Macbeth :: essays research papers

Macbeth Throughout the play, there are several occasions which may either be interpreted as manipulation of Macbeth’s character, or more dramatically as prophecies of his inevitable destiny. The most important of these elements are the supernatural witches. When Macbeth first meets the Witches (I.iii.) – seemingly by accident – they call him titles which have not yet been bestowed upon him. It is unclear whether the Witches plant the idea of earning these titles by foul play to Macbeth’s head, or whether it is a prophecy of future. Either way, their words eventually become reality. The further encounters with the Weyward Sisters and Hecate strengthens the idea of a preset destiny. The three apparitions summoned by the witches (IV.i.) and the prophecies that go together with them are all visions of the future. Unfortunaly for Macbeth he manages to read these manifestations of his destiny all wrong. Another important ’fatal’ element for Macbeth is Lady Macbeth. She is also heavily manipulating Macbeth (II.ii.), although she does not have the supernatural qualities of the Witches. She is clearly a woman driven by an infinite lust for power. However, the only way for her to fulfill her personal agenda is through her husband, Macbeth. Lady Macbeth’s character can be easily interpreted as a manifestation of the darker side of the human mind, an instrument between Macbeth and the realization of his inevitable destiny. When Macbeth has become King and felt power, he doesn't want to give it up. At first he wasn't at peace because he wanted the throne, but hesitated to carry out the murder. Now that he has the throne, he loses his peace with the prospect of losing the crown. His only choice now is to kill Banquo and Fleance. He is trying to work against prophecy – the third apparition – something he never learns not to do. While Macbeth carries out his dark deeds, he becomes a somewhat different person; he no longer possesses control over his destiny. His head becomes filled with images of murder, ghosts and other signs of a disturbed mind. The vision of the dagger (II.i.) is the earliest example of the duality and unstability of his character. Macbeth’s mind is contemplating the murder of Duncan, but he clearly hasn’t come to terms with it. After he has carried out the murder, Macbeth is able to keep a mask of innocence. When he has the doubtful Banquo murdered, and his ghost appears to haunt him

Global Organization Management in the Year 2000

â€Å"Technological advances at the end of the 20th century have allowed companies to globalize, facilitating the sale of their goods and services in foreign markets. Communications, empowerment, and learning will be the three greatest deciding factors in the success of these new multinational firms. † To be more successful in business in the global environment, it will be necessary to expand to the global market. An increase in production, sales and profits are some of the compelling reasons why most companies will seek to go beyond the limited sphere of strictly selling to US consumers. But as companies in the year 2000 and beyond will surely find out, it isn†t always easy to manage an organization when the work force and management teams are thousands of miles and an ocean away. Consequently, there are a few strategies that can ensure the success of a business located in the global market. First of all, the 1990's have already taught us that people are proud to work for companies that treat them well. They become linked to companies in more than an employer/employee relationship — they come to feel as if they are truly a part of an organization; not just one of the employees. In the year 2000 and beyond, it shall be the presence of this feeling more than any other that sets excellent companies apart from the ordinary, and therefore less successful. Companies which are expanding to the global market will need to make all the positive contributing employees feel more than just workers. One thing that employees in the future will – more than ever — ask themselves continually is how personally beneficial or detrimental their work environment is to there wn well-being. By establishing a research study to investigate the psychological climate of the overseas workplace, several important factors can be established which will help in the effective management of the global firm. More than ever before, employees in the global will show a genuine appreciation for fairness within their workplace, as well as some amount of recognition for a job well done. This is especially important when the parent company is located in another country. The prevailing attitude may be that the new organization isn†t as important to company success, simply because the head of the organization isn†t a daily, or even monthly, presence at the workplace. By recognizing the achievements of foreign employees, employers will ensure that their global family feels appreciated and part of the team, which in turn will create an atmosphere where the employees take pride in their work, and feel as if they are an integral part of the entire production process. There may also be problems with job stress, or harmony within the work group (possibly a lack of warmth and friendliness which does not provide a pleasant working environment). All these potential problems are part of the psychological climate within a workplace already, and will need to be addressed as part of an effective management program of a global organization in the future. Every day, employees will form a perception of how their organization values them in their contributions. It is important that these global employees feel that the organization cares about their well-being and is willing to fairly reward their loyalty or effort. How the global employees will perceive this support from the parent organization is important to them as they try to understand their role in the production process. Maslow (1954) argued a hierarchy system of human needs. The hierarchical needs are fixed from the bottom to the top. The bottom is physical needs; next is safety and security needs; third is social needs; forth is self-esteem; and fifth is self- actualization. Maslow's theory suggests that an individual's motivational needs aspire to the next level once the lower level needs have been achieved. The global firm must address the needs of the foreign and expatriate worker, to keep their commitment to the organization. The individual wants money not just to live on but also acquires some degree of personal satisfaction from earning it. Money will be used for housing, foods, and health care, for himself and his family. Receiving an increase in salary will contribute to the individual's status and self-worth, both of which are identified needs that require satisfaction. The overlapping areas in the motivation model suggest that the Maslow's needs are satisfied simultaneously. There are three overlapping areas in the model, an overlapping of individual needs and external influences, an overlapping of individual needs and business, and an overlapping of individual needs, external influences, and business. The first area includes the physical needs, the safety and security. The second area includes the social needs. The last area includes self-actualization and self- esteem because the two needs are satisfied when the three factors are met. Furthermore, a size of each overlapping area can explain management's attempt to satisfy the degree of employees' needs. The global firm must attempt to satisfy the needs of all the workers, not only in monetary terms, but also in fulfillment of self worth. All the workers should not just feel as if they are a ‘cog in the machine†, but part of the whole process. The expectancy theory presented by Vroom (1964), is a frame work for our ideal global firm to operate within. We assume performance, reward, and satisfaction are interconnected. The theory suggests that an increase in effort leads to increasing performance and then proper rewards with satisfaction help keep the relationships. The factor not taken into account is the relationship between a person and external influences. The relationship between performance and rewards relates to the interaction between individual needs and business. Our global firm will provide a systematic rewards process which meet the individual needs as performance occurs. The size of the overlapping area of individual needs and business can illustrate the degree of matching individual needs and the respective rewards. Our eventual long term goal is to increase long term commitment to the firm. If workers meet goals, and targets they will be rewards. The global firm does not want to lose good workers. It is hard enough to maintain a domestic workforce, finding and maintaining a global workforce is an immensely large task. Employee perceptions of the global organization organization†s support will strongly influence their commitment to the organization. When they see the organization as being supportive of employee efforts, this also affects and influences their attitudes and behaviors. How employees perceive support from the organization is directly influenced by positive feedback from the organization. As in everyday life, praise and approval for a job well done is the best way to let people know they are appreciated. This is very important in global management to increase employee morale. This positive feedback lets the employee know that the organization recognizes and values the contribution of their global employees — a key message in all forms of support. The 21st century organization will find it helpful to take monthly surveys of the global employees in which to get their assessment of the employee-organization relationship, and if they feel there is positive feedback or communication occurring within the organization. When an employee feels that the management†s actions and policies communicate employees are easily replaced, he or she may feel well-being within the workplace, and be less likely to identify with the organization. It is important for global employees to feel as if they play just as much of an important role within the organization as does the core group of employees in the home base organization. If an employee perceives top management communicates consistently — and in several different ways — that employees are valued, he or she may feel increased well-being and report a stronger identification with the organization, which would result in better performance and a company loyalty. ). Concern and caring for employees can be communicated through statements sent to the foreign workplace from organization. Loyalty to the company can be reinforced by publicly recognizing employee achievements in company newsletters. Organizations can also communicate their support of their foreign production team by providing tangible benefits, such as child-care facilities or flexible work arrangements. This allows employees reducing uncertainty about their jobs through job training or information about what would happen if the company had to layoff a certain number of employees. Overseas production teams will assume responsibility in the event of profit or losses. The global team would be the first to be cut. Knowing ahead of time that there is an established plan for handling such a possibility will go a long way in increasing employee feelings of well-being and loyalty to the company. Ambiguous policies, on the other hand, only serve to promote uncertainty among global employees. It is also important to understand how organizational events are interpreted by employees, which can lead to increased understanding of the organization and improve the employee/employer relationship. Organizations of the future allowing global teams to be part of the decision-making policies and practices will generally have more supportive organizational climates. This shall show the foreign production team to feel they are part of the entire organization and not that the parent organization is deciding for them on work practices and policies, which don†t directly affect the organization as much as they would affect the foreign team. Allowing the global team into the decision-making process will signify management†s respect for them as an important part of the entire organization. Positive evaluations of employee value and their decision-making abilities are also important. Participation in decision making is related to increased motivation and increases in employee attitude toward commitment to the organization. One of today's biggest buzzwords is â€Å"Teams†. Most companies are leaning toward a team concept. One way to enforce teams is by empowering employees. Many companies striving to edge their competition are turning to the empowered employee teams initiative. The difference between a group and a team must be understood. A group is two or more people who interact to achieve their goals. In contrast a team is a group in which members work together intensively to achieve a common goal. Therefore the fact that there is no camaraderie in the groups is not only because of the lack of proper interaction and understanding but also because of the fact that workers are not trained enough to realize the importance of working in groups. The difference between groups and teams Groups work individually to achieve a common goal, or target. Teams work and communicate together to achieve common goals. The global organization must achieve form teams, and not groups. The global empowered teams will be part of a much larger global composition of teams that will form the companies network. In the global organization empowered teams will make the difference between the company being a multinational that meets the regional demands, or an international corporation. Regional needs will be satisfied because the teams distributed throughout the world will be responsive to the needs of the customer. The ultimate goal of the corporation is â€Å"to market itself globally, but act locally. † (Stein, 1999) Most businesses want to achieve total customer satisfaction by anticipating and solving a problem before it occurs. Thus a new kind of team has emerged with the goal of insuring customer satisfaction from the start. In the global environment empowered teams will be able to react regionally to the needs and wants of the consumer. Empowered teams are built with empowered people whom have the authority and autonomy to make significant changes within the organization. The global teams will consist of several members from different functions. Instead of one individual making decisions, the group or â€Å"team† makes decisions collectively with the middle manager position eliminated or acting as the coach. The use of these empowered regional teams is to solve problems, lower costs, increase quality, and ultimately improve customer satisfaction. The global team will understand the national culture of each individual country it operate in. They will identify that particular set of economic, political, and social values that exist in that nation. Throwing people together does not always mean they should be called a team. They must first be made up of the right people who understand and can define a task. The strength of the team depends on proper training, timing, and communication. Before a regional empowered team is created, the goal of the company and mission of the team must be defined. The top management must identify how much of empowerment is needed, and recruit the best people to work on the problem. For a team to work successfully it should ideally be comprised from a diversified workforce. The diversification will facilitate more idea†s and openness with the team. An article in the Wall Street Journal mentioned Honda, Motorola, and General Electric as examples of companies who form diversified empowered teams. Honda motor company for example, attempts to compose it each of teams from a minimum of three different countries. This allows Honda to incorporate regional needs, and use other non regional concepts. Recruiting the right people, and insuring they represent the cross-section of discipline†s and regional diversity is very important. One person missing out of this formula can ruin a team. Within every team, a cross-functioning method must be used for the team to be successful. If one of the team members is hard to get along with, they still can be beneficial to the team. Everyone's input is important, the output of the team is greater than any individual's output. A strong facilitator is also needed on the team. The facilitator guides rather than leads. Usually middle management, this person is set equal to the other members of the team. The facilitator must recognize and understand each member's participation, as well as, coordinate the reporting progress. In order for team to be successful, senior management must be committed to recognize the team should be put in charge. This is done only when senior management defines a specific goal for the team to strive for. Too much management can kill a team. The team might spend more time on reporting the progress than the task that needs to be completed. Middle management is the biggest obstacle for teams. To be successful, middle management must surrender its power and let the team empower themselves. Setting time limits are also important to the team success. Never let a team go beyond six months, everyday should be treated as an important day. Training is also important for team to succeed. Everyone in the organization, including all suppliers must work together to improve customer satisfaction. Outside vendors should be reminded that increased sales by the corporation will lead to increased revenue for them.

My Personal Values Essay - 1355 Words

My personal values Values are those things that are important, meaningful and valued by an individual, a group of people, or an organization. Whether we are aware of them or not, every individual has his or her core set of values, which consist of many different kinds of values. Each individual’s value system is different from one another because individual’s values are built up through one’s life experience, environment, and family background. Values are important to us because they reflect our personal moral standards, shape our behavior, and guide us through long life journeys. Since we live in a highly connected society, each person’s value system does not only affect one’s own life, but also affects many other people and the†¦show more content†¦However, we should pay attention to our manners, utilize our communication skills; and on the bottom line, we need to avoid intentionally hurting people. When coming across people who have total different opinions from mine, I always act respectfully. For example, at school, we have to do many team projects; most often, team members may come from total different cultural background, and thus always have different opinions about the same thing. Being respectful to other students, I am well-mannered, using appropriate language, opening to criticisms, and conducting myself professionally. If everyone knows how to respect to others and act respectfully to each other, we will easily to get along with each other and thus there be more happiness and less conflict in our society, so we will make the world a better place. Second, I highly value integrity. Integrity is defined as â€Å"a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one’s actions.† It generally means not intentionally harming others, not stealing from, not cheating, or being fair to, others. I value integrity because it manifests a person’s inner strength, honor, kindness, and geniuses of one’s soul. According to Kantian moral perspective whether an action is morally good or not depends primarily in the intentions of the agent performing theShow MoreRelatedMy Personal Values716 Words   |  3 Pageswonder an adage says, â€Å"Where there is life, there is hope.† The most essential values come from within us because they are the true reflection of ourselves. Having such morals gives people goals to strive for no matter what the odds. Most importantly, it’s cruc ial to truly understand that these morals must come to life and should be followed consistently even if things seem blurred or unyielding at first. My own personal values lay in the idea of living a happy life, a life with no regrets,, a life thatRead MoreMy Personal Statement On Personal Values1730 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction My personal values act as a basis for determining right and wrong in my daily life. My life, my parents, my husband and my children have all played valuable roles in the development of my core values. The following is an ever changing personal ethics creed, that I plan on using to help guide me in my endeavors. My Basic Beliefs I grew up after the age of eight in a divorced home. In the late eighties it was still an oddity to be a child of Divorce. This is where my strongest beliefsRead MoreMy Personal Values On Nursing964 Words   |  4 PagesIdentifying personal values, beliefs and concepts ignite the individual to make a well-rounded decision and live an authentic life. As a nurse, I want to promote the best possible care for my patients because I believe in maintaining life balances. Life balances acknowledge the individual’s prioritizes by linking each lifestyles together. In physiological terms, maintaining equilibrium and homeostasis is critical in achieving a state of balanced. Therefore, my values about person, health, nursingRead MoreMy Personal And Professional Values Essay1137 Words   |  5 PagesIn reviewing your personal and professional values, what surprised you, and what helped you affirm your beliefs? Reviewing and examining my personal and professional values, I have to admit, there is nothing that surprised me. However, there is a lot that affirmed many of my beliefs. The values and beliefs to which I personally ascribe are undeniably impacted by my upbringing and social environment that I live in. They are the essence of who I am. My values influence every decision I make, how IRead MoreMy Personal Core Values858 Words   |  4 Pagesduration of this course my morals have been reshaped; first, we discussed personal responsibility, then professional responsibility. Each of these components must be integrated in a student’s life to ensure a successful and ethical career down the road. Five predominant values that influence my life on a daily basis are responsibility, accountability, integrity, achievement, and respect. Responsibility is a value that has been integrated in my mind since early childhood. Both my parents always heldRead MoreMy Personal Hierarchy Of Values970 Words   |  4 PagesMy â€Å"Fight Club† centers around my personal hierarchy of values. As I have grown and developed these past nineteen years, I have been able to evaluate what is truly important to me. Some may say that geographic location, influence from others, and religion may play a part in this hierarchy. Nevertheless, I find mine to range from health, safety, conflict resolution, and family. When establishing a group of rules under each of these four simple values things begin to change. I try not to be anRead MoreMy Core Personal Values918 Words   |  4 PagesMy personal values presumably act as a basis to recognize between what is right and wrong and thus, determine my daily actions and emotions. My mother, Jo Ann Smith and my education have both played profound roles in the development of my core personal values: personal integrity, responsibility, and ambition. Additionally, these influences have demonstrated that the rule-based approach determined what conduct is consistent with these key values. Before I was the age of 6, my parents were divorcedRead MoreMy Personal Values Of Justice1475 Words   |  6 Pages1. I believe my personal values of justice and wisdom strongly correlate with social works ethics and values. The NASW Code of Ethics actually list social justice and competence as values in the social work profession, which are very similar to my values of wisdom and justice. My personal values greatly influenced my pursuit in social work because they have motivated me to seek wisdom as a social work student but also fight for justice where inequality prevails. The values of justice and wisdomRead MorePersonal Statement On My Values1380 Words   |  6 PagesMy values have a larger impact on each and every aspect of my life as it influences my behavior, decisions actions. My values also help to prioritize my life.Before taking up any value you must decide on what importance that value has on your life and why it must be indulged and also how it is going to affect you r future life. Then try your level best to live by them. Living your life by your values helps to accomplish your goals and then helps you influence others, and in this essay ill explainRead MoreMy Personal Values Of My Life1951 Words   |  8 PagesI have many values of which have been acquired over the time of my life. Most of which are influenced by my mom and dad as they raised me. Of the values I value the most are kindness, being considerate of others, cherishing family and friends, and giving respect where it is due. As I have stated before, the source of these values are from being taught them as I grew up. They have been put into me from my mom, her mom, and my dad. As I grew up, my parents would teach me what to or not to usually do

Why Juvenile Choose a Gang Lifestyle - 1774 Words

Gangs have been in existence since the beginning of the Roman Empire. There were speeches made by Roman orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero, which references groups of men who constantly fought and disrupted Roman politics (Curry, 2013). The history of street gangs in the United States begins with their emergence on the East Coast around 1783, as the American Revolution ended. Though many believe the best available evidence suggests that the more serious street gangs likely did not emerge until the early part of the nineteenth century (Sante, 1991). Although our country has had their share of feared gangs like in the 1980’s with the turf war between the Bloods and Crips, back in the 17th and 18th century the Mohocks of Georgian, England†¦show more content†¦When most juveniles join gangs most outsiders perceive this to be because these youths are joining to get involved in delinquent activities. Sven Morch and Helle Andersen’s research on â€Å"Becoming a gang member: Youth Life and Gang youth†, state that gangs may be seen as social networks that give space and support for the person, but unfortunately are also contexts for common activities that are often directed against the outside world. (Morch, 2012) Although many people may perceive this as being negative, most who join find the experience as a positive event. One author found out through interviews with gang members that they joined for peer group attraction, an escape from abusive or non-existent families, the possibility of economic gain, and the sense of being marginalized ethically and/or economically from the larger society. (Beare, 2013) What makes the bond so strong with the gang is their culture is imparted from one generation to the next through a process called socialization. The act of joining a gang has always been surrounded by secrecy and ritualistic initiations. One of the first things that occur for a newbie is that they go through an initiation process to join a gang. The culture of the gang is often a culture of violence. It is a culture of physical assaults, guns, knives, bats, and anything that one can use to protect him- or herself or gain advantage over another person or situation.Show MoreRelatedJuvenile Delinquents Vs. Gran Torino, And A Better Life One1467 Words   |  6 Pages Juvenile delinquents have been around for a long time, however it has not been until recently that society has cast light on this very serious issue. Nonetheless, there is still much that is unknown about juvenile delinquents which is why it is so easy for bystanders to label them as gangsters and criminals and forget about them. In reality, there are multiple factors that come in to play that when determining how juvenile delinquents got to the point where they are now. After watching the filmsRead MorePoverty and a Lack of Education are Fueling Juvenile Crime A 6 page essay arguing that juvenile crime is directly related to poverty and poor education.1698 Words   |  7 PagesPoverty and a Lack of Education are Fueling Juvenile Crime In the early 1960s, the epidemic of juvenile crime began to take shape. The problem of juvenile crime is becoming an increasingly pressing matter in America. Anyone who watches the news on television or reads the newspapers is well aware of the urgency and intensity of Americas juvenile crime problem. Effectively establishing the causes of juvenile crime may help to deter it in the future. A proper solution cannot be executed until theRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Boyz N The Hood 1643 Words   |  7 Pageswas the case some of the kids prospered more than the others and were able to not get involved in gangs, drugs, or violence despite being in a poor environment where they were forced to live. In addition, some was able to continue their education and eventually get out of the environment, but some could not make it out and died in the poor environment. This movie is a great illustration of juvenile delinquency because it shows how living in a broken home, in a poor environment s hapes young boys.Read MoreJuvenile Delinquency And Juvenile Crime Essay2267 Words   |  10 PagesJuvenile delinquency, as well as juvenile gangs are interesting and popular topic in the world of criminal justice. What criminological theories tie in with the problems of juvenile delinquency, juvenile gangs, and the reasons why juveniles do what they do? This paper explains the theories that tie in with the why, and how juveniles end up the way they do. Using the different theories explained in this paper you could hypothesize an explanation as to why the juvenile committed a crime or joinedRead More The prison situation in the United States is a growing problem932 Words   |  4 Pages Why do we choose to break the law? It’s socially accepted, most people break the law in a minor way, perhaps by speeding or J-walking. Unfortunately some people go to far and end up in prison. At that point society is divided, where is the line that separates us? What affects the outcome of what side of that line you are standing on? Education? Environment? Genetics? What would cause one subject to end up in prison while the other raises a family? Some researchers have concluded that it is in yourRead MoreYouth Crime Essay3259 Words   |  14 Pagesï » ¿ Youth Gang Involvement MET CJ/631—Youth Crime Problems Boston University Dr. Frank Carney April 20, 2013 Abstract Within the United States, youth involvement in gangs has become a serious problem for the future safety and security of the United States. The following thesis explores the growing problem of youth involvement in gangs and attempts to understand the growing trend by exploring historical facts and figures, policies and programs. Within the lastRead MoreThe Reckless Behavior of Teenagers2575 Words   |  11 Pagesbut majority of teenagers are defined that way by society. In the United States, juveniles were involved in at least 680 murders, in the year 2011 alone (Statistical Briefing Book). Nationwide 2,600 inmates serve the sentence of life-without-parole for crimes they committed as juveniles. In the state of Pennsylvania alone, 450 inmates serve this sentence, which also appears to be the most in any U.S. state (Juvenile Law Center) Imagine this you are sitting in the court waiting to hear the final verdictRead MoreAdolescent Violence And Youth Violence2265 Words   |  10 Pagesadult (Howell, 2003). Literary Review Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is participation in illegal behavior by minors. A juvenile delinquent in the United States is a person who is typically under the age of 17 and commits an act that otherwise would have been charged as a crime if they were an adult. Depending on the type and severity of the offense committed, it is possible for persons under 18 to be charged and tried as adults. Juvenile crimes can range from status offensesRead MoreGang Affiliation and Social Factors Underlying their Deviant Behavior1460 Words   |  6 PagesWe have discussed gang affiliation and the social factors underlying their deviant behavior, however, the motives for why people engage in this deviant behavior have different sociological theoretical explanations. I will use the following theories to interpret and analyze this cause of deviance. Functionalist theory/perspective The Functionalist theory through the studies of Durkheim, states that society is comprised of a greater network of parts that contributes to its stability. The functionalistRead MoreReasons for an Increase Crime Among Young People.1225 Words   |  5 Pagessolutions to youth crime?When we look even closer,there are reasons why crimes done by youngsters and there is also some ways to encouraged them to behave differently. Probably,in everyone’s life,parents are the first role models for their children.It is important for parents to be with and help them to grow from a baby to adult.Common psychology survey shows,those teenagers with happy life are less involved in juvenile crimes compared to teenagers who are sad and depressed.Perhaps,the cause

Athenian Attitudes Toward The Authority Of State Through...

Athenian Attitudes Toward the Authority of State Through the Eyes of Plato and Sophocles The first evidence of democracy, government in which the citizens had a say in the rulings, was discovered in Ancient Athens. However, the direct democratic system seemed so successful that it overshadowed the Athenian’s views towards the power of their government. Through close examination of the writings of Sophocles and Plato, one can discover the that the Athenian’s thoughts regarding the governing power, evolved during Classical Athens’s 200 year span. Although at a glance the government of Ancient Athens did not seem to progress much during it’s time, a deeper look at Sophocles’ Antigone, written in 441 BCE, and Plato’s Crito, written in 360 BCE, reveal that the Athenian attitudes toward the authority of the state appeared to evolve even within eighty years. While Antigone and Crito, are two distinct works, they both tell stories of disobedience to the authority within the society. Sophocles tells a tale of Antigone, a young woman who breaks the King’s, Creon’s, new law that prohibits the burial of her deceased brother because he was fighting against his own city. On the other hand, Plato’s dialogue tells of Crito, who is willing to break the law of the state so he can rescue his friend, Socrates, from a death sentence. The air of rebellion throughout both works brings into focus the dissatisfaction that the Athenian citizens seem to have had with the people in governmental power.

Strategic Management Business Case Study for Insight Magazine Free Essays

string(38) " credibility amongst its competitors\." {draw:frame} {draw:g} {draw:g} INSIGHT’s MISSION, VISION PHILOSOPHY {draw:text-box} Insight is a local social magazine founded to satisfy different appeals in the Egyptian society. It are committed to face our challenges by embracing and creating change, through innovative solutions to extend the overall content distribution and marketing model to include websites, digital magazines, virtual events, and other new technologies to establish positive relations and credibility between the magazine and its readers. It is committed to providing an informal yet professional working environment that encourages and rewards creativity, teamwork and enthusiasm. We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Management Business Case Study for Insight Magazine or any similar topic only for you Order Now Insight’s operation is environmentally friendly. {draw:text-box} ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING When setting the mission, Insight had to first understand the â€Å"big picture† of the environment, in which it is operating, and the opportunities and threats that lie within. Such understanding of the surrounding environment will enable us to take advantage of the opportunities that will come in our ways and minimize the threats that will face us along the way The Big Picture (PEST ANALYSIS) PEST Analysis helps understanding the â€Å"big picture† of the Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological environment, it ensures that what we are aiming for in our mission is aligned positively with the powerful forces of change that are affecting the press media. Political factor: Understanding the political environment in Egypt is almost the most important step in the scanning phase, the freedom of press in Egypt is not â€Å"as free† as it may seem because of the following: The political environment might not be stable within the next five years due to the presidential election which may negatively influence the market. Egypt’s state security investigation apparatus empowered to interfere in almost every area of public life under the state of emergency in force for the last 28 years which forms a barrier for writers to speak up their minds freely. On the other hand, there are some positive changes in the political environment such as the reform program that is a work in progress. Egypt has made substantial progress in developing its legal, tax and investment infrastructure, over the past five years; Egypt has passed, amended and admitted over 15 legislative pieces one of which was the reform of the country’s presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential elections. Economical factor: The financial crisis and the recession which has recently struck the world all over definitely had an impact on the Egyptian job market in many versatile ways such as: The downfall of the western economy forced the expatriates working abroad consider twice before asking for a high salary, this made the hiring of foreign calibers easier and resulted in the layoffs of many local employees and the increase of unemployment and job market instability. Unemployment in the Egyptian society has aggressively increased during the last five years affecting indirectly the press industry. Many organizations started to adopt the policy of cost cutting and benefit minimization; this as well had the same effect as the precedent point resulting in unemployment and instability. The worsening state of the global economy makes 2009 a â€Å"horror show† for advertising-dependent newspaper and television companies, with some analysts predicting that businesses may have to wait until 2011 to see positive ad growth. It must be noted as well that the Egyptian economy has been gaining, thanks to the wide-ranging amendments reforms that the country began implementing in 2004 and due to such amendments and administration of many legislative pieces the economy is expected to grow by about 4% to 6% in 2009/2010. Technological Factor: We are living the technology era, every day, a new invention, revolution or innovation strikes the market in every business, if Insight is not open to apply new operational strategies that can help to address the effects of both technological streamlining and better developing meaningful ways of generating an exchange of ideas, it won’t last before its competitors, with a daily increasing pace in the world of technology. The rise of online media presents another challenge: reliability. The internet has become the fastest and easiest way for the readers to get the type of info they claim, low-priced and as diverse as they want, and this rise is obliging the media world to give attention to online advertisement as much as or even at a higher interest that normal printed magazines. Socio-cultural Factor: A cultural change has came into the surface, with he increase of the coffee shops outings, the topics that were point of interest to readers have been changed , Insight carried out new researches to cover a broad range of topics to attract readers. Over the last 5 years, the interest in football, politics and religion ruled over many areas in life, Insight being a social lifestyle magazine it has to cope with the new interests in our society. Given that English is the language of the magazine in an Arabic speaking country; this has enlarged the difficulty of the magazine’s distribution in the Egy ptian market. Environmental Factor: Global warming that became perhaps the most complicated issue facing the world of magazine production after study showed that the carbon dioxide emissions caused by the production and distribution of one copy of an average sized 0. 39 pound magazine total about 0. 95 kilograms including paper from trees, materials, production, shipping and customer use; henceforth, the loss of natural habitat potential from the 0. 39 pound magazine is estimated to be 0. 3 square meters. This has led to a huge increase in the prices of the papers which is the most important element of the magazines industry. {draw:frame} The Small Details (SWOT ANALYSIS) SWOT Analysis is a simple but powerful framework for analyzing the magazine’s Strengths and Weaknesses, and the Opportunities and Threats it faces. Thus, helping Insight to focus on its strengths, minimize threats, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available. Strengths: Insight magazine enjoys a very good image that has a business idea and credibility amongst its competitors. You read "Strategic Management Business Case Study for Insight Magazine" in category "Free Case study samples" It has an extensive advertising and good promotions that withhold good value and quality. The magazine enjoys good cash flow through advertising which provides space for innovation and expansion. Most of Insight’s staff is between 20-25 years, at these young ages the ability to cope with new challenges of life is much more flexible than older generations and this provides the space to innovate improve in many fields. Weakness: Any organization has its weaknesses; Insight suffers from the lack of a good distribution plan compared to its rivals. Another weakness facing Insight is the fact that the teams are self managed by junior staff which lack knowledge and experience leadership of its junior staff. Threats: Insight’s main threat is the strong competitors dominating the market and how quickly they can adapt to market changes. The inability to cope with new technologies may also lead to the magazine’s failure. Opportunities: Giving that Egypt is in a state of transition and economic growth, our good cash flow will enable us to seize any opportunity of hiring excellent calibers and adopting new technologies. {draw:frame} STRATEGY FORMULATION Strategy formulation is the process of determining appropriate courses of action for achieving the organizational objectives and thereby accomplishing organizational purpose. The strategies formulated should reflect environmental analysis previously discussed, lead to fulfillment of the mission, and result in reaching our organizational objectives. TOWS MATRIX The TOWS Matrix is a relatively simple tool for generating the strategic options, using it, will enable us to look intelligently at how Insight takes the best advantage of the opportunities open, at the same time that we minimize the impact of weaknesses and protect ourselves against threats. By analyzing the external environment (threats and opportunities), and the internal environment (weaknesses and strengths), we can use these techniques to think about our corporate, business functional strategies. Corporate Strategy Corporate strategy is one, which decides what business the magazine should be in, and how the overall group of activities should be structured and managed, it is as well a description of the magazine’s overall direction in terms of its general attitude toward growth, stability or Retrenchment and the management of its various businesses and product lines. Following the change of the external major forces as well as the declining performance of the distribution unit and the marketing department, the top management had to consider formulating an alternative strategy other than the previously followed growth strategy. A stability strategy is now the new corporate strategy followed by Insight, it is decision of doing nothing new in the worsening situation but instead to act as though Insight’s problems are only temporary, and it is an attempt to artificially support profits when sales are declining by reducing short term discretionary expenditures. Insight magazine is currently following the stability strategy as its corporate strategy knowing that it will be temporarily adopted until Insight settles its weakness in the marketing area and regains a significant position in the Egyptian market. Business Strategies In light of the ongoing economic crisis besetting the world, many business leaders had to consider just exactly how they are going to put together a winning business strategy to help overcome the hard times. Insight’s business strategy is a competitive one, it involves making the right choices in order to achieve cost leadership, differentiation and focus; this is achieved by invest our money and strategies in this area as well as coordinating properly Insight’s distinctive competencies in the provision of the service we provide. In order to sustain our competitive advantage, Insight has to determine the durability and imitability of its main distinctive resources which are the human and the financial resources. Business Model Insight serves English reading customers in Egypt by providing them with the latest lifestyle information; Insight’s Insight sustains a competitive advantage through recruitment through the strong cash flow from advertisements made by top class brands, young calibers who adapt easily with any changes in the external environment, thus allowing diversity in writing materials and articles. draw:frame} Functional Strategies Functional strategy is the approach taken by Insight’s functional departments to achieve corporate and business unit objectives and strategies by maximizing distribution. In each functional area, the manager is concerned with developing a distinctive competence to provide Insight with the competitive advantage that it aims to obtain. Marketing Sales Strategies After 14 years Insight is still struggling and to maintain, capture larger market share, and continues market penetration. It is very hard to achieve now days especially in our case and similar to many magazines and newspapers in the region and world wide. Insight relies heavily on advertising money for revenue since the price consumers pay when they purchase a copy of the magazine has never been sufficient to cover the production costs much less creating any profit. Insight Magazine’s marketing strategy consists of market and product development as well as dealing with pricing, selling and distributing the magazine through the following: Creativity Launch new campaigns with developed layout and logo. Distribution Generate new distribution plans to cover different venues; hotels, bookshops, newsstands, supermarkets, airports, cultural centers, advertisers, numerous Egyptians and international business peoples and VIPs. Make a deal with a well known distribution agency to circulate the magazine on a wider scale on one hand, and on the other hand to put booths in many different areas and offer special gifts to people in order to attract the readers. Sales Give free issues on special occasions in order to encourage and attract customers Instead of selling space to marketers for print ads, we started selling services that marketers want to have. Diversification To focus more on topics that have overwhelmed people lately especially football. Emphasize profitable material and realign their content production costs with where the revenue is generated. A publisher will need to find the unique and defining material that attracts their readership. Go Green Despite the economic state and the rapid increase of paper prices, the Marketing head suggested to the top management to use recycled papers and environmentally friendly materials in order to save cost and maintain same quality of the product that the customer got used to and at the same time to cope with the green trend of the world. Technology Innovation Digital marketing media and web publishing have become a very tangible area for improvement and market enlargement, Insight’s strategy for development in print media magazine world is mainly based on enriching Insight’s website, with new means of advertisements such as online purchasing of a wide range of products starting from pictures all the way to specific non published exclusive articles. HR Strategies Giving that a good human resources management practice enables organization to achieve higher profits and better survival rate than do firms without these practice, Insight’s strategies towards its most valued asset-the people had to be reviewed and amended to the following: Insight being owned and managed by a sole proprietor, have always followed a top-bottom strategy, as a new practice, the top management is now opening the door for a bottom-top strategy thus taking advantage of any new ideas, innovations and changes that can increase the magazine’s share in the Egyptian Market. Insight magazine is considering the hire of a mix of young generation, skilled reputable writers and foreign calibers as well, no matter how high they get paid. This mixture will help the different teams at Insight to properly manage themselves and thus achieving high productivity to the magazine. Encouraging the hire of part time employees and free lance writers; it will save cost since they will not be paid for health care benefits, pensions and many allowances offered to the full time employees. Promote new company traditions such as family outings, annual dinners. Improve the communication level between the top management and staff by involving employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the company whenever possible. Recognize excellent performance by implementing new exercises such as employee of the month, additional rewards for high performers. Promote career personal growth perspectives such as succession planning, trainings, education, challenging, assignments and more. Assign a development team to cope with the recent technologies. Insight’s Culture Behavior Insight enjoys a very friendly and supportive work environment, everyone is free to speak up their minds, and all new ideas are being appreciated, but giving that the top management of the magazine is being held by the owner, the last word is always up to them. This gives Insight’s a mix of Supportive and Autocratic behavior, any suggestions are being carefully interpreted but the final decision is always up to the owner. Insight’s culture is a Multi-directionalone, being a relatively small organization that has only four distinct function, each department member considers themselves as a part of his function only forgetting that they are a member of a whole body. Insight’s Organization Structure Insight’s organization was structured based on functional groups centered on clusters of titles each led by chief function officer with complete responsibility for their respective business unit as per the below chart. draw:frame} STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION The implementation of organization strategy involves the application of the management process to obtain the desired results. Particularly, strategy implementation includes designing the organization’s structure, allocating resources, developing information and decision process, and managing human resources, including such areas as the reward system, approaches to leadership, and staffing. Strategy mplementation skills are not easi ly mastered, unfortunately. In fact, virtually all managers find implementation the most difficult aspect of their jobs – more difficult than strategic analysis or strategy formulation. Marketing Sales Strategy Implementation: Implementing a rock-solid marketing strategy is probably the most important factor contributing to the long-term sustainable success of any business and the one that will set Insight ahead of its competitors. Insight’s main task is to get its message across the market, make sure that its unique selling proposition is articulated in all of its marketing messages, campaigns, and sales channels through the following implementation: HR Strategy Implementation The HR Strategy has at its core maximizing the potential talent of Insight’s staff. Each of these strategic themes are interlinked and are the strategic objectives for each of these themes facilitates the delivery of the Institutional Strategy, the Financial Strategy, enhanced organizational performance and Operational Plans. This is illustrated as follows: {draw:frame} In implementing the desired strategy of Insight to resolve the sales and distribution, The HR function have done the following: â€Å"Get the big picture â€Å" of the whole company, to provide the readers with the ultimate life experience through lifestyle magazine and becoming No. 1 magazine the Egyptian market; Recruit a mix of the young generation and skilled reputable writers and employees who receive high pay and are trained to participate in self managing teams. By implementing this strategy it will result in employee satisfaction and high productivity to the magazine. Hire part time employees and free lance writers; it will not save cost since they will not be paid for health care benefits, pensions and many allowances offered to the full time employees. Encourage diversity in nationality, and age as in aligning with the Egyptian labor law, this strategy has proven higher productivity inside the magazine. Respect employees at all times. Listen to them deeply; use their ideas. Offer performance feedback and praise good efforts and results. Involve employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the magazine whenever possible thus increasing the loyalty and sense of belonging to the magazine Recognize excellent performance, and especially, link pay to performance. Value and encourage the magazine traditions through events and gatherings like Family day and annual company dinner. Increase the employees’ skill by providing them with the best training opportunities to enhance their competencies and develop their skills. Outsource professional distributors in an attempt to reach the target. EVALUATION CONTROL Although the term â€Å"monitoring and evaluation† tends to get run together as if it is only one thing, monitoring and evaluation are, in fact, two distinct sets of organizational activities, related but not identical. Monitoring is the systematic collection and analysis of information as a project progresses, aimed at improving the efficiency of organization. If done properly, it is an invaluable tool for good management that provides a useful base for evaluation. Evaluation is the comparison of actual project impacts against the agreed strategic plans. It can be formative (taking place during the life of a project or organization, with the intention of improving the strategy or way of functioning of the project or organization). It can also be summative (drawing learning from a completed project or an organization that is no longer functioning) During the planning and implementation phases, it was crucial to conduct a reporting mechanism to monitor whether the right milestones have been taken towards the targeted goals or not as well as to ensure that employees are keeping pace with the progress. This monitoring was done by Chief executives submitting a monthly report to the Chairman as well as scheduling a quarterly meeting to continually keep an eye on the sales, client feedback, foresee what could be done for improvement of any new ideas that would help in increasing the sales of upcoming editions, and finally to ensure that the business and functional levels are keeping track with the corporate objectives and goals. On the other hand, daily meetings are held in each functional department to continually monitor and evaluate work quality and business progress. After an extensive monitoring process the HR strategy was found week in the following points: No HR interview was made any manager interviews his calibers from his own aspects and cultural background. Huge cultural gaps between foreign and local employees No relatively clear difference between the full time and part time employees in term of salaries and benefits which creates unfairness and injustice among them. The rewards were not given in great value and are not fairly given to all employees. Trainings were not fairly distributed among employees. In order to evaluate the magazine performance we have found the following diagnostic checklist items: CONCLUSION Insight is a local English magazine which has been in the Egyptian market for more than a decade. Although Insight enjoys good cash revenue from the top class advertisements it provides, it is struggling with a marketing and distribution setback which gave the top management the sufficient motives to alter the current strategies followed in order to reclaim its top position in the Egyptian market. Insight’s top management first steps of creating new strategies started by setting a new mission of developing the marketing function followed by an external and internal scanning of all possible threats and opportunities that could in a way or another affect the strategies. The scanning that was done helped Insight distinguish its competitive advantage which consequently assisted in the formulation of new corporate, business and functional strategies. After implementing the previously formulated strategies precise monitoring and evaluation were done in order to conclude the gap areas that resulted in the implementation. One of the gap areas that were found was the wrong implementation of hiring foreigners without giving them a proper induction on the Egyptian culture which lead to a huge conflict in ideas between the local and foreign staff. As a final conclusion to the previous report, Insight top management should investigate what went wrong during the implementation of the HR strategy that lead such gaps and how to overcome these gaps to properly implement the functional human resources strategy that will ultimately reflect its success in Insight’s overall performance. {draw:frame} How to cite Strategic Management Business Case Study for Insight Magazine, Free Case study samples

Physical Cognitive Development of Adolescence free essay sample

Daniel Offer – healthy self images of adolescents were displayed * Personal experience + medial portrayals = public attitudes * Acting out and boundary testing are an adolescent’s way of accepting rather than rejecting parents’ values * Life course is influenced by ethnic, cultural, gender, socioeconomic age, and lifestyle differences Physical Changes . Puberty * Period of rapid physical maturation * Hormonal and bodily changes in early adolescence * Ends long before adolescence does * Signs of sexual maturation and increase in height and weight 2. Sexual maturation, height and weight * Male pubertal changes * Increase in penis and testicle size, straight pubic hair, minor voice change, first ejaculation (masturbation), kinky. Pubic hair, maximum growth in height and weight, armpit hair growth, detectable voice changes, facial hair growth * Female pubertal changes Enlarged breasts, pubic hair, armpit hair, increase in height, wider hips than shoulders, no voice change * Menarche – first menstruation (late in pubertal cycle) * May be irregular and not ovulate until after a year or two * Breasts are rounder * Weight * Girls overweight boys until age 14 when boys surpass them * Height * Girls are the same height until middle school years * Growth spurt (beginning) – girls: 9; boys: 11 * Growth spurt (peak) – girls: 11 ? ; boys: 13 ? * Increase in height – girls: 3 ? ; boys: 4 3. We will write a custom essay sample on Physical Cognitive Development of Adolescence or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Hormonal changes Hormones – powerful chemical substances secreted by the endocrine gland via bloodstream * Testosterone – development of genitals, height and a change in voice * Estradiol – breast, uterine, and skeletal development * Hormone-behavior link is complex 4. Timing and variations in puberty * Pubertal sequences * Boys: 10-13 ? until 13-17 * Girls: 9-15 * Precocious puberty – very early and onset of puberty * Before 8 years (girls) and before 9 years (boys) * 10 times more in girls * Treated by medically suppressive gonadotropic secretions. Short stature, early sexual capability, and engaging in age-inappropriate behavior . Body image * Preoccupied with bodies – especially in early adolescents (dissatisfaction) * Gender differences * Girls: less happy and have more negative body images – body fat increases * Boys: more happy – muscle mass increases 6. Early and late maturation * Boys * Early: self-views are positive; successful peer relations * Late: (at 30) stronger sense of identity * Girls * Early: greater satisfaction with figures; more age-inappropriate behavior * Late: (10th grade) are more satisfied than early-maturing girls; taller and thinner