Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

Philosophy - Essay Example America’s Visions Different continents in the world have dissimilar myths about human identity. For instance, in America, the first story is on Emergence, which states that all human being came from a different world and settled in the one they are currently living. The other world, which is the womb, is considered as the earth mother. This emergence is often referred to as giving birth. The midwife in this case is a female who is like a spider woman. In this emergence story, the male human beings are not featured anywhere. In this case, the formation of human beings is often done in dissimilar stages of growth and change. This is necessitated by inner forces in the womb, and finally the people emerge from a hole and eventually settle in their present homes. The ex nihilo story is found in many cultures, America included, which means â€Å"out of nothing†. Human identity is brought about by the thought of a creator who through his dreams and breath was able to form a hu man being. Through the creator’s bodily secretions, they believed that a being would be formed because of that. This is solely from within the creator who does not exist in the physical world. Another story is the world parent, which describes the union of two parents when they are both disjoined from one another. These two parents are referred to as the Sky and the Earth, which describes the male, and female respectively. ... East Asia In East Asia, and particularly Japan, their vision of human identity was similar to the American and Central Asian cultures. At first, there was chaos, and out of it came light that formed the sky. It later formed the earth. Both the sky and the earth formed various creations and it is at this time that the roots of two people Yang and Yin who were male and female respectively begun to grow in the sky and the earth. At this time both of them were united together and they started separating to create a man and another light brought another person who was like him and he taught him to make clothes to cover himself because he was naked. Another version is of how a bird was sent under the water to create a land inside the water where people can live. The bird then went splashing water apart with its feet at the same time creating the earth when people will live. They believe that their ancestor was a bear because of their hairy bodies. They also believe that two people a male a nd a female were sent to the earth and had a son from where they originated. Australia and the Pacific vision A vision on the Australian myths was about analyzing every animal and its features, which included why the emu has long legs, why the snake has no legs and the reason why the koala has no tail among others. They tell of the formation of the Milky Way and the migration of animals to Australia. They tell of how the first humans came into existence in the continent and how the beginning came into existence. They believed in a wondrous being that went all over the world creating trees, animals and everything in the world and lastly created human beings. African Vision In

The killer inside me by Jim Thompson and Ceremony by leslie marmon Essay

The killer inside me by Jim Thompson and Ceremony by leslie marmon silko - Essay Example They’ll listen to reason.† Persons in authority need to think what they are doing to help the people? For what they will be remembered for! Are they making a difference by making others live better, richer, and happier? Lou Ford must be thinking on similar lines. He must have done his bit to reform a boy by tendering him proper counseling and yet he accepts the compliments with utter humility. When the boy’s father tells him, â€Å"And always he talks about you—what a good man is Deputy Lou Ford,† he replies, â€Å"I didn’t do anything,† I said. â€Å"Just talked to him. Showed him a little interest. Anyone else could have done as much.†(p.4)Normally the suffering (or guilt) that one undergoes leaves an impact on the disposition of the man and his dealing with the people with whom he interacts. Though the people considered Lou a bit slow, it was on account of his sickness when he was younger and many people did not know about it. Lou is a sociopath and he is aware of it. Therefore his conversations are a bit philosophical. He is desperately trying to hide his â€Å"sickness† that he carries since his childhood, now threatening to resurface. So, the above conversations need to be understood in the context that Lou is a psychopath, and he is trying to wear the mask of simplicity on his real face.

Multilateral Diplomacy: The Preferred Path?

Multilateral Diplomacy: The Preferred Path? When states are confronted with diplomatic challenges or in the conduct of their foreign policy, international actors make use of several types of foreign policy strategy: multilateral, bilateral and unilateral. For the purpose of this essay, this paper will focus only on multilateral and bilateral diplomacy. Multilateral and bilateral diplomacy are sometimes seen as twines from the same destiny, for example the European Union constitutes an emerging diplomatic order in which multilateralism and bilateralism are intertwined and bilateralism, whilst constituting a significant component of this multilateral order, is at the same time being re-situated within it and policy areas re-located from predominantly bilateral to the multilateral framework or a mixed bi-multilateral set of processes (Keukeleire,2000: 4-5 cited in Batora and Hocking, 2008:14). The rise of multilateral diplomacy can be traced back to the nineteenth century when the concert of Europe sat around the table together a t the congress of Vienna. Yet this diplomacy, developed in its full form in the twentieth century with the creation of the League of Nations in the aftermath of the First World War and with the United Nations, embodiment of multilateral diplomacy, born after the Second World War (Moore, 2012:1). Today, the UN has a worldwide membership and the global landscape is peppered with economic and regional institutions that are multilateral in nature, such as World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the G20 (Moore, 2012:1). For the purpose of this essay, this paper, first and foremost seeks to define the terms bilateral and multilateral diplomacy respectively. The paper will examine whether multilateral diplomacy is the preferred path for larger states. It will then proceed to examine if bilateral diplomacy still have a role to play. Multilateralism will be discussed from a realist and neoliberals perspective. The paper will also look at bilateral diplomacy in a multilateral context using North Korea as an example. This paper will finally draw a conclusion, by arguing that both multilateral and bilateral diplomacy have various roles to play, multilateral diplomacy is the preferred path for larger states. DEFINITION OF BILATERAL AND MULTILATERAL DIPLOMACY On one hand bilateral diplomacy is characterised by a-sometimes asymmetric-focus on the goal of two actors. It usually means the consensual handling of bilateral relations between two sovereign states. Equal sovereign states are the central actors in the relationship, and any conduct of the relationship needs consensual will from both sides (Klein, Reiners, Zhimin, Junbo, and Slosarcik, 2010:6-20). On the other hand, multilateral diplomacy is defined as a situation where three or more actors are engaged in voluntary and (more or less) institutionalised co-operation governed by norms and principles, with rules that apply (more or less) equally to all (Klein, Reiners, Zhimin, Junbo, and Slosarcik, 2010:7). Furthermore, multilateral diplomacy is viewed as a process linked with norms and ideals about greater international justice, legal equality (or at least non-discrimination) and legitimacy. It is not solely about the number of participating states (Johnson, 2009:56). Moreover, it is defined as the management of international relations among three or more states through diplomatic or representatives without the services of a specialised secretariat (Diplomats, 2009:1). According to Moore, multilateral diplomacy is academically defined as diplomacy conducted via conferences attended by three or more states on the basis of generalised rules of conduct, while a UN envoy has defined it in simpler terms, depicting the diplomatic form as a bunch of countries pushing their own barrows but in the one room (Moore, 2012:1). For the purpose of this essay, this paper defines multilateral diplomacy as a collective, cooperative action by states when necessary in concert with non- state actors-to deal with common challenges and problems when these are best managed collectively at the internal level. In other words, it is the negotiations and discussions which allow these collective and cooperative actions between states and non-states (Cockburn, 2012:1). IS MULTILATERAL DIPLOMACY THE PREFERRED PATH FOR LARGER STATES The growing importance of multilateral diplomacy is a phenomenon of the 21st century, partly because the 21st century has thrown up problems which are universal in nature such as human rights, the international control of disease, the international flow of capital and information, humanitarian assistance, labour rights, trade, natural environmental issues with transnational fall-out and environmental issues of an international nature (Cockburn, 2012:1). The above mentioned problems supersede national sovereignty and this have required some form other and above bilateral diplomacy in order to address them (Cockburn, 2012:1). However, a mounting backlash against globalisation is mingling with widespread loss of faith in the multilateral system- with the conspicuous gap between expectations and outcomes in Copenhagen being merely the latest example. This matters a great deal, because if publics believe that cooperation doesnt work, governments will have greater difficulty marshalling the political will or financial resources to carry out multilateral solutions (Jones, 2010:4). Critiques of multilateral diplomacy argued that multilateral agreements will have to target ambiguous and sometimes elusive common denomination of the many national interests involved and this tends to the lowest common denominator of all the countries involved as a result of the need to reach a political consensus among the participants (Reich, 2009:13).The negotiation and drafting process is usually decided by the large and powerful countries, whereas the small countries have almost no ability to influence the outcome of multilater al negotiation (Reich, 2009:13). Again in a multilateral agreement, it is extremely difficult to reach the necessary consensus in order to conclude such an agreement and therefore in many cases it remains a desirable, but unattainable goal (Reich, 2009:17). Additionally, the US, Russia and China all fail to recognise the international criminal court, thus this drastically reducing its power. Also the most published fight against global warming appears to have been brought to a halt by the failure of the major powers to sign up to the Kyoto protocol (Cockburn, 2012:4). Cockburn again argued that multitude of multilateral treaties concerning weapons of war have ended up very little of what they promised because of major powers refusing to sign them. These are black marks against the name multilateral diplomacy and there are cases where rather than recognising a common good and making concessions on all sides, national interest have triumphed (Cockburn, 2012:4). Although achieving broadly multilateral efforts admittedly has its own set of obstacles and pitfalls, but it also has benefits that are inherently is not possible for any nation, even the United States to, achieve when it acts without others or even with a select few (Jentleson, 2003-4:9). For the purpose of this essay, this paper argues that multilateral diplomacy is the preferred path for larger states. The global war against terrorism has only proven the importance of multilateral cooperation. Much of the successes that have been achieved thus far in the war on terrorism has been through broad multilateral cooperation on a number of lower-profile fronts such as intelligence sharing, border security, economic sanctions and law enforcement (Jentleson,2003-4:9; Rademaker, 2006:1). Multilateral diplomacy, has a comparative advantage, by which different nations, relevant international institutions, and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) all bring to bear their complementary expertise based on their own historical experience, traditional relationships, and policy emphasis (Jentleson, 2003-4:9). The redistribution of power on a global scale pushed by the emergence of new centres of power and the urgency of global challenges (the financial crisis, climate change, maritime security, to name a few) highlights the need for a multilateral diplomacy that deliver global public goods and contain emerging rivalries (Policy brief, 2011:2). As stated by Jones, the 9/11 attacks on the United States intensified multilateral cooperation both through formal and informal institutions, to tackle a range of transnational threats (Jones, 2012:2). Furthermore, there are a category of circumstances which may require only multilateral action through multilateral diplomacy. One example of such is the fight against international money laundry. This fight cannot be handle by a single state due to its nature. However, it has been successfully carried out by a multilateral strategy aimed a t all countries with no exceptions. It is done through a multilateral body named the Financial Action Tax Force (FATF) (Reich, 2009:22) Moreover, multilateral agreements, through multilateral diplomacy offer of course the advantage of lower transaction costs in one central negotiation and drafting process that results in the binding of all the parties to mutual obligation to one another (Reich, 2009:25). And other reason to prefer multilateral action is in circumstances where bilateral action will give unique advantages to the stronger party to the negotiation, and lead to suboptimal outcomes either from a distributive justice or efficiency perspective. In such situations multilateral negotiations that allow weaker countries-such as developing and least developed countries- the possibility to coordinate their positions and bargain collectively with the stronger countries may lead to better results (Reich, 2009:26). This paper argues that in an increasingly interdependent and globalised world, multilateral diplomacy is of value more so ever before in its history. The UN, if reformed accordingly, will continue to be used as a viable multilateral channel to counter fresh global challenges which confront not just a few states but all states (Moore, 2012:1). To further demonstrate how important multilateral diplomacy is to larger states, in his 2010 national security strategy, President Obama acknowledged the fact that the US had been successful after the second world war by pursuing their interest within multilateral forums such as the United Nations and not outside of them( Moore, 2012:2). The global financial crisis of 2008 and the European Unions sovereign debt crisis have demonstrated just how interdependent the economies of the western world are and this crisis has created an age of austerity in which multilateralism is needed ever than before (Moore, 2012:2). With the United States now working multilaterally through the UN and with the onset of a multipolar world, it appears that multilateral diplomacy will continue to be relevant in the 21st century, with the United Nations as the foremost institution for international cooperation. This position has restored UN credibility and revitalised multilateral diplomacy (Moore, 2012:3). The increasingly global nature of the threats that the world faces and the interdependency that is present amongst states shows that multilateral diplomacy remains and will continue to remain, relevant in the 21st century (Moore, 2012:3).The Libya campaign and the efforts to counter Irans nuclear threat are perfect examples of multilateral diplomacy being used effectively in a post 9/11 world. By taking all of these factors into account, it is therefore logical to concur with G.R. Berridge that multilateral diplomacy is here to stay (Moore, 2012:3). DOES BILATERAL DIPLOMACY STILL HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY The past few years have witnessed an outburst of bilateral diplomacy and treaties signed in the field of international law, in general, and in international trade in particular (Reich, 2009:1). Even the United States of America a former champion of multilateralism, which only in 1985 signed its first bilateral free trade agreement (with Israel), has been in a signing spree of such bilateral agreements, with the count now standing on no less than 37 countries with which the US has signed or is in the process of negotiating an (FTA) (Reich, 2009:1). Accordingly, in the field of international investment protection, the attempt by the OECD to create a multilateral investment agreement (MAI) failed in 1998, instead around 2009 we had some 2,750 bilateral investment treaties (BITs), with the number constantly on the rise (Reich, 2009:2). In certain instances, bilateral relations, including the formation of free trade zones, were described as a supplement to the multilateral negotiations on the liberalisation of the trade and the programme explicitly referred to trade relations with the US, Canada and Korea (Czech Republic, 2009:28). Bilateral arrangements also free states from multilateral rules and the demands of diffuse reciprocity; it allows states to obtain benefits from their relationships with weaker states (Klein, Reiners, Zhimin, Junbo and Slosarcik, 2010:22). Furthermore, bilateral-policies enacted by two parties are relatively easy. Simple negotiations reveal what each party wants and does not want. They can quickly resolve differences and move ahead with policy (Jones, 2011:1). Despite all the benefits associated with bilateral diplomacy, this paper still argues that multilateral diplomacy is the preferred path for larger states. As the world becomes smaller through advances in technology and communications, and the more independent the world becomes, the further multilateral diplomacy will develop as a vehicle for international cooperation on major global issues. Regional diplomacy is beginning to develop further with the creation, in the last decades of organisations such as the African Union, the continued enlargement and integration of the European Union after 9/11, and established organisations such as NATO and the Arab League remaining prevalent (Moore, 2012:2). MULTILATERALISM, REALISM AND NEOLIBERALISM Both realist and neoliberals make the assumption that states can be treated as unitary, rational actors pursuing their interests in an anarchic international system (Johnson, 2006:57). For the realist, the international system is portrayed as a brutal arena where states look for opportunities to take advantage of each other, and therefore have little reason to trust each other. Daily life is essentially a struggle for power, where each state strives not only to be the most powerful actor in the system, but also to ensure that no other state achieves that lofty position (Mearsheimer, 1995:9). However, realisms anarchy problematique is outdated, and multilateralism needs to address the more substantive-global problematique of trans-border human security challenges, such as poverty, pollution, climate change, terrorism, drugs, crime and violence- not just state security but human security (Johnson, 2006:57) Realists frame the world in terms of sovereign states competing to maximise their power and individual security. Multilateralism is viewed as a kind of mechanism through which states that rely on self-help can cooperate on the basis of temporarily shared interest (Johnson, 2006:58). Furthermore, the realists consider that the practices, processes and outcomes of multilateralism essentially reflect the participating states power and interest which may shift overtime. By contrast, neoliberals see the institution itself playing a role in embedding norms and practices that integrate themselves in further multilateral practice and institutions, in the neoliberal view, even if the realist are correct in believing that anarchy constrains the willingness to cooperate, states nevertheless can work together and can do so especially with the assistance of institutions (Johnson, 2006:59). MULTILATERALISM VERSUS BILATERALISM: THE CASE OF NORTH KOREA When assessing negotiation approaches for global problems such as nuclear proliferation, it is convenient to assume the liberalist stance of multilateral diplomacy. The commonly cited indispensible element of any negotiation would be to involve all the parties with interests (Diplomats, 2009:1).There are other reasons why multilateral diplomacy such as the six-party talks seems to make sense. Instruments of diplomacy such as economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure are thought to be weaker unless applied multilaterally and there is also the likelihood that a number of bilateral negotiations, where there are conflicting goals, can derail an ongoing multilateral diplomatic effort (Diplomats, 2009:1-2). For the purpose of this essay, this paper suggests that it is better to think multilateral and act bilateral. The bilateral discussions must pre-empt any multilateral talks especially when the North Korean leaderships shows interest to talk. This could be in a series of bilateral meetings (Park, 2005:75-91). A combination of bilateral and multilateral negotiation strategies is the essence of progress in North Korea. The focus however should be on bilateral negotiations that pre-empt framework that suggest Thinking multilaterally and acting bilaterally. This reduces the impact of perceived weaknesses of bilateral approaches such as less effective sanctions and conflicting goals and methods. As long as the overriding multilateral framework has transparency and is cloaked by efficient reporting, no issues of isolation, belligerence or lack of consensus would arise (Diplomat, 2009:3-4). CONCLUSION Having critically examined, whether multilateral diplomacy is the preferred path for larger states, and whether bilateral diplomacy still have a role to play, looked at multilateralism from a realist and neoliberals perspective, and made a thorough examination of the two diplomatic approaches, this paper arrives at a conclusion. The position of this paper remains that in as much as bilateral diplomacy has a role to play, multilateral diplomacy remains the most effective diplomatic strategy in confronting current global threats.

Evening With A Pagan :: essays research papers

An Evening with the Pagans~ A brief history of paganism~ Over 25,000 years ago, our ancestors across the continent practiced an ancient form of religion known as paganism. During the Neolithic and Paleolithic time era, our ancestors were in awe of the great manifestations of nature. Due to lack of scientific thought, they were riddled with ignorance and superstition. Everything had a supernatural explanation. They associated each naturalistic phenomena with a type of god, inscribing inanimate objects with life -like characteristics .This practice is referred to as animism. Every element ,be it thunder ,rain or the sun ,was thought to be a god (or goddess) within it. Eventually their gods became an object of worship   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  known as polytheism. Eventually many forms of polytheism evolved to what is known as paganism. Modern Paganism Now defined as :The worship of a god or goddess whose roots are in pre-Christian Western Europe. Modern paganism is alive and well today. It consists of many sub-divisions .These include ~Wicca ,druidism Santeria and many others. Wicca focuses on the worship of a god and goddess .In Wicca ,there is a plethora of pantheon of deities that one can choose from including: Greek, Norse ,roman etc...... Focusing on a Greek Wiccan tradition ,this will be describing the pagan festival of Hectare. The Festival of Hecate The festival of Hecate is celebrated between the 3rd and 4th Saturday of August. (which ever is closest to the new moon) It is in honor of the Greek goddess Hecate. She was first worshipped in ancient Greece -called the triple goddess of magic. She is often represented in triple form ; maiden (youth) ,mother (fertility) and crone (the wise woman). In ancient Rome ,she was known as trevia ,the cross road with three paths. Hecate is symbolized by the phases of the moon. Each attribute correlates with a particular phase of the moon. The waxing moon (maiden),the full moon (mother) and the new moon( crone). The Ceremony~ Upon arrival at the festival in Georgetown Delaware, everyone gathers for the lecture. This is to educate the newcomers as to what the ceremony entails. The ceremony is always rehearsed before it is performed. After the lecture ,there is a large potluck feast to keep everyone energized for the evenings festivities. The processional~ When the sun sets, the processional begins. With everyone in their appropriate magical attire,(consisting of a robe and jewelry) everyone lines up proceeds with the first phase. This is called consecration- each person is consecrated . This is done by covering the body in incense smoke and sprinkling of water. This is a purification process that cleanses the body of negative

50 Years from Now

What will life be like 50 years from now? In the future, we will be having many different changes, some predictable and some a complete mystery to us. In 50 years we may have a complete breakthrough in medicine. Cancer, aids, and all sorts of ilnesses may be cured. We might even discover a new life form from another planet. There is just so much we can do in 50 years and predictions must be made.In 50 years we will have the ability to go outer space without need of all the training that astronauts nowadays require, and our cars will be nothing like how they are today because within 50 years the world as we know it will be completely different. Life in fifty years will be a lot different then it is now. In most people’s eyes they see the world having flying cars and floating houses, but the way I see it, it’s a lot different. In 50 years we might not have fresh air to breathe or clean water to drink.If humans don’t stop burning oil and coal, the greenhouse gases i nto the atmosphere are about to cause extremely high temperatures and the coldest places on Earth might one day have the best climate for humans. In conclusion, the greatest minds of this planet are saying the possibilities of what can happen in 50 years is endless. There are just way too many theories and too many possibilities to account for. It seems that 50 years from now, it will be a completely different world than it is from the world we live in now .

Respiration System of Animal

1. Respiration System of animal: The respiration system is important to all animals, this system interacts others system in our body to provide energy and maintain life. Animals inbreathe oxygen, the body though metabolic process to produce ATP (energy source) and carbon dioxide, finally, carbon dioxide would be exhaled to animal body. Operation System in company: Company provides some resources such as place, money, human resource. Managers operate the activities in the company and make decisions. The output in this system is the profit or loss of the company. . A firm can survive and succeed in the long run if it successfully develops strategies to confront 5 competitive forces that shape the structure of competition in its industry. These include rivalry of competitors within its industry, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of customers and bargaining power of suppliers. Some competitive strategies can be used to minimize the competitive force: cost le adership strategy, differentiation strategy, innovation strategy, growth strategies and alliance strategies. . The more suitable hardware peripherals for input in a retail operation are touch screen and optical scanning. The touch screen can provide a more user friendly interface to the staffs, even though they have less computer knowledge. Also, optical scanning can provide the faster and easier usage. Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and matrix printers are suitable for a retail operation, because LCD provide a thin, flat display to use less space. Furthermore, matrix printers can use less time to make some copies in the same time. In using the secondary storage for a retail operation, hard disk drives are more suitable. Hard disk drives allow higher speeds, greater data-recording densities, and closer tolerances within a sealed, more stable environment. Nowadays, the capacity of hard drives is up to many terabytes of storage, it can use less space to save more data in one hard disk drive.

The Life of Christine De Pisan

The Life of Christine De Pisan Free Online Research Papers Few can rival Christine de Pisan’s success in writing. A woman in the early 1300’s and late 1400’s, she challenged the social standards of women in France. Her unprecedented work showed critics that women are just as intelligent as men, and are entitled to their own political opinions. De Pisan was born in 1363, the daughter of Tommaso di Benvenuto da Pizzano, an Italian scholar. He was an appointed scholar and physician of the court of Charles V of France. In 1369, a very young De Pisan and her mother moved to live with him, where he taught her many subjects such as literature and the sciences, despite her mother’s opposition. She also had access to the family’s expansive library. In 1389, De Pisan wed Etienne du Castel, a lesser member of the French court that her father had known since she was a born. Though she was only fifteen years old, and he was twenty-four, they shared a marriage of mutual respect for one another. Castel supported De Pisan and encouraged her academic growth. The couple had three children; a daughter in 1381 who would later become a nun, a son who died in infancy, and a second son in 1385 who was raised by the Earl of Salisbury. In 1380, tragedy struck Christine de Pisan and her family. Charles V died and her father was dismissed from the French court. Not long afterwards, he grew ill and passed away. In 1389, her husband died of the bubonic plague. The death of her father and husband left De Pisan with several debts and two children to support. Rather than remarry, Christine de Pisan chose instead to use writing to support herself. During this time, intellectuals of the period popularized an argument on the role of women in society. Christine de Pisan wrote several responses on this argument, among which were the slightly humorous The Epistle to the God of Love, The Tale of the Rose, and possibly her most influential work, The City of Ladies. The City of Ladies was a collection of the stories of notable women in history, as well as a discussion on he role of women in society and their lack of education. Her later writings focused almost entirely on politics of the time. She frequently wrote of restoring peace to the French kingdom. De Pisan’s last work was a narrative account on Joan of Arc, celebrating her achievements at Orleans, as well as praising her dedication to Christianity. In 1431, Christine de Pisan passed away at the age of ninety-six. She is considered one of the greatest writers of the time period and the first feminist author, a well-deserved title. Research Papers on The Life of Christine De PisanQuebec and CanadaThe Fifth HorsemanBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 219 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)Assess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 Europe

Movies Historical Representation Essays

Movies Historical Representation Essays Movies Historical Representation Essay Movies Historical Representation Essay Essay Topic: Historical Name: Course: Lecturer: Date: Movies Historical Representation No country in the world has recorded its history through films as America has. America has created films about the major events in its history. It has served the memories of its past, and has acted as an educational tool. Apart from the documentaries concerning the specific events, many of the movies portray the events as they happened, with an additional touch of fiction and added or exaggerated heroism. These features appeal to the audiences as they add the entertainment value. Audiences across different sectors have different interpretations concerning the movie. This is largely influenced by the directors’ intention and objective when creating the movie. When the directors are more concerned about the entertainment, rather than the awareness or educational objective, they will not take keen interest about the accuracy of the events. They will instead seek to add visual effects and add other elements that appeal to the viewers. Movies can sometimes serve as a preserve for history, and they aim to represent the events as accurately as possible, but they often lack to show all the details concerning the event, thus making them less credible as sources of historical information. . The movie â€Å"Saving Private Ryan† by director Steven Spielberg is one of the most important and realistic movies about World War II. It is the story about a group of US soldiers who have to save Private Ryan. Many of the families suffered when their children went to the war. The government had set a policy that was aimed at making sure that family lines survived. Private Ryan had already lost three brothers in the war, and the government sent soldiers to save him since he was the only son left. The movie details the events of the operation. It shows the courage of the soldiers as they fight to save one of their own. It shows the loss and the heartbreak that the families suffered when their children went to war with no guarantee that they would ever see them again. The movie shows the bond that the soldiers developed as they fought the war, and the lengths they took to ensure that they survived. The battle scenes in the movie are violent, as they seek to show the real extent of the war. Spielberg has directed several movies about different wars. In a culture and country where war movies are released often, the characters and crew involved in the production of the movie might have watched several war movies. Many of the war movies glorify the individual bravery of the American soldiers. There is therefore a lot of influence of such ideologies in the movie. Sometimes, the directors do not research materials concerning the movie that is actually contrary to the obvious notion of heroism and bravery. They do not include material where soldiers from one country betray each other or make foolish decisions. In many movies, it seems like all the soldiers, and especially those in the leadership position, have a supernatural instinct to know the weaknesses of the enemy, and to know the right tactics to use to control the enemy. This is rarely the case however. Perhaps because of the limitation of time, the directors do not take time to know much about the war. However, it is possible that the main intent of the directors is to please the viewers and show them that the war was justified. Many Americans have lost loved ones in the war. Some of those who have fought in various wars feel that they have given something important to their country. They feel devoted to their country and they feel honored when their bravery is recognized. They are therefore pleased and excited when they get the chance to see such movies. Several printed records such as news articles and books that were written and published, as the war was ongoing give vivid descriptions of the war. In some cases, the soldiers did not always make the right decisions. They were often frightened and they ended up making costly mistakes. Many of the soldiers died in the hands of their fellow compatriots. Some of the soldiers made decisions that ended up putting the troops in danger. The soldiers fighting in the war were not always courageous despite the fact that they had been trained and well equipped for the war. They often made decisions out of fear, desperation, panic or pain (Lewis 134). If such accounts are considered, then it follows that many of the war movies, including â€Å"Saving Private Ryan†, may not be credible, and they do not reflect the war as it really happened. The movies usually show the ingenuity of the soldiers, the wisdom of the captains and other leaders, the obedience of the soldiers to their leaders and the courage of the men. In the movie, the captain chose one of the people who had not been trained for war to accompany them in the search for Ryan. The man did not know the intricacies of the war, and it is through him that the audience learns and sees the fear of the men. There are many factors that led to the end of the war, and that determined the winner of the war. In the case of the Second World War, the American soldiers were fighting with the Germans. The Germans had fought for several years during the Nazi invasion. They were short of supplies and resources, including soldiers, and this weakened them. Americans took considerable time before joining other countries to fight the Germans. They had enough resources when they joined other countries. They were therefore in a better position than the Germans and this enabled them to win the war (Lewis 134). Such accounts are not usually recorded in war movie. The fact that the movie directors and producers show scanty details concerning few aspects of the event, contributes to the lack of credibility seen in war movies. In many Hollywood war movies, someone is always willing to sacrifice his life for the others, and â€Å"Saving Private Ryan† is not an exception. In the movie, Captain Miller chooses to stay behind and fight alongside Ryan. He and his troops go through a lot in their quest for finding Ryan. Some of the men, including Captain Miller, end up dead. What the movie directors fail to realize is that in some of the cases, many of the soldiers are more concerned about saving their lives, than they are in sacrificing themselves for their compatriots. Many critics and audiences believe that the movie is one of the most realistic movies about the Second World War. This is largely because of the graphic violence shown in the movie. The movie starts with extremely violent scenes where the American soldiers are attacked and killed by the Germans on land, and in water. The rest of the movie also has other violent scenes although they are not as graphic as they are in the beginning. Despite its shortcomings, the movie was a good production, and it served to depict the horrors of the war. The movie’s graphic scenes helped in showing just how much the soldiers went through when fighting the war. America has continued to fight in other wars in modern time. It has fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many American soldiers have lost their lives. In the movie, Ryan was lucky enough to survive the war. Other families are not as lucky today, as they have continued to lose their children in the war. The movie makes one wonder whether there is any sense in getting involved in the war. In some cases, American troops are involved in wars, without perceived threat to the county. For instance, NATO’s decision to invade Libya led to the deaths of many people. The country was engaged in a civil war yet the international community, including America, felt the need to fight in the war. There are many ways of resolving conflicts between people, and they d o not have to kill each other as a means of finding peace. Wars are necessary in some cases, as the soldiers fight to protect the people and defend their country. Just like other war movies, â€Å"Saving Private Ryan† is meant to preserve the honor of the soldiers who fought in the war. The directors who direct these movies want to show that the soldiers who sacrificed their lives should be honored and remembered for their bravery. Spielberg aims to show the duty and sacrifice that was made by the soldiers. The movie seems to encourage other people to join in the war (Thompson et al., 56). They do not question the legality of the wars. Many films do not capture the fear of the men and the hatred they have for the war. In the movie, Captain Miller confesses that he feels further away from home every time he kills a person. He does not however do anything about it, but he instead chooses to follow orders. Many families detest wars since they end up losing their loved ones. They not only feel a sense of loss when their loved ones die in the war, but they also feel that their country has let them down. War movies do not capture these sentim ents. They do not capture the fact that many of the soldiers would want to be safe with their families. They seem to promote the stereotypical view that men are supposed to be courageous and they should fight for defense. Anyone who does not hold this view is seen as a coward. American war movies do not fail to show the bond that the soldiers develop with each other. They show how the soldiers sacrifice their lives for each other, and the friendship and the closeness that they develop when in the danger zone. They show the wisdom, ingenuity, courage, obedience and heroism of the soldiers. They sometimes show the fear of the soldiers. These are not usually the true representation of the reality on the battleground. The movies fail to show the cowardice that some of the soldiers feel. They fail to show how the soldiers feel whenever they kill a person. Many of the movies with violent scenes show the soldiers killing each other mercilessly and without remorse. This is not usually the case, as the soldiers will usually prefer to use other methods of dealing with the enemy. The movies fail to show the poor decisions that often put the soldiers at risk. They fail to show how the soldiers panic and they end up betraying and killing each other in battle. The movie is less credible because it contains inadequate details of the event, and it concentrates on the positive attributes of the American soldiers.

Meanings, Examples and Observations of the Word Lexicon

Meanings, Examples and Observations of the Word Lexicon A lexicon is the collection of words- or the internalized dictionary- that every speaker of a  language has. It is also called lexis. Lexicon may also refer to a  stock of terms used in a particular profession, subject or style. The word itself is the Anglicized version of the Greek word lexis (which means word in Greek). It basically means dictionary. Lexicology describes the study of lexis and lexicon. See Examples and Observations below. Also see: JargonLanguage AcquisitionLexemeLexical CompetenceLexical DiffusionLexical-Functional Grammar (LFG)Lexical IntegrityLexicalizationLexical SetLexicogrammarLexicographerLexicographicolatryLexicograpyLexicologyLexisListemeMental LexiconMorphologyVocabularyVocabulary Acquisition Examples and Observations The lexicon of soccer (called football outside of the United States) includes terms such as linesman, friendly match, yellow card, penalty shootout, pitch, result, and draw.The lexicon of a stock trader includes terms such as delayed quotes, futures contract, limit order, margin account, short selling, stop order, trend line and watch list. Words by the Numbers [T]here are currently about 600,000 words in the English language, with educated adults using about 2,000 words in daily conversation. For the 500 most-frequently used words, there are some 14,000 dictionary meanings. (Wallace V. Schmidt, et al., Communicating Globally. Sage, 2007)  The English lexicon grew by 70 percent from 1950 to 2000, with roughly 8,500 new words entering the language each year. Dictionaries dont reflect a lot of those words. (Marc Parry, Scholars Elicit a Cultural Genome From 5.2 Million Google-Digitized Books. The Chronicle of Higher Education. December 16, 2010) Myths of Word Learning If you attend a class on language acquisition, or read any good introductory chapter on the subject, you are likely to learn the following facts about word learning. Childrens first words are odd; they have funny meanings that violate certain semantic principles that hold for adult language and are learned in a slow and haphazard way. Then, at about 16 months, or after learning about fifty words, there is a sudden acceleration in the rate of word learning- a word spurt or vocabulary explosion. From this point on, children learn words at the rate of five, ten, or even fifteen new words a day. I will suggest here that none of these claims are true. They are myths of word learning. There is no reason to believe that childrens first words are learned and understood in an immature fashion- and there is considerable evidence to the contrary. There is no such thing as word spurt, and two-year-olds are not learning anywhere near five words per day. (Paul Bloom, Myths of Word Learning. Weavin g a Lexicon, ed. by D. Geoffrey Hall and Sandra R. Waxman. MIT Press, 2004) Language Acquisition: Grammar and Lexicon In a review of findings from language development, language breakdown and real-time processing, we conclude that the case for a modular distinction between grammar and the lexicon has been overstated, and that the evidence to date is compatible with a unified lexicalist account. Studies of normal children show that the emergence of grammar is highly dependent upon vocabulary size, a finding confirmed and extended in atypical populations. Studies of language breakdown in older children and adults provide no evidence for a modular dissociation between grammar and the lexicon; some structures are especially vulnerable to brain damage (e.g., function words, non-canonical word orders), but this vulnerability is also observed in neurologically intact individuals under perceptual degradation or cognitive overload. Finally, online studies provide evidence for early and intricate interactions between lexical and grammatical information in normal adults. (Elizabeth Bates and Judith C. Goodman, On the Inseparability of Grammar and the Lexicon: Evidence from Acquisition, Aphasia and Real-time Processing. Language and Cognitive Processes. The Chronicles of Higher Education. December 1997) Acquisition of the lexicon and acquisition of the grammar are ... parts of a single underlying process. (Jesse Snedeker and Lila R. Gleitman, Why It Is Hard to Label Our Concepts. Weaving a Lexicon, ed. by D. Geoffrey Hall and Sandra R. Waxman. MIT Press, 2004)

Career Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Career Management - Essay Example According to Kossek & Roberts, self-set managing activities mainly includes acquiring knowledge about one's personality, set of connections and appreciation on successfully completion of the assignments in the course of career development within an institution. (ELLEN ERNST KOSSEK, KAREN ROBERTS, 1998) On the other hand, "organizational career management" expresses the course of action adapted by the organizations to manage the careers of its workers. As per the theories of Stump, the Organizational career management is "actions and prospects that organizations support to help guarantee they will congregate or surpass their expected human resource necessities." (ELLEN ERNST KOSSEK, KAREN ROBERTS, 1998) Stumpf also reveals in his theory that the career corridors, worker education & development, employment postings, vocation therapies, outplacement psychotherapies and mentoring are merely few measures that are usually implemented in organizational career management agendas. (STUMPF, S.A., 1988) Loads of scholars have cited the work of Arnold (1997) who in his theories had explained career management as an endeavor to influence the career development of others. ... (ARNOLD, John, 1997) There has been occurrence of elementary shifts in the management of careers however, while previously careers were managed by the organizations by way of conventional and secure progress upwards on organizationally-defined ladders on the other hand the present-day arrangement of career management focuses on attaining knowledge and proficiencies as an alternative of making headway through a preset sequence of positions. (THITE, Mohan, 2001) Acquirement of novel acquaintance and talents increase the chances of "employability," i.e. the capability for the member of staff to achieve and sustain employment, facilitating the worker to budge around what Thite had referred to as a "jungle gym" of designations. (CLARKE, Marilyn, 2007) This novel conceptual framework of career management constitutes diverse meaning for mutually, the individual and the organization, getting forward to a dual way approach towards "career management, individual career management and organizational career manageme nt." (BARUCH, Y., 2006) This paper hereby evaluates the significance of career Management as an essential component of Human Resource activities from the joint perception of the organization as well as individual employees. This paper also highlights the obstructions that are usually encountered by HR professionals in implementing the career management program in an organization in addition with the measures that could be implemented to evade these barricades. This paper provides brief opinions of a number of researchers and authors on the topic. 2. Significance of Career Management The incorporation of the career management practice in HRM permits the shifting from a scheme of administration

Work Breakdown Structure Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Work Breakdown Structure - Assignment Example The time frame for completing all activities at the terminal ends must be within the confines of one reporting period. If the activity may spill over to the next period, then it should be further subdivided. It is possible to contract out the terminal elements of work as single units of activities. For instance, all the activities in the above WBS can be contracted to specific individuals or groups. The terminal elements should represent work activities that realistically are not possible to break further (Miller 98). The Tree Structure Format was employed in developing the work breakdown structure. This is the commonly used format in presenting the WBS. The major advantage over other methods is that it is easy to understand just by taking a quick glance (Miller 109). Users can quickly be able to view the flow of work and what they are expected to do. The downside is that it may be difficult to create compared to others such as the Tabular Format. In project management, certain activities or whole project may spiral out of control and take longer than usual to complete. This may occur due to lack of proper planning of the scope of the project ahead of its implementation. This is referred to as the scope creep. IT projects are highly susceptible to scope creep. For example, FoxMeyer Drug, a large pharmaceutical company experienced scope creep on trying to install a multimillion IT system that would manage all critical operations. The scope of the project experienced a continuous growth until the costs became prohibitive (Schwalbe 209). The IT system also experienced billing errors. The cause of scope creep in this case was the lack of a clearly defined scope of work. There were no elaborate work limits during the initial stages of the project. Product testing could also have helped eliminate failures in the new system which resulted to errors (Schwalbe 210). Northrop Grumman, a manufacturing company experienced scope creep during implementation

Value Chain Analysis Of DHL And Aramex Assignment

Value Chain Analysis Of DHL And Aramex - Assignment Example Both secondary as well as primary data would be collected in order to present a comprehensive report to the readers. Among these major business operations, supply chain is the common element that has been considered for this report. Though supply chain plays a significant role for both DHL Express and Aramex, but DHL Express is a bigger company and supply chain is segregated for different segment such as, health care, oil and gas, etc. Aramex on the other hand is present worldwide, but yet the company is not as large as DHL, so they have a sophisticated and technology integrated supply chain. I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The express transportation and logistics industry can be regarded as one of the steady growing segments in the world economy. More than 1.25 million individuals are an example, as well as primary data, recently, which is even more than the size of the petroleum and oil industry. Apart from this, it supports more than 2.65 million other jobs around the world (Oxford Economic Forecasting, 2005). There are many industries around the world which functions with the help of express service industry, such as pharmaceutical, manufacturing, financial services and other technology companies (Transport Intelligence, 2012). The global leaders in this industry are the big four companies; DHL Express, UPS, TNT and FedEx (Thompson and Martin, 2010). The aim of this report is to analyse the business operations of two well-know express transportation and logistics industry, so as to identify a common element in their business operation and compare and contrast them. The companies chosen for this study is DHL Express and Aramex. A specific focus towards the business operation and function of these companies in the Gulf countries, such as Bahrain, etc would be also taken into account. 1.2 Procedure This report will include a comparative study of two companies in the express transportation and logistics industry.

The Global Trade Distribution Processes of Coca-Cola company Essay

The Global Trade Distribution Processes of Coca-Cola company - Essay Example Entry into a new market may require products to be changed in order to suit the preferences and tastes of the new foreign market. Multinationals are to be aware of the best stores for their products, the features most valued by the foreign audience, and the right prices to set for the products. This document covers Coca-Cola Company (from here on known as Coke); a beverage company that sells and distributes more than four hundred brands in two hundred countries around the globe (Coca-Cola, 2011); critically analyzing its success with respect to its international distribution strategies and processes while evaluating the issues involved in its quest for global dominance in the soft drinks and beverages industry. Distribution is defined by Daniels, Radebaugh and Sullivan (2011) as â€Å"the course, physical path or legal title that goods take between production and consumption. In international marketing, a company must decide on the method of distribution among countries as well as t he method within the country where final sale occurs.† The choice of a distributor and channel is the first step towards foreign market distribution. According to Daniels, Radebaugh and Sullivan (2011), a new company in a new market should rely entirely on external distributors as it is economical. This is a case where the new company distributes its products via other local distributors due to an under-developed market. However, the company can assume in house distribution once the market share is large. In Belarus, the market is not large and as a result, Coke relies on local distributors to handle transportation of products to retailers and final consumers in order to cut on their transportation costs (Daniels, Radebaugh and Sullivan, 2011). The US is one of the largest markets for the company’s products and as a result, the company has developed a business model that is mature and with distribution. Here, the company has outsourced its distribution and production to its distribution and bottling companies. The process involves marketers distributing Coke products (syrup) from Coke plants to bottling plants from where the canned and bottled products are distributed to centres and later they find their way to the final consumer or retail outlets (Kant, Jacks and Aantjes, 2008). Reports reveal that China will eventually surpass the U.S to become the Coke’s largest market (Chung, 2003). In China, Coke operates its own direct-to-retail distribution but the operation is faced by a slow growth accounting for just a fraction of the country’s Coke sales. The company has at least one sales centre in most Chinese cities housing more than one million people but most are owned by bottling companies (Weisert, 2001). The poor distribution of these stores in the country can be associated with inaccessibility and the culture of the Chinese people. A company looking for foreign distributors will typically opt for potential distributors. Among the common criteria followed when choosing these distributors is the financial strength of the company as well as its well-established connections. Since the relationship between the producer and the distributor is expected to be long lasting, the financial strength of the distributor is vital. In addition, the relationship will involve maintenance of certain things like inventories and as such assurances need to be made

Managing Information Technology in Small Business Term Paper

Managing Information Technology in Small Business - Term Paper Example Tebrak is a construction company that was established in 1979. The company was registered and started its operations in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. It was initially started as a family business and had 30 employees at the time it was being incorporated. Tebrak managed to grow its workforce and by 1995, the company had employed more than 250 workers. In the year 2000, the company was classified level B. The company also managed to diversify its operations and in 2005 it commenced the supply of medical equipment and devices to hospitals. The company has been managed by a family with the assistance of twelve management-level employees in each company. It has also recorded approximately 200 million Saudi Riyal in sales revenue. This has seen Tebrak grow into a large company that has been offering significant employment opportunities to the residents of Riyadh city. Despite the robust growth of Tebrak, there was the issue of centralization of decision making. Decision making was for a long time restricted to top level management. The lower level of management was never involved in any decision-making process. This restricted participation in decision making never provided freedom of decision making (Aksoy & DeNardis, 2007). The top level of management was involved in strategic planning while the lower level was involved in the implementation of policies devised by the top management. The organization managed to emerge as the market leader in an industry that was very competitive with large firms dominating the industry. Tebrak had adequate capital that saw the company invest in a number of economically viable projects that sustained its profitability for a very long time. There was less use of technology during the early 1990s and most of the firms were unable to remain competitive. This resulted in the exit of a number of companies because of decreasing profit margins.

The investment demand schedule Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The investment demand schedule - Essay Example (Finpipe n.d.) The economic crisis has played a great role on interest rates needed to make an investment demand schedule. This study will review the factors that affect investment demand schedules of financing. 1. Supply and demand of money. What happened during the boom time before the crisis? Before the economic crisis, banks had enough supply of money and people demands for business expansion, housing, cars and credit. Banks gets their funds from depositors who are paid 6% interest rate on their savings, and banks lend this money to borrowers at 8%. When demand for money gets bigger than the sufficient funds of the bank, interest rates become higher. Why, because the bank will also borrow funds from other sources which charges them interest. This will necessarily increase the rate of interest in borrowing. 2. Monetary policies. The monetary policies of the government could either tighten or loosen the money supply. Loosening money supply is the policy of printing money for circulation by the Central Bank. Tightening it causes interest rate to increase. Monetary policies are decisions done by the government to manage the economy in such a way that it tries to determine how much money supply is needed. 3. Inflation. Inflation is defined as â€Å"an increase in the amount of money and credit in relation to the supply of goods and services† (YourDictionary) T control inflation, government issues several policies to curb inflation. One of these is printing of money for money supply. 3.1 The government monetary policy of printing money for supply circulation is called monetary inflation. In global economy today, the amount of money in circulation can be provided by financial institutions and can be more complex because of interest rates. (Your Dictionary) 3.2 Effect of Government borrowings. An investment demand schedule is needed by the government for public expenditures. When the tax collected is not sufficient for projected expenses,

Managing Information Technology in Small Business Term Paper

Managing Information Technology in Small Business - Term Paper Example Tebrak is a construction company that was established in 1979. The company was registered and started its operations in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. It was initially started as a family business and had 30 employees at the time it was being incorporated. Tebrak managed to grow its workforce and by 1995, the company had employed more than 250 workers. In the year 2000, the company was classified level B. The company also managed to diversify its operations and in 2005 it commenced the supply of medical equipment and devices to hospitals. The company has been managed by a family with the assistance of twelve management-level employees in each company. It has also recorded approximately 200 million Saudi Riyal in sales revenue. This has seen Tebrak grow into a large company that has been offering significant employment opportunities to the residents of Riyadh city. Despite the robust growth of Tebrak, there was the issue of centralization of decision making. Decision making was for a long time restricted to top level management. The lower level of management was never involved in any decision-making process. This restricted participation in decision making never provided freedom of decision making (Aksoy & DeNardis, 2007). The top level of management was involved in strategic planning while the lower level was involved in the implementation of policies devised by the top management. The organization managed to emerge as the market leader in an industry that was very competitive with large firms dominating the industry. Tebrak had adequate capital that saw the company invest in a number of economically viable projects that sustained its profitability for a very long time. There was less use of technology during the early 1990s and most of the firms were unable to remain competitive. This resulted in the exit of a number of companies because of decreasing profit margins.

CEO compensation Essay Example for Free

CEO compensation Essay Recently CEO compensation packages have high rocketed making many people question the validity of their compensation. Many questions have been risen to find out if CEO compensation if excessive. Through this paper we will discuss why we feel CEOs in America are grossly overpaid. We will start off by talking about the ethics on the matter and then the pay-performance connection within organizations. We will also touch on the real wages of employees and how America compares to international companies. We will finish our argument with some recommendations that we feel will help make organizations as a whole better. High Pay, Low Performance Financial Crisis It is shown in several studies that high CEO pay is linked to low company performance. In the article, â€Å"Chief Executive Compensation: An Empirical Study of Fat Cat CEOs,† by Kuo and Wang they describe the connection between CEO compensation and the financial crisis in 2008. As stated in the article, â€Å"the incentives built into the compensation plans of many financial firms are one of the fundamental causes of the financial crisis and surprisingly receives little public attention†. They go on to say, â€Å"Top executives of large banks or investment banks have encouraged the excessive risk-taking by top managers, leading to the financial crisis. † Kuo and Wang also explain how the incentives of executives are link to the short-term performance of securities that are traded. This sort of behavior is not in the stakeholders’ best interest. The CEOs in this case are clearly not interested in what is best for the company, but merely looking out for themselves. Instead of focusing on long-term competitive advantages and achievements, the CEOs are looking to make a quick buck for themselves. Another resource we used was that of Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried. They have a very similar take on the topic, by also stating that trading securities was the beginning to the financial breakdown in American in the late 2000s. â€Å"During the extended bull market of the 1990s, executives’ compensation at public companiescompanies whose shares are traded on stock exchangesoared to unexpected levels† (Bebchuk and Fried, 2004, pg. 1). As you can see there is a strong connection between firms that trade securities and the breakdown of the market. Growing Trends The overcompensation of CEOs in America is nothing new, according to our research this trend dates back to the 1970s. â€Å"The review on CEO compensation by Frydman and Jenter (2010) shows that there was a dramatic increase in the compensation levels from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s in the U. S. Especially in the 1990s, the annual growth rates were more than 10% by the end of the decade† After researching the topic, we were surprised to find out just how much CEO pay has increased in a very little time-span, â€Å"Between 1992 and 2000, the average real pay of chief executive officers of SP 500 firms more than quadrupled, climbing from $3. million to $14. 7 million† (Bebchuk and Fried, 2004, pg. 1).   Star Athletes It has been said that CEOs are comparable to star athletes; therefore, they deserve the substantial increase in their pay. However, the majority of the CEOs that are contributing to this big picture problem are not working for their â€Å"team†. If CEOs were taking these risky investments to better the company, that is one thing, however, the link directly pointing to incentives tells a different story. Defenders of CEO compensation are also forgetting that along with the large compensation packages there is a great deal of retirement funds, 401ks, and stock retained within the company. The large payment of athletes could be contributed to the fact that they are not getting post-retirement benefits, like those of large corporation CEOs (Bebchuk, Fried, 2004 pg. 20-21). Employee’s Living Wages One of the biggest concerns with the increase of CEO compensation is the steadily decreasing real wages of employees. Compensation of CEOs far outweighs that of employee pay. In 1991, the average large-company CEO received approximately 140 times the pay of an average worker; in 2003, the ration was about 500:1† (Bebchuk and Fried, 2004, pg. 1). CEO Compensation and Virtue Ethics Another way to look at CEO compensation is to see if it agrees with virtue ethics. There is Aristotelian virtue oriented approach to ethics and was applied to business by Robert Solomon. In this, Solomon a rgues that business is primarily a practice, in which a community of individuals engages in a cooperative endeavor to deliver goods and services for the good of society. In this practice certain virtues such as integrity, moral courage, and justice are essential to the practice of business. Also, in virtue ethics justice implies that executive pay should be more modest across the board, regardless of company profitability. (Kolb, 2006, pg. 101-115) CEO compensation is not â€Å"fair† top 25 CEOs had an average annual pay of $32. 7 million, which is more than 900 times the annual salary of the typical US worker. In an era which many companies are cutting costs by laying off employees, such compensation seems to be unjust. Solomon argues that workers may not be loyal to someone they perceive as being unfair. At some level, trust and loyalty are needed for a company to prosper. Without these, this company will be left with a group of resentful, unhappy employees. Even if the CEO’s employees are â€Å"satisfied† with their minimum wage salary this satisfaction does not make the CEO’s actions any less just since he or she could afford to pay their employees more. At this point the CEO is taking advantage of his or her workers and being selfish. Companies give bonuses to CEOs even as employees and managers are being laid off. An example is one CEO and chairman of the board made $8. 9 million in 2003, which was the same year his company lost $463 million and he slashed the workforce by 20 percent, or 6,000 workers. Doing things like this can poison a corporation and completely divide a company. Instead of CEO’s comparing compensation packages to to other employees of their companies, CEO’s are comparing their compensation packages to the other CEO’s, which is not a standard for just compensation, since the issue of inequality often arises within a particular corporation. The success of a company is a team effort and not just all done by the CEO. Without the lower level employees a company will not be able to be successful. CEOs do have greater responsibility, but corporations are too large and unwieldy to be governed by just one individual. By spreading the CEO’s compensation package it could allow for employee raises and benefits which could help motivate employees and make them happier. Executives can be paid well without being paid excessively. A CEO is not some isolated individual seeking his or her own ends independently of other members of the corporate community; he or she is part of a whole. Therefore CEOs should not be paid like they are an individual who does everything on their own. A CEO’s role is defined by the corporation and the corporation has an overall purpose to benefit society. CEOs taking less in their compensation packages and spreading them throughout employees can actually help society. Our economy is down and needs to be improved. In order to improve it we need people to start spending money. However, in order to spend more money people need to make more money. If CEOs distributed some of their compensation packages to their fellow employees they could have more money to spend and help increase the level of our economy. International Compensation When comparing CEO compensation in the United States to other major countries the statistics are quite glaring. A study done by consulting firm Towers Perrin estimated pay as of April 1, 1999, in industrial companies with approximately $500 million in sales. CEOs in the United States earn over $1,350,000 compared to Japanese, $485,000, German $530,000, French, $570,000, and UK, $665,000 (Balsam, 2002, pg 277). Rules for governing executive compensation vary from across the globe. In companies such as Germany and Finland it is illegal to to use stock option to compensate executives until 1998, unlike the United States, which stock options are a major part of their compensation package (Balsam, 2002, pg 277). It was noted that in 1997, Disney’s Michael Eisner single handedly out earned the aggregate paychecks of the top 500 CEO’s in the UK. CEOs in the United States earn 45 percent higher cash compensation and 190 percent higher total compensation. Also median base salary is 30 percent higher in the United States while United States median bonuses are more than triple of that in the UK as well (Balsam, 2002, pg. 288). When comparing corporations in Canada with the United States there is a marked difference between the two countries in both the level and structure of CEO compensation. During the 1993-1995 period Canadian CEOs earn lower pay, with the median CEO earning $560,000 in US dollars compared to $2. 5 million for corporations in the SP 500. Salary made up a higher proportion and bonuses and options a lower proportion of the compensation package for Canadian corporations. Overall, the relationship of pay to performance is weaker in Canada than in the United States. Despite the drastic differences in CEO compensation between the United States and other countries there are several reasons for these differences which stem from being cultural, some regulatory, and others due to taxation. In many countries it is taboo to earn the amount of money that American executives make. Some countries have their own laws and regulations that make stock options less valuable and limit the overall compensation of CEOs. Lastly, restraints and taxes can affect compensation. An example is that few Japanese and German corporations were able to issue stock options. Japan is limited to owning only 10 percent of their stock, which is a large amount but much less than companies in the United States (Balsam, 2002, pg 280). Overall, the United States drastically pays CEOs higher compensation than the rest of the world, on average. It is easy to see how wide the gap actually is when seeing the statistics. Several reasons contribute to the difference in CEO compensation. However, with the success of international companies and paying CEOs less compensation, we in the United States can infer that CEO compensation in the United States is too high. Recommendations After taking a closer look into the argument and debate of CEO compensation we believe there are several ways to lessen the gap between CEOs and employees. One idea we had was to link bonuses to the company stock prices. This way, CEO pay will be more based on yearly performance of their company. Another suggestion we had was to offer more modest compensation packages, and to spread the wealth CEOs no longer make throughout employees to add to their salaries, benefits, and improving employee working conditions. Out last recommendation was for board of directors to make more restrictions on CEO pay, such as limiting stock options. Conclusion After all of our research we strongly believe that salaries of CEOs are incredibly excessive. CEOs whose performance did not match up, to the steadily decreasing real wages of employees

Methodology set of rituals

Methodology set of rituals Unfortunately method is sometimes reduced to incantations or a set of rituals which are applied to data. Because the research object is complex due to its multi-dimensional characteristics it is not susceptible to exhaustive coverage. Therefore, method itself should investigate at a conceptual level and not simply applied in a mechanistic way. The methodology applied in this project is therefore not a recipe for research practice. The research requires a qualitative methodology rather than a quantitative and it will draw upon non-positivist insights like phenomenology and post-structuralist. Again the analysis is not based on statistics but employs semiotics and analysis of discourse. Through data collection and the development and elaboration on the theoretical embedding the findings will gain reliability, validity, as well as the ability to generalise. To distinguish this approach from statistical sampling Glaser and Strauss (1967) have termed this theoretical sampling. Grounding theory on the basis of observation and recounting experiences either social experiences or work practices requires a: â€Å" process of data collection for generating theory whereby the analyst jointly collects, codes, and analyses his data and decides what data to collect next and where to find them, in order to develop his theory as it emerges. The emerging theory, whether substantive or formal controls this process of data collection. The initial decisions for theoretical collection of data are based only on a general sociological perspective and on a general subject or problem area † (Glaser and Strauss: 45). This requirement has impacted the decision for a qualitative methodology that leans towards institutional ethnography, associated with Dorothy E. Smith a social theorist from Canada. However, researching this project through institutional ethnography is primarily motivated by my views that objective knowledge used in the management of organisations does not pay tribute to the actual diverse circumstances of the lives of organisations members and is thus not open to the causes and consequences of the social problems perpetuated by these circumstances. By using institutional ethnography I envision, implicitly, a more just world where knowledge is distributed more equally, and where it can be used a challenging force of the existing power relations in an organisation (De Vault, 2008). This method contributes to a distributive justice agenda by turning peoples everyday lives into knowledge which seek to understand the existing power relations, and pointing to possible interventions in th ese relations. In answering the questions â€Å"how does this happen as it does? How are these relations organised† (Campbell Gregor, 2002, p. 7), institutional ethnography relies on the influence of social organisation literature the language theory of Bakhtin and critical theorists such as Marx and Foucault. The combination of the terms institutional and ethnography implies the need to move beyond local practices (Travers, 1996). It is an approach to empirical inquiry grounded by a materialist ontology the daily world of peoples actual activities drawing from ethnomethodology that examines how everyday life experience or professional practice, or policy making is socially organised (Devault and McCoy, 2001 p. 751), and its consequences in contemporary societies. Social organisation is understood as local practices tied into activities occurring across time and space to form extended sequences of action or what are called â€Å"trans-local† relations (McCoy, 1998). Institutions organise themselves formally by establish discourses of power and control which are disseminated through. These policies form the basis for further organisational documentation like contracts, accounting records, time sheets, job descriptions etc. Institutions develop conceptual practices:. These discursive, managerial, and professional forms of governance can be seen as the textual venues (such as legislation, management, administration etc.) where power is generated and perpetuated in society across multiple sites and are defined in institutional ethnography as ruling relations. Attempting to understand how the coordination of work processes, activities, and relations organised across space and time form part of the ruling apparatus in society (Grahame Grahame, 2000) institutional ethnography examines how textual sequences coordinate consciousness, actions, and ruling relations what Smith calls textually-mediated social organisation. Ruling relations are embedded in t hese textually-mediated social organisations, which make power less obvious to those being controlled. This notion of ruling relations draws on Marx and his conception of political economy arising from the activities of people (Smith, 1990: 94), but also on ethnomethodology, because it starts from the common-sense knowledge of people and how they talk about daily activities. It should be clear that institutional ethnography is not simply a methodology. Institutional ethnography is not a tool one can readily use at will without adopting the theoretical framework. Theory and orientation toward research are intricately entwined in institutional ethnography and cannot be divorced from one another. In summary the aim of institutional ethnography is not the discovery of ‘meaning or the description of social worlds as in traditional ethnography; the goal is to discover the forms of coordination and control that shape peoples everyday lives and thus to look at the concrete actions of individuals as they function in relation to an institution using an ethnographic method, but more interested in the political contexts than other qualitative approaches. The method takes into account the texts and discourses that make up social life, but is actually more grounded in fieldwork study of texts that are actually used than most forms of discourse analysis (Eastwood Devault 2001). So the research begins from the embodied experience of particular Citi staff and then set about systematically investigating the social and institutional determinants of that experience. In this way, the research produces knowledge for people, rather than about them, a kind of map of the work processes, dis courses and social practices that generate specific forms of inequality, marginalisation and subordination. The object of study in this research is not individual people or social groups but, rather, the social relations, especially institutional work processes and related modes of knowledge, that form the ground of Citi staffs lived experience, hence the almost perfect fit to apply institutional ethnography as the research approach, because one of the main purposes of institutional ethnography is to describe the coordination of the day to day activities in the organisation. The challenge is then to discover how ideology can be used to relate those activities to Citis institutional imperatives. This method enables the exploration of power and politics within Citi, producing insights unavailable using other research methods. The co-ordinating Citi staffs activities is being investigated through the use of institutional texts, with the aim to clarify how these are â€Å"hooked up† as Smith expresses it hierarchically and horizontally beyond Citis world. Using institutional ethnograp hy my study identifies the language of meritocracy as an area of experience or everyday practice, and explicates the institutional processes shaping that experience (Campbell Gregor 2002, p.59; DeVault McCoy 2001, p.755). Text Approaching text through institutional ethnography means deviating from the post-modern stance. It is not the discourse of the text that is the starting point nor is the focus on the subject who makes use of it. Contrary to post-modern approaches to social analysis that often treat texts as metaphors, the ‘body as text or ‘society as text; institutional ethnography investigates texts as active constituents of social relations. The idea of texts as constituents of organisations has been around in institutional theory for a long time: DiMaggio and Powell (1983) argued that texts allow organisations to standardise by modelling themselves after similar organisations, which are perceived as legitimate or efficient. For Taylor et al. (Taylor et al., 1996; Taylor and Van Every, 1993), actions in bureaucratic organisations are always text generating. Hasslebladh and Kallinikos (2000: 703) assert that â€Å"no organisation could support its status as a formal system without the arsenal of verbal and numerical techniques through which its goals and operations are described, organised and controlled†. More recently, Phillips et al. (2004: 635) have offered what they call a â€Å"discursive model of institutionalisation,† where â€Å"it is not action per se that provides the basis for institutionalisation but, rather, the texts that describe and communicate those actions. It is primarily through texts that information about actions is widely distributed and comes to influence the actions of others†. The same authors (ibid.: 641) write that â€Å"discourses provide the socially constituted, self-regulating mechanisms that enact institutions and shape the actions that lead to the production of more texts. Thus, the discursive realm acts as the background against which current actions occur—enabling some actions and constraining others†. Texts, in both their material and symbolic aspect form the bridge between the everyday/every night local actualities of our living and the ruling relations (Smith, 1999:7). The relations into whom the text and its discourses enter are investigated to discover the social activities that are generated. Symbolically, it is how text influences everyday life to co-ordinate social activities, how text constitutes social organisation. This will show the power of texts in everyday life (Smith, 1992: 93), and the importance of the physical texts to institutional organisation (Smith, 1984). Texts transport power in ideologies and practices across sites and among people. Since texts do not know boundaries, they are powerful tools in organising peoples activities, across organisations. (Smith, 1999: 80), standardising peoples activities into bureaucracies. The power of a text can be viewed similar to Foucaults (1967) explanation: â€Å"Power must be analysed as something, which circulates, or rather as something which only functions in the form of a chain. It is never localised here or there, never in anybodys hands, never appropriated as a commodity or piece of wealth. Power is employed and exercised through a net-like organisation. And not only do individuals circulate between its threads; they are always in the position of simultaneously undergoing and exercising power. They are not only its inert or consenting target; they are always the elements of articulation [italics added]. In other words, individuals are the vehicles of power, not its point of application.† (p. 234) Ruling relations The entry point of my inquiry is the standpoint of actual individuals located in the everyday world (Smith, 1987:159). Standpoint refers then to the location of an embodied subject in a specific local, historical setting. Although experience is the ground zero of my analysis it cannot be confined to the direct experience of the everyday world for it is organised by social relations not fully apparent in it nor contained in it (1987:92). According to a social organisation framework, social relations are systematic processes that control peoples lives through ruling relations â€Å"more or less mysteriously and outside a persons knowledge† (Campbell Gregor, 2002, p. 18; 2004, p. 18). Within this framework, social life is not chaotic but is purposefully organised to happen as it does. Power becomes critically important to evidence how ruling relations are transported through knowledge, experience, discourse, and institutions. Power of these ruling relations is investigated on an institutional level where Citi transposes what really happens to its staff into abstract categories. Conceptualising â€Å"what happens in a form that makes it administrablethese categories are embedded, for example in case reports, report cards, application forms, tickets, etc.† (Darville, 2002, p. 61). Smith conceives of institution as a complex of relations organised around a specific function such as law, health care, or education. This complex of relations forms part of the ruling apparatus in contemporary society. Rather than referring to a specific form of social organisation, institution refers to the coordination and intersection of an array of activities into a functional complex. The concept institution does not refer to entities in themselves but rather to the way in which they are interwoven around a particular function. To obtain data for this analysis, this project proceeds through three main phases of data collection: investigation of local experience through the Citi staffs individual standpoint, analysis of processes and social relations extending beyond Citi staffs experiential accounts, and establishing the interconnection between the local experience and the extended experience (Griffith Smith, 1990; Smith, 1987). Phase one examines the work activities (broadly defined) of Citi staff engaged in the progress of their daily lives with a view to analysing how that world is shaped by and maintains the institutional process. Bearing in mind that experiences or situations are not free-standing phase one data collection tries to discover the â€Å"material connections between what actually happens to participants in a research setting and what triggers those particular events† (Campbell Gregor, 2004, p. 70). While phase one brings the problem into view, phase two is an analysis of ideological procedures that are used to make the institutional work processes accountable. It is a way to â€Å"explicate how the local setting, including local understandings and explanations, are brought into being- so that informants can talk about their experiences as they do†((Campbell Gregor, 2004, p. 90). Important to this phase of data collection and analysis is the earlier mentioned notion that power is carried through the ideological constructs of texts. Analysis is about deriving particular meaning from the data as to their social construction across multiple settings. Bringing the other phases together phase three analyses how these work processes in a particular context are connected across time and place and as such operate as part of an extended set of social relations (Smith, 1987:160-161).

Symbols: The Essential Element :: Literary Analysis, Native Son

Symbols: the basis of all literary works. Without symbols books become boring and lifeless. Symbols assist the reader in discovering a deeper meaning. In Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son, symbols are used to show death, faith and living in a white run world. In the first book, readers are introduced to the rat. Bigger is shown attempting to destroy the rat. When the rat is deceased, he appears as a â€Å"flat black body†¦ [with] two yellow tusks† (6). With this death, Bigger’s murder streak starts. In the gruesome death of the rat, the ghastly deaths of Mary Dalton and Bessie Mears are foreshadowed. Mary’s death- while not gruesome at first- then turns suddenly violent when Bigger â€Å"sawed the blade into the flesh†¦ [and] sent the blade of the hatchet into the bone of the throat† (92). Though Mary initially died by suffocation, her head being chopped off is as disturbing as the death of the rat. However, Bessie’s death was terrifying from the start. Bessie was murdered in the most atrocious manner. Bessie is not only raped, but bludgeoned to death by Bigger â€Å"[lifting] the brick again and again† (237). Bessie’s appalling death is the worst of all the deaths. Bessie appear s to have done nothing wrong yet she is murdered at the hands of Bigger out of fear. Wright’s use of the rat as a symbol shows how death is a horrendous event in life. Wright’s use of the cross helps readers recognize faith. After Bigger is arrested, he is soon visited by his mother’s preacher, Reverend Hammond. The reverend visits Bigger in an attempt to convince him that he must have faith in God. After praying for Bigger, Reverend Hammond â€Å"[draws] from his pocket a wooden cross with a chain upon it† (286). The Reverend then placed it around Bigger’s neck where it â€Å"[hangs] next to the skin of Bigger’s chest† (286). The cross presented to Bigger is Hammond’s attempt at forcing Bigger to believe and hope for something better. The cross is once again seen when Bigger is leaving the Dalton home, yet this time it is in a negative light. As Bigger exits the Dalton home, he sees a â€Å"[looming]†¦ burning cross† (337). Bigger then questions if â€Å"white people [wanted] him to love Jesus too† (337). It is not until people are yelling at him that this is a cross of hate, not love and faith. When Bigger returns to the van he â€Å"[grips] the cross and [snatches] it from his throat† (338).

Destiny :: essays research papers

Pre-Destination vs. Self-Determination People like to believe that they have the freedom to choose to be or do whatever it is that they want to be or do; it is, however, quite the opposite. This sense of freedom is called self-determination. At the other end of the spectrum, when no matter what we do seems to make any difference or when events just seem to happen and we think about them as being out of our control or somehow planned by some force unknown to us (such as a God), that is called pre-destination. Self-determination has its limitations as to what people are allowed to do, but pre-destination has no limits of any kind. Self-determination is, in fact, used to mask pre-destination, to keep people content in following a pre-set path that life offers. Without pre-destination, how do we know what the weather will be like, or if the sun rises, or if someone will stop at a red light? Without these paths where would our lives be going? People do these every day things that are simply there to keep them going down the pa th that they have always been on. When people get off that path, such as when they stop doing drugs, then their lives are on a new track. But the new track doesn’t necessarily have anything unique about it, it’s just a new path and already pre-determined. And once on a path, it is very difficult to veer away from the pre-determined, pre-disposed activities that a particular lifestyle requires. Smith 2 Pre-destination, not our life choices, guides our lives. There is no other way to explain things such as people who grow up poor yet somehow manage to create a multinational company and become multimillionaires. Although some might say that these people chose to follow a particular path that led them to their fame and fortune. Instead, it should be argued that even if these people were born poor, they were they were destined to create that company. They were given the drive to make that company into what it was. Anyone can choose to start a company, but few actually have the ability to make that company a success. Choice does not have anything to do with ability: I choose to be a billionaire but I do not have the bank account to be one. Predestination explains almost ninety percent of what happens in the world, from birth to death, and even pure luck.

Chris Peterson at DSS Consulting Essay

This case discussed the events that occurred during a change in DSS Consulting’s organizational structure. Three retired school district administrators established DSS Consulting during the late 1990’s. The company offered administrative support to small school districts located within the mid-west and mountain west region. They specialized in handling the negotiating of labor agreements as well as implementation of permanent system solutions designed to enable those organizations to run efficiently. The firm experienced a significant degree of success during their early years, which was primarily attributed to the founder’s personal relationships within each school district that utilized their services. The demand for the services offered by DSS grew quickly given the changing dynamic of challenges faced by each district. Some of those challenges related to reductions in budgets and subsequent reduction of administrative staff. The firm structured themselves to accommodate the change in services needs of their customers. As a result, DSS designed an organizational structure that consisted of the four areas of specialization: Procurement and Systems, Information Technology, Contract Negotiation and Facilities Planning. By the mid-2000’s, DSS experienced some significant changes in their organizational structure and their customer base. It was during this time that the founders of the company reduced the amount of time they were spending in client engagement and relying upon the expertise of the management teams for each specialized area. As a result, a gap was created surfacing the need for a strategy for attracting and retaining new business. This would require adapting their service offerings to meet the demands of rapidly changing market base. These factors led to a halt in the firm’s growth and forced the company to redefine the organizational structure to remain a competitor. The key issues of this case involved successfully redesigning the firm’s strategy, implementation of those changes while  maintaining their level of success. The firm would need to realign their management structure and create functional teams to design, develop and implement product offerings that would appeal to an expanded market (i.e. larger school districts). A major consideration for the firm was how to achieve this goal and maintain the level of commitment from employee’s as change in any form can be a daunting task. A new management structure was determined and Meg Cooke was appointed the Chief Operating Officer of DSS. Ms. Cooke and the Board of Directors made the decision to adopt a new structure that created cross-functional teams each assigned to a specific region for which they would design and create products for customers specific to their region that could potentially be marketed to additional regions with similar demands. Based on my review of the case, the major issues identified can be categorized as communication, leadership, organizational culture and organizational change. Communication The manner in which the new strategy was communicated at all levels of the organization appeared to lack a clear concise message which defined the redesigned strategy, new organizational structure and a detailed implementation plan to achieve the desired results. The communication of these changes wasn’t handled in the most efficient manner and subsequently not received by all employees in a favourable manner. Study results that have been published by the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Business School have indicated that effective communication skills have become one of the most important factors when recruiter’s are screening candidates for potential managerial positions. Both Ms. Cooke and Ms. Peterson failed to communicate in all phases of the organizational change. Although it appeared that Ms. Cooke met regularly with other department leaders, she and Ms. Peterson never had regularly scheduled planning meetings or informal weekly check-ins to ensure that sh e and her team were on target for successfully delivering the team’s objectives. Although, Ms. Peterson communicated and fostered open, collaborative conversations with her team, she failed to communicate with her manager to ensure that she understood expectations for herself as the leader and for her team. Successful communication is only achieved when the sender and receiver of information  have the same understanding of the information presented. (See Figure 1) For example, when Chris Peterson was assigned to lead her team in delivering new products that would appeal to larger districts within and outside of her designated region. She received the message as â€Å" create/design new product offerings that would appeal to districts within the southwest region. Leadership The style of leadership varies with every individual. It has been stated that today’s successful leaders have created in their organizations an atmosphere where every employee believes in management, their strategy and the importance of their individual contributions in achieving the organizations goal. Blake Mouton’s Managerial Grid is a model using in identifying leadership style that is based on the concept that there are two behavioural dimensions: concern for people which can be defined as the degree to which leaders are aware of and consider the needs of their staff, their skill sets and development potential when making decisions about specific tasks to be completed. The second dimension is concern for production and is defined as the degree to which leaders place importance on objectives, efficiency and production specifically what it takes to meet the desired result. Based on these definitions, I would classify Ms. Cooke’s driving leadership behaviour dimension to be in the latter category of concern for production and Ms. Peterson’s as concern for people. It was evident that Ms. Cooke’s leadership style resulted in a disorganized and poorly motivated organization. Her lack of leadership to Ms. Peterson resulted in the team being led in the direction of focusing their efforts on a project that would not be approved. Ms. Peterson clearly valued the skills of each team member as well as taking extensive steps to ensure that a collaborative, innovative environment existed for her team to design and develop a new product offering for the districts in the southwest region that would meet their needs. Organizational Culture and Organizational Change The culture that exists within any organization plays a vital role in the behaviour and actions of employees. Organizational culture as defined McLean and Marshall is a collection of traditions, values, policies, beliefs  and attitudes that constitute a pervasive context for everything we do and think in an organization. Based on this definition, DSS’s original organizational structure could be classified as so-called Power Culture (Handy, 1993). This culture is typical for small entrepreneurial organizations similar to DSS, where the founders had a strong influence and played a central role in managing the company and securing contracts from their school district contacts. These types of cultures rely heavily on trust, personal communication and empathy. The structure is very informal and there are few rules and guidelines in this culture. However, the changes implemented at DSS to redefine their strategy forced a culture change as well. The organizational structure changed from functional to a more structured matrix type. The appointment of the COO position shifted the organizational culture from the personal interactive environment to one of project and task oriented nature. This shift made implementation of the new strategy increasingly more difficult as this was new to everyone at all levels of the organization.