhshouri and Mansor (2003) stated DSS is a well established area of information system applications, which assists the decision makers to derive an in-time, efficient solution. A DSS may also be defined as an integrated, interactive and flexible computer system that supports all phases of decision making with a user-friendly interface, data and expert knowledge (Fabbri, 1998 in Pourvakhshouri Mansor, 2003). Majchrzak and Gasser (2000) indicate d that TOP-MODELER can help managers in overcoming the burden of strategic decision making in their daily business operations. The system also assists the managers to understand their organization structure in gaining closest relationship possible. Ulvila and Brown (1991) stated that decision tree analysis is the oldest and most widely used form of decision analysis. Managers have used it in making business decisions. On the other hand, Heenan and Addleman (1991) proposed that mangers to use multivariate analysis (MVA), the quantitative methods can help to evaluate the complex and intangible factors that influence consumers. Moreover, MVA had been used for application to business problems in consumer packaged goods and services sector. 2.5 Decision Approach Decision making style of managers can be classified based on their approach towards the problem that they tried to solve. Barton and Martin (1994) stated that various models of decision style being adopted such as rational model, non-rational model, satisficing model, incremental model, and garbage-can model. Basically, these models are based on the individual managers perspective toward decision making. First, rational model suggested that managers engage in completely rational decision processes, ultimately make optimal decision, and possess and understand all information relevant to their decisions at the time they make them. Second, non-rational model suggests that information-gathering and -processing limitations make it difficult for managers to make optimal decisions. Third, satisficing model suggests that managers seek alternatives only until they find one that looks satisfactory, rather than seeking the optimal decision. Fourth, incremental model stated that managers make th e smallest response possible that will reduce the problem to at least a tolerable level. Finally, garbage-can model stated that managers behave in virtually a random pattern in making non programmed decisions. Basi (1988) identified that decision style is influenced by organizational culture; which will lead to decision making. So and Smith (2003) indicated that differences in decision makers cognitive styles, cognitive abilities and personality are important factors in decision making and performance. Further, the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) (Myers and McCaulley, 1985 in So and Smith, 2003) is used to determine cognitive styles along two basic dimensions, perception (information acquisition), and judgment (data processing and evaluation). MBTI categorizes individuals as sensors or intuitors in the perception dimension; and MBTI classifies individuals as thinking or feeling types in judgment dimension. Rausch (2003) indicated that managers leadership roles need to consider 8 suggested questions as they develop a plan, solve a problem, meet a cha

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

John Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums and D.H. Lawrences The Odour of Ch

John Steinbeck's 'The Chrysanthemums' and D.H. Lawrence's 'The Odour of Chrysanthemums' Women in the 1900s were given little attention. John Steinbeck and D.H Lawrence however have chosen to base their short stories on a single woman character and around a type of flower, which is the chrysanthemum. Though written by male writers, both stories give an insight of the feelings and actions of a female character in that time period and how chrysanthemums can mean an entirely different obsession towards the two main characters. John Steinbeck's 'The Chrysanthemums' is about a tinker who confronts Elisa Allen while she was working on her prized chrysanthemums. Elisa was impressed of the tinker's freedom and his way of life. The tinker offers his service, repairing pots and pans, to Elisa, but she refuses at first. However, the tinker does not give up and tells Elisa about a customer that would be interested in her chrysanthemums. Elisa's attitude instantly changed and after her discussion with tinker she finds some work for the tinker to work on. Elisa's husband, Henry, takes her out later to the city for dinner. To her dismay she finds her lovely chrysanthemums dumped by the roadside by the tinker. D.H Lawrence, however, writes about Elizabeth Bates and her children who wait for the return of Walter, husband and father, who is late in his homecoming. Elizabeth has a brief meeting with her father. Not waiting any longer, Elizabeth and her children have dinner. Elizabeth puts her children to sleep and then goes out to look for her husband. It turns out that the husband had an accident and is now dead. Elizabeth's mother in law visits her and together they clean the dead Walter, while reminiscing the past.... ...not be offered to strangers. However, in 'Odour of Chrysanthemums,' Elizabeth realises she has never really known Walter and is ashamed to handle him. She experiences fear for she is aware that she has no control over her destiny and that she cannot escape death. Both stories do not have a happy ending, but instead deal with different aspects of life. 'The Chrysanthemums' with society and trust, whereas 'Odour of Chrysanthemums' with fate and death. I feel that John Steinbeck offers a better ending because it teaches us not to trust strangers with ease and gives us the message that we should be happy with what we have, not to envy others. Then again, the ending in 'Odour of chrysanthemums' is also true but I feel that it is too harsh. It is a fact that every creature will encounter death but death should not be Elizabeth's or anyone's 'ultimate master.'

Monday, November 11, 2019

Literary analysis of ‘The Going’ by Thomas Hardy Essay

‘The Going’ is a poem mourning the death and loss of Hardy’s wife Emma. The themes of anguish, love and regret are echoes throughout the poem however it is unusual and interesting to note that it seems that Hardy is blaming Emma for leaving him and over-romanticizing the time they spent together. The title ‘The Going’ gives the air that Emma’s death was a grand sort of departure. A reader with no knowledge of Hardy’s life would perhaps feel that Hardy loved and took much care of his wife throughout his life and her departure was ‘grand’ in that way, however this is not the case. The circumstances Emma died in illustrated a harsh husband who did not come to his wife’s deathbed when the maid told him Emma was very ill – Hardy’s grievous poem makes the circumstances are very ironic. In the second stanza, Hardy also refers to Emma’s death as the ‘great going’, which is once again giving the idea that Emma’s death was grand; like a Queen leaving. It is possible that by glorifying and exalting Emma’s death, Hardy is trying to console himself about the circumstances she died in – by writing over the situation he may be trying to change the story of what happened for the reader in order to make it seem as though he is not the one to blame. Building on the idea that Hardy wants to shift the blame from himself, Hardy throughout the poem asks questions as statements rather than as real questions. For example, he says ‘ Why do you make me leave the house / And think for a breath it is you I see†¦! ‘ – Hardy has not ended his sentence with a question mark but rather he has ended with an exclamation mark, suggesting he in reality does not want to ask Emma these questions, instead he wants to tell her how he wants the story to be. By using ‘you’ in all his questions, the air that Hardy is the victim in this situation rather than Emma. This amplifies upon the idea mentioned above that Hardy may be wanting to write over the situation in order to make it seem that he is not the one to blame. A sense of arrogance and self-righteousness is eluded from his desire to shift the blame away from him – this may make the speaker seem unlikeable. There is a sensual tone in the poem which works to romanticize the mood of the poem and suggest the happy past the couple had in the beginning of their relationship and the happy life they could have had but didn’t. Hardy asks Emma why she did not ‘lip me the softest call’ – this is a reference to physical intimacy and could be a kiss or to whispering ‘sweet-nothings’. From that suggestion, it would seem like Hardy was always expectant for such intimacy however this was not the case as the couple were not physically intimate for most of their relationship. There are echoes of their courting days in their youth in the fourth stanza where Hardy describes a younger Emma in flattering and loving terms as the ‘swan-necked one’ who would ‘muse and eye (him)’. The idea of Emma ‘eyeing’ Hardy suggests a shy and playful Emma sneaking glances at Hardy which evokes empathy in the readers heart for not only Emma but the combined couple of Emma and Hardy during their courtship. This only adds to the sorrowful feeling of Emma’s death – but now by relating their courting days Hardy has not only told the reader of his grief but he has also spread this grief to the reader. Alliteration also adds to the playful feel to the poem, building on the point above. The day is described as ‘darkening dankness’ and the alleys as ‘bending boughs’ – this brings the settings to life and illustrates how rich their relationship could have been, thus amplifying the emotion of regret over Emma’s ‘going’. The alliteration could also suggest that Hardy is attempting to over-romanticize the situation to such an extent that he is trying to convince himself that their relationship was happy. Another interpretation could that whilst this poem is a sad love poem, Hardy’s use of playful alliteration may be demonstrating that Hardy may not be as sad as he is making out to be throughout the poem because if indeed he was terrible grief-stricken by her loss, he would not have had enough composure to compose the poem with such literary devices which make the poem sound more flowing. Using a device such as alliteration is deliberate and therefore Hardy’s use of alliteration shows he had enough capability to make use of this technique. The final stanza in the poem has great significance to the poem and its meaning. Hardy uses short sentences and caesuras to demonstrate how harshly Emma’s death came about and how harshly their relationship ended. ‘Well, well! All’s past amend/Unchangeable. It must go. ‘ shows how he seems reluctant to accept that Emma is now dead as the short sentences make it sound as though he is slowly trying to make himself accept this fact. Sharp caesuras in this stanza also make it feel as though trying to convince himself Emma is gone is very painful. To conclude, Hardy uses literary devices such as alliteration and sensual imagery to give a sensual feel to this poem, however the underlying tone and meaning of this poem is a sad and greivious one as highlighted by Hardy’s use of blame and structure. Short sentences and an inconsistent ryhming scheme demonstrate this sad mood.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Traffic Control

Traffic Control Traffic Control: The Need For ChangeAs the population of the United States dramatically increases and the number of vehicles on the nation's roads and highways skyrockets, new methods of traffic control and organization have become necessary, by utilizing new methods of transportation or by revising the current system. In the past 15 years, the number of vehicles on American roads has increased 41.9%, the number of licensed drivers has increased 29.3%, but the size of the general population has only risen 15.9% (Clark 387-404). Between the years 1975 and 1985, the number of miles driven by Americans rose 34.6%, but the number of miles of roads increased by only 4.4% (Doan 64).Cars and other vehicles are an enormous cost to society, costing between $300 billion and $700 billion per year. These expenses are caused mainly by traffic accidents, traffic jams, and the environmental hazards created by the large number of vehicles on the road.Mezzanine of the Berkeley station. Bay Area Rapid ...Traffic accidents account for one of the major reasons that the current techniques of traffic control need revision. Traffic jams, along with broken cars and the lack of alternate routes, account for one half of the traffic congestion in the United States (Clark 387-404). Although the number of traffic accidents in the United States has slowly decreased over the past several years, it is still alarmingly high. In 1990, approximately 7 deaths occurred for every 10,000 people in the United States due to traffic accidents (Wallich 14).In addition, traffic jams also demonstrate the need for better methods of traffic management. Due to both the increase of women in the work force and the expansion of businesses to the suburbs, traffic jams have increased dramatically over the past few years (Koepp 55). As a consequence of traffic jams, the American population was delayed 722...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Anaylsis between Thoreaus Civil Disobedience & Kings Letter essays

Anaylsis between Thoreau's Civil Disobedience & Kings Letter essays In Civil Disobedience and Letter from Birmingham Jail, Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King use different techniques to fully convey their own opinions on injustice in the government; Thoreau uses a metaphor while King uses an illustration in order to establish emotional appeals. Even though Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau, was written in 1849, and King was imprisoned in 1963, each recognize that injustice occurs in our government. Each authors techniques are effective in proving that injustice should be demolished. Henry David Thoreau compares the United States government to a political machine. This machine has friction, which is Thoreau explains is injustice. He states that If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of the government, let it go, let it go...certainly the machine will wear out (Thoreau 8). Thoreau is stating that this machine will eventually cease to run if the friction continues to occur. By having injustice in the government, corruption is ultimately the result, and the corrupt government will eventually crumble. Thoreau also explains that the people who are affected by the injustice should stop it, or at least make an effort to stop it. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine (Thoreau 8). Sitting back and letting others fix the problem will accomplish nothing, but making any effort towards correcting the injustice is an accomplishment in itself. Although Thoreaus metaphor established an emotional appeal effectively, Kings illustrations elucidate the issue of injustice equally as effectively. King makes mention of the Christians that existed during times of great persecution, and he admires the way that they stood up for what they believed in. King explains that Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power b ...

Monday, November 4, 2019

Metal powder bed additive manufacturing (AM) methods Essay

Metal powder bed additive manufacturing (AM) methods - Essay Example The paper tells that the method of selective laser sintering was carried out first by use of nylon combined with polymers when a need arose to have assistance of audio-visual prototypes and the fit-to-form research tests that were previously conducted. This process received considerable research and as a result, it was further expanded to incorporate metals and subsequently got into alloys that were used in the production of functional prototypes and also in the process of developing rapid tooling procedures. The past practices have seen the status of SLS reconsidered based on rapid prototyping approaches, SLM with the use of phosphorous during the binding mechanism, post-processing that involved parts that were laser-sintered, metals that have undergone direct selective laser sintering, rapid tooling application, and consideration of materials that have been put to use. Substantial research has thus been done in this area and many publications made. This could be attributed to the u sefulness of the technology, its commercial viability, and the kind of broad application that it has found. The technology also has evolved to include the Electron Beam Melting, which is a technology that incorporates building parts laying layer-by-layer by use of metal powder through application of powerful beams of electron. Initially, powder-based AM manufacturing processes did construct various layers made up of plastic and metallic materials that dispersed powders on a given set substrate. These were liquid based processes. AM is also based on the same principle but curing is done by the UV light. The advancements in these technologies have made the AM be of greater use in many industries including fabrications, biomedical, and repairs of metallic forms of components since they have the capacity to deposit metal matter on set substrates (Kruth, et al., 2003, pp.357–371). 2.0 Introduction There has been a considerable increment in new and sophisticated technologies in onl y a span of 20 years. These sophisticated technologies and the innovations have been able to produce some complex and freeform solids (Shiomi, et al., 1999, pp.237–252). Besides, the different additive or subtractive techniques are evolving quite fast into rapid manufacturing processes in the cases of mass-customized goods, which have taken a deviation from the rapid prototyping processes (Mercelis & Kruth, 2006, pp.254–265). The intermitted measurements of those components that have been fabricated through the process of additive manufacturing (AM) have the capacity to boost the in-process improvement as well as change the characterization related to the internal geometrics of materials. These AM processes do take into account the planar layer. The layer-upon-layer aspect of various processes involving AM techniques has the ability to incorporate very simple measurements of two-dimensional nature (Mercelis & Kruth, 2006, pp.254–265). This is attributed to the f act that the current layer of the parts used is focused on a continuous basis when it comes

Saturday, November 2, 2019

The Budgeting Committee of Hardhat Limited Research Paper

The Budgeting Committee of Hardhat Limited - Research Paper Example Performing profitability analysis requires an understanding of selling prices and the behavior of activity cost drivers. (Activity cost driver is often referred to as cost driver when the context is clear that we are discussing activity, rather than structural or organizational, cost drivers.) Profitability analysis is widely used in the economic evaluation of existing or proposed products or services. Typically, it is performed before decisions are finalized in the operating budget for a future period. This report shows the analysis done to find out the changes in the profit when the costs increase and how much of sales is requires to achieve the targeted profits and also the selling price that is required to achieve the targeted profit. For the CVP analysis it is assumed that the total costs can be segregated into fixed and variable costs, the fixed cost remains constant during the relevant period, variable cost per unit remains constant during the period of consideration and the selling price will also be constant irrespective of the volume sold during the year 2007/ 2008. It is also assumed that the production and sales volume will remain constant. With these assumptions as the background, the calculation of the effect of profit is calculated when there is the change in selling price, sales volume and cost of resources are made and submitted.   Ã‚  It is mentioned that the expected sales, variable costs an fixed costs will change in the year of 2007/ 2008. The reason for the increase in fixed cost is the increase in the selling expenses due to expected increase in sales volume and the increase in administration costs are due to an expected increase in salaries. Hence, we have to find out, the relative sales volume to earn the target profits and the new selling price when the sales volume increases by 10% and 20%. These analyses help to understand the triangular relationship between the costs, the volume of sales and profits. Understanding of this relationship helps to make managerial decisions and to devise marketing strategies. From the information provided the variable cost and the fixed costs are segregated to calculate the contribution. Contribution per unit is the difference between the selling price and the variable cost per unit. The contribution is not profit. Contribution means the amount that is obtained by the sale of each unit towards a recovery of the fixed costs.