Business Essays Company Strategy Business

Business Essays Company Strategy Business Company Strategy Business Your company has a clear goal and a solid strategy you have the right people in the right places you have great ideas and the resources to execute them. So does your competition. Over the past decades, the role of economic organizations in society has been approached from various perspectives and alternative conceptualizations of business have been introduced (Grant, 2005; Skurnik, 2005). The traditional idea of business is that an efficient organization is formed to produce profit (Ansoff, 1965; Drucker, 1958). Lately, the concept of business, including the objectives and strategies of business companies, has been dominated by the idea of profit maximation for investor owners (Grant, 2005). Strategic management researchers have been proponents of the theory that provide support to the relationship between the environment, firm strategy, structure, and performance. Several management researchers of the likes of Dill (1958), Chandler (1962), Lawrence Lorsch (1967), Jurkovich (1974), Miles Snow (1978), Porter (1980, 1985), Bourgeois (1980, 1981), Hambrick (1981, 1983), Dess Davis (1984), Dess and Beard (1984), Mintzberg (1988), Miller (1986), Hamel Prahalad (1991), Kotha Valdamani (1995), and others have directly or indirectly made attempts to theorize the effects of single or multiple constructs, visvis the firm environment, strategy, and structure on firm performance. These efforts have led to the incremental development of the strategic management literature that stress on the relationships between the constructs mentioned above. The levels of strategy, i.e. corporate level, business level, and functional level have been defined by management theorists in order to identify and conceptualize the differences in approach in managing firms across these levels of company hierarchy. Corporate level strategies focus on what businesses should the company invest in, in order to satisfy the interests of the stakeholders and to maximize the value of stockholders investments. The focus here is on issues pertaining to firm growth and liquidity (e.g. Kim, Mauer, Sherman, 1998), which influence stockholders satisfaction. On the other hand, business level strategies entail ways in which a company would seek to attain competitive advantage through effective positioning. It should be noted that these positioning strategies of companies would vary depending on the industry setting (Hill Jones, 1995). In corporate finance, although business level strategies are not defined as positioning strategies, the objectives of these strategies and their effects are considered within the diversification and liquidity concepts of corporate strategies. The objective of functional level strategies is to achieve competitive advantage through strategies directed at improving the effectiveness of functional operations within a company (Hill Jones, 1995; p. 12). Note that in corporate finance the functional level strategies are considered as aggregates reported as part of the financial statements of individual business units, which are then analyzed in connection to the corporate strategies. It should also be noted that the business and functional strategies are impacted by the way in which corporate strategies are formulated. Although it may be argued that a bottom-up approach of defining functional level and business level strategies will not entail the effects of corporate strategies on functional and business level strategies, in reality firms define their resource allocation strategies first by taking into consideration the effects of these strategies on overall corporate performance. Once the resource allocation decisions are formulated at the corporate level, managers at the business level can then identify the appropriate strategies to meet the objectives laid out by managers at the corporate level. Management theorists have suggested that in order to achieve competitive advantage, the firm should achieve a fit between the environment, strategy, structure and controls (Jennings Lumpkin, 1992). Effective strategy formulation and implementation lead to the attainment of performance objectives identified by the stakeholders of the firm. Whereas the concept of fit between the environment and strategy is important in order to achieve competitive success, Hamel Prahalad (1991) suggested that strategic intent is the key to achieving success as compared to strategic fit, the paradigm that most management theorists followed until the late eighties. The authors suggest that strategic intent is about building new resources and competencies to tap future opportunities as opposed to the strategic fit perspective of achieving a fit between existing company resources and current environment opportunities. Hierarchical Levels of Strategy Corporate Level Strategy The corporate level strategy entails decisions made by corporate managers to insure that company stakeholders are satisfied at all times. With this as the goal, the managers at the corporate level of company hierarchy decide to invest in business(es) that result in long-term profit maximization and increased returns to the firms stockholders. Corporate strategies entail two distinct dimensions that include measures pertaining to growth (Zook Rogers, 2001) and liquidity (Kim et al., 1998). Corporate managers decide what businesses to invest in and how liquid the assets of the firm should be to maximize the value of the firm, both in the short and long term scenario. Business Level Strategy Business level strategy applies to the unit level of the organization and is referred to as those strategies that are applied at the strategic business unit (SBU) level. SBU level strategy is formulated and implemented by business level managers, who are also referred to as unit level managers or general managers. While this may be the case in the manufacturing industries, the hospitality industry general manager does not necessarily formulate these strategies, rather they are instrumental in the implementation of the strategy. The formulation of business level strategies is entailed in the corporate strategy when the corporate managers define the positioning of the firm. Since business level strategy is a result of market segmentation and positioning strategies, the generic strategies of cost leadership, differentiation, and focus (Porter, 1980) result from the way corporate managers conceive the orientation and positioning of the product during the time of its inception. This logic also applies to the Miles Snows typology of prospector, defender, analyzer, and reactor. These generic typologies are a result of the corporate level managers positioning strategies, and the budget allocated to the units to pursue that strategy. In this regard, the hospitality industry is different from the manufacturing industry in terms of the distinction between the three levels of strategy. There is an overlap in the decisions made at the three levels, with the corporate level influencing the decisions of the unit level and the functional level. This may not be apparent by scrutinizing the organizational structure; rather, this results from the job responsibilities that are entrusted to the different levels of management hierarchy, especially the business and functional level. Functional Level Strategy Functional level strategies are those strategies that are initiated by the profit /support centres of an organization. These centres are individual functions that result when activities that are similar in their characteristics and objectives are grouped under a given function. Each separate function should have its own goal and objective, and functional managers formulate strategies to attain those goals and objectives. To be competitively superior to other firms, functional level managers strategize to attain superior efficiency, superior quality, superior customer responsiveness, and superior innovation (Hill Jones, 1995). Although hospitality researchers have posited that manufacturing based strategy theory may not be applicable to the hospitality industry (Murthy, 1994), it can be argued that strategies professed by management theorists have been generalized to apply to any given industry. Strategy has been defined very distinctly in strategic management theory. For instance, according to Chandler (1962), strategy is the determination of basic long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals. Hofer Shendel (1978) defined strategy as the match among organizational purposes, resources, skills, environment opportunities and risks. Similarly, Thompson Strickland (1981) defined strategy as the manner in which an organization accomplishes its objectives through the formulation of means, matching and allocating resources, and directing its effort to produce results. On the other hand, Bourgeois (1978) defined strategy in terms of a firms relationship with the environment to achieve its objectives, while Mintzberg (1981) defined the term as a pattern in a stream of decisions or actions. These definitions are important for the literature as it defines the domain of strategy in terms of its literal meaning as well as the direction of research efforts that it influences. Although the above definitions of strategy may differ in literal meaning, the underlying theme common to all is the ability of the organization to meet its objectives by directing its efforts in a resourceful manner, aligning them to the developments in the external environment. Having identified this theme in the definition of strategy, it becomes essential to identify whether each individual research domain within the field is a proponent of this ideology professed by eminent researchers. To do so, it is essential to pinpoint the orientations of the sub-domains in the field of strategy.Strategy, in general, refers to how a given objective will be achieved. Consequently, strategy in general is concerned with the relationships between ends and means, that is, between the results we seek and the resources at our disposal. Strategy and tactics are both concerned with formulating and then carrying out courses of action intended to attain particular objectives. For the most part, strategy is concerned with deploying the resources at your disposal whereas tactics is concerned with employing them. Together, strategy and tactics bridge the gap between ends and means .Strategy of an organization is the roadmap towards attainment of its long term goals and objectives. Organizational strategy consists of planning, organizing, execution, and control activities. Strategic management process facilitates in the operationalization of strategy. Strategic thinking has been much influenced by military thinking about the strategy hierarchy of goals, policies and programmes. Strategy itself sets the agenda for future action, strategic goals state what is to be achieved and when (but not how), policies set the guidelines and limits for permissible action in pursuit of the strategic goals, and programmes specify the step-by-step sequence of actions necessary to achieve major objectives and the timetable against which progress can be measured. A well defined strategy integrates an organizations major plans, objectives, policies and programmes and commitments into a cohesive whole. It marshals and allocates limited resources in the best way, which is defined by an analysis of a firms unique strengths and weaknesses and of opportunities and threats in the environment. It considers how to deal with the potential actions of intelligent opponents. The importance of strategic management for the development of regions is growing, together with the effort of the regional representatives to increase the performance and competitive advantage of their regions. Individual countries, regions, cities, and towns compete among each other especially in the acquisition of economic subjects, which create and stabilize new jobs, thereby influencing prosperity and the standard of living of their residents. Strategy choice is a component of strategy formulation that entails identifying the strategic alternatives in tandem with the firms strengths and weaknesses. Since strategy is about identifying the appropriate courses of action, these alternatives vary depending on the hierarchical levels of the organization confirmed by, for instance, Hofer Shendel (1979), who point out that strategy content varies with the level of organizational hierarchy. The hierarchical levels identified by various management theorists in the strategy domain are functional level, business level, and corporate level strategies (Hill Jones, 1995) . The strategic management model suggests that intended strategy is an outcome of certain distinct actions taken by firms. These actions can be categorized as the product of a firms external analysis and internal analysis (Hill Jones, 1995). The external analysis is about understanding the firms external environment to identify opportunities and threats. This analysis includes analyzing the firms remote environment domain, task environment domain, and industry environment domain in order to identify the forces driving change and their impact on the organization during a given time period (Olsen et al., 1998). On the other hand, the internal analysis entails pinpointing what the strengths and weaknesses of the firm are in order to identify the quantity and quality of resources available to the organization (Hill Jones, 1995). The concept that entails analyzing the firms external and internal environment and subsequently identifying the appropriate strategy comes under the strategy formulation sub-domain of strategy research. On the other hand, the sub-domain that deals with designing organizational systems and structures in order to put the strategy into action is termed as strategy implementation. There are three levels of strategies in the organization viz. corporate strategy, business strategy, and functional strategy. The term strategy proliferates in discussions of business. Scholars and consultants have provided myriad models and frameworks for analysing strategic choice (Hambrick and Fredrickson, 2001). For us, the key issue that should unite all discussion of strategy is a clear sense of an organizations objectives and a sense of how it will achieve these objectives. It is also important that the organization has a clear sense of its distinctiveness. For the leading strategy guru, Michael Porter (1996), strategy is about achieving competitive advantage through being different delivering a unique value added to the customer, having a clear and enactable view of how to position yourself uniquely in your industry, for example, in the ways in which Southwest Airlines positions itself in the airline industry and IKEA in furniture retailing, in the way that Marks Spencer used to. To enact a successful strategy requires that there is fit among a companys activities, that they complement each other, and that they deliver value to the firm and its customers. The three companies we have just mentioned illustrate that industries are fluid and that success is not guaranteed. Two of the firms came to prominence by taking on industry incumbents and developing new value propositions. The third was extremely successful and lost this position. While there is much debate on substance, there is agreement that strategy is concerned with the match between a companys capabilities and its external environment. Analysts disagree on how this may be done. John Kay (2000) argues that strategy is no longer about planning or visioning because we are deluded if we think we can predict or, worse, control the future it is about using careful analysis to understand and influence a companys position in the market place. Another leading strategy guru, Gary Hamel (2000), argues that the best strategy is geared towards radical change and creating a new vision of the future in which you are a leader rather than a follower of trends set by others.The idea of strategy has received increasing attention in the management literature. The literature on strategy is now voluminous and strategic management texts grow ever larger to include all the relevant material. Our premise is that a firm needs a well defined sense of its mission, its unique place in its environment and scope and direction of growth. Such a sense of mission defines the firms strategy. A firm also needs an approach to management itself that will harness the internal energies of the organization to the realization of its mission. Historically, views of strategy fall into two camps. There are those who equate strategy with planning. According to this perspective, information is gathered, sifted and analysed, forecasts are made, senior managers reflect upon the work of the planning department and decide what is the best course for the organization. This is a top-down approach to strategy. Others have a less structured view of strategy as being more about the process of management. According to this second perspective, the key strategic issue is to put in place a system of management that will facilitate the capability of the organization to respond to an environment that is essentially unknowable, unpredictable and, therefore, not amenable to a planning approach. We will consider both these views in this text. Our own view is that good strategic management actually encompasses elements of each perspective. Corporate strategy defines the markets and the businesses in which a company will operate. Competitive or business strategy defines for a given business the basis on which it will compete. Corporate strategy is typically decided in the context of defining the companys mission and vision, that is, saying what the company does, why it exists, and what it is intended to become. Competitive strategy hinges on a companys capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses in relation to market characteristics and the corresponding capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses of its competitors. According to Michael Porter, a Harvard Business School professor and the reigning guru of competitive strategy, competition within an industry is driven by five basic factors: Threat of new entrants. Threat of substitute products or services. Bargaining power of suppliers. Bargaining power of buyers. Rivalry among existing firms. Porter also indicates that, in response to these five factors, competitive strategy can take one of three generic forms: (1) focus, (2) differentiation, and (3) cost leadership. Business strategy focuses on how a company competes in a selected industry over markets. The core of the business strategy can be captured in to a question How should we compete? (Grant, 2005: 22-23). Thus, business strategy is closely related to the concept of competitive strategy (Porter, 1987), which is about creating competitive advantage in a chosen industry. Competitive strategy means choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value (Porter, 1996, 1987). Corporate strategy defines the breadth of the company in relation to an industry and markets, where it competes; it answers the question What business should we be in? (Grant, 2005: 22-23). According to Porter (1996), deciding which target group of customers, varieties, and needs the company should serve is fundamental in developing a strategy. Strategy can be neither formulated nor adjusted to changing circumstances without a process of strategy evaluation. Whether performed by an individual or as part of an organizational review procedure, strategy evaluation forms an essential step in the process of guiding an enterprise. For many executives strategy evaluation is simply an appraisal of how well a business performs. Has it grown? Is the profit rate normal? If the answers to these questions are affirmative, it is argued that the firms strategy must be sound. Despite its unassailable simplicity, this line of reasoning misses the whole point of strategy that the critical factors determining the quality of current results are often not directly observable or simply measured, and that by the time strategic opportunities or threats do directly affect operating results it may well be too late for an effective response. Thus strategy evaluation is an attempt to look beyond the obvious facts regarding the short-term health of a business and appraise instead those more fundamental factors and trends that govern success in the chosen field of endeavour. Strategic thinking has been much influenced by military thinking about the strategy hierarchy of goals, policies and programmes. Strategy itself sets the agenda for future action, strategic goals state what is to be achieved and when (but not how), policies set the guidelines and limits for permissible action in pursuit of the strategic goals, and programmes specify the step-by-step sequence of actions necessary to achieve major objectives and the timetable against which progress can be measured. A well defined strategy integrates an organizations major plans, objectives, policies and programmes and commitments into a cohesive whole. It marshals and allocates limited resources in the best way, which is defined by an analysis of a firms unique strengths and weaknesses and of opportunities and threats in the environment. It considers how to deal with the potential actions of intelligent opponents. A firm competes with a large number of other firms in the business environment. The firm has a two-fold objective. It has to attain its long-term goals in the most efficient manner. At the same time, the firm has to deliver higher value to its customer as compared to other competing firms to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. The roadmap consisting of a comprehensive plan towards achievement of the aforesaid objectives is known as organizational strategy. Strategy, in general, refers to how a given objective will be achieved. Consequently, strategy in general is concerned with the relationships between ends and means, that is, between the results we seek and the resources at our disposal. Strategy and tactics are both concerned with formulating and then carrying out courses of action intended to attain particular objectives. For the most part, strategy is concerned with deploying the resources at your disposal whereas tactics is concerned with employing them. Corporate identity merges strategy, culture, and communications to present a memorable personality to prospects and customers. The term is closely linked to corporate philosophy, the company s business mission and values, as well as corporate personality, the distinct corporate culture reflecting this philosophy, and corporate image. The main objective of corporate identity is to achieve a favourable image among the company s prospects and customers. When a corporation is favourably regarded this is likely to result in loyalty. If the corporate identity is the self-portrayal of a company, then the corporate image is the perception of an organization by the audience. The closer the corporate image is to the corporate identity; the closer the public s perception of a company is to how the company defines itself, making for superior corporate communication. For example, most companies have access to the same technology. If they want to further distinguish themselves, the strategy must rely on another factor than technology: the user experience. As the audience s focus changes constantly, corporate strategies must move in the same direction as the customer. Products are the most important spokespersons for any brand or company. Therefore, the key to defining your corporate identity resides in how well a company communicates its visions and values by means of the identity and image of its products, always keeping the target audience involvement in mind. There is no one best way of strategy. The planning approach can work in a stable, predictable environment. Its critics argue that such environments are becoming increasingly scarce, events make the plan redundant, creativity is buried beneath the weight and protocols of planning and communication rules. Furthermore, those not involved in devising the plan are never committed to its implementation. The second approach emphasizes speed of reaction and flexibility to enable the organization to function best in an environment that is fast-changing and essentially unpredictable. The essence of strategy, according to this view, is adaptability and incrementalism. This approach has been criticized for failing to give an adequate sense of where the organization is going and what its mission is. Critics speak disparagingly of the mushroom approach to management. (Place in a dark room, shovel manure/money on the seeds, close the door, wait for it to grow!) Inconsistency in strategy is not simply a flaw in logic. A key function of strategy is to provide coherence to organizational action. A clear and explicit concept of strategy can foster a climate of tacit co-ordination that is more efficient than most administrative mechanisms. Many high technology firms, for example, face a basic strategic choice between offering high-cost products with high custom-engineering content and lower-cost products that are more standardized and sold at higher volume. If senior management does not enunciate a clear, consistent sense of where the corporation stands on these issues, there will be continuing conflict between sales, design, engineering and manufacturing people. A clear, consistent strategy, by contrast, allows a sales engineer to negotiate a contract with a minimum of coordination the trade-offs are an explicit part of the firms posture.Rumelt (1988). A strategy is a set of objectives, policies and plans that, taken together, define the scope of the enterprise and its approach to business. Rumelt suggests that three questions are central to the challenge of strategy evaluation: Are the objectives of the business appropriate? Are the major policies and plans appropriate? Do the results obtained to date confirm or refute critical assumptions on which The strategy rests? He further suggests that strategy must satisfy four broad criteria: Consistency. The strategy must not present mutually inconsistent goals and policies. Consonance. The strategy must represent an adaptive response to the external environment and to the critical changes occurring within it. Advantage. Strategy must provide for the creation and/or maintenance of a competitive advantage in the selected area of activity. Feasibility. The strategy must neither overtax available resources nor create insoluble problems. Strategic management represents the collection of methods and approaches that are applicable to the regulation of regional development. This process can include the following: Defining the mission of the development of the region it depends on visions, values and expectations of the key implementing entities. Setting the strategic and performance objectives the objectives might comprise e.g. social development of regions, development of infrastructure, improvement of environmental aspects of the life of the local population, better territorial distribution of economic activities in the region etc. Formulating strategy (determining strategic alternatives, their evaluation assessment and selection) we seek to answer the question of how to meet the future objectives. Also essential is to use the results of both the external and internal environment analyses (situation analysis) Introducing and implementing the selected strategy (strategy implementation) this component is related to the further elaboration of regional development strategies into more detailed programs, measures and activities. The success of the strategy implementation depends to a certain degree on the motivation of all the stakeholders and apart from other things it is also associated with the level of culture in the community Evaluating results and proposing corrective measures (strategic control) it serves to ascertain the success rate of the selected strategy and also signals the necessary changes at whichever stage of its implementation. Basic requirement of this process is to increase competitive advantage of the regions in the long run. We can define the regional competitive advantage as the ability of the region to produce products and services, which will be able to compete on the international market, while securing and maintaining the incomes of its inhabitants. Managing risk at the organizational level is considered to be the key to the longterm survival of firms. According to Busman Van Zuiden (1998) there is a growing recognition that coordinating and financing all facets of organizational risk effectively is critical to maximizing success, whether that success is measured by shareholder value or, in the case of not-for-profit, educational or governmental institutions, by the range and quality of provided services (p. 14). Furthermore, the authors point out that because of the speed at which the organizations external business environment is constantly changing, managers are required to keep pace with this change through effective monitoring of the developments that increase the risk exposure of firms. Bibliography Bourgeois, L. J. (1980) Strategy and environment: A conceptual integration. Academy of Management Review, 5, 25-39. Bourgeois, L. J. (1981). On the measurement of organizational slack. Academy of Management Review, 6, 29-39. Busman, E. R., Zuiden, P. V. (1998). The challenge ahead: Adopting an enterprise wide approach to risk. Risk Management, 45(1), 14-17. Competitive Strategy (1986). Michael Porter. Harvard Business School Press. Chandler, A. D. (1962). Strategy and structure, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Dill, W. R. (1958). Environment as an influence on managerial autonomy. Administrative Science Quarterly, 2, 409-443. The Concept of Corporate Strategy, 2nd Edition (1980). Kenneth Andrews. Dow-Jones Irwin. Lawrence, P. R., Lorsch, J. (1967). Organization and environment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Jurkovich, R. (1974). A core typology of organizational environments. Administrative Science Quarterly, 3, 380-394. Olsen, M. D. (1980). The Importance of the environment to the food service and lodging manager. The Journal of Hospitality Education, 4(2), 35-45. Olsen, M. D., West, J. J., Tse, E. C. (1998). Strategic management in the hospitality industry, Boston: Wiley. Customer Intimacy and Other Value Disciplines. Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema. Harvard Business Review (Jan-Feb 1993). The Discipline of Market Leaders (1994). Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema. Addison Wesley. Jennings, D. F., Lumpkin J. R. (1992). Insights between environmental scanning activities and Porters generic strategies: An empirical analysis. Journal of Management, 18, 791-803. Miller, D. (1986). Configurations of strategy and structure: Towards a synthesis. Strategic

The Innate Nature of Sin

The Innate Nature of Sin Nathaniel Hathorne was an author who consistently wrote about satires of the Puritan time. His short stories often revolved around themes of sin and how no one could escape from committing sin. The short stories â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† and â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† written by Hawthorne, reflect these themes through elements of fiction, such as plot, setting, symbolism, and point of view. â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† is about a town’s minister who walks into Sunday Congregation with a heinous black veil covering his face.The veil shields him from the sins of the rest of the world, and the rest of the world from his sin. â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† is about a newly married man who leaves Faith, his wife to follow a man into the forest, where Satanic Rituals occur. These Satanic Rituals are powered by the people Goodman Brown had once known to be the most religious. Through the elements of fiction, t he short stories â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† and â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† show how there is no way for one escape from committing sin, no matter who they are. One of the stories Hawthorne writes is â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil. The story starts when a minster walks into his weekly Sunday sermon with a veil that cover’s his face.. The veil is seen as symbolic with sin, because the minister has started to wear his sin on his face. He is shunned from the town, as people start to grow uncomfortable in his presence. The veil is a constant reminder of their sins as well. When the Minister goes to a funeral of a girl, he walks in with the veil and stoops down to the corpse’s level, and when by accident his face unveiled (just to the corpse) â€Å"the corpse had slightly shuddered, rustling the shroud and muslin cap, though the countenance retained the composure of death. (â€Å"Black Veil† 337). When the corpse sees the face of the minister, it shudders in reaction. This reaction gives hints about what may be behind the black veil. It shows that what is behind the black veil is so dark, and horrible that even a dead body has a reaction, and the only reaction a dead body can have is fear of what may be coming next. At its end, there’s nothing the corpse can do about its life and how it was lived: with or without sin. Seeing all the sin behind the veil scared the corpse, as it was a reflection of all the sin it could not longer escape.All of its sin had caught up with the corpse as it lay in the coffin. Then the Minister continued to make a sermon, praying that everybody be prepared for death when what is underneath the veil is revealed. This scene says that death is when all of one’s sins come to catch up with them, and everything underneath the veil is revealed as they are judged before God. The veil, in this sense, can be anything as a cover for sin. For the Minister, it was a physical a pie ce of cloth that covered his face.For other’s it can be their personalities; how they behave around others can deceive others of their sin. After the funeral, the Minister goes to a wedding and just about he’s about to take a sip of his wine, after wishing the couple happiness, he sees his own reflection: â€Å"catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others. His frame shuddered – his lips grew white – he spilt the untasted wine upon the carpet – and rushed forth into the darkness. (â€Å"Black Veil† 338) In this scene, the Minister is, for the first time, seeing himself with the veil. His reaction is much similar to that of his congregation: fear.. Here, we see an element of fiction: Symbolism. The veil is symbolic for sins the Minister has committed. When he sees this veil, hHe feels fear – so much fear – that he drops what he is holding and flees. The fear of sin the veil ignites in him causes him to run, , as if to escape from them. He cannot let anyone see what he sees, as he is the only one who truly knows what his sins are.His sins are so frightening because he knows that eventually he will be accountable for every single one, and the veil will one day be pulled off. Even he, the Minister of the church, cannot escape from his sin, and eventually at death, everyone’s sins will catch up with him or her: At that point, there is nowhere to run. The next story, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† is about a young man who is leaving his wife to go meet someone in the forests. He meets a man, who looks like an older version of himself, (actually the devil) and tells him that he wishes to go back to his village.He tells the man, his family was full of good Christians, and that he is ashamed to be associated with the devil. As he tells the Devil that he has to follow a different path, the Devil responds à ¢â‚¬Å"Well Goodman Brown! I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that is no trifle to say. † (Hawthorne 326) When the Devil says this, Goodman Brown gets confused: He believed his family to be of one of the most religious, and to see them associate themselves with the devil seems to be a lie. He believes that there must be rumors about his family.He can’t accept the fact that his father, and grandfather, who were known to be pious people, associated themselves with the Devil of all people. Goodman Brown waves off some people the Devil names, saying that they choose their own path. Then he says to the Devil that he would not be able to talk to the Minister of Salem Village if he were to go on. The Devil’s response to this is â€Å"Thus far the elder traveler had listened with due gravity; but now burst into a fit if irrepressible mirth, shaking himself so violently that his snakelike staff actually seemed to wri ggle in sympathy. (Hawthorne 327) Here, the Devil bursts into laughter when Goodman Brown suggests the Minister is a good Christian man. Goodman brown is offended at the man for proving all of his acquaintances wrong. He learns in this story that nobody, not even his good little Faith, can escape the Devil. His father, grandfather, the Minister, and Faith have all be revealed to be following the Devil, and it’s something he cannot escape. In Conclusion, both short stories, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† and â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† by Nathaniel Hawthorn, reveal the inevitable sin of the people we trust the most.It shows us that nobody can escape sin, and it’s innate of human nature. When the town’s people first see the Minister with his veil, their reactions are all of shock and fear. During his first sermon with the veil â€Å"Each member of the congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preach er had crept upon them behind his awful veil and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought. † (Hawthorne 336) Here, Hawthorne is describing the effect the veil had on the people of that town.Everybody who was at the sermon felt as though Minister Hooper had crept up to them, and discovered their sins of actions, and their sins of thoughts. It says even â€Å"the most innocent girl† felt her sins being discovered. This quote states that nobody can escape from sin, despite trying your hardest. The innocent girl should have been free of sins, but she feels the fear of her sins being unveiled just as everyone else. The fact that the Minister came into the sermon with his â€Å"sins† on his face, people actually felt fear and power from his sermon.

towards Vietnam

In 1961, under the President-ship of Kennedy, America took the middle path as considered to be the most conducive policy to solve crises in Vietnam. This middle path included sending of machinery and advisors instead of large-scale troops as was suggested in White Paper or as was being recommended by his advocators on a negotiation table. This decision proved futile as it accorded the increase in the chances of success of NLF.As more and more news began to pour in, tension arose in Kennedy’s government machinery and they escalated upon a plan of providing â€Å"Safe Hamlets† to the villagers developed by GVN. The main purpose was to segregate them from NLF, but this strategy too did not head to in any direction, as this resulted in alienating villagers further from the Saigon regime. This policy though helped GVN in reaching countryside yet ironically produced more cadres for the NLF. The years of war between 1963- 1968 in Vietnam were considered to be the years of Esca lation and Americanization.In 1963, as NLF was heading towards victory, Diem’s brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, attacked Buddhist pagodas of South Vietnam; this resulted in massive protests on the streets of Saigon, and several Buddhist monks committed self-immolation. This made Kennedy to send in coup in the same year. But some of the Diem’s own generals in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) approached Kennedy seeking request to overthrow Diem and on 1st November 1963, Deim and his brother was arrested and then later killed.But after three weeks, President Kennedy too was assassinated at Dallas. At the time of his assassination, there were 16,000 advisors. Though Kennedy’s policy was not much successful yet he was able to continue his war with very little military intervention, but as soon as new president, Lyndon Baines Johnson took over, his conviction and policy made him to show world, the military might of America. He took the firm stand and urged for attaini ng more powers after the raid of DAV on two of US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin shook him.But looking at the strategies being adopted by Communists parties creating hindrances in the war as well as in the political efforts of United States, the Johnson administration too advocated what they termed as â€Å"cold blood† strategy- a war but with very little resources and little effect on their own nation. But this also proved futile, as this war created an adverse effect on their domestic front to the extent that Mr. Johnson was forced to think on the domestic consequences of his every major decision.In 1964, Washington had made all the plans to send all military strengths as retaliation to Tonkin Gulf incident. By 1968, situation became worse when DRV and the NLF led unified attacks on the most important southern cities, which were known as Tet offensive in the West; its main purpose was to coax Johnson to sit on for negotiations. Though communists were defeated in battle yet it was psychological victory for them. As Johnson was totally burdened by the heavy weight of war and secondly opposition from his home front made him take a decision that made all the exercises of previous Presidents futile.He decided not to support re-nomination of Democratic Party for president and was ready to go in for negotiations with communists to put an end to war. In 1968, secret negotiations were started to end the war but soon Republican challenger Nixon took over the charge of President-ship who professed to have a secret plan to put an end to war. But this secret plan was nothing else then the strategic moves of Lyndon Johnson. He began what was termed as process of â€Å"Vietnamization† to bring to the ears of his own force that no Vietnamese was fighting in jungles of Southeast Asia and dying there.This made the substitution of air wars over the American troops who returned home. Nixon increased the air attacks over DRV and for ground battle sent, ARVN. He also a ttacked Laus and Cambodia to put a barrier and an end to the communists supply routes and their safe sanctuaries. This was violation of the international rights of these countries. The air war had a little or no effect on Communists, but they continued with their efforts to make more and more demands in Paris. Though Nixon’s approach made critics quite but his repeated attacks as a protective cover for the retreat of American troops irritated U.S citizens and paved the path for the U. S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and DRV representatives Xuan Thuy and Le Duc to think on peaceful lines of Paris. Many owe the strategic failure to President Lyndon Johnson’s policies, as it was during his tenure that America saw most of casualties. But according to Jeffrey Kimball, President Nixon was responsible for these states of affairs. He wrote in his much thought provoking book â€Å"Nixon's Vietnam War 1998†, that President Nixon must be held, responsible and account able, for the failure.It was quite true that America made wrong assessment of the strong folds of North Vietnamese in their soil and tried to resolve the problem with military strength, which was in itself a wrong move. Kimball argued that when Nixon took over the office, he was aware of the fact that this war could not be won militarily yet he resorted for war because only by showing their might, they could force Hanoi into negotiations favorable to Nixon’s view of honorable peace. His statement was based on the United States interest at the international level and on owing to his reelection. 4 Accordingly they wanted to endorse the President-ship of Thieu.This device was a strategy to take America out of Vietnam on certain terms, but there were many uncertain in-linking parts like risk from China, several schemes of negotiations, effect on societies and Vietnamization etc, and all did not prove to be as effective as was supposed to be. He believed his political success to b e based on the mad man theory: the efforts to make his enemies think that his opposition for communism was so strong that he could go to any extent like put in maximum force that would not only be accordingly disproportionate in size but also extremely dangerous.5 Along with this, there was certain element of uncertainty, a policy forcing enemies to think on multitude lines on one subject to confuse them. The years, 1962 to1969 were the years of great dissatisfaction and American’s strategic misnomers on the Vietnam soils. Vietnam passing through the strategic influence of three American regimes only retaliated harsher. Though the Nixon policy also could not be considered as full success yet his strategy at least paved the path for both himself and Kissinger think that the best they could have done was to promise Thieu government a â€Å"decent interval† 6 of security once Americans would leave Vietnam.Bibliography Brigham, Robert, Battlefield Vietnam: A Brief History, PBS. org. , (1 March 2008) Daum, Andreas Gardner, Lloyd and Mausbach, Wilfried, America, the Vietnam War, and the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Kimball, Jeffrey, Nixon’s Vietnam War 1998, Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1998.

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buy custom IT Ethics essay The scientific study of IT ethics has relatively short history. In reflecting on this, the purpose of the research paper is to evaluate how companies can integrate modern ethical practices in an IT organization by reviewing relevant peer journal articles that cover contemporary topics regarding the implementation of ethical IT solutions. Trying to bring together conceptually related constructs, the author composes a paper that evaluates the integration of ethical practices into an information technology organization, demonstrating thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts and providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. The author uses special resources, as both reasonable and valuable, but also not likely to occur in the near future the task and the constant infusion into the literature of new concepts and research findings. Although there are quite a great number of investigation papers on IT ethics, a new viewpoint will be essential for scholars an d researches, who are working in this field of study. The Importance of Ethics in Information Technology IT ethics as a relatively new study, deals with finding and adaption proper courses of individual`s action in the process of IT operations. Its fundamental principals go deep into philosophy that is the methodology of all sciences. To be successful in any business, the leaders have to identify their main ethical principles and the proper course of action that can lead them to achieve their goals and needs. Ethics, itself, is a standard of human`s action regarding to special norms and values that people do constantly relating to their attitude to others, their well-being and happiness. Thus, we can identify one of the main principles of IT ethics: when the employees are happy, they make their customers happy. Ethics serves as a guide in development and deploying IT systems, management of information assets, considering the consequences that may occur. Ethics applies to each customer and gives the opportunity for information technology business to interact with the clients providing appropriate behavior and strategy. Though money is the main reason of any business, those who neglect ethical principles can`t succeed (Downing, 2006, p.45). Good business ethics is an essential part which is a link of a chain in the interaction of business and individual purposes. There are many factors to consider in IT business when making money. First of all, the main factor is the way how people are dealing with each other in the process of their work. The researchers concluded, that business owners that use ethics rules, may get better results and incomes. Many global IT businesses get fines and lose their customers because they break ethical laws (Pai Yeh. 2008, p. 682). Smooth and knowledgeable use of ethics norms and rules helps to customize the software to handle existing business process and accommodate the technology. Every time making an u pgrade of software, IT specialists integrate with other systems and, therefore, other customers and operators have to keep in mind that ethical norms are essential in everything they are doing. The first thing IT operators and managements have to remember is how to make customers to adapt to new systems focusing on people, not only systems (.Raffa Capaldo, 2007, p.10). When people realize the benefits of using ethical norms on personal level, then they will share documents, information, better reporting and decision-making. Thus, we come to the conclusion that IT process is not only money making, but also interaction between people that occur in everyday business performance. What is the Right Thing to Do? Ethics has a wide specter of use and none of the scholars can provide a discipline analysis to a particular case. Dealing with information technology professionals, ethical norms should apply to the selected case, answering the classical question: what is the right thing to do (Slaughter, 2006, p.903)? Focusing on people is, probably, the right answer to the main ethical question. The daily performance of information technology professionals include searching information, sharing information, increasing security of information, improving client service and protection, reporting the information, reducing file storage equipment, space and supplies. While identifying and choosing the staff, it`s important to involve otheremployees of different ranks to participate, that would help to improve the business process and activate even less active individual. That is another example how to use IT ethics effectively in practice. Theoretical knowledge is nothing, if it doesn`t work in practice. Creating pilot groups, where the right people can organize others to achieve business goals, is another important step in successful IT process. It may be reasonable to create these groups from people, who are getting the best feedback from the users and have high ratings and excellent personal and professional skills. Pilot groups have to cooperate with focus groups which may involve administration and high level representatives for better feedback from their customers. So, focusing on people is the right thing to do. Understanding people and process issues clearly distinguishes trust research to date and conceptualization of trust accepted by researches. Finally, by examining the results of people`s behavior and interaction working in the information technology, we came to the conclusion that the results are different from those working in other fields of industries (Agarwal, 2000, p.101). Due to different research sources, quick changes in the environment due to information technology provide a closer interaction between leaders and employees that lead, in some cases, to conflicts that need regulation. Thus, ethics norms may help to overcome different undesirable situations, empower to take action and provide better organizational process Our reading of special literature on the topic gives us assurance to consider that successful process of IT ethics depends on analytical abilities of business leaders and their employee. As required time and information are really hard to identify, organizations find out different strategic settings to succeed in high-velocity environments (Downing, 2006, p. 48). Combining Information Technology with Skilled People Information technology by itself doesn`t do much progress in work process, solve problems or create new jobs. Only combining the technology with skilled people who understand the goals and functioning of the system during everyday activities can lead to better working process, motivated employees, better productivity and profits. Therefore, realizing and supporting all those issues IT staff operating with the systems don`t neglect ethical norms of their behavior (Yue, ed.al, 2009, p.70). The researches have been studying this statement during past five-ten years and come to the conclusion that IT ethical norms do really exist and work during people`s interaction at work as well as in the routine life. Information technology is ineffective and almost impossible without skilled and well-trained professionals according not only to the specification of their work, but also to ethical norms that should help in achieving their goals. Training users to manage new technology in information systems could be a great beginning, but not the only aim of the process. They must know not only how to search and save the documents, they should spend much time for training on how to use the software. Being comfortable at work place gives an assurance of self-importance and helps to affect individual`s progress while using new technology systems. Understanding one`s given role in the organization builds a conceptualization of trustful pattern of communication between peers working in IT industry. Going beyond the software, it`s worth mentioning the role of training that IT leaders don`t have to ignore, if want to achieve success in their business and have better perspectives in the future (Carlsson Sawy, 2008, p.71). According to Carlsson, S., El Sawy, O. (2008, p. 231), organizations in IT business environments are facing rapid change in technology, demand competitions and regulation. Those who are responsible for high-quality decision making have to perform their activity in a fast and constructive manner not to be late with the time. Developments in information technologies require use the environment as a contingency variable. Here we focus on study of IT ethics in regards with how people interact and act in the daily performance. As stated above, focusing on the statement that team groups can be of the greatest importance while operating information systems, most important will be to understand the way of business performance andd operating in high-velocity environments. Management and Decision Making The current thinking of management and decision making is rather important in information technology process. Focusing on IT ethics, the organizations and their leaders outsource entire business process, based on operational systems all over the world. Each IT organization usually has a number of partners outside the enterprise that collaborate with each other online, over the telephone or personally, and it becomes a common practice to learn norms of ethics of different international companies in order to understand their culture and preferences. For instance, providing business with Japanese company may differ from those in Germany, or any other Western-European country. Due to different cultures, geographical locations, historical and ethnical differences people can think and act differently. Operating in different IT environments requires the global thinking and deep knowledge of the subject. Managing any kind of process, decision making plans must be smooth and accurate due to t he organization`s goals and specification. Communicating via IT infrastructures partners share information that come in the form of infrastructural data from a variety of digital infrastructures and people (Raffa Capaldo, 2007, p.25). As a rule, organizations using information technology need immediate decisions, that`s why people lead their efforts to deliver intensive business process getting ready for speedy decisions through the right management. Successful organizations and decision makers execute highly rational and analytic decision making in a short time period. Involving ethical norms in the process of decision making makes the process smoother and easier as well as using productive methods of management (Slaughter, 2009, p.300). The IT manager has to weigh the requests of ethical norms with overall standards and organization`s specifications and instructions. Giving each department strictly what they need for better processes, lead to better understanding of IT ethics, reducing redundancy and maintaining the necessary level of information. Some studies suggest formal meetings for better management, while others propose to make decisions fast while evaluating extensive information. Thus, organization often face conflicting demands to make decisions fast what can lead to a set of definable tensions, such as: the need for analytical decision process and the need for quick decision; the tension around the need for action and the need for safest alternative mode of action; the tension between efforts to eliminate the digital divide with an organization and finding expedient ways to communicate through digital infrastructures (Downing, 2006, p.50). The literature on the topic suggests various methods of the right decision making and successful management and organization, reviewing quantitative measures, different forms of modeling and stimulations, developing new alternatives, etc. management and decision making in IT ethics is a highly analytical process, which requires professional skills and knowledge. Successful organization of management let leaders and employee to adapt ethical norms at different organizational levels for effective decision making. According to Carlsson S. (2009, p. 73), there is a natural need of top managers to make fast decisions that makes a power to manage the process efficiently. Conclusion Overview different literature, we can come to the conclusion that IT ethics is an important tool to develop and validate the given research study. This paper will significantly extend our understanding of the phenomena along the number of dimensions and the behavior of users in regard with ethical norms that are of great importance in information technologies. Many scholars validate the influence of ethics on productivity and efficiency of their leaders and employees, making them complete, absolute and accurate. Using information systems in the external environment has to be highly analytical in order to succeed in any business. Ethics in line with findings in top management and decision making forms a key goal of information technology. Organizational attention and learning of ethics, thereby, shape the formation of new strategies and ideas. Ethics eliminate the separation of people, help achieve company`s goal and feel comfortable at work places. Buy custom IT Ethics essay

Redefining the American Dream essays

Redefining the American Dream essays The American dream has long been defined as the dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement (Amin). If this dream were true, it would acknowledge people for who and what they are, in spite of chance birth status or social position. Unfortunately, in todays society, the American dream represents fortune and success much more than work and morals. Even so, the success that comes along with the American dream is not a practical want in todays society. We all have the equal ability to work hard, yet we dont have the equal ability to become successful from our work alone. The American dream has now become an unachievable aspiration, especially to those whose race, ethnicity and gender prohibit them from attaining the equality we all deserve. America was shaped by ideals and high standards that inspired people to work hard and to be good people. Everything in life was not about money or recognition. Our society was one that defined success as happiness. The main goal was to become self-sufficient and to provide a healthy home for ones family. Somewhere along the way, this happiness became defined as money. We stopped focusing on family values and began to concentrate on personal wealth and social status. With this transition, the American dream became unattainable for the entire society and became a dream practical to the Upper-class alone, a dream that let the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The dream still promises success to all those who work hard, yet one should recognize that this dream is just that, a dream. One can argue that this dream is part of the American culture, or that ...it can pull people in the direction they want to go (Dalton), both of which are true, yet they are not acknowledging the simple fact that the American dream provides people with a false ...

The career you are preparing for now Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The career you are preparing for now - Essay Example ve is to evaluate my skills of creating documents such as those found in the employer website or even improved ones as well as understanding the implication that the document on the employer website create on a potential candidate. DOE can be perceived to be a site for electrical engineers, but also services a major employer for mechanical engineers. The U.S. Department of Energy website has various kinds of documents including hypertext, web, articles, PDF, press lease, and graphics. DOE website has other various documents on its site including a charter, company budget and performance report, and invitation to tender. The charter document describes the aim and principles of DOE in ensuring that engineering finds interventions to the challenges facing the world such as the innovation of renewable energy and discarding the use of fuels that will save the world from the greenhouse effect responsible for global warming. The company report is classified into the many projects that the company has undertaken including the science and innovation and energy saver. Invitation to tender documents are provided for the need to cover the staff and contractors rights as they form the most important aspect in ensuring the success of the company’s mission. Additionally, the site has warning documents that highlight the terms and right of access to the company’s information and reports as well as protecting it from whistleblowers. The DOE site makes use of an expository writing style, which aims at explaining process in a logical order with support of figures. Mechanical engineering is a practical career that require the explanation of processes in a logical order; hence, the site being one of the major employer in y field of career, has clearly distinguished its aim and scope though its technical communication of various projects . Additionally, I noticed that the site has used illustrations that are entirely technical to describe the technical details of various

LEAN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

LEAN - Essay Example In this case, waste should be avoided by the organization since it specifically targets poverty stricken areas. The broad aim of the organization is to alleviate poverty among the less privileged societies hence the need for it to remain focused through the removal of waste. The next step that can be carried is to map the value stream of the customers. This is a very important part since it helps the organization to deliver value once it familiarises itself with the needs of the customers. The organization can use this principle in order to deliver value to the people. The other important principle of lean thinking is to create flow by eliminating waste. In a service organization, steps ought to be taken in order to ensure that waste is eliminated so that its goals can be achieved without any interruption. It is also important for Care international to ensure that it responds to customer pull and demand. If the organization is in a position to establish the needs of the targeted customers, then it is in a better position to satisfy their needs. The last principle is related to pursuant of perfection. The organization can achieve success through perfecting its operations so that the targeted customers get the value of the service offered. In undertaking its activities, Care International can implement the seven wastes of lean namely: transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over processing and defects (Quality Assurance Solutions, ND). . It is important for the organization to ensure that it is capable of transporting the goods to the targeted people so that loses that can result wastes are not recorded. The other important element is to ensure that inventory does not become a waste by storing excessive quantities of goods that are not required by the customers. Excessive motion can also result in wastes since high costs can be