How Is Honour the Driving Force with the Texts the...

How is honour the driving force with the texts The Godfather and Romeo Juliet? The Godfather and Romeo Juliet are complex texts which the readers of them barely see pass their superficial meanings. The Godfather on the surface is about the mafia underworld in the Italian American underworld, however underneath the facade it is also a fantastical tale of many types of honour. Romeo and Juliet is superficially a tale of two lovers whose families are torn apart by hatred for one another, but it too is a tale of honour. The four main types of honour in these texts are family, enemy, female and community honour. 95 In The Godfather, family honour is one of the main themes of the text. The don says to his son Sonny when the family talk†¦show more content†¦Connie is incapable of defending her honour against Carlo, so Sonny must do it. In Romeo Juliet, female honour is an important theme. Juliet keeps honour, a females honour in those times was staying a virgin until marriage. Juliet maintains her honour by waiting until she has married Romeo. Juliets other honour was staying faithful to her marriage with Romeo. Her father arranges her to marry Paris but she loves Romeo. Juliet can not stand up to her father, so the friar gives her a potion to make her look as if she is dead. We see like in The Godfather, how a woman can not defend her honour by themselves. Lastly, honour to the community is another important theme in the Godfather. When the heads of all the mafia families meet to discuss the drug business, some display their honour to the community. The Kansas city Don when talking ab out his opposition to drugs says I want it to keep it respectable, I dont want it near schools, I dont want it sold to kids. These words were said by a man with great audacity, he displayed his morals and stuck by them and thus keeping his honour to the community. In Romeo Juliet too is honour to the community very important. Prince Escalus after much violence from the Capulets and Montagues, decides to take matters into his own hands. He tells them that if they fight again that the heads of the families would be killed. Prince Escalus says If you disturb the peace again, your lives

Implementation of Business Strategy-Free-Samples-Myassignement

Question: Prepare the report that examines the role of Project in the Implementation of Business Strategy. Answer: Introduction Nestle is a food and beverage organization with headquarters in Switzerland. This particular organization is also known as largest food processing organization in the world. Nestle mainly deals in manufacturing of baby foods, cereals for breakfast, dairy products, tea and many other products (Nestle, 2016). The organization claims to be important stakeholder of worlds largest cosmetic organization that is LOreal. This firm was established by collaboration of two organizations that is Anglo-Swiss Milk organization and Farine Lactee Henri Nestle. The organization grew certain number of recognition that is during the period of second world war and first world war. At present the organization claims to have more than 2000 brands ranging from globally to local favorites and the organization have branches in more than countries. The organization claim to take care of environment and communities where it works or operates. The organization looks after the regulation of environment and also tries its best to reduce any impact on environment (Sethi, 2012). Water is required for manufacturing of breakfast cereals, cooking the cereals, washing for its equipments. Various facilities have environmental and they keep a measure of various operation and method to improvise the performance of environment (Cordn, Hald and Seifert, 2013) . The organization claims to analyze the consumption of energy in details and ultimately works in minimization of energy by introducing energy efficient technology (Elena, 2013). The organization claims to make use of software which will help in increasing the efficiency of software and this ultimately will lead to check the optimal capacity of the truck and have less journey (Kerzner, 2013). The packing material used by this organization have plastic lines, cartons and shipping cases of cardboard which can be easily recycled by the help of existing facilities and the organization claims to encourage recycle packaging. Discussion Vision and Mission Nestle is considered to be leading nutrition, health and wellness organization. The ultimate goal of this organization is Good food, Good life which is provide the customers with best quality of products and wide range of food and beverage products ranging from morning to night (Elena, 2013). The ultimate goal is to be leading nutrition and wellness organization for delivering quality of food for improvising the value of stakeholder by maintaining its position as the leading choice of customers and preferred choice of selling products. People from various parts of the globe understand that food is considered to be nourishment (Chernova, Voytkevich and Ivanova, 2015). They are more focusing on the fact that choice of food and beverage can affect the quality of life of both individual and others. Innovation has always been taken as prior option of the organization. The ultimate mission of this organization is to enhance or improvise the life of various people. With every passing day the organization claims to improvise the products by making it healthier and tastier which will ultimately help the customers for taking care of themselves and their family members. This firm has the largest number of RD centers and more than 5000 people are involved in it (Cordn, Hald and Seifert, 2013). There is a team of scientists, engineers and nutritionists and designers to have the trust of consumer and provide them with quality of products. The main notion of this organization is to improvise the quality of trustworthy products, s ystem and services to improvising the quality of lives of customers. Strategic objectives Nutrition plays a key role is the daily life of everyone. Nestle strategy generally focuses to provide advantage to people by food and beverage product and services (Muller, 2013). Fast growing needs and strategy of the society provides nutrition, health and wellness strategy. Digital technology is shaping the whole industry, the current relationship with suppliers and retailers and the consumers who buy the products. With advancement of science and technology new opportunities are provide for facing the issues and challenges in the society (Chernova, Voytkevich and Ivanova, 2015). In the whole world where large number of people are undernourished or overweight this firm claim to provide solution for its consumers. Inspiring healthier lives: With the help brand name, products and services the organization is calming to inspire the life of people (Elena, 2013). Nestle claim to build and use knowledge for making use proper nutrition knowledge and providing people to provide people with information regarding the fact what they feed their families. Start Healthy and Stay Healthy: Programs like start healthy and stay healthy program generally help the parents and their children by providing best beginning in life. In collaboration with stakeholders united kid program will help children in having healthier lifestyle of eating and drinking. Nestle Healthy kid program: This program is all about encouraging activity and providing necessary information for nutrition. The organization main goal is to provide best quality of product to its customer (Mohajan, 2015). Nutrition and health platform which is Nestle science and skin health program allow the users to make use of most advanced research and development of network in the whole organization. With the help of RD network the organization claims to upgrade product and services which satisfy the needs of the consumer and helps in minimizing the rising cost of healthcare. Strategic goals and program used for supporting their objective Nestle aims in ensuring that resources are dedicated to correct projects which will ultimately help in maximizing the input (Muller, 2013). With the help of Nestle continuous excellence the organization claims in improving operation and provide necessary changes. With this program back office efficiency can be easily gathered which will ultimately help delivering competitive advantage and unlocking the various available sources (Cordn, Hald and Seifert, 2013). There are number of fuels for advantages for growth, support of brand, RD and innovations. The ultimate goal of this organization is to search for new opportunities and for certain zone where they can have contribution for problems faced by various firms (Mohajan, 2015). On one hand there are growing their business and on the other hand they are they are contributing a lot of things to the society. Trust is the main pillar behind the success of this organization (Drees, 2016). Trust has helped a lot in the growth of this organi zation, providing proper value for the stakeholders and as well as for the society. Nestle strategy has helped a lot in achieving the purpose of this organization, upgrading the quality of life and focusing to provide much healthier future for the coming generation (Vavpeti?, et al., 2013). Nestle has continuously adopted to the changing world and it strict follow its purpose and values from its time of establishment that is 150 years back (Sethi, 2012). The purpose of this organization clearly defines the reason behind the creation of better world with nestle. The purpose clearly states the reason behind the people who enjoy with product and services and for the people who are generally affected by business (Cordn, Hald and Seifert, 2013). The staff members of organization claim to be inspired by a lot of people. Their strategy has helped in ensuring a long term delivering for organization and making investment in short term projects for providing the needs of large of number of people across the globe (Biswas et al., 2013). The purpose of this organization has hel ped in satisfying the requirements of large number of stakeholders who are associated with this organization. Nestle Roadmap is mainly intended for providing direction to workers and providing strategy which will help it in achieving proper objectives (Muller, 2013). These objective demand a blend for long term inspiration for the workers and provide necessary level of performance. Nestle model is having securing and having success in the near future by having simplicity, making necessary investment for growth, scaling down of benefits and lastly driving the performance (Stahl et al., 2012). The roadmap of nestle consist of three main parts which are competitive advantage, growth drivers and pillars of operation (Mohajan, 2015). The overall management and strategic business is managed by small units of management and strategic units of business. Organization in general works with Research and development to check that the production of corporation is mainly faced by proper innovation. Strategic innovation will help the markets to have their business and objectives of brand (Sojamo and Larson , 2012). For achieving its objective Nestle has 500 factories in 80 countries with more than 17 research and development center. Competitive advantage: Nestle corporation is built on the belief that it can manufacture products in such a way that it can easily have value for long term stakeholders, employees and business partners. Nestle management and leadership principles are totally dependent on experiences which has led to its success in long term (Sethi, 2012). Production has always a big effect on environment. The ultimate aim is to have maximization of production of goods with reducing the consumption of available resources. In the whole Europe Nestle was the first organization to have biodegradable instead of plastic for manufacturing of products. Investment has been considered to be important factor for both the organization as well as for the corporation (Gonzalez, 2014). This particular organization has focused in creating long term value for the nation in which it operates. Nestle has unmatched product and portfolio of brand (Biswas et al., 2013). Nestle manufacture food items for all ages that is r anging from babies to old people. Operational pillars: Food and beverages have an important role in the life of people. It does not only bring enjoyment and social pleasure of having food together on the contrary it claims to improvise the personal health and nutrition (Sojamo and Larson, 2012). RD body of Nestle claims to have improvising the area like safety and quality, nutrition and health and lastly taste and texture. Nestle researcher and scientist have claimed to take part in providing benefits in field of health and wellness of various products to customer (Kulkarni, Rybkowski and Smith, 2012). Nestle corporate wellness unit along with unit of business is focusing to help the organization to have its position as leading in the field of nutrition and health. Nestle claim to sell products all-round the globe which is inclusive retailer superstores, supermarkets and large chain of stores (Chernova, Voytkevich and Ivanova, 2015). This organization is totally dependent on consumer making a choice of nestle product s over the other available products. Complementary between strategy and project Nestle is considered to be leader in Nutrition, Health and Wellness and it is trusted by most of its stakeholders. This organization have always believed that leadership is not about the quantity but its all about the behavior of the organization towards its consumers. The firms believe that for earning trust of consumers a lot of time is needed (Muller, 2013). Another method of earning trust is delivering goods at promised time. The objective and behavior of this organization is embedded in the notion that is Good food, Good life. Nestle Roadmap is designed in such a way that it can help in achieving its objectives. These objectives are designed in such a way it can easily deliver the level of performance (Sojamo and Larson, 2012). Nestle is looking forward in achieving leadership and earn trust by providing the expectation of consumers. Daily choices of consumer drive the performance of stakeholders which can easily satisfy the requirement of stakeholders. Nestle believe that long term sustainable value of stakeholders for their strategies, operation and behavior. Shared value is created by this organization by having value for the communities in which they operate, for the partners of business and lastly for the customers (Suh and Badrinarayanan, 2014). Nestle is focusing to make investment for the future and which can easily analyze the financial and sustainability of environment for the action of operation in terms of capacity, brand and lastly RD. This particular organization claims to meet the needs of present generation without compromising the needs of the upcoming or future generation (Biswas et al., 2013). They will have this in such a way that it will profitable growth with passing years. Along with this a high level of return for be easily achieved for their stakeholders and society for long period of time. Conclusion From the above discussion it can be easily stated that this report is about worlds largest food processing unit that is Nestle. This organization mainly deals in production of baby foods, cereals, dairy products and many other things. The operating environment of Nestle has been clearly discussed in details. All the necessary requirement that are water, energy, transport, packaging and recycling has been discussed in details. Vision and Mission of this organization has been discussed in details. The ultimate notion of Nestle that is Good food, Good life has been discussed in brief. Vision of this organization that is Nestle is to provide best quality of food and beverages to its customer with making any adjustment with quality. Strategic objectives of this organization that is inspiring healthier lives, start healthy and stay healthy and Nestle healthy kid program has been discussed in details. Strategy goals and programs for supporting the objectives has been discussed in details. I mportance of Nestle roadmap for directing the workers and having strategic objective has been discussed in details. Various important parameters competitive advantage and operation pillars has been discussed in details. Complementarity between strategy and objective for Nestle has been provided in details References Biswas, A.K., Tortajada, C., Biswas-Tortajada, A., Joshi, Y.K. and Gupta, A., 2013.Creating Shared Value: Impacts of Nestl in Moga, India. Springer Science Business Media. Chernova, D.V., Voytkevich, N.I. and Ivanova, N.V., 2015. Methods of logistic infrastructure formation for enterprises manufacturing bottled water. Cordn, C., Hald, K.S. and Seifert, R.W., 2013.Strategic Supply Chain Management. Routledge. Drees, K., 2016. Nestle and Baby Bottle Disease. Elena, P., 2013. A Case Study on the Influence of Public Advertising Campaigns in Child Education.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,76, pp.686-689. Gonzalez, M., 2014. Advancing Human Rights in Supply Chains through Community Engagement and Investment.PM World Journal. Retrieved from https://mgoconsultant. com. ar/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pmwj20-mar2014-gonzalez-advancing-human-rights-FeaturedPaper. pdf. Kerzner, H., 2013.Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley Sons. Kulkarni, A., Rybkowski, Z.K. and Smith, J., 2012. Cost comparison of collaborative and IPD-like project delivery methods versus non-collaborative project delivery methods. Mohajan, H.K., 2015. Present and Future of Nestl Bangladesh Limited.American Journal of Food and Nutrition,3(2), pp.34-43. Muller, M., 2013. Nestl baby milk scandal has grown up but not gone away.The Guardian,13.. Nestle, M., 2016. Corporate funding of food and nutrition research: science or marketing?.JAMA internal medicine,176(1), pp.13-14. Sethi, S.P., 2012.Multinational corporations and the impact of public advocacy on corporate strategy: Nestle and the infant formula controversy(Vol. 6). Springer Science Business Media. Smith, E., 2012. Corporate image and public health: an analysis of the Philip Morris, Kraft, and Nestle websites.Journal of health communication,17(5), pp.582-600. Sojamo, S. and Larson, E.A., 2012. Investigating food and agribusiness corporations as global water security, management and governance agents: The case of Nestl, Bunge and Cargill.Water Alternatives,5(3), p.619. Stahl, G., Bjrkman, I., Farndale, E., Morris, S.S., Paauwe, J., Stiles, P., Trevor, J. and Wright, P., 2012. Six principles of effective global talent management.Sloan Management Review,53(2), pp.25-42. Suh, T. and Badrinarayanan, V., 2014. Proximal and distal influences on project creativity in international marketing teams.International Marketing Review,31(3), pp.283-307. Vavpeti?, A., Novak, P.K., Gr?ar, M., Mozeti?, I. and Lavra?, N., 2013, October. Semantic data mining of financial news articles. InInternational Conference on Discovery Science(pp. 294-307). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

Risk and Currently Used Form free essay sample

Joe and His Birds Many often use the idiom A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush in everyday conversations. But what does this commonly used phrase actually mean, and where did it come from? According to www. phrases. org, it means that it is better to have a lesser but certain advantage than the possibility of a greater one that may come to nothing. The origin of this proverb refers back to mediaeval falconry where a bird in the hand (the falcon) was a valuable asset and certainly worth more than two in the bush (the prey). The first citation of the expression in print in its currently used form is found in John Rays A Hand-book of Proverbs, 1670, in which he lists it as: A [also one] bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. By how long the phrase predates Rays publishing isnt clear, as variants of it were known for centuries before 1670. We will write a custom essay sample on Risk and Currently Used Form or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The earliest English version of the proverb is from the Bible and was translated into English in Wycliffes version in 1382, although Latin texts have it from the 13th century. The assumption that many people believe to be true is that having something that s certain is much better than taking a risk for more, because chances are you might lose everything. A bird in the hand is yours, and it is not going anywhere unless you let it go, but if you leave and go for two in the bush, there is no guarantee you will catch them, and you might end up with nothing in the end. In essence do not be greedy and stick with what good things you have, instead of going after things you will probably never get. Yes this does deem to be true, however if you look deeper and beyond the text, you will see that this statement can be refuted changing the whole outlook and way this proverb can be used. Lets take a look! Many achievements involve taking risks, and if you do not take risks you may not reach your ultimate goal. That leads to A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush if you are satisfied with being an average Joe. Average meaning middle, and Joe being a common first name usually of a male. An ordinary Joe, is an ordinary man who does ordinary things Just like everyone else around him. He refuses to go against the grain and branch out, overall being different from his peers. This type of person will not step outside their comfort zone in order to be successful, meaning that they stay ontent with where they are or what they are doing in life instead of challenging themselves to become even more successful. Without risk and Just keeping the one bird in your hand, you loose the ability to grow physically and spiritually hindering you to discover new things about the world and its surroundings. I would venture to say that Michael Dell of Dell computers or Bill Gates of Microsoft Corporation did not succumb to the adage of playing it safe. When it comes to risk taking, some people are terrified of taking reasonable risks, resulting in a life thats flat and lackluster. For xample: Two dollars (two birds in the bush) are significantly greater than one dollar ( one bird in hand). A homeless guy off the streets has not eaten in days and wants to buy something at the nearest fast food restaurant to eat. He has one dollar and therefore can not even buy something off of the dollar menu after tax. Contrastingly a goes hungry. Put yourself in that position. Would you risk it all if it meant you could eat and survive one more day? Or would you Just sit back and starve to death? Alternately take the example of investing in the stock market versus your average saving account. In a savings account you will never lose your deposit amount. In the stock market if the economy dips or the corporation does bad, you can actually lose some if not all of your initial deposit. Which risk will you take? The chance of sticking with the status quo, or striking it rich? According to Dan Borge, in The Book of Risk, risk means being exposed to the possibility of a bad outcome, and risk management means taking deliberate action to shift the odds in your favor. He says that we are already risk managers, since we make risk decisions every day, often without thinking about it things as simple as etting out of bed, lighting up a cigarette, getting in your car or putting money in the stock market. While you dont need to agonize over every decision, it is the big, life- changing risks that we face only a handful of times in our lives that can stop us in our tracks. But if we dont step up to the challenge, we may find ourselves living a life that bores us, that has no dynamics or color. By avoiding any kind of risk, we systematically shut down our world, making it smaller, flatter and grayer. That is why A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush if you are satisfied with being an average Joe.

Political Economy Essay

Political Economy Essay Political economy simply means the study of the interrelation between politics and economy. It entails the study of how institutions develop and manage to cope in areas of communism, socialism and capitalism which are the major political systems. Political economy also turns out to be a battle for resources between the major groups in the government. In this case we will pay keen interest on the outcome of the political unrest in the Arab nations in North Africa. This wave of Arab Spring of unrest affected Egypt and Tunisia sometimes last year and early this year. Morocco and Algeria were also affected but in these nations it was just some riots and protests nothing so serious. This paper will view the effects of these political unrest in the economies of the affected nations. Summary The article was published by the Real Instituto Elcano and is named A Political Economy on North African’s Transition. The author of the articles is Gonzalo Escribano and it was published on the thirty first of January this year. The paper focuses on the political unrest in the North African Nations for the past two years. The possible causes of the civil unrest and the possible effects of the revolts against the government especially when it comes to the economy. When we talk about political economy it is an evaluation of the relationship between the politics and the economy of a nation. It is generally an assessment of the wave of the political revolts that saw the overthrow of incumbent regimes and the after effect which is the nations plunging into economical crisis. For there to be a democratic rule, there must be the agreement between the political and economic forces in a nation. The emergence and rise of the middle class and also the decentralization of an economic power are key for there to be a good relationship between politics and economy. In Tunisia, there society considered more modern in terms of of the socio-economic ecosystem were the first to revolt against the law. These political case can be viewed as a business scenario to make it much easier to understand. The urge to revolt tends to increase when the opportunity cost of of a revolt is lowering and this tends to make nations with a high inequality in the resources and low economic opportunities more prone to revolutions than nations which have high economic opportunities. What democratization factors made the Northern Africa nations more prone to civil unrest and later on led to the overthrow of the Libyan, Tunisian and Egyptian dictatorships? The effects that were later passed on to the economies of the parent nations after the revolts. Economically, the North African nations have achieved good results ranking in the high and medium in the High Development Index: Libya being position sixty four, Tunisia number ninety four, Algeria holding the ninety sixth position, Egypt in position a hundred and thirteen and Morocco being the last in position a hundred and thirty. Over the last decade, life expectancy has greatly increased and schooling has also progressed. Algeria, Libya and Tunisia has on average had many years of expected schooling of Medium Human Development Countries and Arab States Morocco and Egypt on the other hand have are at an average of both country groups. The slow economic growth during the revolt especially after the leaders were taken out of power can be associated with the international financial crisis and the Euro crisis also. The impact of the crisis even affected the macroeconomic balance. The attempts to stop both social unrest and deepening of economic downturn led to the fall of fiscal income and expenses on the other hand were fostered. A rise in subsidies, public wages and public jobs saw the rise and growth of fiscal deficits in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco for years 2011 and 2012. After the revolts which started off in early 2011, cases of increased poverty, food scarcity and inequality were also recorded to be on the rise. In the last two decades, there has been a rise in the number of human population and there was a slow down in the pace of improvement in the second half of the second decade. However, only Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt were able to reach the HDI rank. Food subsidy reductions have been common in the past and is attributed to the recent demonstrations. It is not however known whether the access to food has been a problem I the nations. Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia are however experiencing problems with their nutritional levels. Libya had a problem with malnutrition levels and the nutrition figures in Algeria are also staggering. It is however debated that the poverty levels in the Northern Africa nations were underestimated. The progress in the reduction of poverty is however slow and very insignificant and are considered the slowest in the region and do not seem to slow down the poverty levels in the Northern part of the continent. There is however a more sophisticated argument regarding the economic causes of the Arab revolts is all about modernization and social transformation. The involvement of the North African regimes and their ability to deliver on socio-economic urges and also the legitimacy of autocracy was getting a major challenge from the broader and very demanding middle class. It also lay emphasis on the involvement of these North African governments and the fact that the cost of autocracy cannot be compensated for the meager economic benefits. The emergence of the North African balances in the political economy is well written down in the regions political economy literature. After the colonialist left, they had put in position structures that shaped the economic and regional balances between their parent nations. This led to state-led growth, the importation of the strategies of substitution which in turn generated a class of managers and rent seeking employees. Due to the increase in the debts, this model first failed in the 1980s. However, with the help of the economic elites, it led to the stabilization and liberalization of policies. The political economy of the North African nations traditionally has been based on the political networks which majorly base on popularity. The exploiting of economic reforms and renewing of rent active strategies is also one of the bases of political economy. In Egypt and Tunisia, the two leaders who were taken off duty after riots had put in place architects who would extract rents from their nations. A revelation made by the popular WikiLeaks in the year 2006 showed that the US ambassador to Tunisia reported that most of the Tunisia’s elites were actually related to Ben Ali, the the president. Their relationship was based on the group called a â€Å"Family†. In Egypt, the connections was being based by one of Mubaraks son and this led to conflicts of interests between the son and the military. In Morocco, the Mazkhen constitute of a a very hidden network of influence around the palace. The economic preferences and interests around the palace include a number of famous businessmen who conduct activities between the public and private sector. In Libya, the Gaddafi family had taken over oil mines and all the revenue was under the scrutiny of the family. There has also been a conflict between foreign investors and the ruling elite. Most of the foreign nations and investors have to adopt exit strategies to optimize their returns when it comes to investments. In a way, the foreign investors have a positive effect when it comes to modernize the economic system but have one negative effect. They do not change the political economy balance and when we look at the Middle East, they have no commitment to the promotion of democracy. After the Arab Spring, all North African affected nations increased public wages and public works. This was done as a method to take away the tyranny of bad leadership and at the same time put the interest of the masses forward. These measures have however created an advance for social justice and changing the system of leadership to bring about a more inclusive method that incorporates growth and the sharing of wealth. The correlation between the political systems and the economic growth are however different in these nations. This is because of the different social systems and the resourcefulness of every nation. The enlargement of the working middle class, slowly renewing business and and economic elites is viewed as another measure of reassuring the restoration of the economic systems. The main obstacle may however be the implementation of short term economic policies which at times prove to be politically expensive. Such methods include the food rationalization and energy subsidies which are implemented in through social targeting, external liberalization continuation, fiscal unsustainability, resistance and maintenance of a prudent micro-economic stance. It is proven that is very hard for an economy to manage in a government or nation is in political transition. A good political mood sets it off for good business and investment opportunities and structures actually. What we have in the article is not the picture of a modest society but the real world in which we live in now. Africa is a growing continent and nations in these continent are weighing their options between exploring its economic options and the realization that policy space is quite reduced. It is necessary for every nation to know that politics and the economy go hand in hand. An economy of a nation cannot be good where as the nation is sunk in civil strife and political instability. The leadership in the nations should also make it their duty to ensure there is economic growth in their countries. In this case, they should ensure the implemented programs are successful and are aimed at serving the country not causing harm lastly, corrupt and unethical leaders should be scrapped away to avoid the case of a government failing under the nose of its elite leaders who had a chance to do something yet they choose not to.

Cause - Effect Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cause - Effect Assignment - Essay Example However, when they become obsolete and are discarded inappropriately, the products release toxic substances into the environment- including air, water, and soil. Various computers parts have varying levels of toxic substances. For instance, an average computer screen contains five to eight pounds of lead accounting for around 40% of all lead in the US. Generally, these items form part of a larger category of wastes known as electronic waste, or e-waste. Electronic waste generally refers to carelessly discarded, excess, or broken electronic devices. This definition is vague and there is still debate as to whether items such as broken fridges and other household appliances should be included under e-wastes. However, the widely accepted definition includes wastes arising from computer hardware, old electronic devices such as phones (both fixed and mobile) and entertainment gadgets, television sets, computer monitors, refrigerators, and other electronic communication devices. Poor dispos al of e-wastes poses several risks to human health and degrades environmental quality as they contain noxious metallic elements known to cause serious health complications. When the wastes are buried in landfills, toxic constituents can infiltrate into water systems and the soil, and finally reach our bodies. Should we sacrifice ourselves for the sake of technology? There has been a growing call for industry players to effect proper disposal of e-wastes, or to find alternative uses of the wastes, such as recycling and separating the components of the electronic devices for use in various industrial processes. Causes of Increased Volumes of Computer Hardware Although toxins released by poorly discarded computer hardware affect every one of us, the majority is generated by electronic companies and repair shops that do not want to incur additional expenses in adopting sound waste management expenses. Critics also argue that recycling could unintentionally cause damage to the environmen t as it leads to accumulation of electronic materials that will eventually have to be discarded. They further argue that e-wastes do not constitute a significant portion of total wastes. Hence, diversion of more funds to implement waste management practices will only serve to benefit the companies and not the public (Hicks et al, 2005). Besides, recycling of computer hardware exposes workers to the heavy metals present in most of the equipment. This problem can worsen if workers do not wear protective gear. It is costly too since the percentage of the initial cost recovered after recycling can be as low as 1-5%. Using these arguments, companies and individuals have continued to dump computer hardware and other electronic wastes without regard to their long-term effects on the environment. This could subsequently result in the suffering of innocent individuals who have had no input in the disposal process. A second common source of waste computer hardware has been through dismantling shops. Although the recycling process is a noble idea, not computer parts are recycled. The non-recycled parts are poorly disposed leading to increased amounts of waste computer hardware in our town. The steady increase of these computer parts together with other obsolete electronic items could ultimately result into a steady increase in electronic wastes resulting to unmanageable levels. Long Term Effects of Computer Hardware in my Town Electronic wastes contain precious elements

Architecture of the Greek Culture from the Middle Bronze Age through Research Paper

Architecture of the Greek Culture from the Middle Bronze Age through the Geometric Period - Research Paper Example The paper explores how architecture mirrors the political, trade, and military conditions within Greek culture during the Minoan civilizations, Mycenaean Civilization, and Dark Ages of Greece. The Minoan civilizations (2600-1200 BC) The Minoan civilization represented a Bronze Age civilization that emanated from the island of Crete. The Minoan cities had stone-paved roads shaped from blocks cut with bronze saws (Pedley 36). The Minoan period witnessed numerous trade activities and the construction of striking palaces. An analysis of architecture of this period manifests absence of defensive walls. Minoan architecture features several structures that played the role of commercial, religious, and administrative life. Archeologists have successfully unearthed in Crete a Minoan landscape detailing tombs, palaces, towns, villas, and the roads that linked them. The evidence indicates a thriving prehistoric culture capable of surviving and expanding. The Minoans were prominent sea traders o n the Mediterranean and fostered cultural exchanges with other places such as Egypt. At the height of the Minoan civilization, the Minoan trade increased, in which Minoans came to rule over Mediterranean trading routes. Palaces represent some of the prominent architecture during the Minoan civilization. ... 20). The palaces experienced technological advancement with extensive drainage systems, aqueducts, irrigation, as well as wells that were deep and which were the sources of fresh water that could be used by the inhabitants. The palace buildings had multiple stories, which featured staircases (both interior and exterior), massive columns; light wells, outdoor places where people gathered, storage magazines, which represented the theaters of the ancient times. The method used in the construction included ceramic bricks coupled with stones that used to be rough linked by mortar within the interior walls (Biers 62). The Mycenaean Civilization (1600-100 BC) Greeks initially settled on the Greek mainland close to 2000 BC in which geography played a central role in the formation of a society. Mycenaean were equally wealthy as Minoans on Crete but can be described as relatively warlike. The Mycenaean civilization supplanted the Minoan civilization as the dominant sphere of influence on the G reek Islands. The military activity during the Mycenaean period  yielded to the fortification of major towns  such as Athens. The isolated forts served the purpose of militarily control territory (Pomeroy et al. 30). There were also various forms of exits typified by access ramps, monumental gates, vaulted galleries, and hidden doors fashioned to facilitate escaping in the event of a siege (Pomeroy et al. 31). Fortresses, which were built to suit the prevailing military conditions, represent some of the prominent examples of architecture during the Mycenaean civilization. The fortresses detailed massive walled structure built for defensive purposes. The walls of the structures

Justification for qualitative research in organisations

Justification for qualitative research in organisations Qualitative research is a field of inquiry in its own right. It crosscuts disciplines, fields and subject matters. A complex, interconnected family of terms, concepts, and assumptions surround the term qualitative research. These include the traditions associated with foundationalism, positivism, postfoundationalism, postpositivism, poststructuralism, and the many qualitative research perspectives, and/or methods connected to cultural and interpretive studies. qualitative researchers can access fascinating data by observing mundane settings or by finding everyday features in extraordinary settings. This essay provides a justification for the use of qualitative research methods in organisations. In the past, qualitative research methods have always been sidelined and quantitative research methods have been preferred for undertaking organisational research. One of the reasons for this is that qualitative research is always influenced by the researchers personal disposition. According to Creswell, Qualitative Research is a form of interpretive inquiry in which researchers make an interpretation of what they see, hear, and understand. Their interpretations cannot be separated from their own backgrounds, history, contexts, and prior understandings. (Creswell, 2009:176) Another reason for this is given by Silverman when he says that Policy makers and managers have been pushed away from ethnographic research because it takes a relatively long time to complete and appears to use unrepresentative samples. Even though some ethnographers are able to produce powerful arguments about what c an be read from a single, well researched, case, others muddy the waters by political posturing and by suggesting that they want no truck with conventional scientific standards. (Silverman, 2007:86) The pull of quantitative research for organisations is that it tends to define its research problems in a way that makes immediate sense to practitioners and administrators. (Silverman, 2007:86) More recently many organisations have started recognising the merits of using qualitative research methods to undertake research in the organisation. Qualitative research methods enable a thorough scrutiny of the researched topic which is not possible in quantitative research. Even within qualitative research, the researcher is provided with a vast range of options and opportunities for exploring diverse issues within the area of organisational research. What are the different methods used to adopt qualitative research? The most commonly known and most used method of qualitative research is ethnography which had its origins in social anthropology, with particular reference to the study of the culture of social groups and societies. The culture of a social group is made up of these complex networks of meaning and the key task of ethnography is to develop an interpretation and understanding of culture. (Thorpe and Holt, 2008) Ethnography can be described as a longitudinal research method that is often associated with participant observation, but can also draw on other research approaches such as contextual and historic analysis of secondary data published by or on the group being studied. The ethnographic approach to developing an in-depth understanding of peoples behaviour makes it well suited to studying organisations. (Marshan-Piekkari and Welch, 2004) But It bends reality considerably to imply that ethnography is today the main method of qualitative research and that observational material is the main data source. This is hardly surprising given the plethora of materials that invite our attention. These extend beyond what we can observe with our own eyes to what we can hear and see on recordings, what we can read in paper documents and electronically download on the internet, to what we can derive by asking questions in interviews or by providing various stimuli to focus groups. (Silverman, 2007:37) Grounded theory research, discourse analysis, deconstruction, content analysis, narrative method, action research (Humphreys, 2006), participatory enquiry, participant observation (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000), autoethnography, interviewing are just a few of the current approaches to qualitative data collection and analysis. All these methods are appropriately used in different forms of organisational research. I will be looking at autoethnography, grounded theory research, critical discourse analysis and the narrative approach towards qualitative research and will study the use of these methods in conducting organisational research. Autoethnography Ethnographers have started undertaking the observation of participation where they reflect on and critically engage with their own participation within the ethnographic frame thus giving birth to autoethnography. (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005:467) Karra and Philips have defined autoethnography as, the generation of theoretically relevant descriptions of a group to which one belongs based on a structured analysis of ones experiences and the experiences of others from ones groupIt is an attempt to produce sense from ones experience of a group that can be set down in a text and shared with interested others. It does not mean that the researcher studies only himself or herself, but that the researcher is an insider who can draw upon personal experience, cultural competence, and linguistic resources to frame and shape research in a way that an outsider cannot. (Karra and Phillips, 2008:547) Autoethnography has been very efficiently used by Karra and Phillips, in their article about internatio nal management researchers conducting studies in their own cultural context. They say that, autoethnography provides a methodological frame for understanding and managing their research. Even more importantly, it acts to sensitize the researcher to the importance of carefully managing the complex dynamics of this form of cross-cultural research including questions of authorial voice, role conflict, and power. (Karra and Phillips, 2008:543) Autoethnographic approaches have four important strengths- ease of access, reduced resource requirements, ease of establishing trust and rapport, and reduced problems with translation- but at the same time pose three important challenges- lack of critical distance, role conflict, and the limits of serendipity. (Karra and Phillips, 2008:541) The strengths of this mode of research are considerable and despite all the criticisms this method of qualitative research has acquired it can be used very successfully in organisational research where the need is to draw upon personal experiences. One of the uses of autoethnography is to allow another persons world of experience to inspire critical reflection on your own. (Ellis and Bochner, 1996:22) Experience is given a lot of importance in organisations and autoethnography enables the researcher and the organisation to use this experience in a positive manner and in a way which can be very beneficial to the organisation and its employees. Grounded Theory Grounded theory, developed by Glaser and Strauss, is a kind of theory generated from the data collected. The methodology refers to a style of conducting qualitative data analysis whose aim is to discover what kinds of concepts and hypotheses are relevant to the area one wishes to understand. Grounded theory, therefore, provides new insights into the understanding of social processes emerging from the context in which they occur, without forcing and adjusting the data to previous theoretical frameworks. (Cassell and Symon, 2004:242) Grounded theory is a method that is more appropriate for some questions than others. It is most suited to efforts to understand the process by which actors construct meaning out of intersubjective experience. Grounded theory should be used in a way that is logically consistent with key assumptions about social reality and how the reality is known. It is less appropriate to use grounded theory when you seek to make knowledge claims about an objective realit y, and more appropriate to do so when you want to make knowledge claims about how individuals interpret reality. (Suddaby, 2006:634) While the grounded theory approach appeared at a time when methods discourse was decidedly modernist, forty years of development reflect he paradigmatic plurality of current qualitative research. (Thorpe and Holt, 2008) The application of grounded theory in organisational research has been gaining popularity in recent times. This is because organisational psychology has been marked by a trend of moving from an individualistic point of view towards a more collective view. Grounded theory has been applied in studies focusing on organisational culture, organisational growth, change and innovation, team work and company survival to name a few. Grounded theory produces descriptions of organisational reality which elicit positive discussions around important themes in the organisation among the employees and, thus, form a basis for positive organisational development trends. (Cassell and Symon, 2004) Critical Discourse Analysis According to Cunliffe, Discourse analysis is a term covering a number of approaches to research that analyze language use. These approaches range from a focus on language itself, to a broader examination of the relationship between language use, social action and social theory. (Thorpe and Holt, 2008:81) Discourse analysis provides a theoretical and methodological framework for exploring the social production of organizational and interorganizational phenomena. (Phillips, Sewell and Jaynes, 2008:1) As a methodology, critical discourse analysis allows for the use of different kinds of methods in specific research projects. However, this kind of research in particular demands the ability to make sense of the linkages between specific textual characteristics and particular discourses on the one hand, and between the discourses and the relevant socio-cultural practices and historical developments on the other. This means that research of this type generally tends to favour in-depth scrut iny of and reflection on specific texts. (Marschan-Piekkari and Welch, 2004) Discourse analysis has become an increasingly popular method for examining the linguistic elements in the construction of social phenomena. It has been increasingly adopted by organization and management scholars interested in the social construction of specific organizational ideas or practices. (Varra, Kleymann and Seristo, 2004:3) There are three important problems facing researchers wishing to adopt a critical discourse perspective in their work. First, like ethnography, discourse analysis results in quite lengthy analyses that are often a poor fit with the requirements of journal editors. Second, discourse analysis often involves major data-management issues because of the volume of data that is often available. Finally, as this is a fairly new are of activity, there are few standard models available to follow. Developing innovative data analysis techniques for each study thus remains a final challenge facing researchers. (Phillips, Sewell and Jaynes, 2008) Narrative Approach According to Oswick, Narratives are an inevitable and unavoidable aspect of social life and, as such, are integral to the processes of managing and organizing. (Thorpe and Holt, 2008:141) Although the narrative approach is one with many merits which are being acknowledged by researchers, it is still a field in the making and is not very commonly used. Researchers new to this field will find a rich but diffuse tradition, multiple methodologies in various stages of development, and plenty of opportunities for exploring new ideas, methods and questions. (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005:651) A recognition that discourse is the principle means by which organization members create a coherent social reality that frames their sense of who they are has led to an increased interest in narrative approaches in organization studies. A narrative approach explicitly recognizes that, in organizations, language is the primary medium of social control and power, and that the analysis of linguistic practices is key to an understanding of how existing social and power relations are reproduced or transformed. (Humphreys and Brown, 2007) In the article, An Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility at Credit Line: A Narrative Approach by Humphreys and Brown (2008), the authors adopted a narrative approach to the analysis of organizational processes in a bank, Credit Line, in order to explore how individuals in a financial institution dealt with relatively novel issues of corporate social responsibility. The authors used narratives to successfully draw attention to the plurivocity of orga nisational life. Use of qualitative research methods to undertake organisational research in a public sector organisation Public sector organisations are those organisations which are managed by the government. The main aim of these organisations is not to make a profit but to provide a service to the people under the government. Some example of public sector organisations are airports, public hospitals, railway stations, government run schools and colleges. Governments nowadays are looking to privatize most of the public sector organisations in order to increase their efficiency and effectiveness. Thus most of the above given examples have now been partially or completely privatised in most countries. Public sector organisations are common grounds for research amongst qualitative researchers. This could be due to the fact that public sector organisations are more easily accessible than the private sector organisations. Many public sector organisations have also started coming up with their own research and development department which undertakes the organisational research. In my opinion participant observation and interviewing together make an ideal combination to undertake organisational research within a public sector organisation or for that matter any organisation. The shortcomings of participant observations are covered by interviewing and vice versa. Thus, the two methods complement each other perfectly. Participant Observation The methodology of participant observation is appropriate for studies of almost every aspect of human existence. Through participant observation, it is possible to describe what goes on, who or what is involved, when and where things happen, how they occur, and why at least from the standpoint of participants things happen as they do in particular situations. (Jorgensen, 1989) Participant observation is one of the most popular ways of conducting fieldwork in an organisation. This is because through observation of the participants going through their daily routine researchers pick up information which they might not have access to in a more formal setting, an example of which is interviews. Participant observation can be of two types. In the first, the identity of the researcher is known to all and the researcher has a choice of forming relationships with the participants or to stand back and eavesdrop. This form of participant observation is ethically correct but the researchers pe rsonal disposition and identity may influence the participants behaviour and this may have an effect on the research material gathered. The second type of participant observation is covert participant observation where the identity of the researcher is hidden. This form of participant observation raises many ethical questions and is just another form of deception. Thus, covert participant observation should be avoided. The researchers ability to build relationships and develop rapport with subjects is crucial in participant observation. The danger here is that the researcher may feel so embedded and sympathetic to the group being studied that interpreting events objectively becomes difficult. Another demerit of participant observation is the time-consuming and open-ended nature of this kind of research which means it often doesnt get done. In a cost-conscious research climate in which specific and often short-term, definitive objectives are required to secure funding, sustained part icipation is a risky strategy. (Thorpe and Holt, 2008) Interviews The qualitative interview can be seen as a conversation with a purpose, where the interviewers aim is to obtain knowledge about the respondents world. (Thorpe and Holt, 2008:118) The goal of any qualitative research interview is to see the research topic from the perspective of the interviewee and to understand how and why they came to have this particular perspective. (Cassell and Symon, 2004) Interviewing is the most popular method of conducting organisational research. The method has three important advantages. Firstly, interviewers allow the researcher to discover new relationships or situations not previously conceived. Secondly, interview based research may be optimal when there is a small population of possible respondents as interviewers offer an opportunity to acquire a richness of information from each respondent. Finally, interviews may allow researchers to develop a deeper rapport with informants which is necessary to gain honest and accurate responses and to add insights that lay the groundwork for larger or follow-up studies. (Marschan-Piekkari and Welch, 2004) But the interviewing method also suffers from three disadvantages. Firstly, developing an interview guide, carrying out interviews and analysing their transcripts, are all highly time-consuming activities for the researchers. Secondly, qualitative interviews are also tiring to carry out as they involve considerable concentration from the interviewer. Thus, no more than three interviews, each of the duration of one hour, should be carried out in a day. Finally, interviews are also time-consuming for the interviewees and this may cause problems in recruiting participants in some organizations and occupations. The latest trends in interviewing have come some distance from structured questions; we have reached the point of the interview as negotiated text. Researchers are not invisible neutral entities; they are a part of the interaction we seek to study. Interviewers are increasingly seen as active participants in an interaction with respondents, and interviewers are seen as negotiated accomplishments of both interviewers and respondents that are shaped by the contexts and situations in which they take place. (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005) Depending on the type of organisational research which the public sector organisation needs to carry out and its goals and aims, either participant observation or interviewing or a combination of both the methods can be used appropriately in acquiring the required research material. Conclusion Thus, I conclude by saying that qualitative research methods have formed a niche for themselves in organisational research. The importance of organisational research is growing day by day and qualitative research methods are now an important part of organisational research. Although many forms of qualitative research make the use of figures and numbers to support a point of discussion, thus incorporating a characteristic of quantitative research methods, they also provide an in depth analysis on the topic of research and use one or more of the methodologies of qualitative research which include participant observation, interviewing, autoethnography, use of secondary data, grounded theory, ethnography, discourse analysis, narratives and rhetorical analysis. In this essay I introduced qualitative research and outlined its increasing importance in organisational research. I followed this up by describing approaches to qualitative research specifically concentrating on autoethnography, grounded theory, critical discourse analysis and the narrative approach, and critically analysing their use in organisational research. Finally, I concentrated on public sector organisations and why I think that participant observation and interviews are the best methods of qualitative research to undertake organisational research in public sector organisations. In doing this I feel that I have justified the use of qualitative research in organisations. Word Count: 2969 words