Dra DB ROD Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Dra DB ROD - Assignment Example Tsakos’ presentation is methodological, interactive and effectively thought through. She presents her ideas systematically and proves the claims she makes. I therefore conquer with all the facts she presents and does not disagree with any of the facts she presented since she provided sufficient proof to them. Theater is indeed a catalyst for social change. Theaters assemble people of varying ages and cultural backgrounds for entertainment purposes. The messages that occur in the form of themes address social, economic and political issues. Through such messages, theaters influence public opinion thereby initiating social changes. Character and theme are two of the six Aristotelian elements. Character refers to the agents in the plot used to convey a message while a theme is the central reason for the play and the message in the same. The two are evident in Tsakos’ video. She uses a number of performers including herself in her attempt to prove that technology has enhanced the development of theaters. Her systematic use and portrayal of the six Aristotelian elements in her video coupled with her systematic relay of information makes her presentation a fine

CCHBC Supply and Demand Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

CCHBC Supply and Demand Management - Assignment Example The paper tells that the ability to meet the demands of both the external and internal environment within a multinational corporation requires planning and implementation through various means. The structure which is followed through Coca Cola’s HBC is one which provides alternative methods to ensure that various needs are met for the product. This is based on the operations strategic management and the ability to control the supply and demand with planning and control. The way in which CCHBC is able to work with suppliers and monitor principles within the corporation furthers the advantages of the corporation and the strategies which are developed. Examining the relevant approaches which are associated with CCHBC and how these are assisting with the development of the corporation then is able to provide an alternative approach to the development of corporations at a global level and with a strategic infrastructure. The first concept which is approached within CCHBC is the ope rations strategic management and the ability to achieve strategic aims. The approach which CCHBC is using is based on the four main principles of meeting the supplies and demands, including availability, affordability, acceptability and activation. These are operation management practices which are practically applied at various levels to ensure that the quality is maintained within each procedure. The availability is one which centers on the supply chain management and accuracy of each of the orders. This is followed by the affordability, specifically which associates with the quality control and planning while assisting with competitive prices dependent on the location of suppliers and region of the country. The acceptability furthers with quality control and planning and is based on matching with specific standards for the CCHBC to continue with high – quality products. The activation which is associated with this includes having the right price, location and brand while d eveloping the management processes and cohesion. This occurs through multi – departmental agreements. The approach which is used for quality control and planning as well as supply chain management is one which builds strength and reliability

Framework of Sustainability for SMEs

Framework of Sustainability for SMEs Sustainability: Integrating the Literature to Develop a Framework for SMEs Abstract Business today is called to consider sustainability or corporate social responsibility. Is this call meaningful or relevant to SMEs? Using the taxonomy of Garriga and Mele the literature on the broad spectrum of work related to sustainability and CSR is reviewed to develop a framework for SMEs, structured around the simple concepts of why, when, what, how and where. Further work with the framework will answer two questions; the circumstances of how SMEs engage in sustainability and what are the unique aspects of this sustainability for SMEs. Introduction Over recent times there has been a growing demand for business to consider corporate sustainability. Most large public companies are engaging with the concept in some way as evidenced by the production of Sustainability or Corporate Social Responsibility Reports (Bartells, 2008). Small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) are less likely to be engaged and some would argue they are not even sure what the concept means or whether it is relevant (Redmond, Walker, Wang, 2008; Spence, Jeurissen, Rutherfoord, 2000; Vives, 2006). There is a large body of literature on the aligned concepts of sustainability, corporate social responsibility, corporate social performance, global responsibility and corporate citizenship, with a variety of perspectives, definitions and assumptions. There is no integrated theory or framework broadly adopted by scholars and in fact there have been only a few attempts at this (Garriga Melà ©, 2004; Jones, 1983; Montiel, 2008; Wood, 1991). Within the SME literature there have been calls for research to develop a theoretical framework to understand CSR and SMEs (Jenkins, 2006; Thompson Smith, 1991). Whilst there is a growing body of literature focused on SMEs it is often merely descriptive and uses a single theoretical lens. A broader model encompassing a wider range of theoretical perspectives may have more utility. The utility and practicability of the framework as a tool for small business will be tested as part of a lager project to develop, from case study research and the literature, a useful integrative framework, to assist SMEs to engage with sustainability in the most appropriate and relevant way for their business. The normative approach frequently used in studies of large organisations whilst ideal may not be the most pertinent to SMEs. This paper aims to develop a practical theoretical framework unifying the spectrum of theoretical and empirical approaches and focussing in particular on the needs of SMEs. The paper starts with an outline of the concept of sustainability and a review of the unique aspects of SMEs. It then moves into a review of the literature using a taxonomy based on Garriga (Garriga Melà ©, 2004), considering both theory development and empirical studies. From this the most relevant elements are drawn together to develop a number of propositions regarding both the circumstances of how SMEs engage in sustainability and what are the unique aspects of this sustainability for SMEs. To add to the practicality of the framework it will be structured around 5 dimensions; Why, when, what, where and how? What is Sustainability At the outset a normative definition with regard to sustainability is required to anchor this work. Corporate sustainability is an umbrella concept (Gond Crane, 2008) which integrates the social, environmental and economic dimensions into business operation. Within these three categories, there are a range of elements which are comprehensively detailed in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI, 2006). Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is often used interchangeably with sustainability in the business world and large companies may have either a CSR or sustainability report with little notion of the long theoretical tradition behind each of the terms. In the academic literature there are quite different origins of the two. It is worth digressing to briefly explore the history and overlaps of the terms. CSR as defined by Carroll encompassed four elements, economic, ethical, legal and philanthropic (Carroll, 1979). This was later refined to three with philanthropic being incorporated into the economic or ethical space depending on the logic (Schwartz Carroll, 2003). Until Woods work in 1991 there was no mention of the natural environment within the CSR literature (Wood, 1991). In parallel, during the late 80s ecological modernisation implored business to consider its environmental impact and look for solutions to environmental problems (Mol Sonnenfeld, 2000). Also in the 80s, as a response to the UN movement on sustainable development, business or corporate sustainability was developed, focusing not only on profit, but on the social and environmental impacts of business. Thus there were three independent movements CSR (predominantly social/ethical), ecological sustainability (predominantly environmental) and sustainability (economic, social and environmental). This differentiation still exists in scholarship. When one considers the divisions within the Academy of Management there exists both Social Issues in Management (SIM) the natural home of the CSR scholars and Organisation for the Natural Environment (ONE) the natural home of the environmentalists. Those who chose the sustainability path exist in both divisions and are not completely at home in eith er. The concepts of CSR and sustainability are becoming closer. Some scholars now argue that environmental issues are an explicit subset of CSR (Agle, Mitchell, Sonnenfeld, 1999; Waddock, 2008) . Montiel claims that both CSR and sustainability now include the economic, social and environmental elements, with sustainability more integrated and with different questions asked by researchers in each paradigm (Montiel, 2008). The difficulty remains in the implicit versus explicit definitions. CSR literature often includes the environment implicitly. The risk is that what is implicit can be overlooked, and so CSR could exist without considering the environment, but in sustainability the environment is explicit, although not exclusive. Social and economic considerations are also explicit in sustainability. This is one reason sustainability is more appropriate then CSR as the focus this work. There is another subtle difference between the two with CSR being more concerned with an ethical perspective, and a requirement that involvement must be voluntary and beyond any legal requirements. This last concept is not considered in sustainability. Research on CSR often reflects on individual activities tagging philanthropy and volunteering as evidence of CSR (Jenkins, 2006; Porter Kramer, 2002) . Corporate sustainability is focused more on the long term and has no relative measure against any legal requirements. Two key concepts are clearly defined in sustainability and less explicit within the CSR literature, particularly earlier papers. These are upstream social impacts in the supply chain and the expanded concept of product stewardship. Product stewardship refers to the environmental or social impact of the product from raw material, through manufacture and its useful life to disposal impacts. The supply chain factors include the social impacts on employees and communities u pstream in the supply chain. As a final clarification, sustainability in some work focuses only on the environmental case (Bansal Roth, 2000; Tilley, 2000), however in this paper the term sustainability refers to the wholesome integration and consideration of the dimensions of economic performance and social and environmental impact into a business, and is very much aligned with the approach that has been described as Corporate Sustainable Development (Bansal, 2005). In an ideal world sustainability is a normative concept with business understanding that it has a wider responsibility than simply an economic outcome and must consider its impact on the social and ecological environment it operates in now and for future generations. The major focus of the larger project, of which this paper forms a part, is to determine if this is real and meaningful for SMEs or if there is a more appropriate definition and framework for SMEs. SMEs There are a few definitions of SMEs in the literature. For this exercise we will adopt a definition of businesses between 10 and 200 employees (the Australian Bureau of Statistics definition of SMEs). They tend to be owner operated. There is much evidence that SMEs are different to large firms and hence behave in different ways. Generally they are independent, multi-tasking and cash strapped (Jenkins, 2004; Williamson, Lynch-Wood, Ramsay, 2006) more flexible and less formalised (Aragà ³n-Correa, Hurtado-Torres, Sharma, Garcà ­a-Morales, 2008; Lefebvre, Lefebvre, Talbot, 2003), have a shortage of management skills (Luetkenhorst, 2004), are unlikely to use costly professional advice (Spence, Schmidpeter, Habisch, 2003), and manage stakeholders with whom they have personal relationships (Jenkins, 2006). When the economy is tough SMEs have to focus on short term survival as they generally do not have the depth of resources of larger firms (Luetkenhorst, 2004). This suggests a resource constraint in adopting new approaches to work wether focused on sustainability or strategic management. This is explicitly stated as an inhibitor for SMEs to adopt CSR (Kuhndt, Volker, Herrndorf, 2004). A contrasting view suggests a shared vision, proactively driven by the founder, combined with the innovativeness and flexibility, will actually encourage adoption of better practices in SMEs and in the case of one study, better approaches to environmental management (Aragà ³n-Correa et al., 2008). There is a comprehensive body of work on SMEs and sustainability, which tends to show evidence of attention to some of the elements of sustainability within SMEs almost accidently (Lawrence, Collins, Pavlovich, Arunachalam, 2006; Roberts, Lawson, Nicholls, 2006), very little affiliation with CSR (Jenkins, 2006) or environmental impact (Petts, 2000; Redmond et al., 2008) and a general disengagement with sustainability (Vives, 2006). All papers argue the importance of looking at small business because of its aggregated size and impact and its difference to large business where a much more substantial body of work has been undertaken. In the review of the theoretical approaches relevant empirical or descriptive work from the SME literature will be considered. Taxonomy of the literature There are a number of articles which detail the history of scholarly endeavours into CSR, sustainability and aligned concepts (Bansal, 2005; Carroll, 1999). Suffice to say that after 50 years no single theory or integrative framework exists which brings together the disparate views of corporate sustainability, stakeholder theory, natural capitalism, resource based views of the firm, corporate social responsibility, global responsibility, sustainable leadership and corporate citizenship, into a framework beneficial to business operators and not just academics. From an empirical approach, the Sustainable Leadership model of Avery developed using a grounded theory methodology (Avery, 2005), contains many elements from most of these theories as does Stubbs Sustainability Business Model (Stubbs Cocklin, 2008) and will be reviewed later. Garriga and Mele published a taxonomy of the CSR field in 2004 based on the work of Parsons who identifies four problems in any dynamic system; that of building and distributing resources; the economic aspect, that of allocating and prioritising resources; the political aspect, that of maintaining social relationships; the social aspect and that of ensuring actors display the right values; the ethical aspect. Using these dimensions, theories based on the prime organisational goal of wealth creation Garriga identifies as instrumental theories, those based on the responsible use of the social power of organisations are defined as political theories, those based on integrating social demands to satisfy todays stakeholders are integrative theories and those based on normative values unbounded by time and environment, they term ethical theories. The authors add that most theories will have elements of all four aspects with a strong focus on one area, used as the basis for segmentation (Ga rriga Melà ©, 2004). A limitation of the review is that it focuses on predominantly American literature and ignores salient literature such as global responsibility (GR) developed in other geographies. Considering the context of the business system or the surrounding institutions (Luetkenhorst, 2004; Matten Moon, 2008), focusing on a single geography gives the narrow focus of a single business system. A second limitation is that the theories considered are all firm centric and so papers that look at how external institutions can impact CSR activities are not considered. Finally the work does not include the literatures outside of the traditional CSR space so ecological modernisation and business sustainability are excluded. The following will include a review of the broader literature omitted from Garrigas paper. The taxonomy chosen is relevant given the empirical evidence of its elements in the CSR activities and motivations of large companies (Whitehouse, 2006) To develop an integrated framework for SMEs, this paper must cover off a broader range of literature which includes institutions that may impact on SMEs involvement with sustainability. With this and the limitations of the Garriga taxonomy in mind, expansion of the concept of political theories to look at external as well as firm centric theories is appropriate. This group will be called institutional theories after Powell and Di Maggio (DiMaggio Powell, 1983). In the following sections each of these four groups, ethical, instrumental, integrative and institutional is explored in more detail, considering the main theories within each group, any supporting empirical or SME research. Finally the most relevant questions and implications for SMEs are extracted to develop propositions which form the bones of the integrated framework. Ethical theories Within this group are considered theories that are predominantly ethical arguing that it is the responsibility of business to look beyond the financial bottom line to the wider context and impact of business on the societies in which it operates, in a relatively unbounded manner, because it is the right thing to do. All strategic management theories have some moral or ethical underpinning (Phillips, Freeman, Wicks, 2003) however they are only included in this group when this is the primary focus of the theory. Under review will be CSR, normative stakeholder theory and global responsibility followed by a review of relevant empirical or SME work. Corporate Social Responsibility in its original form was an ethical theory. Developed in the USA as early as the 1950s it was unabashedly normative, â€Å"the social responsibility of business encompass the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time† (Carroll, 1979, p. 500). The normative version of stakeholder theory is also ethical; â€Å"Stakeholder theory begins with the assumption that values are necessarily and explicitly a part of doing business† (Freeman, Wicks, Parmar, 2004, p. 364). Normative stakeholder theory is differentiated from the applied or integrative use of stakeholder theory in that it generalises on which stakeholder interests should be considered and admonishes managers that these stakeholders must be considered in decision making (Phillips et al., 2003). In the last few years a new â€Å"global responsibility† literature has developed in Europe. The concept has its origins in CSR however the new label is proposed on the basis there are greater pressures from technological progress and globalization, moving so fast, that neither ethics nor legal frameworks can keep up. Thus it is up to business owners to fill this ethical vacuum and develop a new business model based not on making profit but on making progress. De Woot states: â€Å"In a global economy the raison dà ªtre of the firm is to ensure economic and technical progress that furthers human progress and facilitates the type of society we wish to have† (de Woot, 2005, p. 113). The corporation is viewed as a source of energy and creativity which has led to massive global development. DeWoot seeks to change the focus of this energy towards progress, not just profit, and to fill the gaps in global governance. Global Responsibility supersedes CSR, claiming that both corporate and social are too narrow (Antal Sobczak, 2004). Perez defines global responsibility in more detail, identifying responsibility for actions and their consequences in a global context which implies extensions to the societal, environmental and time dimensions in which we are used to operating. The responsibility is borne both by the organisation and its â€Å"social representatives†, with responsibility owed to shareholders, external authorities and other stakeholders (Perez, 2003). Beyond the strict definition of the words, the intent of both concepts is the same, for business to be motivated by more than the â€Å"single thought† (de Woot, 2005, p. 39) or profit motive and consider both a wider goal and a wider sphere of impact. A number of authors identify two opposing models of company orientation aligning one with a firm response to the ethics of global responsibility or CSR and the other with a sole focus on profit. The former has been called the Rhineland model (Albert, 1992; Avery, 2005) and is expressed by Perez; â€Å"The manager considers that his mission, and that of the enterprises he manages, is a multiple one: he must of course be competitive to do otherwise would be suicidal but also, as far as possible, be attentive to his internal and external partners, think about the environment and future generations, in short be globally responsible† (Perez, 2003, p. 82). The opposing perspective is the Anglo US model (Avery, 2005) and follows the ideology of the single thought (de Woot, 2005). It is this differentiation which leads to a contentious issue in the CSR literature. Much of the CSR literature talks about the need to go beyond legal requirements (Carroll, 1999) however once this is int erpreted through the lens of the national business system it can be seen why this has come about. The lack of regulation in the American corporate context, to address other than financial imperatives, requires that if a company is considering its social impact it must go beyond compliance. In the European context many of these requirements are bound up in institutional aspects of the local business model. Matten and Moon refer to this as implicit and explicit CSR (Matten Moon, 2008). This international context of the institutions, cultures and norms of the society in which firms are rooted needs to be considered in much of the discussion about CSR and sustainability, particularly when we talk of institutional literature. Much of the work stemming from United Nations initiatives around sustainable development such as the Brundtland Report and the Global Compact also stem from an ethical perspective. The argument is about the rights of the worlds peoples and hence the dual obligation on business to maintain the ecological environment for the benefit of future generations and to be responsible for the social impacts on society today. The common thread amongst the ethical arguments is that they are all focused on why these broader issues should be a responsibility of business. They do not venture into what or how: this will come from subsequent literature. There are relevant empirical studies which help to develop this â€Å"why† concept further particularly for SMEs, which will now be reviewed. Empirical work on ethical theories of sustainability, CSR or normative stakeholder theory is sparse (Berman, Phillips, Wicks, 2006). No research investigating global responsibility and business could be found, although there are a number of descriptive case studies of business which are used to show evidence of a global responsibility approach (Antal Sobczak, 2004; Zinkin, 2004). De Woot identifies that small business is unable to make the changes required alone and this will only happen through their professional associations (de Woot, 2005). Within the descriptive literature on SMEs and the adoption of CSR or sustainability there is considerable evidence that there is an ethical motive behind some business activities which could be considered a part of the CSR spectrum (Condon, 2004; Graafland, van de Ven, Stoffele, 2003; Spence et al., 2003). Jamalis work in Lebanon reached a conclusion that is typical of many studies: â€Å"there was a high level of convergence regarding a philanthropic conception of CSR that was characterized as an obligation parallel to the business rather than being integrated into it. All six SME managers (with no exception) equated CSR with philanthropy, which they considered as a necessary activity independent of mainstream business transactions.† (Jamali, Zanhour, Keshishian, 2009, p. 364) This is not unlike the early view of CSR, where the key issue was philanthropy as an activity of the firm somewhat separate from the firms business. Spence has looked deeply at the personal ethics of small business owners and how this impacts their business operation, to identify four orientations; profit maximisation, subsistence priority, enlightened self interest and social parity (Spence Rutherford, 2001). This frame gives us some insight into the utility of ethical theories of CSR. For those who have a social orientation, ie those exhibiting enlightened self interest or social priority an ethical theory may have utility in further integration of sustainability into the business beyond mere CSR activities. For those with a profit maximisation focus, however ethical theories are unlikely to entice operators to be involved. Which begs the question if ethical theories are only useful to those who are ethical then do they have any utility at all? And yet maybe they do and the focus needs to be to inculcate business to understand that if they claim to be ethical they need to take on De Woots call and use their energy to change t he way their business operates and strategically incorporate the new paradigm into their daily operations. It may be that it is the inability to gain traction with ethical arguments that led truly committed individuals such as Elkington and Hawken to develop their work as instrumental theories and encourage business buy in this way. In summary the research shows that for SMEs an ethical intent of the owner may lead to adoption of sustainability or at least elements of CSR. This will be considered further as propositions are developed to build the framework. Instrumental theories Within the taxonomy, instrumental theories are defined as those that argue that CSR can be adopted as a means to achieve an economic end. In other contexts they are termed the Business Case (Dyllick Hockerts, 2002; Epstein Roy, 2003). Garriga includes Friedmans shareholder maximisation theory, the work of Porter on social investments in a competitive context, Prahlad on the bottom of the pyramid, Harts natural resource view of the firm, and work on cause related marketing. To this can be added Natural Capitalism and the triple bottom line. Harts Natural Resource Based view seeks to engage business to maintain and protect the environment by exhorting a firm to consider a wider view of the resources available to it, and extend from the traditional consideration of capital and labour as the only constrained resources to include the natural resources it uses. In particular it asks a firm to consider pollution prevention, product stewardship and sustainable development. The theory is instrumental because it argues that over time the adoption of this strategy will lead to competitive advantage, which in the current business paradigm equates to more profit (Hart, 1995). The theory is extended to a model for how to integrate sustainability through the sustainable value framework a somewhat integrative model however clearly focussed on creating shareholder value, which may be a broader construct then profit alone (Hart Milstein, 2003). One concept clearly articulated in this framework and absent in many others is that this i s a strategic choice and should be part of the strategic decision making framework of the firm. Patagonia is held up as a company whose successful growth and green reputation is based on successfully integrating the elements of natural resource based theory into its strategy (Fowler Hope, 2007). Porter weighed in on the environment debate in the 90s arguing that to be green would lead to long term competitive advantage albeit at a potential short term cost (Porter Linde, 1995). This is very much an instrumental or profit oriented approach. He came late to consideration of CSR and unsurprisingly has also taken an instrumental approach. The profit motive is explicit in his comment; â€Å"The essential test that should guide CSR is not whether a cause is worthy but whether it presents an opportunity to create shared value that is, a meaningful benefit for society that is also valuable to the business† (Porter Kramer, 2006, p. 84). Prahalads plea for multinationals to engage in developing products appropriate for, and taking their business to, developing countries, whilst altruistic, is again instrumental. The focus is that business can make money with the approach (Prahalad, 2002). Since this is a call to multinational corporations this is unlikely to be relevant for the SME framework, except potentially to the extent of product development. The Triple Bottom line is another instrumental approach. Elkington comes from a personal conviction that the world must change (Elkington, 1999), with an argument that is not unlike DeWoots global responsibility argument. This is his personal motive for raising awareness. However in developing his theory and identifying the seven pillars of a sustainable future and thus calling others to action he relies on a business case and clearly states that the reason is not about ethics or religion (Elkington, 1999) He avoids the argument for a paradigm shift and reverts to a business case argument almost as if he were trying to seduce business to accept his ideas and unwittingly do the right thing by the environment. The theory of Natural Capitalism has a similar thread. It is again easy to confuse the theory with the ethics of the creator. The four pillars are increased resource productivity, waste elimination through closed loop material circuits, an economic shift to a solutions based business model and investment in natural capital. However as the proponents states: â€Å"that enable business to behave responsibly towards both nature and people while increasing profits, inspiring their workforce and gaining competitive advantage† (Lovins Lovins, 2001, p. 99). They are profit focused and thus instrumental and move from the â€Å"what† typical of most instrumental theories and extend it in to a â€Å"how† which we typically see in Garrigas integrative theories. As a generalisation instrumental theories tell us what to look at to achieve competitive advantage or profit. There is a focus on material usage, waste and physical resources (Hart, 1995; Lovins Lovins, 2001), product stewardship (Hart Milstein, 2003), symbiotic partnerships (Elkington, 1999), relevant social issues (Porter Kramer, 2006) and on marketing and business models (Elkington, 1999; Lovins Lovins, 2001). From a theoretical perspective we now have why, what and a little on how. The following paragraphs review the empirical work on SMEs and instrumental theory to further inform the framework. There is significant empirical work testing the validity of the business case argument. Orlitzkys meta-analysis of this body of work shows that there is a correlation between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance (Orlitzky, Schmidt, Rynes, 2003). This finding gives an additional utility to this group of theories for the profit motivated adopting the new ethics of CSR or sustainability makes a contribution to profit so we have a why as well as a what. Ethicists however take issue and question whether the ends adoption of CSR justify the means taking it on because it adds to profit (Gond, Palazzo, Basu, 2009). Within the SME literature there is a strong case argued that contribution to profit is critical and when this can be demonstrated practices which form part of the sustainability agenda may be adopted (Castka, Balzarova, Bamber, Sharp, 2004; Williamson et al., 2006). Studies show that cost savings and competitive advantage can be gained from attention to the environment (Aragà ³n-Correa et al., 2008), successful implementation of eco-efficiency and environmental policies was motivated by a business case (Cà ´tà ©, Booth, Louis, 2006; Kerr, 2006, p. 34) and application of Harts strategies are directly applicable to SMEs (Avram Kà ¼hne, 2008). When looking deeper into the literature for the items identified in the discussion of instrumental theories, ie material usage, waste and physical resources, symbiotic partnerships, relevant social issues and marketing and business models, it is only the clear business performance characteristics which resonate and are considered (Williamson et al., 2006). In considering the integrative framework it will be necessary to consider what elements identified should be considered given the limitations of SME resourcing. Integrative models Integrative models consider how social demands are integrated into a business. They do not have the scope of ethical theories and are bounded in the present what social issues demand the attention of the business now. In Garrigas taxonomy integrative theories include stakeholder management, corporate social performance, issues management and public responsibility. Dunphys pathways framework (Dunphy, Griffiths, Benn, 2007) and Tilbury and Wortmans organisation development methodology (Tilbury Wortman, 2004) are added into this class. Integrative theories developed because an ethical notion of CSR is holistic and does not help the manager in determining the granularity of what issues to address and how to address them. In developing the idea of CSR as a process, issues management, Jones states â€Å"Corporate managers do not advance by asking abstract questions but by making the pragmatic, specific decisions that confront them in the operation of their business.† (Jones, 1980 , p. 60). Similarly in her 1991 paper, Wood develops a practical framework from the previous theoretical work on CSR and corporate social performance, integrating principles, process and outcomes (Wood, 1991). Within the GR literature Thevenet also tries to develop an integrative form of global responsibility in an attempt for relevance. For GR to be effective he suggests business is responsible to expose and train managers, to develop personal reflection and maturity without which he claims ethical decisions cannot be made, â€Å"The key to global responsibility will be, at the end of the day, behavioural responsibility from people† (Thevenet, 2003, p. 124). With a prima facie base in ethics the separation between integrative and ethical theories is ambiguous. The difficulty is that once the theory becomes integrative and focused on application, the origins become less significant and the same process can be used for different reasons. At the extreme is the work of Gond on the Mafia as an organisation which on the surface can be said to exhibit many CSR best practices yet is patently not an ethical organisation. Practices include; developing good relationships with the local community and stakeholders (albeit using

The Holocaust :: essays research papers

Hitler had a plan to ?purify? Germany in order to fulfill his vision of a perfect nation.In Mein Kampf, a book written by Adolf Hitler which explains his ambitions and explains how he wants to cleanse Germany of all Jews, communists, gypsies, homosexuals, and disabled people. Hitler had targeted specifically the Jewish population because of his hatred towards them. In World War Two, around 6 million Jews were persecuted by the Nazis. Firstly, in 1935, the Nazi Party passed the Nuremberg Laws, which were designed to stop Jews and Germans from marrying, to make sure that German blood was not tainted by mixing with other races, and produced pictures warning people about what could happen. People were ?warned? about which shop belonged to the Jews and were discouraged to buy any goods from Jewish stores. It was conspicuous that this racist law passed by Hitler was very degradingly towards the Jews. Despite that most people were not ignorant and knew this was wrong, no one dared to oppose the Nazis due to fear. Anyone that opposed the Nazis was to be shot. Hitler realized that this was not effective enough in order to achieve his goal. The Nazis had a meeting to discuss more efficient ways to eradicate the Jews. In 1938, the situation took a more serious turn for the worst. Called the night of Broken Glass, the Nazis started to use violence against the Jews. Jewish shops, churches, and other buildings were openly attacked. People became subjected to violence. It would lead to the start of more systematic violence. The violence escalated to the pinicle of the tragedy that the Jews experienced, the Holocaust. From 1939 onwards, Jews were rounded up. They were forced to move out of their homes. Jews started getting sent t o areas in cities designed only for them.

Is Billy Pilgrim Sane? Essay

Billy Pilgrim plays a very influential role as the main character in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5. Since the novel is based entirely on Billy Pilgrim’s interaction with the environment around him, pinpointing Billy’s state of sanity on the scale of normality helps the reader determine what is really happening, and what is a figment of Billy’s imagination. Before making the decision regarding Billy’s state of mind, one must first establish the parameters of what is considered sane and what is not. What one person may consider insane another may consider pure genius. The dictionary definition of ‘sane’ is: free from mental derangement; having a sound, healthy mind. However the general consensus for ‘sane’ is a lot closer to: having or showing reason, sound judgment, or good sense. Once those guidelines are set up, one can proceed to analyze Billy’s state of mental health. Since Billy is a fictional character in a b ook and the man who wrote the book is dead, the only information available to someone trying to analyze Billy is through Billy’s actions/thoughts/experiences and the speculations of other readers. Luckily one is not required to delve very deep into Billy’s past before coming across tragedy. At a very young age Billy is thrust into the middle of World War Two. He is ill equipped and has no fighting training or experience. During the battle of the Bulge Billy becomes lost with one other soldier and two scouts. While hiking through the underbrush in German territory Billy is overcome with cold and waits for the eventuality that is death to pass over him and remove his soul from his body. Instead Billy becomes what the narrator describes as â€Å"unstuck† in time. This is the first time that Billy ever experiences ‘time travel’. There are at least two ways to interpret this scene. In the first one, the reader assumes that Billy is in shock, is delirious, and has a very vague connection with the outside world. This thought is followed by the next logical idea that since Billy is nearly incapacitated, anything odd he experienced in this time frame did not actually happen. However every Yin has a Yang. The second way this could be interpreted is that Billy’s mind  has lost touch of reality to the point it sheds its boundaries regarding time, freeing Billy from the human confines of viewing time in a linear fashion. Since the decision regarding Billy’s sanity is based purely on a reader’s personal opinion. A reader would do well to create a mental tally chart of notes. If the first interpretation makes more sense, simply put a mark in the ‘insane’ column, however if the second interpretation floats your boat, make a mark in the ‘sane’ column. Between the first major occurrence and the second, Billy is faced with minor issues that may or may not play an influential role on Billy’s state of mind and so even though they play minor roles, it is important that they are mentioned and taken into account. While Billy is a prisoner of war he is treated poorly, underfed, kept in a crowded train car full of viral and bacterial diseases and scented with the touch of death. It is during this time that Billy manages to make the entire train car hate him, causing him to draw further into the safety of his mind. Whether this train ride actually affected Billy or not is up to the reader to decide. The second of Billy’s major experiences that carries the capability to instil a mental illness in an otherwise healthy being would be the bombing of Dresden. While Billy was being used for labour in Dresden, his own country fire bombed him along with the rest of a city full of civilians. Billy waited out the bombing in an underground meat cooler along with a group of other POW’s and their guards. After the ground had cooled, the POW’s emerged from their safe haven and was faced with what can be described as the moon’s surface. Billy was eventually ordered to help collect the bodies for a mass burial. Now, whether it was sitting underground listening to an entire city being levelled, or the retrieval of dead bodies or both that scarred Billy, it is hard to know. However Billy did have a flashback of the bombing during his eighteenth wedding anniversary that caused him to freak out. However there is no direct evidence that the bombing caused Billy to go insa ne and only the reader can decide if it was pertinent to his mental stability or not. Another traumatizing incident endured by Billy was the combination of him being the sole survivor of a plane crash followed by his wife’s untimely death. While Billy was on his way to an optometry convention with several other optometrists, the plane he is on crashes. He is the only survivor and is rushed to the hospital. When Billy’s wife hears what happened, she rushes to  the hospital. On her way there she ends up crashing the car and loses her exhaust system. She ends up dying of Carbon Monoxide poisoning right as she stops in front of the hospital. Because of Billy’s constant time-travelling, he never really knew his wife too well so the odds of him feeling overly distraught because of her death are really quite minimal. Also because he has adopted the Tralfamadorian view of death, he would probably just imagine that now she is in a better place in her life. So even though this may not be the happiest point in Billy’s life, in this author’s opinion, it is doubtful that it has altered his state of mind, however everyone is entitled to their own opinion and so a reader may interpret otherwise. Although looking at Billy’s past may give hints as to his sanity, looking at his actual thoughts would be a lot more helpful in making the final decision. Bibliography Findley, Timothy. The Wars. New York: Penguin Group Australia, 1977.

Law Brief

Law Brief Assignment Case: Fans v. New York Highlanders Inc. Facts: The New York Highlanders are building a new stadium, offered a first come first serve season ticket special. In order to be eligible, buyers would have to pay a $10,000 licensing fee which would guarantee a specific seat as identified in a stadium seating diagram. About 10,000 fans signed up and sent in their seating choices at the 50 yard line (the most desired seats) and received confirmation from the Highlanders that their seats were reserved.Unfortunately, after the licenses were sold to the 10,000 fans, the stadiums dimensions were reduced and only had 5,000 available seats on the 50 yard line. The Highlanders announced that 5,000 of the 10,000 would get the preferred seating based on a lottery, and the remaining 5,000 would be given other seats. Issue: The plaintiffs are suing the defendant to reimburse a $10,000 fee which guaranteed a specific seat in the new stadium. Due to reduced dimensions, the New York Hi ghlanders Inc. would give the plaintiffs different seats Application: Referring to the case of Yocca v. Pittsburg Steelers Sports Inc. Yocca was sent a brochure granting the right to buy annual season tickets to games thru stadium building licenses. Yocca applied for the stadium building license and listed his seating preference. The Steelers sent him a letter notifying him of the section in which his seat was located. A diagram was included with detailed parameters of the section, but it differed from the original brochures diagram. The Steelers also sent Yocca documents including a clause that read,† This agreement contains the entire agreement of the parties. † Yocca signed the documents, and the Steelers told him the specific location of the seats.When he arrived to the stadium, the seat was not where he expected it to be. Yocca filed a suit against the Steelers, the defendants appealed to the state supreme court. Since the parties, without any fraud or mistake, have purposely put their arrangements in writing, the law states the writing to be the only evidence of their agreement. All previous negotiations, conversations and verbal agreements can not be combined or added to evidence. â€Å"Once a writing is determined to be the parties entire contract, the parol evidence rule applies and evidence of any previous written negations or agreements nvolving the same subject matter as the contract is almost always inadmissible to explain or vary the terms of the contract. Because the plaintiffs based their complaint on the claim that the defendants violated the terms of the brochure, and the court held the brochure as not part of the contract, the case was dismissed. The Yocca v. Pittsburg Steelers Sports Inc case is similar to the Fans v. New York Highlanders Inc, in which the fan(s) paid for specific seats that they were guaranteed to have.The fans signed up for their seat choices and received confirmation that the seats were reserved, same as Yoc ca’s agreement with the Steelers. A few differences between these two cases are that Yocca signs a clause that reads, â€Å"This agreement contains the entire agreement of the parties. † But this clause was signed AFTER he applied for the SBL documents. With the Highlanders case, we are not giving enough information as to what the fans signed off to, but we can make an assumption that the fans signed off to a similar clause because they both are applying for stadium building license.Also, in Yocca’s case the stadium was not reducing its dimensions. Both cases had plaintiffs purchasing â€Å"specific† seats in which they were guaranteed and resulting in having a different seat or wanting reimbursement. With the fans v. Highlanders, there was no brochure or previous negations; the plaintiff’s signed off on the SBL which is the only evidence of their agreement. Seeing as to the defendant violating the agreement, the plaintiff’s are subject to a reimbursement. Decision: In a court of law, the parties’ entire contract (the Stadium Building License Document) is the only evidence of their agreement.All negations, conversations, and brochures cannot be added to parol evidence. Because the plaintiff’s based their case complaint that the defendant violated the terms of the Stadium Building License, the defendants owe the fans a reimbursement of $10,000. Citations: 1. Clarkson, Miller. Business Law. 11. Yocca v. Pittsburg Steeler Sports, Inc. , Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2004 578 Pa. , 854 A. 2D, 425: Pages 313-314. 2. http://www. associatedcontent. com/article/23473/how_to_write_a_legal_brief_pg2 Law Brief Law Brief Assignment Case: Fans v. New York Highlanders Inc. Facts: The New York Highlanders are building a new stadium, offered a first come first serve season ticket special. In order to be eligible, buyers would have to pay a $10,000 licensing fee which would guarantee a specific seat as identified in a stadium seating diagram. About 10,000 fans signed up and sent in their seating choices at the 50 yard line (the most desired seats) and received confirmation from the Highlanders that their seats were reserved.Unfortunately, after the licenses were sold to the 10,000 fans, the stadiums dimensions were reduced and only had 5,000 available seats on the 50 yard line. The Highlanders announced that 5,000 of the 10,000 would get the preferred seating based on a lottery, and the remaining 5,000 would be given other seats. Issue: The plaintiffs are suing the defendant to reimburse a $10,000 fee which guaranteed a specific seat in the new stadium. Due to reduced dimensions, the New York Hi ghlanders Inc. would give the plaintiffs different seats Application: Referring to the case of Yocca v. Pittsburg Steelers Sports Inc. Yocca was sent a brochure granting the right to buy annual season tickets to games thru stadium building licenses. Yocca applied for the stadium building license and listed his seating preference. The Steelers sent him a letter notifying him of the section in which his seat was located. A diagram was included with detailed parameters of the section, but it differed from the original brochures diagram. The Steelers also sent Yocca documents including a clause that read,† This agreement contains the entire agreement of the parties. † Yocca signed the documents, and the Steelers told him the specific location of the seats.When he arrived to the stadium, the seat was not where he expected it to be. Yocca filed a suit against the Steelers, the defendants appealed to the state supreme court. Since the parties, without any fraud or mistake, have purposely put their arrangements in writing, the law states the writing to be the only evidence of their agreement. All previous negotiations, conversations and verbal agreements can not be combined or added to evidence. â€Å"Once a writing is determined to be the parties entire contract, the parol evidence rule applies and evidence of any previous written negations or agreements nvolving the same subject matter as the contract is almost always inadmissible to explain or vary the terms of the contract. Because the plaintiffs based their complaint on the claim that the defendants violated the terms of the brochure, and the court held the brochure as not part of the contract, the case was dismissed. The Yocca v. Pittsburg Steelers Sports Inc case is similar to the Fans v. New York Highlanders Inc, in which the fan(s) paid for specific seats that they were guaranteed to have.The fans signed up for their seat choices and received confirmation that the seats were reserved, same as Yoc ca’s agreement with the Steelers. A few differences between these two cases are that Yocca signs a clause that reads, â€Å"This agreement contains the entire agreement of the parties. † But this clause was signed AFTER he applied for the SBL documents. With the Highlanders case, we are not giving enough information as to what the fans signed off to, but we can make an assumption that the fans signed off to a similar clause because they both are applying for stadium building license.Also, in Yocca’s case the stadium was not reducing its dimensions. Both cases had plaintiffs purchasing â€Å"specific† seats in which they were guaranteed and resulting in having a different seat or wanting reimbursement. With the fans v. Highlanders, there was no brochure or previous negations; the plaintiff’s signed off on the SBL which is the only evidence of their agreement. Seeing as to the defendant violating the agreement, the plaintiff’s are subject to a reimbursement. Decision: In a court of law, the parties’ entire contract (the Stadium Building License Document) is the only evidence of their agreement.All negations, conversations, and brochures cannot be added to parol evidence. Because the plaintiff’s based their case complaint that the defendant violated the terms of the Stadium Building License, the defendants owe the fans a reimbursement of $10,000. Citations: 1. Clarkson, Miller. Business Law. 11. Yocca v. Pittsburg Steeler Sports, Inc. , Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2004 578 Pa. , 854 A. 2D, 425: Pages 313-314. 2. http://www. associatedcontent. com/article/23473/how_to_write_a_legal_brief_pg2

Education and Social Mobility Essay Essays

Education and Social Mobility Essay Essays Education and Social Mobility Essay Paper Education and Social Mobility Essay Paper Historically. due to our post-colonial background. that of the plantation society. instruction was merely afforded to the white. upper category persons. In order to set up and reenforce a hierarchy of power and ownership. affluent capitalists ensured ace instruction for their kids. while actively excepting members of the lower categories from this luxury. Due to the caste system. pupils or persons are stratified. where persons from non- traditional school have less chance for societal mobility. entirely due to fact that pupils or persons from traditional schools are of such societal category. that their chance is based on their ascribed features. which influences them in a profound manner. However. it is my position that this is a fact. due to the differences in category and civilization. pupils will hold varied entree to resources with respect to instruction. and hence. there will be different chance for instruction and societal mobility within our society. First. while carry oning the research on this thesis. it was found that the functionalist theory was non applicable. as the functionalist position surveies the ways in which instruction AIDSs society. as such. this sociological position did non back up any of my points being made within this research paper. However. this research proved that the chief positions are supported by the Marxist struggle theory. which surveies the ways in which instruction manages the instability of power in our society. Due to socioeconomic background of persons. those from low-income backgrounds are less likely to graduate from high school. less likely to travel to university and even if Comment [ A1 ] : Very good they do graduate. they are less likely to finish university if they enrol. Consequently. the spread between kids from the lower socioeconomic strata and those from the center and upper strata tends to increase with the degree of school. This relates to societal category ; where the higher the societal category. the more likely parents are to keep high outlooks. and positively act upon the kid to achieve a high grade of instruction. This suggests that schools contribute to educational inequality. where kids who are deprived by their societal background when they enter school go even more deprived as they progress through school. and as such at a greater trouble for societal mobility. Comment [ A2 ] : Good This is supported by an article taken from the Jamaica Gleaner. by subscriber Michael Waul. who agrees with this impression. Students from marginalised socio-economic backgrounds. giving rise to disparate educational experiences is greatly apparent in the preparatory/primary and traditional/ non-traditional high-school divide. Where entree to quality instruction remains mostly determined by social category. a fact evident non merely in the differential resources available to schools but besides the background of pupils come ining better-resourced establishments. Comment [ A3 ] : What does a struggle position say about this issue? This helps to perpetuates historical social divisions. that of our post-colonial plantation society. where honoring those from higher societal categories while puting those from lower categories at an increasing disadvantage. This consequences in low CXC base on balls rates. increasing figure of high-school dropouts in respects to non-traditional high schools. hence taking to a lessening in the figure of pupils go toing university for third instruction. Subsequently. with respect to primary and/or preparatory schools. a great bulk of pupils are go throughing the GSAT scrutiny ; nevertheless with the bulk of the base on ballss. pupils are being placed into non-traditional high school. where merely a minority of pupils are being placed in traditional high schools. This lone proves to foster the division between the upper category and the lower category. while other pupils are placed into non- traditional schools entirely because of the environment in which they live. Even though some pupils may stand out in their scrutinies. due to where they reside. they are placed in schools that are near to their places. and as a consequence their opportunity for societal mobility diminishes. as they are non able to hold entree to resources Comment [ A4 ] : Issue of testing and installations. that are available at traditional schools. and as such greatly disadvantage from the start of their instruction. and as such there is societal inequality. This is supported from an article from the Jamaican Gleaner. by Michael Waul. observing that entree to third instruction is a hard option for the hapless. As such. poorness prevents economic freedom and pick. and so despite 1s willingness. this circumvents many worlds of their experience. where the hapless is held in the barbarous rhythm of uninterrupted poorness. and as such at a great disadvantage for societal mobility for those pupils from non-traditional schools which are largely persons from the lower socioeconomic background. Another component which affects the societal mobility of pupils from traditional school versus pupils from non-traditional schools is that of the neo-Marxist reproduction theory. which involves what is known as â€Å"tracking† . This involves the assignment of pupils harmonizing to category and basic work functions. This grouping by ability. or tracking of pupils. has been common in non-traditional schools. In fact. as pupils progress through school. they tend to take categories that guarantee they will stay in the same path. where they are at a disadvantage for societal mobility. So alternatively of advancing democracy. societal mobility and equality. schools reproduce the political orientation of the dominant groups in society. This is supported by theoretician Pierre Bourdieu. where each person occupies a place in a societal infinite. by his or her wont. which include beliefs or idiosyncrasy and besides by cultural capital. where belief and idiosyncrasy are in some cultural scenes. nevertheless. non in some. This is apparent between the civilizations of traditional schools and non-traditional school. Similarly. another facet which affects. and illustrates my impression of the inequality of traditional school versus non-traditional schools is referred to as the concealed course of study. This system includes values and beliefs that support the position quo. therefore reenforcing the bing societal hierarchy. which include the books we read and assorted schoolroom activities that we participate in. On the other manus. theoretician and other persons will differ with my statement. and competition that pupils from non-traditional schools do hold a great chance for societal mobility. Others believe tracking systems does let for some mobility. and the effects of tracking depend upon the manner the trailing is organised harmonizing to Gamoran. This position is supported by an article in the Jamaica Gleaner. by Micheal Waul where pupils in traditional schools. such as preparatory schools are non inherently more intelligent than the other pupils from non-traditional school. However. due to disparity in public presentation. what differentiates them is mostly a affair of economic sciences. This suggests that wealthier parents are better able to fund the private schooling of their kids in establishments which are better equipped to run into the students’ larning demands. Similarly. parents who lack fiscal support are more likely to inscribe their kids in the non-traditional schools. which is limited to government-provided resources. However. this is non sufficient in leting pupil from non-traditional school to get the necessary resources needed to be best able to execute at their maximal capacity. Contrary to this position. there are the rare occasions that occur when pupils from non-traditional schools strive against all the odds. and really stand out in their scrutiny. Therefore leting them to be placed in traditional schools. which in bend provides them with the necessary resources needed to travel upward on the societal ladder. This is apparent as I have read in the Jamaica Observer. that the top acting male child and miss in the GSAT scrutiny in 2013. are from non-traditional schools. and as such are the rare instances. Another position. reverse to my belief. is from an article from the Jamaica Gleaner. by Robert Buddan. in which persons from poorer or less-advantaged communities and families can accomplish and while poorness hinders. as antecedently stated. Besides persons from lower category society and single-parent households can accomplish given good personal and institutional counsel. However. the pupils have to be dedicated and committed. and instructors who have assurance in each other can do up for the deficiency of fiscal support and other disadvantages which may originate. This is apparent in the instance of traditional schools such as St. Georges College and Kingston College. The laminitiss of the establishments could hold established the school ‘uptown’ alternatively of ‘downtown’ . as other establishments such as Campion and Ardenne High School have done. However. they built their school business district. and as such the laminitiss did the antonym in all respects. The schools were established business district. and as such chances were offered to great Numberss from all categories in order to do instruction affordable. However. contrary to the beliefs of the struggle theory. the interactionist theoreticians believe that pupils from non-traditional schools can accomplish societal mobility. This is possible through societal interaction with equals. Due to the fact that non all upper category pupils are placed in traditional schools. there are the few that are placed non-traditional school. This allows a mix of societal category. and as such. some kids will force themselves to accomplish more. to that of the criterions of the upper category. This outcomes allow pupils from traditional school to be able to interact with other pupils from upper category society. therefore the pupil would be shaped in such a mode. This intern allows the pupil to garner and hold on the different civilizations and values from that of the elites of society. on how to act in our modern society. and therefore going more flush in associating to single from the upper category of society. This will let them increased chance for societal mobility. due the fact that pupil would interact with their equals from their school. leting them the chance to different facets of the societal universe. and therefore have a different position from that of pupil from non-traditional school This is apparent as pupils from a lower socioeconomic background. when placed in a traditional school. due to interaction with other pupils from that school. there attitude and values bit by bit tend to get down altering. Due to this interaction. these single strive to be similar to those higher economic background. and as such are at a greater place for societal mobility. However. it is apparent that pupils from non-traditional school have increasing chance for societal mobility. as our society is bit by bit altering. where the demand for skilled laborer are going more necessary. It is in non-traditional school. where the more proficient accomplishments are being offered such as mechanical technology and proficient drawing. As such. these pupils from non-traditional schools are being offered more chances for societal mobility. as the employment sector has become more diverse. and has changed from the yesteryear. where largely instructors and authorities employees. had outstanding places for societal mobility. However this has non bridged the spread in societal categories in come ining top degree places. In decision. with respects to my thesis statement. the most of import sociological positions of this research are both the Conflict theory and Interactionist theory. The Functionalist theory did non back up the points being made in this research. as the functionalist believe that instruction is equal. where my belief wholly contradict this position. After elaborate reading and research I found that the spread between societal mobility between pupils from traditional school versus non-traditional school have greatly decrease over the last 40 old ages. and now traditional school. does non needfully guarantee societal mobility of it pupils. However. there is still a great spread nowadays. but it is bit by bit going closer. 12/15 While the functionalist theory does non back up your point. it would hold been good for you to advert some of their cardinal issues and how instruction reinforces societal norms and so you can so rebut some claims. Very good effort overall – really sharp in your thought and authorship.

Captain Grays journal Essay Example

Captain Grays journal Essay Example Captain Grays journal Essay Captain Grays journal Essay An unusual static and void nocturnal silence hovered above Beaumont Hamel. Sitting in his dugout, Captain Gray couldnt find any suitable words to send to his wife. His instincts told him that to write a letter would be equivalent to saying farewell, an idea he deplored as it bordered with superstition. Grays eyelids were heavy, but no slumber seemed to follow this natural sign of exhaustion. With his brain filled with confused angry thoughts he opened his journal. Seeing the blank page, the monotonous parallel lines made the thoughts in his mind seem grotesque, exaggerated and monstrous! Eventually they twisted themselves into acceptable words that came streaming down onto the page like dark water percolating through a stoved ships side. Gray wrote; Constant vigilance is the key to survive this War. Tommorow we shall attack, or rather poke the hundred headed Ladon with a twig. I know I mustnt break down, for as a commanding officer I must be an example to my men. I shall grit my teeth and be with them until my time comes. The men must must believe in their officers and have reason to do so. It has been agreed that if I am to fall, Wraysford will take over my platoon. I am glad about this arrangement; I like and trust that laddie, despite the fact that I find him difficult to read. He didnt back out when he was given the chance, now I am convinced hell manage this. Our lives depend on strategies, on strategies and also irresponsible and embarrasingly well educated generals, who still seem to think of this slaughter as of a welcome release from a decadent existance. The 29th Division are waiting for us and I fail to see the point of this codswallop about the wire being cut, when it isnt!?! One would think wed have the advantage of the night on our side at least, but no! A generation of young men, to which I belong. must march in daylight like slow approaching targets up hill oblivious to the suicide they are commiting. Faith pushes them, like it pushed inocent Tess Durbeyfield into Alec violent posession. We all shall become less inocent against our will tommorrow He paused, unable to continue, wiping a bead of nervous sweat from just below the point where his brown hair began to grow on his forehead. Putting his pen down he stood up, knocking over a glass, that still had the traces of dried golden whisky, from the improvised bookshelf that hung low over his bed. The fragile transparent solid cracked as it hit the floor. Gray automatically swore and disposed of the pieces, cutting a finger as he did so. He took out his cigarette case from its usual pocket, lit the last one remaining and inhaled the familiar, appealing and reassuring poison of the tobacco, feeling the welcome numbness disperse through the veins in his once youthful body. The solitude in which he performed this ritual, though unusual for him. Satisfied his need for escapism. The smell lingered in his well shaped moustache as he went back to his entry and wrote; Barclay is barking mad to have agreed to this; either that or as short sighted as Haig or Rawlinson. Remarkable what rank can do to a character, although I doubt that he was less ignorant in the past. He just doesnt seem to realize that were not playing a game and that hes not commanding toy armies, but young men of flesh and red hot blood, who will die while he drinks ruby wine in a peaceful garden. Dinner at Beaupaume indeed! I am sorry for the men hes in charge of, who understand just what an abomination he is. As much as I enjoy a good meal, I dont think that I would take much pleasure in a victorious dinner at the cost of half my country. I would rather continue sharing my rations or my favourite walnut cake that Joyce sometime sends me and know Im having it in the worthy company of my comrades.. Gray swallowed and closed the diary. He lay back suppressing tears of forced resolution. Clutching the book in his hand, he let his meditation sidetrack to images of his wife and home in Edinburgh. As he entered into a reverie, he saw her reading his journal, weeping. He dreamt for an hour, suffering nightmare after nightmare. At eleven thirty, when his batman Watson pulled him out of a macabre dreamt up game of pelmanism that involved parts of the human body, Gray was temporarily relieved. That didnt last long, for as he walked towards the loud speaker, he felt that nothing had prepared him for what he was expected to do. ;

Adversities in of Mice and Men Essay Example for Free

Adversities in of Mice and Men Essay ? SteinbeckIn the novel Of Mice and Men, the problems experienced by the characters are often over looked in favor of the themes of the book. However, by looking at the adversities of all of the characters, one can see the same adversities expressed in our own lives; by examining these said adversities, one can also learn to face such difficulties in the real world and better determine how to handle them. In the novel, Lennie faces difficulty in explaining himself to the rest of the world. Since he is mentally challenged, most people, even George sometimes, underestimated his intelligence and logic skills. In Weed, the ranchers assumed the worst about him and didn’t stop to think of his motives. They chased George and Lennie out of town with a mob of angry ranchers. At the ranch in Soledad, Lennie is given most of the basic tasks. Everyone assumes he cannot do work like a normal ranch hand. And again, after he kills Curly’s wife, everyone, except George and perhaps Slim, assumes he killed her out of pure spite. This lack of interest in his true motives is similar to the lack of interest the world has for our motives for anything. The world focuses more on what we have done than on why we have done it. If one cannot display ones motives or desires, then the world assumes the worst, and often society labels situations in a less than satisfactory manner. George faces a barrier in achieving his dream of owning a ranch of his own. Partially this is his doing, as shown with the wasting of money on cathouses and booze, but there are other factors as well, like the death of Lennie. Also, George seems to abandon any hope in his dream at the end of the novel. In this case, one can see that if ample efforts are not taken in the right direction one cannot achieve his goal to its entirety. Furthermore, the way the workmen take away Candy’s dog is similar to the way the world takes away the joys experienced by some members of the society. Candy’s dog, symbolic of Candy’s life and livelihood, was more important to him than some of the other ranch hands. Carlson, the representative of the world, took Candy’s dog from him and killed it, just as the world will sometimes take what we hold most dear. One can learn from this to hold on to what is most important to them. One should never let the world dictate how to make decisions on how to live life. In conclusion, the problems of the characters in Of Mice and Men are very similar to the problems in the real world. In the novel, however, the difficulties are more apparent than in the world. By applying the experiences of the characters to one’s own life, one can learn how to better himself for his own benefit. Adversities in of Mice and Men. (2018, Nov 10).

Western Heritage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Western Heritage - Essay Example , women such as Bianca and Emilia are more open in their interpretation of obedience and may even go against the wishes and desired of their husbands/lovers to get what they want. Of course, this is certainly not the real world image of what women do or what a person does but in Shakespeare’s times such behavior would have been perfectly acceptable given the shape of the characters. It is certainly easy to compare Desdemona to other gentle and kind ladies who were in love with their lords from other plays of Shakespeare as they are the paragons of virtue and not at all led to enter into fights with their lovers as opposed to women who were evil who vexed their lovers justly or unjustly. At the same time, it must be noted that misogyny has been a part of literature for centuries and was part of the dramas presented by Shakespeare so again, it is difficult to fault him for thinking in a particular manner about the women he represents. The common man is essentially the mouthpiece in A Man for All Seasons simply because he says what the audience needs to hear concerning the progress of the play itself. There are a variety of roles assigned to the common man ranging from More’s jailer to More’s servant and even the individual who executes him. In all these roles the common man interacts with More in meaningful ways of which one example is at the execution the executor asks for More’s forgiveness which I feel is the common’s man apology for not rising up to help More and do what is right simply because the singular common man is too weak against the power of the state. The story and the acts of the common man clarify the position as well as the nature and the strength of the common man who is often nothing more than a spectator to the events of history, the corruption of the strong and the piety of those who stand up against them. The character is neither positive nor negative but only an element in the story which does not interact in any significant way

Terms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Terms - Essay Example For example Cool Sweats can refute the allegation by showing that George violated the company rules by charging personal expenses on the company credit card (Steingold, 2015). Accusation - It is closer to an allegation. An accusation is where one employee is said to have committed an atrocity again his company or fellow employee. It is closer to certainty even though just like an allegation, it requires verification. Ambiguity – It points not presented logically to necessitate understanding. A report by an employee may be ambiguous to mean that it does not clearly state or explain its intentions. Ambiguous laws often let the criminals off the hook. The burden of proof – It is the commitment to substantiate claims made in the court of law or employment disciplinary hearing. The accuser or accused is required to convince the panel of judges. In most cases, the person bringing forth the accusation has to prove by way of evidence that they are true, and the other party is guilty. The opportunity to present facts is the burden of proof. Coercion – It is the use of unethical means to find or receive what an individual wants. It is the convincing of one individual to issue information or material that was not intended. It is in intended to gain

Management accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Management accounting - Essay Example The BASE formula helps in determining what caused the actual ending balances of all working capital accounts. Budgeted Balance Additions Subtractions (use to get back to actual balance) Ending Balance (actual) To understand what happened with everything else we must first understand the impact of the Raw Material Stocks. Raw Material Stocks Budgeted Balance 150,000 Additions 36,000 Subtractions 0 Ending Balance (actual) 186,000 By viewing the BASE formula we can see that the Raw Material Stocks balance was greater than the budgeted balance by 36,000 and based on the knowledge that production levels were about the same, this means that the materials would only increase not decrease because the balance was planned to be 150,000 based on production and with a 36,000 increase with the same production. A purchase of Raw Material Stocks equaling 36,000 must have been made. The issue that caused this was probably due to decreased efficiency in using materials. When Raw Materials must be pur chased beyond what is budgeted this means there is an unfavorable variance of 36,000. In order to correct this issue the company must come up with a standard of how much Raw Material stocks to use and then if costs allow, use a supervisor to ensure this standard is upheld. Creditors Budgeted Balance 66,000 Additions 36,000 Subtractions 51,000 Ending Balance (actual) 51,000 We can assume based on these numbers that the company added more debt from creditors of about 36,000 since inventory had been bought through creditors the balance increased by the amount of increase in the Raw Material Stock balance. Therefore since the ending balance of creditors was less than the beginning we can see that the company must have paid off creditors in excess of the added debt. That excess is equal to the beginning balance of 66,000 plus added debt of 26,000 minus the ending actual balance of 51,000, which means the company paid toward what was owed creditors, which was 51,000. The issue that may ha ve occurred is that current debts might have become due and therefore these debts had to be satisfied. Thus payment was made to the creditor decreasing working capital. In order to prevent this from happening again debt should be kept to a low amount, paid in a timely manner and cash should be kept in order to satisfy debt. Bank Budgeted Balance 4,500 Additions 7,500 Subtractions 51,000 Ending Balance (actual) (39,000) Due to the fact that the company paid creditors 51,000, that amount must come out of the Bank balance since there is no cash on hand. The beginning balance was only 4,500 and the ending balance was negative 39,000 therefore the company must have added 7,500 to the bank account. Where did that 7,500 come from? The issue is that there is an overdraft of the bank account. This has happened due to the purchases of Raw Material Stocks of 36,000 but the company did not generate enough cash in order to meet its burdens. To prevent this from happening again the company must i ncrease its liquidity by keeping inventory levels low, and the bank/cash balance high. Debtors Budgeted Balance 60,000 Additions 37,500 Subtractions 7,500 Ending Balance (actual) 90000 The debtors actual balance was 30,000 greater than the budgeted balance but what specifically happened was that debtors purchased the same amount of products that was involved in sales but 30,000 of these sales were credit sales. The issue is that there are more creditors that projected. This is a big problem because its likely that some of these debtors will become

Managing High Performance commons assessment Essay

Managing High Performance commons assessment - Essay Example The firm also has to identify appropriate personnel to be promoted to management positions. This will be the focus of this paper. Performance management is defined by Armstrong as â€Å"the process of establishing shared understanding about what is to be achieved and how it is to be achieved, and an approach to managing and developing people that improves individual, team and organizational performance† (2009 p. 55). This implies that an organization has some goals or objectives to be achieved and these should be shared by all employees. In other words, employees should strive towards achieving company goals if the company is to have sustained success. However, employees are different and as such have different performance levels. Some are high performers while others are low performers and the managers should deal with low performance as early as possible for the success of the company. According to Cardy and Leonard (2011 p 137-138) it is not only low performance that needs to be checked but also high performance to understand success factors and enhance them. Rewarding high performance is also essent ial in ensuring the company maintains best talent by keeping such employees motivated. One way to achieve this goal is through promotions and recognitions. The first question that managers need to ask themselves is; who are the high performers? In this case, as a consultant I would advice the management to have a carefully devised job description which outlines what is to be performed, standards of performance, and how to measure performance (Armstrong 2009). The goals or standards against which performance is to be measured should be a mutual understanding between management and employees so that they can own up the process and be able to assess their own performance. Those who achieve beyond the expected standards are considered high performance and are best suited for promotions.

The sponsorship strategy for the BFI's London Film Festival Essay

The sponsorship strategy for the BFI's London Film Festival - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the London Film Festival is an annual event organised by the British Film Institute (BFI). It is the largest public film event in the UK and it attracts over 300 features, documentaries and short films from numerous countries around the world. The London Film Festival has a rich history that goes back to 1953 and it has a reputation that is connected to the Crown and other credible institutions in the UK. The London Film Festival provides the red-carpet treatment for stars and brings together important personalities and leaders in the film industry in the UK and beyond. The event comes with a large array of programmes and activities that bring together stakeholders in the film industry. This includes public forum, education events, lectures, question-and-answer sessions with actors and authorities in the film industry. The highlights of each year’s events are the awards for the best films in various categories. This year's editi on of the BFI London Film Festival is scheduled to be done between the 17th and 31st of October, 2014. The main objectives of this year's project include the following: Growing the film industry in London; Maximise investments into London and the UK through the film industry; Sustain and improve the London film culture; Promote London as a global city through the film industry; Present London's strategic priorities to the world by filming and broadcasting it.

Authority and Sources in Christian Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Authority and Sources in Christian Ethics - Essay Example This will act as an essential guide to many other lives. The life of discipleship is governed by aims of the overall salvation of many other lives. The scriptures state that it is essential for disciples to follow ethics to ensure that they have attracted others to join the faith (Scharen, p 12). The life of discipleship ensures that a Christian follows the dictates of the scriptures. The Bible is a true representation of the needs and wants of the scriptures. In many instances, a Christian is guided by the stipulations of the Bible. In relation to ethical situations, all the three authors insist that there is a deep salvation and relaxation that is brought by constant reference to the Bible. They have given a very good example of the persecution of the Jews by the Nazi’s during Hitler’s era. There were very many Christians from all faiths that were boxed into a corner. Whatever action that they took in helping the victims of the Holocaust determined their level and upr ightness as Christians. A Christian who is a selfless disciple of Christ will do anything to ensure that he or she can save a life. This is because this is exactly what Jesus would have done. So the true Christians in the above context were those that were willing to do anything to save their victims. This is despite the fact that they were prone to persecution if they were found out (Stassen, p 72). Faith is the ability to have a strong conviction in relation to any circumstance or situation. This is despite the fact that many at times it is very hard to have faith in something that we are yet to see. Any approach that is dictated by a Christian is governed by the ability for them to have the uttermost faith in everything around them. Their faith is the guide that ensures that they are pillars of very many others in society and all over the world. Christian ethics insists that it is important for a believer to have faith all the time. This is in many instances and situations. The d isciple is the source of solace for very many people that do not have the ability to believe (Scharen, p 32). In many issues that a human being experiences, it is very important for them to identify what they need to do to acquire faith. The ability to believe does not just occur naturally. It comes with the deep understanding that in all challenges that one goes through, Christ died for all. The scriptures all state that he knows what his creation can handle and what they cannot. This means that with the faith that a Christian has, whether in relation to the application of Christian ethics or not, God is the essential guide always. There are random verses in the Bible that show deep Christian faith and its abilities. In day to day life, we should have the faith to receive and impact salvation. This is just like blind man who called out the Lord’s name and received his sight. Christian ethics is determined by ones ability to stand firm in the things that he or she believes in . In many unethical situations, there is one who gains. As a result of this gain, others lose greatly. A true disciple stands his ground no matter the consequences of his or her actions. Jesus was tempted, he employed great faith and he overcame the challenges. If he had no strong preference to ethical practises, it would have been very easy for him and many others to fall into temptation (Stassen, p 89). The third connection in the

The sponsorship strategy for the BFI's London Film Festival Essay

The sponsorship strategy for the BFI's London Film Festival - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the London Film Festival is an annual event organised by the British Film Institute (BFI). It is the largest public film event in the UK and it attracts over 300 features, documentaries and short films from numerous countries around the world. The London Film Festival has a rich history that goes back to 1953 and it has a reputation that is connected to the Crown and other credible institutions in the UK. The London Film Festival provides the red-carpet treatment for stars and brings together important personalities and leaders in the film industry in the UK and beyond. The event comes with a large array of programmes and activities that bring together stakeholders in the film industry. This includes public forum, education events, lectures, question-and-answer sessions with actors and authorities in the film industry. The highlights of each year’s events are the awards for the best films in various categories. This year's editi on of the BFI London Film Festival is scheduled to be done between the 17th and 31st of October, 2014. The main objectives of this year's project include the following: Growing the film industry in London; Maximise investments into London and the UK through the film industry; Sustain and improve the London film culture; Promote London as a global city through the film industry; Present London's strategic priorities to the world by filming and broadcasting it.

Comparing the Herakles Myth with Joseph Campbells Hero Myth List Essay Example for Free

Comparing the Herakles Myth with Joseph Campbells Hero Myth List Essay Karen Wagner World Mythology September 27th 2012 Essay #1 Herakles, or more commonly known as Hercules according to Disney is probably one of the most popular myths people have seen or heard, but could Herakles’ myth follow Joseph Campbell’s Hero myth list. Carl Jung defined an archetype myth or Jungian archetype as a pattern of thought that can be translated to â€Å"worldwide parallels† (â€Å"The Columbian Encyclopedia†) that the human race experiences as a culture or an individual. The myth of Herakles includes parts that compare to the Hero Archetype, but there are also parts that do not fit the archetype at all. Joseph Campbell’s list of myths for the common hero includes a list that does and does not relate to the story of Herakles. Herakles’ journey begins from the shared birth from his mother Alcmena, father Zeus and half-brother Iphikles. Hera (Zeus’ wife) decides to take revenge because of the affair Zeus had with Alcmena for Herakles. One the morning Herakles was supposed to be born Zeus had made a previous oath stating the son of his bloodline through Pereus who was born that morning would rule Mycenae. Hera made sure Zeus swore to this and sent down the goddess of childbirth Eileithuia to slow the birthing process. A sly serving girl named Galanthis had told the goddess of childbirth that Alcmena had her twins, once Eileithuia’s guard was down and so was her spell. Alcmena bore twins and Herakles was not the first born, one was the son of Amphitryon and the other Zeus. Hera decides to take action by putting snakes in the twins’ crib in hopes to â€Å"destroy Zeus’ latest offspring† (Martin 148), while Iphikles only wailed, Herakles decided to strangle both snakes to death, identifying the true son of Zeus. Amphitryon stated, â€Å"well, that one’s not my boy† (Martin 148). Herakles grew up quickly, learning his new found strength through his human father and other relatives. His first official voluntarily task was to eliminate the lion with impenetrable hide from Mt. Kithairon. Once the beast was defeated, Herakles skinned the lion and wore his mane and head as a trophy and as a form of protection (Martin 153). Herakles continued doing many labors for different people throughout a large portion of his life; he lay with many women, and marries a few as well. Herakles did some wrong doings and towards the end of his mortal life he dies and becomes immoral, forever to live on in myth. Joseph Campbell’s monomyth list for mythological adventures magnifies the formula described in the rites of passage: Departure—initiation—return. Campbell’s list for the hero archetype can be compared to Herakles, while other parts do the opposite. The first stage of the hero’s’ journey is their birth; Campbell goes into explaining that the birth involves â€Å"fabulous circumstances surrounding conception, birth, and childhood† (Campbell). Herakles’ birth could be seen under fabulous circumstances, an affair, another child, and two dead snakes on the first night; Campbell’s second stage is the â€Å"Call to Adventure† (Campbell), Herakles whilst working on his human father’s cattle ranch heard news of a lion killing the family cows, he volunteers to rid the beast and is successful in the end. Herakles had helpers throughout his journeys, such as Apollo’s grandson Eurytos teaching him archery (Martin 150) or Atlas assisting Herakles in getting the Golden Apples as one of his labors, but not from a specific being or person alone. This being a piece of the myth that doesn’t exactly fit into Campbell’s list but can still compare. Campbell’s fourth entry on the list â€Å"Crossing the Threshold† somewhat relates to Herakles’ story in that he does travel 30 days to defeat the mother of all lions, another with impenetrable hide. Campbell’s crossing the threshold entry explains that the hero must undergo a task or event that takes the hero from everyday life into the â€Å"world of adventure† (Campbell); this could be something small from traveling to a cave or traveling for 30 days. One of the major parts of the myth of Herkales is his love for labors he provides for his people, this definitely relates to Campbell’s work, in that his number five explains the tests the hero must go through, involving a series of monsters and traveling to different worlds and each conquered task increases said hero’s ability to overcome even stronger encounters he will face. Campbell’s number six on his list goes into the helpers the hero will encounter through his journey, this also relates to Herakles. There were parts in his myth where Herakles needed assistance, for example when Herakles wanted to get the golden apples as one of his labors, he asked Atlas to go and he would hold up the heavens until he returned, even though Herakles sort of deceived Atlas in the end, he was still of assistance to the hero. The climax and final battle of Herakles involved his attempt at sacrifice and a struggle to continue living. He was given a cloak that was accidentally poisoned by his wife Deianeira with a previous enemies’ blood that mixed in with the blood he dipped his arrows from one of his labors. The cloak began to tighten around the hero and poison him; he sought revenge on his wife to discover she already killed herself in learning what she had done. Herakles’ myth doesn’t have a happy ending like Campbell’s list basically says in 9, 10, and 11, Herakles’ dies to live on forever immorally, or in this case actually passed but his fame lives on, his story is continued being told and he is recognized as a Greek hero, without any sort of â€Å"elixir† Campbell mentioned in his list, feasting with the gods and his god parents, Zeus and Hera (Martin 179), the mother who was trying to rid him from the beginning. Campbell’s list is to describe how a hero myth translates to actual events and situations people encounter in their lives while growing up, there is an underlying meaning to each situation that happens to the hero. While some parts did relate to Campbell’s list, overall Herakles’ myth strays away from following his list, although there are parts that do relate, the myth is still completely different from Campbell’s interpretation and Jung’s archetype definition, giving Herakles his own myth and his own journey that’s not as cliche from the rest of the myths in the world.

Media Is Responsible For Dumbing Down Society

Media Is Responsible For Dumbing Down Society Since becoming a prominent part of modern human society, the media has always been a source of controversy. In particular, the media has often been accused as playing a significant part in the so called dumbing-down of society. The term dumbing-down is used to describe the lack of a clear distinction between high culture and popular Pop culture in society today. While high culture were activities, usually relating to the classical arts, that were held in the highest regard by society in the past, and usually practiced by the rich upper-class, it has evolved to appeal to the masses now. Similarly, popular culture which are considered ephemeral and commercial, thus inferior to high culture have gone on to invade parts of our upper-class societies today. In this essay, I am going to investigate the blurring line between the differences in high and popular culture and use this as a pivot to critically assess the medias role in this phenomenon and ultimately determine if the media is inde ed responsible for the dumbing-down of society. Dumbing-down is believed to be present in many spheres of contemporary society, from the arts to even the quality of education that our generation are getting today. This is based on the premise that the Arts such as Theatre Productions and classical music have become more and more commercialised and overly-simplified in order to appeal to larger audiences. Similarly, the study of certain university courses ranging from Sociology to Media Studies and Animal Management have been labelled as inferior to the more traditional courses such as Law, Medicine and Politics. These so called Mickey Mouse degrees (which coincidentally were first made public by the media tabloids), coined by the then UK education minister Margaret Hodge were deemed to be less rigorous and thus unworthy of an actual University degree. Modern media itself is often criticised for putting ratings and audience popularity ahead of quality. Media institutions are run as businesses and are therefore more focused in creating productions that attract widespread interest and thereby maximise the chances of the sell rather than actual high quality productions. This can be seen through a number of examples, notably through news circulating productions such as Newspapers and News Broadcasting. The 1980s saw a sharp rise in the popularity of Tabloid Newspapers. Tabloids are based on the newspaper format seen in traditional Broadsheet Newspapers, but are smaller in size and feature exaggerated and often sensationalised stories. They often include much less hard news such as politics and global affairs to their Broadsheet counterparts, instead focusing on human interests and entertaining news stories (i.e. Celebrity Gossips, Scandals). There are also much fewer words and more pictures in a Tabloid than a Broadsheet. This form of junk food news is best described by researcher and writer Professor Bob Franklin in his book Newszak and News Media as being More bitesize McNugget journalism, which is small, tasty, bright coloured and easy to digest (Marr in Franklin, 1997: 5). Frankin came up with the term Newszak and asserted that there was a growing compulsion within British journalism to retreat from the publishing of hard news in favour of light hearted softer news. The popularity of tabloids has resulted in many broadsheet newspapers adopting numerous characteristics of tabloids. This is evident in UK newspapers such as The Independent, The Times and The Guardian who have switched to the more compact Berliner format used by most tabloid newspapers. Reasons given to this change include that it allows people who commute to easily hold and read it on public transports, and that smaller-sized newspapers would allow for easier reads for other readers as well. These changes have however been criticised by loyal broadsheet readers who have argued that the loss of the traditional broadsheet format have led to a loss in quality of the publishing of news. They reiterated that with Broadsheets adopting tabloid-like characteristics, there is slowly becoming less and less differences between the 2 types of Newspapers. In a 2007 interview with then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Blair commentated about the ongoing struggle in which Broadsheets and Tablo id face to gain readership by becoming more similar to one another. In his words Broadsheets today face the same pressures as tabloids; broadcasters increasingly the same pressures as broadsheets. The audience needs to be arrested, held and their emotions engaged. Something that is interesting is less powerful than something that makes you angry or shocked. (BBC News, 12 June 2007) While the tabloid-like changes that many broadsheets have undergone is a controversial topic even today, Tabloids have also evolved and have become even more tabloidized in recent years. In their study of the Tabloidization of British Tabloids, Rodrigo Uribe and Barrie Gunter discovered that the emergence of tabloids can be attributed to a dominance of soft and home stories. By analysing issues of The Sun and The Mirror that were published between the years 1991 and 2001, Uribe and Gunter learnt that tabloids themselves had become even more simplistic in recent years. They wrote that the amount of column space allocated for text had decreased substantially, whilst the size of space allocated for visuals and pictures had instead increased. (Uribe and Gunter, 2004: 399) Looking back at what I have learnt so far, I believe that when considering whether the media is indeed responsible for the dumbing-down of society, one has to look at the problem from two different perspectives. Yes, the media, owned by giant conglomerates aim to increase financial gain and therefore create products that are popular and sellable to their target audiences. However, one must also note that the reason broadsheets started adopting tabloid-like characteristics in the first place were partly due to the rising popularity of tabloids. In a highly competitive economic market as we have today, the media was simply responding to the ever growing demand for a particular product, in this case, tabloids; and therefore evolved its production of broadsheets to satisfy audience demand. It is therefore unfair to lay the blame solely on the Media when in this particular case; I believe that society is responsible for the dumbing-down of society. Broadcast media is another area within the media that is nowadays criticised as playing a role in the dumbing-down of society. News Broadcasting is often accused as being no longer truly informative and lacking the journalistic quality that was present in the past. With Broadcast Media prioritising audience and consumer ratings today, News Broadcastings are becoming more entertainment orientated, in that part of the appeal of watching the news nowadays is the entertainment value one gains from it rather than the traditional hard news journalistic approach seen in the past. This form of Infotainment, a term used to describe media programmes that combine information with entertainment is seen in numerous News Broadcasting Productions. Many have expressed concerns that the emergence of infotainment has led to an over exposure of soft news, news that often lack importance but are entertaining to audiences at an expense of actual important serious hard news. A clear example of this can be seen on a February 2004 edition of CNN News where the lead story was a feature of the Super Bowl XXXVIII incident in which Janet Jacksons breasts were exposed onstage. The story was then followed by the news of a chemical attack on a member of the US Senate. (Anderson B, 2004: 33) The basis of Infotainment is the assumption that viewers are no longer concern about the informative quality of such programmes but are rather driven to watch and consume something due to superficial reasons such as the entertainment that the programme provides or even by how visually attractive the product looks. The aesthetics of modern News programmes also serves as a means of entertaining viewers. News broadcastings nowadays contain expensive visuals, flashy animations and often elaborate filming sets. The use of such technology in modern news broadcasting allows for more contemporary looking visual presentations and thus attracts audience appeal. In a vastly competitive industry in which different Media Networks vie for control over audience viewership, the quality of presentation often plays an important part of the process. Networks which benefit from higher production values often score higher in viewership numbers and audience share. This would explain why the Big 4 televisi on networks in the US consisting of ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX have a significant edge over other smaller networks such as The CW Television Network. In terms of actual substance and quality, there is little difference between one News Channel to another; rather the difference in popularity is often determined by insignificant reasons. An excellent example that clearly illustrates the importance of infotainment in todays Media is the ongoing ratings/ popularity war between two of the most popular News Networks in the US, FOX News and CNN. Though the CNN News Network has had a longer and more illustrious history (est. 1980) compared to the FOX News Network (est. 1996), ratings for CNN has fallen in recent years whilst FOX has seen a steadily increase in audience viewership. In 2009, FOX News officially supplanted CNN to become the No 1 News Network in the US. FOXs ratings increase has been attributed to the fact that it provides opinion and personality-driven programming. FOX slanted views to favour the republican (conservative) party in the US is no secret. It is however ironic that a network that bills itself as Fair Balance, whose slogan happens to be We Report. You Decide does not provide impartial and balanced news reporting. The appeal of FOX News lies in the entertainment it provides for its audience. The ne ws that it broadcast is often colourful, and interesting to audiences. Unlike CNN that features a more global perspective on news stories, reminiscent to the more traditional broadsheet news format, FOX has been known to employ tabloid-like tactics to gain audience receptions and stir controversies. Whilst CNN is in no way a haven of quality and unbiased news reporting, there is a fine line between biased information presented in a fair and proper manner and that of a piece of pure synthesized propaganda (DuBach J 2005, Fox V. CNN: An Observational Comparison). An example in which FOX has deliberately created news-stirring controversy to further its political agenda can be seen in several news reports during the Obama Presidential Campaign in 2008, in which FOX News provided highly bias opinions against Obama and his campaign team, even going as far as to compare him to Joseph Stalin. News Reporters and Journalists are no longer detached personalities from the audience but are instead groomed to become popular and celebrity-like. Rather than employing real hard-line journalists and political analysts (McChesney R), News networks are more interested in hiring celebrity pontificators to provide news commentary as a cost cutting solution that also ensures maximum audience appeal. This is evident by the growing number of so called special guest experts that regularly provide their views on the news at hand. News Commentators such as Bill OReilly, Gleen Beck and Jerry Springer have gone from being news readers to become well respected and popular television personalities that hosts their own talk shows and are regularly watched by a loyal viewership. As a matter of fact, OReillys political commentary program titled The OReilly Factor that airs on FOX News was the most watched cable show between 2007 and 2008. Despite the level of media saturation and the wealth of info rmation we have at our disposal, it is still in the hands of each individual to decide whether consuming a particular media text is indeed beneficial. However, with audiences seemingly enjoying such a skewed and biased view on everyday news reporting, its no wonder that some people believe that the media is indeed responsible for the dumbing down of society. The belief that the media is responsible for the dumbing down of society is rooted in the fear that the audience lack the perception to tell what is right and what is wrong when consuming a media text, thus believing whatever the media projects. It is therefore important to understand the concept of Audience Reception in order to determine how media viewers interpret a particular media text differently from one another. The basis of Audience reception is the understanding that there are two different kinds of audiences; active and passive audience. Active Audiences are people who are not drawn to whatever the media tells them, who constantly filter out what they see in the media and possess the strength of mind to decide whether what they see in the media is true or not. In contrast, Passive Audiences are people who are vulnerable to the words of the media and are seemingly accepting of whatever the media tells them. The belief that the media has the ability to alter audience percept ion and in a way control the way we make decisions and live our lives is one that has existed for decades. The Hypodermic Needle Model, conceived in the 1940s was perhaps the earliest form in our attempts to understand audience reception. The model was based around the assumption that mass media (e.g. the radio and television) had a direct and often profound effect on its viewers. It was believed that the media was able to send messages directly to the viewer thus gaining some measure of control on the viewer. Today, the model is almost unanimously considered obsolete as it perceives all media consumers as passive audiences, and thus believes that the media has the same effect on all people. It perceives on the assumption that people were uniformly controlled by their biologically based instincts and that they react more or less uniformly to whatever stimuli came along (Lowery DefFleur, 1995: 400). More to the point, the hypodermic needle theory is an outdated Audience Reception model that however flawed, reflected the social situation during that time. In an era of political upheaval an d social unrest, fuelled by the World Wars, propaganda emerged as a form of communication utilized by nations to persuade the general public to unite behind the actions of their countries and allies alike. The power of propaganda was regarded as a powerful tool by many, with countries using propaganda to achieve many different aims, from enlisting more men to become soldiers to even attempting to promote public outrage. A more efficient audience reception model which does take both passive and active audiences into account is the Uses and Gratifications Model. Unlike the Hypodermic Needle Model that interpreted its findings based on what the media did to people, the Uses and Gratifications model took a different perspective by placing focus on the viewers instead of the media and basing its findings on what did people do with the Media. The Model was conceived in the 1970s by critical theorists Blumber and Katz, who originally used it to investigate the social and psychological needs of people. The model was based around a more consumer/ audience centred approach whereby it was believed that people consumed media as a form of satisfying their own individual needs. Rather than basing its study that all media viewers were passive audiences who are unable to resists the words of the media (as the hypodermic needle theory had suggested), the theory was based on the belief that the audience did in fact p lay an active part in choosing the type of media text that they were consuming based on their individual needs. The needs of individuals were varied and included but not limited to things such as gaining entertainment (diversion) from the text t or perhaps even gaining more of an insight into themselves (personal identity). Despite the consensus that the Uses and Gratification model is a far better representation of audience reception, compared to the Hypodermic Needle Theory, it has also been criticised by many who state that viewers nowadays do not have any means of control over what the media produces. In my opinion, I would actually argue with that statement, as I believe that the audience make educated choices on the type of media they consume. I believe that the types of medium that are produced today are developed specifically to satisfy the needs of people. Due to the different trends and genres that go in and out of fashion today, media companies create productions that the y know would attract a sizable audience market. Similar to how many Broadsheet Newspapers are adopting the more popular Tabloid-like format and the use of Infotainment in todays News Broadcasting Programmes, the media is simply responding to the audience preferences. In conclusion, I believe that although the media does play a part in the Dumbing down of society, it is not directly responsible for this, and is often conveniently made a scapegoat of the problem due to people take comfort in having someone or something to blame, in this case the media itself. Rather, I think that the media acts as a catalyst for the true culprit behind the degradation of society humans. The dumbing down of society is caused by us; modern people have grown lazy, becoming interested in trivial things and finding quality activities and productions a chore to do and consume. We prefer the simplifying of things as it makes it easier for us to understand and