Change Management Organisations - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 11 Words: 3274 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Essay any type Did you like this example? Change Management Strategy Report Organisations are highly specialized systems and people working within the organisations are generally cynical to change in the work environment as they dont want to get into uncharted territory. It is the natural tendency of human being to live in their comfort zone and no one likes to be comfortable being uncomfortable even for a short duration (during the change process). But, for organisations to survive and succeed in the current environment change is no longer optional. Organisations have to learn to love change to stay ahead of competition. An overview of change management Definition Change management is about moving from one state to another, specifically, from the problem state to the solved state (Jung, 2001). But, the organisational terminology for change management can be varied and ‘change may be used under different terms. E.g. when a company talks about re-engineering, restructuring, promoting cultural transformation, or keeping pace with the industry, then it is talking about change. Lewin (1951) conceptualized that change can occur at three levels. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Change Management Organisations" essay for you Create order Change in the individuals who work in the organisation – that is their skills, values, attributes, and eventually behaviour. Leaders have to make sure that such individual behavioural change is always regarded as instrumental to organisational change. Change in the organisational structures and systems – reward systems, reporting relationships, work design and so on. A direct change in the organisation climate or interpersonal style – dealing with people relationships, conflict management and the process of decision making. (Leonard et al., 2003, cited in Mabey Mayon-White (ed)) Change can be further classified as planned and emergent. When change is deliberate and is a product of conscious reasoning and actions is supposed to be planned. Emergent change is a direct contract to this and unfolds in an apparently spontaneous and unplanned way. Drivers of change Change is mostly driven by circumstances and always takes place with a particular goal in mind. Some of the common drivers of change are, to keep pace with the changing environment, to beat competition, technological changes to improve process efficiency etc. No matter what the driver for change is, the goal of the whole process is to lead the organisation into a future state which is different from the current state under which the organisation operates. (Nicols, 2006) The scope and scale of change can vary. E.g. Change can be limited a particular department (operations, marketing etc.) or it might affect the whole organisation, it might relate to only a group of people or might affect every employee in the organisation. Initiators of change Irrespective of its nature, change has to be initiated, driven and implemented by someone. This is where leadership fits into the change management process. It has been found that organisations that have been successful in coping with change have strong leadership that guides the team through a series of initial steps that set the stage for success (Nadler, 2001). Leaders are responsible for bringing about change in a staged and planned manner. Dirks (2000) points out that change has to be instigated and it is the leader who instigates the change by his vision and persuasion. Nadler, Thies and Nadler (2001) suggest that, for effective change to occur, and in particular cultural change, there is no substitute for the active engagement of the leadership and executive team. Top leaders must assume the role of chief architect of the change process. Cartwright and Cooper (1993) take this one step further by suggesting that it is important that employees at all levels become i nvolved in the change process. Jung (2001) also views managers as playing key roles in developing, transforming and institutionalizing organisational culture during the change process. For managing an organisation wide change, the leadership has to possess an unusually broad and finely honed set of skills. It needs to have a clear sense of mission and delegate task effectively to build a whole team of ‘change agents. The structure of the organisation needs to change to one with less internal bureaucracy. Hatch (2000) suggests that the implementation of any change process often flounders because it is improperly framed by top management. The key to choosing the right approach to change is thus to keep in mind how organisations function. As social systems comprising work, people, formal and informal systems, organisations are inherently resistant to change and designed to neutralize the impact of attempts at change (Chemers, 2001). Leaders play a critical role in sel ecting and planning appropriate change Reluctance to organisational change Gofee and Jones (2001) point out that the reluctance to organisational change from employees and other staff is primarily due to the way change is implemented and the abilities of the leader in bringing about the change rather than the nature of change itself. Bridges (1991) believes that it isnt the actual change that individuals resist, but rather the transition that must be made to accommodate the change. Organisational change entails change in the work process, culture and the nature of an employees working conditions. Psychologists believe that resistance to change is because of people being afraid of the unknown. During times of change, it is important that the leaders of the organisation create an atmosphere of psychological safety for all individuals to engage in the new behaviours and test the waters of the new culture after the change has been implemented. Approaches to change Change can be classified in a number of ways. The categorization depends on the extent of the change and whether it is seen as organic (often characterized as bottom-up) or driven (top-down). Ackermans change classification segregates change into Developmental change may be either planned or emergent; it is first order, or incremental. It is change that enhances or corrects existing aspects of an organisation, often focusing on the improvement of a skill or process. (Ackermann, 1997) Transitional change seeks to achieve a known desired state that is different from the existing one. It is episodic, planned and second order, or radical. Transformational change is radical or second order in nature. It requires a shift in assumptions made by the organisation and its members. Transformation can result in an organisation that differs significantly in terms of structure, processes, culture and strategy. It may, therefore, result in the creation of an organisation that operate s in developmental mode – one that continuously learns, adapts and improves. (Mabey Mayon-White (ed), 2003) Implementing change It is widely believed that the way an organisation adapts to change is fundamental to its success. In an ever increasing competitive environment, change is ubiquitous and the way employees respond to change (resistance/acceptance) has been identified to play a vital role in the change management process. Managing organisational change requires more than reengineering and restructuring systems and processes. It requires managing the human responses that accompany any organisational change (Darwin et al., 2002). For its smooth implementation, the change management process has to be carefully planned and the onus is on the leader to ensure a hassle free implementation through effective and sensible planning, confident and effective decision-making, and regular, complete and timely communication with the employees (Simon Newell, 2006). Factors such as organisation culture, structure of the organisation, bureaucracy, employee attitudes, business model etc. also play their part in implementing change. Skills needed for effective change implementation Authors like Nadler and Thies (2001) have stressed on the importance of problem solving within the change management process and argue that change can only be effectively implemented by good problem solvers. Managing change is seen as a matter of moving from one state to another, specifically, from the problem state to the solved state therefore diagnosis of problems at each stage and coming out with a solution to those problems plays a big part in the change management process (Champy, 2005). Implementation difficulties Bringing about major change in a large and complex organisation is a difficult task. Policies, procedures and structures need to be altered. Individuals and groups have to be motivated to continue perform in the face of major turbulence. It is not surprising, therefore, that the process of effectively implementing organisational change has long been a topic that both managers and researchers have pondered (Nadler, cited in Mabey and Mayon-White, 2003). Beer et al. (2003) believe that most change programs dont work because they are guided by a theory of change that is fundamentally flawed. The problem with most company-wide change programs is that they address only one or two the crucial factors (coordination, teamwork, commitment, structure of the organisation, organisation culture) Change Management Strategy As a part of the strategy, a feasibility analysis needs to be done to assess whether the change the organisation is looking to bring about is feasible considering the present state of the organisation (Huy, 2002). Organisational configurations need to be assessed before deciding on the proper change management strategy. Change management is a three pronged strategy: transform, reduce and apply. Before the change process is drafted, it is the responsibility of the change initiator / leader for assessing the difference between the current state of affairs and the state accomplished after the change process which Haslam Platow (2001) terms as the transform state. This is an assessment stage which requires the leaders to assess the goals. After goal assessment, the strategy should be to try to determine ways to narrow the gap through the change process (reduce stage) and subsequently delegate responsibility to play operators (like divisional heads and other departmental leade rs) to actually effect the elimination of these differences. During the change implementation process, the leader should play a key role, firstly, in the identification of the changes necessary to produce the required outcomes and then to put an implementation process in place to bring about those changes. Champy (2005) believes that the leader is the one responsible for the how, what and why of the change process. It is the leader who should be responsible for identifying how the changes can be effectively implemented with least resistance from employees by taking into consideration the organisation structure and culture. Communication should also form a part of the change management strategy. The change initiator and implementer have to play the role of an effective communicator to inform the employees of the reasons behind the changes. It has to be remembered that organisations change is always brought about by team work and the change process requires frequent commu nication with all the members of the organisation. Leadership approach should be to address resistance through increased and sustained communications and education. As a part of the strategy, employees should be encouraged to express their ideas and concerns with regards to the change. Change management should start with the change manager mobilizing commitment to change through joint diagnosis of business problems. A shared vision of how to organize and manage competitiveness needs to be developed. Consensus has to be fostered for the new vision. Once there is a consensus, leaders and change agents should have the competence to enact it and the cohesion to move it along. The change management process and the strategy have to revitalize all departments without pushing change from the top. As a part of the implementation strategy, the leader should monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the revitalization process. Also, all too often change agents try to completely change the culture of the organisations within the change management process. The strategy should be to try to control the culture rather than influence it. Leaders dont have to drive the change but supervise it. Change has to be implemented and driven by the people who get affected by the change. Mumford et al. (2002) point out that the reluctance to organisational change from employees and other staff is primarily due to the way change is implemented and the abilities of the leader in bringing about the change rather than the nature of change itself. Changing the culture of an organisation should be a gradual transformation process. Change management strategy should ensure that much of the task is delegated to the departments and leadership is mainly concerned in coordinating between the departments. It has to be made sure that the departments understand the importance of change through their effective, timely and regular communication. Departmental heads shou ld be made to realize the importance of establishing a sense of urgency and enthusiasm about the change. Change should never try to be rushed. Communication between organisational members, at all levels, from management and among peers, should be a major priority in any change process. A feeling of ‘No Consultation occurs among employees is they are not properly communicated; therefore ‘consultative leadership should be followed during the change process. Transparency and trust also form a very important part of the change management process. As a part of the change management strategy, leaders need to select carefully the method or approach to be used to manage the change process and develop a new culture following the change. They have to establish effective channels of communication which involve individuals at all levels of the organisation to inform individuals of the stages to be followed and to outline clearly outcomes for them. Above all, they need to lead in a positive manner, recognizing that change is an emotive process and people need to be ‘changed with dignity by acknowledging contributions and justifying the reasons for them personally to move on. Word of caution – Even though, bringing about a change is important for organisations to stay competitive in the global market environment, organisations have to bear in mind that they dont thrust change on their employees. The infrastructure for implementation of change management has to be ready before the implementation. The change process has to be correctly configured and the need for change has to be clearly communicated to the employees who will be affected by it. Conclusions An organisation is a complex entity and bringing about a change is an equally complex ordeal. Orchestrating a companywide change process is a delicate balance which requires able leadership. Effective leader make the change process easy for themselves and the organisation. But, playing a leadership role within the change process is far from easy. Not only do leaders have a responsibility to lead, but as an employee they have to deal with change themselves. Therefore, it is very important for leaders themselves to understand the benefits of the change process and how change is going to be implemented. They shouldnt get wrapped up in bringing about the change just for the sake of changing. Planned implementation of the change process is utmost important. Change should not be imposed on the employees without proper planning and consideration given to the organisation culture. Planning requires coordination and leaders need to coordinate between departments to successfully plan the change. Organisations should not try to change too much too soon and need to take a staged approach to change. Change should be a well thought process and implemented in a planned and systematic manner. Everyone in the organisation should be adequately informed and listened to before embarking on the cultural change process. Finkelstein Hambrick (1996) point out that the task of change management is to bring order to a messy situation, not pretend that its already well organized and disciplined and leadership is hugely responsible for bringing that semblance of order. Companies also need to have the right approach and mind step to deal with the change process. Successful organisations drive change rather than being driven by the change. Although, the strategic decision to change comes from the top management but the implementation should always be a bottom up process. HPs didnt get either of those decisions right; its decision to change came too late (when Dell had already gained ground and had the first over advantage) due to which it tried to impose the change from top down. It is worth mentioning that change management strategy adopted is also reliant on the type of organisation. Different organisations may need to approach change differently and the type of change management approach adopted should be consistent with the objectives of the organisation and its situation. For example, an organisation whose future depended on improving customer service should, logically, adopt a change model focused on improving processes that have a direct bearing on that objective and removing obstacles that prevent its achievement. This is because; a disjunction between the objective and the mechanism would result in untoward or unwanted results. References Books and Journals Ackerman, D (1997) A natural history of senses, London, Financial Times Adler, Nancy J. (2003) (third edition). International dimensions of organisational behavior. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Publishing. Bacal, R (2006) How to manage performance (Mighty Manager), New York, Harvard Business School Press Bluedorn, A. C. (2000). ‘Time and organisational culture. In: N. M. Ashkanasy, C. P. E. Wilderom and M. F. Peterson (eds), Handbook of Organisational Culture and Climate, pp. 117–129. Sage Publications, London. Brown, M. C. 2002. Organisational Performance: The succession effect. Administrative Science Quarterly, 27: 1–16. Chemers, M. M. (2001). ‘Leadership effectiveness: An integrative review. In: M. A. Hogg and S. Tindale (eds), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Group processes, pp. 376–399. Blackwell, Maulden, MA. Champy, J. (1995). Reengineering Management: The Mandate for New Leaders hip. Harper Business, New York. Child, John. (2001). Culture, contingency and capitalism in the cross-national study of organisations. In L.L. Cummings B.M. Staw, Research in organisational behavior, 3: 303-56. New York: JAI. Conger, J. and R. Kanugo (1987). ‘Toward a behavioural theory of charismatic leadership in organisational settings, Academy of Management Review, 12, pp. 637–647. Dirks, K. T. 2000. Trust in leadership and team performance: Evidence from NCAA basketball. Journal of Applied Psychology,85: 1004–1012. Finkelstein, S., Hambrick, D. C. 1996. Strategic leadership: Top executives and their effect on organisations. St. Paul: West Educational Publishing. Goffee, R. and G. Jones (2001). ‘Organisational culture: a sociological perspective. In C. L. Cooper, S. Carwright and P. C. Earley, The International Handbook of Organisational Culture. John Wiley Sons Ltd, Chichester. Harrison, R.C (1972) When power conflicts trigge r team spirit. European Business, Spring, 27-65 Haslam, S. A. and M. J. Platow (2001). ‘Your wish is our command: the role of shared social identity in translating a leaders vision into followers action. In: M. A. Hogg and D. Terry (eds), Social identity processes in organisations, pp. 213–228. Psychology Press, New York. Hatch, M. J. (2000). ‘The cultural dynamics of organizing and change. In: N. M. Ashkanasy, C. P. E. Wilderom and M. F. Peterson (eds), Handbook of Organisational Culture and Climate, pp. 245–261. Sage Publications Inc., London. Herscovitch, L. and J. P. Meyer (2002). ‘Commitment to organisational change: Extension of a three-component model, Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, pp. 474–487. Huy, Q. N. (2002). ‘Emotional balancing of organisational continuity and radical change: The contribution of middle managers, Administrative Science Quarterly, 47, pp. 31–69. Jones,G Goffee, R (2001)Why sho uld anyone be led by you, New York, Harvard Business School Press Jung, D. (2001). ‘Transformational and transactional leadership and their effects on creativity in groups, Creativity Research Journal, 13, pp. 185–195. Lewin, K (1951). Frontiers in group dynamics, Human Relations,1, 5-41 Mabey,C Mayon-White, B (2003) Managing Change (2nd edn.), London, PCP Publishing Mumford, M. D., G. M. Scott, B. Gaddis and J. M. Strange (2002). ‘Leading creative people: Orchestrating expertize and relationships, Leadership Quarterly, 13, pp. 705–750. Nadler, D. A., P. K. Thies and M. B. Nadler (2001). ‘Culture Change in the Strategic enterprize: Lessons from the Field. In: C. L. Cooper, S. Carwright and P. C. Earley, The International Handbook of Organisational Culture and Climate John Wiley Sons Ltd, Chichester. Websites Nicols,F (2006) Change Management https://home.att.net/~OPSINC/change.pdf Date accessed 21/03/2007 The institute of Direct Marketing (2006) Leadership, change management and corporate culture Nicols,F (2006) Change Management https://home.att.net/~OPSINC/change.pdf Date accessed 20/05/2007 Types of change (2006) University of Luton Study https://www.effectingchange.luton.ac.uk/types_of_change/pdf/types.pdf Date accessed 20/05/2007

My Philosophy And Philosophy Of Personal Educational...

It is true that many educators do not know what their educational philosophy is. However it is imperative for educators and future educators to know their personal educational philosophies so that they can be accountable, explain how they teach, what they are doing and why. My personal Educational philosophy is made up of four components; metaphysics, epistemology, axiology, and logic. My educational Philosophy Metaphysics (reality) is a combination of realism and idealism, that the mind, spirit, and body are connected and that they should and must work together. God is the father of the universe. He created it for his spirit children who he loves and communicates with on a daily basis. Individuals are spirit sons and daughters that God†¦show more content†¦When students are encouraged to tutor their peers and younger students, their own learning is enhanced. Going out into the community to learn about subjects coupled with reading about them in books is a powerful learning tool as well. Once students are in the community and aware of what the community needs, students should be encouraged to take some action or responsibility in planning for a change. I am an advocate of behaviorism. Educators should discourage poor behaviors and encourage appropriate behaviors as well as teach new behaviors. Students are capable and should be involved in creating rules f or the classroom. Education should encourage cooperation and teach decision making skills. School should be a place of molding (without forcing) children into good citizens that will contribute to the community in a positive way. My Educational Philosophy consists of bits and pieces of many of the philosophies because most of the philosophies included components I would not or could not include in my own. None of the philosophies metaphysics matched my own, so I combined the metaphysics of realism and idealism because Idealists believe that the spirit and mind are the only reality, where realists believe that the body or matter is more real than the mind. I believe that the mind and spirit and body are a unit and must work together for the common good. I think that the curriculum ofShow MoreRelatedPersonal Philosophy : My Educational Philosophy1452 Words   |  6 Pages When I first set out to write my educational philosophy, I had absolutely no idea what to write about, to be perfectly honest. So, I thought that I would start with the most essential aspect of an educational philosophy: why do I want to become a teacher? The reason why I want to teach is because I want to be able to impact young people’s lives and help them to learn how to become successful citizens in our world. 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Ben and Biff’s Free Essays

In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, the character Biff is the son of Willy Loman, the protagonist. The character Ben is Willy’s brother. They are very different but they share some similarities. We will write a custom essay sample on Ben and Biff’s or any similar topic only for you Order Now Biff is real, in the sense that he appears in the play in the present, while Ben is a hallucination and a product of Willy’s delusions, appearing in an alternate time-line. Biff is Willy’s hope for the future and a symbol of his own lost hopes and dreams. Ben is a paragon of success and a standard for which Willy strives. Barron’s Booknotes says of Ben, â€Å"From the moment we see Ben he turns out to be a highly idealized figure, for Willy’s memory turns him into a god,† (Miller, Williams, Paul 1984 p 21). Both characters further the plot but Ben is more purely a rhetorical device that helps to drive the play by allowing the audience a glimpse inside the mind of Willy Loman in a way that would be difficult otherwise. Both Biff and Ben are adept at taking Willy’s mind off his own problems. He goes into a sort of hallucinatory trance and speaks to both characters when he is troubled. Sometimes these conversations are rehashes of conversations past and sometimes they are conversations carried on as Willy wishes they had been. Willy remembers conversations with his brother that never happened. He believes that his brother is the success that he is not and the success that he wants his son to be so he wants Ben to explain the secrets of making a fortune. Both Ben and Biff are amoral and have virtually no social values. Biff is willing to steal and goes out of his way to take a pen as a sort of trophy to show he is superior to someone to whom he actually is subservient. Ben knocks down his nephew Biff in a fight and then tells him that is ok to cheat and do anything necessary to win against a stranger. â€Å"Ben, patting Biff’s knee: Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You’ll never get out of the jungle that way,† (Act I p 49). Biff’s mother does not like this advice but Biff obviously believes that it is a good motto to live by. His father, Willy, then instructs him to steal material from a construction site. Biff and Ben both seem to think that the end justifies whatever means is used to achieve their goals. Ben shows that he is proud of Biff for being a thief. He praises Biff for having the courage to steal from the construction site, showing he is not afraid. Biff comes to realize his father is a failure at life and his idea of how to achieve dreams is not logical. Biff is more like his Uncle Ben, who treats him as the person he really is and not like the image that he wants to create, as his father does, living on imagined past glory. The characters of Biff and Ben are used by Miller to allow Willy to vent his rage and frustration. They both give Willy Loman an opportunity to address the audience. It shows he is losing his grasp of reality, of course, but more so, it gives Miller the opportunity to advance the themes of the play in a direct way. He is not ‘dime-a-dozen’, he is Willy Loman, Miller has him say. Ben and Biff both say things to Willy that makes Linda, his wife, try to protect him. â€Å"Linda, frightened of Ben and angry at him: Don’ t say those things to him. (He is doing) well enough to be happy right here. Right now,† (Act II p 8). They say things that she doesn’t want Willy to have to deal with. Both Ben and Biff are characters that have a close relationship with Willy even though Willy doesn’t really know either of them. He is lost in his own world. Ben is more the realist than is Willy. He is a man who does not live in the past. He grabs what he wants and makes it his own. Biff at last loses his rose-colored glasses and accepts his uncle’s view of the life. He sees that he is more like his uncle than he realized and that he is nothing like his father. He at last understands that his father is a loser and a tragedy. References Miller, A. , Weales, G. Death of a Salesman New York: Penguin Group 1977 Miller, A. , Williams, L. and Paul, K. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (Barron’s Booknotes) Hauppauge, N. Y. : Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. Copyright 1984 How to cite Ben and Biff’s, Papers

Developing and Sustaining an Ethical †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Developing and Sustaining an Ethical. Answer: Introduction: Taylorism proposed that the productivity of a company can be increased by optimising and simplifying the jobs of the workers. In fact, the managers and the workers need to cooperate with each other in order to advances in the business (Waring 2016). If Taylorism is applied in the recent working scenario in the countries like Australia or USA, it has to be said that it would act as a means of motivation for the employees. The concept can be directly applied to the fact that the employees an in organisation needs to be motivated in order to increase the productivity of the employees (Mortenson et al. 2015). The design of the script for the call centre is based on the fact that the employees should consider themselves in the shoes of the customers and understand the needs of the customers in order to provide better customer service and improve the productivity of the organisation. The idea of Taylorism is to adopt the scientific method to study and work and determine the most effective means to perform a particular task (Nyland et al. 2014). Thus, it can be said that rather than assigning nay particular work to the workers, it is better to match the workers with the capability and motivation and also train them that they would provide maximum efficiency in their respective work. It falls under the responsibility of the managers to come up with certain approaches that would eventually help to motivate the employees and that in turn will increase the productivity of the organisation (Witzel and Warner 2015). Taylors theory has been badly criticised during its time but Taylorism can find important applications in todays world as well. It is very important to carry out the business activities considering the scientific approach (Mortenson et al. 2015). For instance, it is very important to apply scientific knowledge to the manufacturing of cars or mobile phones or nay other thing. In such cases, the Rule of Thumb cannot hold true importance and what actually matters is the way the particular workplace operates (Nyland et al. 2014). The employees need to be motivated largely in order to gain effective outcome from them and in such cases, scientific way of treating the employees would not be effective enough. For example, the employees of the Google are given the opportunity to work according to their desire time and comfort. This has definitely acted as a means of motivation to these employees that lead to the success of the company. Toyotas cultural web Organisational culture has been described into seven dimensions depending on the values and beliefs of the organisation. The cultural model depends on the culture of the people and the relationship that the employees enjoy with the organisation. The car manufacturing giant has created its mark all over the globe and it is famous for the innovative means of technology that is used for the manufacturing of the cars (Paro and Gerolamo 2017). Thus, this particular organisational culture of Toyota can be termed as the achievement versus ascription dimension of the organisational culture. The organisational culture is designed in such a way that each and every employee of the organisation can participate in coming up with innovative approaches for the business. The organisation believes in the work of the employees and they are rewarded no matter how good or poor performers they are. On the other hand, the company believes that the employees should be valued irrespective of the designation or the role that they perform in the particular organisation (Chowdhury 2014). Some of the important organisational feature of Toyota are teamwork, continuous learning, increasing the quality of their product and organisational secrecy in order to remain competitive in the market. It is only in the presence of these principles, the success of Toyota can be determined. According to the cultural web model of Toyota, the employees have to face many challenges while operating in the market. Being a global leader, it falls under the responsibility of the leaders to maximise the human resource capabilities so that they can directly contribute towards the innovation of the business. As a car manufacturer, coming up with innovative ideas is the foremost requirement to remain competitive in the market where it operates (Schwartz 2013). The company also focuses on the quality of the product and believes that success can be achieved only by the means of improving quality of the service. Thus, it follows a culture where the people of the organisation follow a learning culture in terms of supporting problems and supporting the organisation in its innovative steps (Koren et al. 2016). This can be easily considered as the only effective way that has helped the organisation to achieve organisational and market success even in the presence of huge competition. Conclusion: With the detailed analysis, it can be easily said that Taylorism holds importance in the work culture of a number of organisations. However, scientific method cannot be applied to every organisation to increase the productivity but at times it requires motivating the employees that would eventually help to improve productivity. Toyotas model is largely based on the innovation and this is achieved only by the means of carrying out a learning process among the employees. The employees are given the opportunity to come up with their ideas that directly contribute to the innovative ideas and the success of the company. References: Chowdhury, S.D., 2014. Strategic roads that diverge or converge: GM and Toyota in the battle for the top.Business Horizons,57(1), pp.127-136. Koren, Y., Gu, X. and Freiheit, T., 2016. The impact of corporate culture on manufacturing system design.CIRP Annals-Manufacturing Technology,65(1), pp.413-416. Mortenson, M.J., Doherty, N.F. and Robinson, S., 2015. Operational research from Taylorism to Terabytes: A research agenda for the analytics age.European Journal of Operational Research,241(3), pp.583-595. Nyland, C., Bruce, K. and Burns, P., 2014. Taylorism, the international labour organization, and the genesis and diffusion of codetermination.Organization Studies,35(8), pp.1149-1169. Paro, P.E.P. and Gerolamo, M.C., 2017. Organizational culture for lean programs.Journal of Organizational Change Management,30(4). Schwartz, M.S., 2013. Developing and sustaining an ethical corporate culture: The core elements.Business Horizons,56(1), pp.39-50. Waring, S.P., 2016.Taylorism transformed: Scientific management theory since 1945. UNC Press Books. Witzel, M. and Warner, M., 2015. Taylorism revisited: culture, management theory and paradigm-shift.Journal of General Management,40(3), pp.55-70.

Biology Major free essay sample

Until I started high school, I had no idea what major I wanted to pursue in college. After all, there are so many options, and even though some people know what they want to do from the time they are in elementary school, that was not my experience. Although I always had some ideas before entering ninth grade, I was still waiting to find something I really loved. During my freshman year, I finally found that thing biology. Before high school, I had never looked forward to a science class. The only reason I even took biology freshman year was because it seemed to be the lesser of two evils, the other being earth science. As it turned out, that biology class became the most pivotal course I took during my four years of high school, and was a major factor in my decision to choose biology as my major. The one area of biology that I am especially interested in is genetics. We will write a custom essay sample on Biology Major or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Throughout the three years I have taken biology-related courses, I have gotten a taste of the huge world of genetic research, which is what I hope to explore in the future. One aspect of biology that we studied freshman year was genetics, which is how I became interested in the subject. In particular, I liked studying Mendelian genetics and learning how different traits are inherited. My interest fostered in freshman year biology affected my course choices for the rest of my high school career and subsequently, the college major I have chosen During sophomore year, I decided to take AP biology. In that class, we learned more about genetics, which further intrigued me. During that year, because I was so interested in the topics we were discussing in class, I spent some of my free time making a family tree of different inherited traits in my family, such as blood types and cancer. The following year, I took genetics, a full-year elective packed with topics I was interested in. Among other topics, I learned about inherited traits, genetic diseases, and ethical debates surrounding genetic research. I spent a lot of time in the lab working with DNA, viruses, and bacteria, and the experience of this class proved to me that I want to continue doing similar things as my career. Besides my love for genetics as a subject, I know that it is an up and coming field that has much potential for research in a variety of areas. Because genetic research is so new and so many possibilities for using this new technology are still being uncovered, I could have the ability to do major research in the area through my studies at Johns Hopkins. For example, although scientists know some of the uses of stemcells, they also know that there are many more things they can be used for that have not been found yet. I am hoping that by majoring in biology, I will have an opportunity to work in the field of genetics and do research that will save many lives. Although a few years ago I could not imagine even enjoying a 45 minute science class, today I dream of majoring in biology and doing research in college and beyond. The biology classes I took in high school were just the beginning of what I hope to continue doing in the future. Because of those classes and the potential for amazing discoveries in the field of genetics, I have chosen biology as my major.

The Murder essays

The Murder essays The Murder by John Steinback reveals events that take place in an untraditional marriage between two very different people. Jim Moore marries Jelka Sepic, mostly because of her beauty. Jelka, a Jugo-Slav girl, has lived a different life compared to Jim. Jelka tries to please Jim by working hard around the house, but later in their marriage Jim catches her in bed with her cousin. Jim gets very angry and shoots Jelkas cousin. Jim beats Jelka for her actions, but he doesnt get into any trouble by the law for the murder. Jim decides that Jelka and he will move out of that house and build a new one. Jelka Sepic has an unexpressive, seclusive, and easygoing personality. Jelka has an unexpressive disposition. First, she hardly ever speaks unless spoken to. She [is] very quiet. She never [speaks] first...and then with soft short replies. (4) Jelka has a very quiet and soft-spoken personality. Jim feels that her lack of communication hurts their relationship. Secondly, Jelka Sepic appears to be a very independent woman. Ill help you get your shirtwaist off...No Ill do it myself. (10) She seems to want someone to lean on at times, but she also wants to be self-reliant. Finally, Jelkas personality seems very distant most of the time to Jim. He [realizes] before long that he [cannot] get in touch with her...the barrier in her eyes [is] not one that [can] be removed... (4) Jelka comes across as a woman of seclusion. First, her actions seem questioning to Jim at times, but hardly concern him. Why do you sit there tonight? he asked. You always sit over here. The moon, she said quietly... But youre silly...I thought you knew direction better than that. She may do something out of the ordinary but her behavior rarely troubles Jim. Next, Jelka seems to be a very shy woman, quite po...

Major Approaches to Knowledge Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Major Approaches to Knowledge Management - Essay Example Peter Drucker introduced the first related term ‘Knowledge Worker’ in 1960. Over the years, there has been a significant growth in this field and various authors and scholars have brought a number of different areas of focus on the subject. Carlie (1998) highlighted that several theories were developed to manage the intellectual capital in the 21st century. Graham and Thomas (2008) believed that KM is supported as a means of harnessing and utilizing intellectual resources to address challenges, as well as improving innovation, business performance and client approval. Since 1996, there has been immense and rapid growth in terms of KM. Knowledge is the awareness of what one knows through study, reasoning, experience or association, or through various other types of learning (McInerney, 2002). KM consists of four key processes to include knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, scoring knowledge and knowledge use. DeNoni, Orsi, and Pilotti (2009) believed that the impleme ntation of knowledge management needs effective methods of accessing, measuring and controlling information to manage increasing complexity. This paper aims at highlighting the major approaches that have been developed for KM. This paper addresses the various approaches that have been developed and the importance that this plays in the success of a business. A comparison of the similarities and the differences of the major approaches are discussed. Finally, the importance of computer technology in capturing the unique level dependent organizational knowledge will also be discussed. It is essential to briefly understand the meaning of KM before moving into the various approaches. KM has been discussed and described by several experts. Ron Young, CEO of Knowledge Associates International has defined KM as, â€Å"the discipline of enabling individuals, teams and entire organizations to

Cognitive Development and Cognitive Views of Learning Essay

Cognitive Development and Cognitive Views of Learning - Essay Example Children in the concrete operational stage of development accept the rules and seldom deliberately move outside them. According to Piaget's theory, children from age 7 to 11 move from preconventional to concrete operational where these children have experienced interaction with others in a school setting and have begun to care what others think about them. Children in the 7-11 age group have the most potential for establishing a positive moral behavioral base. Morality becomes an issue for this age group because this is a time when children move from how a situation will affect them personally to how their behavioral choices will affect someone else. However, throughout this stage, conflicts occur that create moral dilemmas and children in this age group are influenced by so many ideas about what is or is not moral that it is easy for them to make some wrong choices. It is important for a teacher to stress the fact that it is all right to make mistakes because that is how we learn. It is the positive or negative result of the choice made that will help them determine right or wrong in future dilemmas. In other words, they first learn the rules, then how the rules affect behavior, and finally, whether trying to follow the rules might create a moral dilemma while breaking the rule would seem to be the proper choice. Appropriate strategies to use to teach the selected topic One problem with trying to teach morality in the classroom is that different children have different concepts of the rules of behavior when it comes to moral issues. However, by creating different moral dilemmas and setting up discussion groups within a classroom, individual students can present a dilemma and its possible resolution, and other students can debate or accept the resolution. The result of this is that the class can establish a moral code of behavior that they can accept. Once that has been accomplished, a further situation could be presented through a children's book that discusses morality, such as The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault (1993) newly translated by Neil Philip and Nicoletta Simborowski from Perrault's original collection, or in a book such as The Children's Book of Virtues (1995) by William Bennett. Bennett offers what he considers conventional role models for young people while the fairy tales present characters with debatable morals that can gen erate discussion within a group. Over the years, well-known fairy tales have evolved into versions that are influenced by changing moral concerns within society. In keeping with today's moral breakdown, Sleeping Beauty's story in its original format doesn't end when the prince awakens her. In a passage from Marjorie Allen's discussion of the translation (1999) her life continues: She marries him in secret and has two children-a boy and a girl. But she and the prince do not live happily ever after as king and queen, at least not for quite some time, because the queen mother happens to be part ogre

Choose any contemporary theme and write a review of that theme by Essay

Choose any contemporary theme and write a review of that theme by using a variety of secondary sources. (Safety and Security in - Essay Example This elevates the issue of safety in airports as of considerable concern in regions that are considered as major destinations for tourists. This paper looks into safety and security in airports in relation to tourism. Introduction The contemporary world has witnessed dramatic changes since the rise of globalization. Based on the heightened incidence and severity of terrorism related incidences, individual’s feelings of safety (whether physical or psychological) have been challenged. The travel and tourism sector have considerably been bruised at various levels, accompanied by growing concerns on safety and security of destinations. The resultant sense of insecurity has yielded to increase screening within airports in a bid to thwart occurrence of any terrorism related incidences. Passengers and air cargo are the two main entities that pose the highest treat to the security and safety of airports. Passengers are considered as a serious threat due to the increased number of terr or activities occurring in airports (Sweet 2009, p.52). Even prior to the 9/11, the society was conscious of the risks associated with being at the wrong location at the wrong time; however, the 9/11 attack brought to the limelight how interconnectedness of the world and the society was awakened to the risks occasioned by the interconnections. The global aviation immediately launched tighter travel rules, restrictions, and regulations in a dramatic attempt to thwart a repetition of the incidence. The changes heralded within the passenger travel experience right from check in to disembarking have been rendered non-negotiable. As a result, the process of travel has been made increasingly complex and time consuming (Sonmez, Apostolopoulos and Tarlow 1999, p.13). The safety and security of airports remains an ongoing challenge and continues to evolve as air traffic rises. The threat presented by crime and terrorism has over the years increased necessitating enhanced security and safety in airports. Indeed, the public has had an enhanced sensitivity towards aviation and airport security owing to the concern that criminality may yield to vulnerabilities that could be exploited by terrorists. The central aim of airport security centres on preventing ‘unlawful interference’ with the could yield to fatalities among the passengers and crew major airports continue to be critical infrastructure for the health of the economy and people’s lives and livelihood, and the possible targets for the severe crimes and terrorism (Sonmez, Apostolopoulos and Tarlow 1999, p.14). Terrorism and crime are unique, but possibly overlap, but at its most fundamental place, an environment characterized by lax security can avail opportunities for terrorists to take advantage of the weaknesses in airport security. However, with the growing surveillance within airports, critics have argued that the heightened security screening at airports is increasingly heralding misery to h oliday travelers. Critics point out that government agencies pursuing to make journeys secure render plane trips unpleasant, which encourages people to take the option of travelling by road (where possible). Discussion Terrorists target airports largely because of the social and economic damage that can arise once an airport has suffered a terror attack. The 9/11 terror attack motivated all leading airports to pay keen attention on improving the

Top Management Style (TMS) | Case Study

Top Management Style (TMS) | Case Study Introduction: Cohesiveness in the teams especially in Top Management Teams (TMT) is one of the most significant factors that influence the Superior Performance (SP) and strategic competitive advantage of the organization. There are many factors that influence cohesiveness of teams and this essay is especially going to focus on an organizational factor, Top Management Style (TMS). Many researches proved that TMS is a crucial factor which influences the cohesiveness of the organizations, particularly new ventures. The literature review in this essay will explain how the TMT in new ventures can influence the cohesiveness and in turn the Superior Performance (SP) of the organization. Furthermore, this essay will analyze how practically TMT of my previous organization successfully established a highly cohesive team and made cohesiveness as a strategic asset of the organization. The essay also analyze how cohesiveness in TMT facilitate the successful decision making and on the other hand, how a highly c ohesive TMT experienced impaired decision making in few scenarios because of the concept of the group think and suggests what could be a possible solution to improve decision making in those scenarios. Research setting: My previous organization is UST-Global which is one of the most successful and young organization in the Information Technology (IT) services Industry. UST-Global was established on 1999 with only 14 members and currently spread across 4 regions (North America, Europe, South America and AMEA) and 15 countries globally with the employee count of around 7000.Comparitively the organizations growth rate in profitability, financial position and number of employees is phenomenal. In my observation, the TMT is the primary reason for this success. Recently the organization successfully established a joint venture with General Electric Company (GE) in Chile, South America. Established with strong culture and values the organization is build with high cohesiveness and as a result showing superior performance in the market. The organization achieved $500 million yearly sales mark with 15-20% net margin in few years after establishment and continues to growing better. Organizations head count an d sales is increasing by more than 15% each year which clearly shows the SP of the organization in the market. UST-Global is one of the best young companies in IT industry to analyse cohesiveness because of the culture and values established in the organization. Literature review: Cohesion: Cohesion is a multifaceted asset of a group and strong forecaster of the group behavior which has been defined and analyzed in many different ways by researchers. Cohesion can be defined as the measure of the ability of a group to exert a pull on its members and encourage them to remain as a part of the group. In essence, cohesion would serve as a strong centripetal force binding a team together in the presence of strong centrifugal force like conflicts (NV 371) Relationship between TMT and Cohesion: There are many factors that can influence the cohesiveness. These factors have been classified by (Rollinson) as group factors, environmental factors and organizational factors. According to (Homans 1950) there are many organizational factors like technology usage, management style and personal background of members are influencing the cohesiveness. Many researches show that especially the TMS can greatly contribute to the cohesiveness of the organizations. This section will explain how the TMT of an organization can influence the cohesiveness of the organization. A TMT is a group of high level managers accountable for devising and executing the firms strategies. The power to organize the direction and performance of the organization possibly makes TMT as most crucial and prominent team in the firm (LS 6). In particular, the new venture TMT consisted of those people identified as the CEO, president and critical line or staff function executives (NV 373). By establishing appropriate c ulture, member criteria, technology usage and work environment and other important factors, TMT has the ability to influence on group cohesiveness of the organization. (LS 5)Michael suggests that both task leadership and social leadership can provide positive contribution to the cohesiveness by keeping the team focused on the task and by maintaining good relationship and team harmony. In essence, effective leaders maintained group harmony and cohesiveness of the organization by attending both to mission-specific task outcomes and to the personal qualities of crew members. (LS 4) Relationship between Cohesiveness and Superior Performance of organization (SP) The cited references and many theories show that cohesiveness is positively related to the SP of the organization. According to Resource Based View (RBV), resources are key drivers of sustainable competitive advantage. The most precious resources referred to as strategic assets are concurrently valuable, rare, complex and costly to imitate and non substitutable. Resources are valuable when they permit the firm to take advantage of opportunities and/or neutralize threats in external environment. (LS 6).Thus in relation to RBV logic, the available empirical evidence converges to suggest that cohesion in teams especially in TMT should constitute a highly valuable resource to the firm (LS 7). In essence, cohesiveness in teams, particularly Top Management Teams (TMT) is positively associated with Superior Performance (SP) of the firms.(LS 8) Relationship between Cohesiveness in TMTs and SP of the organizations: In new ventures, Top Management Team Cohesiveness (TMTC) is especially important because of the complex and ambiguous nature of the teams task. (NV 368). This section will explain how cohesiveness in TMT associated with the conflicts experienced during decision making process and in turn relate with the SP of the firms. Studies shows that cohesion in the TMT related directly to ROI and sales growth which are main factors in SP of the organization (NV 372). Moreover, theories show that the cohesiveness in the TMT is related to the conflicts experienced in the teams during decision making. Recent research shows conflict to be multidimensional, the cognitive dimension of conflict is considered to be generally functional, this occurs when the team members consider a number of alternatives from variety of diverse perspectives in decision making. On the other hand, the affective dimension of conflict is generally dysfunctional and occurs when personally oriented disagreement focusing on in terpersonal dislikes and disaffections. (NV 369).Generally cohesion will relate positively to the level of cognitive conflict and negatively to the level of affective conflict experienced during decision making.(NV 370,371).Top Management Team Cohesion (TMTC) also have the potential to operate as an intangible strategic asset by helping the TMT to reach consensus on strategic direction and organizational controls, as well as by facilitating communication and commitment to shared organizational goals.(LS 2)TMTC appears to possess all the attributes of a strategic asset and thus according to the RBV and previous empirical findings, TMTC should be positively related to superior firm performance. Theories explain that, surprisingly another dimension of cohesion leads to shrink the level of cognitive conflicts in decision making process because of the concept of group think. As the groups become highly cohesive, and in the presence of dominant leader, group members, may in fact, with hold useful ideas that may contradict the popular opinion in order to maintain their positive status in the group (Janis 1982 NV382). As an essence, the literature review discussed that, especially for new ventures, Top Management style is one of the crucial factor significantly associated with cohesiveness in the organization, which in turn is significantly associated with sustainable competitive advantage and SP. Furthermore, high cohesiveness in TMT may also lead to group think which lead to impaired decision making and affect the SP of the firm. Analysis: Analyzing how the TMS influenced the cohesiveness in UST-Global: From my observation, the following are the important factors established by the TMT improved the cohesiveness of the firm significantly. The TMT established values and culture in the company which offers dignity to every employee and enforced the employees to treat everyone in an unbiased manner. We give respect to people and an opportunity to accomplish their maximum potential in an atmosphere where there is no fear and also initiative and creativeness are truly encouraged(Sajan). Thus the social leadership perspective (LS 5) of TMT in UST-global enhanced the cohesiveness in the organization by encouraging respect for team members and maintaining group harmony by clear behavioral norms and imposing these norms by rejecting deviant behavior.(Fedman 1984 LS 5).Moreover, the TMT formed a harder membership criteria to improve the cohesiveness. The organization attracts best talents from all over the world. The medium and high level management team consists of people from best business schools and knowledge workers are hired after four level of filtering interview processes. Competent people working in harmony will produc e the best results. Both competence and harmony are equally important (Menon). The TMT improved the communication and cooperation between team members by introducing highly interactive communication technologies. This shows the effectiveness of the TMTs Social leadership((LS 5). The TMT also created a world class task tracker software which improved the task management significantly which in turn explains the effectiveness of Task leadership(LS 5).we are setting an example by showing how heavily we are using IT for our own internal operations(Sajan).Furthermore, The TMT provide a working environment where people assist each other and able to perform in a team environment. This environment enables employees to deliver their best and at the same time get highest job satisfaction. IT employees are knowledge workers.If the environments supports the employees to use their creativity and ideas, that is what satisfies them and enables them to provide outstanding service to the client. Thus the Top Management Style (TMS) in UST-Global facilitated the cohesiveness throughout the organization by establishing appropriate culture, member criteria, technology usage, work environment and other important factors, and bring the firm highly successful with in a short span of time. Analysing how cohesion in teams especially TMT influenced the SP: In my observation, the Top Management Team (TMT) in UST-Global is highly cohesive and this fact was also accepted by my interviewee in TMT that, Job fulfillment is our key to attracting people and that is something we have been capable to accomplish because of our Values and Culture. Thats is the reason, UST-Global TMT has even CIOs of many firms not only joined but are in fact energized to be a part of the company(Sajan). Organization has built a powerful higher level team to focus only on clients which includes Robert D, former General Manager of Reebok IT department, Marsha B, former VP and CTO of safway, and Paul M, former VP of AIG Technology department. In my observation, the similarity between the team members in terms of background experience, TMT in UST-Globlal become truly a unique composition, where competitors lag behind a lot, especially harder for competitors to imitate. Also,It was accepted by my interviewee that The TMTC is a crucial strategic asset for UST-Global. Conflicts arising during decision making is an obvious one. Inevitably some disagreement will happen in decision making but, all of our team members consider the conflicts as a alternative solution in decision making. According to (NV 369) Those TMT are able to take advantage of the disagreements by keeping it task focused and constructive should outperform those for whom the disagreement becomes personally focused and destructive. So it is evident that UST-Global TMT is able to take advantage of disagreements in decision making which leads to the SP of the organization. Discussion Most of the decisions made by the TMT were highly successful. For example, the decision of fewer clients and higher attention gave the organization a high strategic competitive advantage in the service market.Fortune 500 clients of UST Global like the attention they receive when the companys priority is on client share as opposed to market share. To ensure relentless attention to its clients the company targets only a few clients in a year for a long-term business relationship and concentrates and invests on them fully. This was a conscious decision we made in the very early days of the company. Even if there is a short term opportunity for revenue we ignore it(Dan) Even though the organization TMT is highly cohesive and successful in decision making I can notice that in very few scenarios the decisions of TMT went less effective. I am explaining three of the ineffective decisions by the TMT which I have noticed below. In last six years the TMT has changed the organization name three times for several reasons. Although the TMT explained the reasons for the name change, this affects the recognition and brand value of the company in the market. Furthermore, the organization hired more number of people to achieve the expected growth and not able to manage the huge talent pool and end up with many HR related issues. Particularly, the TMT has announced to the media that it will go public by first quarter of 2009 but the TMT was not able to make it up until now. Sajan told that Going public is expensive, more expensive than ever before, so we want to get a critical mass(Article UST_Global)Although the TMT explains the reason of uncontrollable external environmental changes and other factors as reason, This affects the image of the company in the market and among employees. Even though only a very less decisions made by the TMT in UST-Global became ineffective and this will generally happen in every fast growing organization, the above issues explained are clearly because of the ineffective decision making in the TMT. Also, in my personal observation and with my interviews, it is clear that there was more cognitive conflicts happened in decision making process and helped the TMT to be more effective in decision making. So in my opinion, the effect of group think could be the possible reason which led the highly cohesive TMT to make the above impaired decisions which affects the performance of the organization. High Cohesiveness in teams is a competitive advantage to achieve the common objectives but while taking important decisions the TMT should highly reconsider the decision and make sure that the high cohesiveness doesnt led to group think and affect the decisions. Philosophical Concepts: What is real? Philosophical Concepts: What is real? What is real? Philosophy We live in a Universe that is infinitely enormous, upon a planet that plays home the only existing life forms that we know of. In the movie; The Matrix, our world is nothing more than a mere computer program, run through our brains while the world deteriorates from within. How can we ever know, that this is not happening to us at this very instant? This essay is obviously not condoning the idea that we are run by computers, however, it will attempt to take a deeper look into a question that is rarely thought about, but should perhaps be a more common one; What Is Real? This essay will analyze many different views of realism, from different places, at different points in time, considering each point of view, and seek to further the reader’s knowledge in this realm of philosophy. At the present time, we, as humans, have no direct way of knowing what is real. It is a mystery, far more complex than any computer or robot we possess. What is strikingly odd about this question is that if you ask a seven year-old what is real, it is probable that you will receive an answer. Clearly this answer will be very basic, and chances are that the seven year-old will not explain why they chose that answer, but is it not fascinating that in two minutes, a mere child is able to respond to a question some adults, can waste their whole life trying to answer? Many would argue that the child only gives that answer, because he or she is none the wiser, but is it possible that philosophers, or anyone who makes an attempt to answer this question, are none the wiser, for having overlooked the simple answer of a youngster? – Once again, this is from a completely un-biased point of view, and seeks solely to provoke thought in the readers mind. â€Å"If we’re good, we go to a heaven of some sort.† An answer many people around the world would give when asked what happens when we pass away. Is that possible? There is a theory that when we die, we lose 21 grams, and that these 21 grams represents our soul, either heading up, or down. Is this an actual possibility, that as we die, a part of us lives on? Is it possible anyone will ever know for sure? Another theory on afterlife; is that when we die, it’s the same as before we were born. This uncertain nothingness, of a dark or light blank screen. And as we wait in this dark/lightness, we are just sitting in line to be reborn. This theory leads to the argument of what is â€Å"nothing†? Is â€Å"nothing† possible? There is no clear definition of â€Å"nothing† in the dictionary, only vague attempts such as â€Å"a non-existent thing,† or â€Å"in no way; to no degree.† The idea of nothing being impossible is quite fascinating, as it is not possible to think of nothing, leading us further to believe that something, must be real, even if they are mere images, they are still â€Å"real images.† These real images are what we witness in everyday life, although they differ from person to person, we know that we are seeing something real, because we know that we cannot see nothing. We live in an unpredictable world. No one can tell for sure what’s waiting around the corner, or what’s going to happen tomorrow. Yet some people believe in something called destiny: The seemingly inevitable succession of events ¹. Destiny goes against everything logical. It is a truth, worldly known that nothing is provable by means of the technology, science, math or experiment, which we possess in our day and age. Furthering our question, to something more along the lines of; â€Å"How do we know what we think is real, if we have no way of actually proving it?† So is it possible that destiny does really exist, and that we may all be following a list of events that have already been thought out? Perhaps the determinists are right? As humans, most of us are blessed with five senses; touch, taste, sight, smell, and hearing. These acute senses vary from person to person. What may appear as an orange to one may appear as a banana to the next. One’s acquired taste for sushi might be considered disgusting to another. There is a saying that says â€Å"one mans garbage is another’s treasure.† This saying represents how not only senses vary from being to being, but how perspective does as well. It is arguable that perspective all depends on things such as background, beliefs, and perhaps most importantly, wealth, but these opinions are solely in the eye of the beholder. It is firmly believed that perspective is influenced by how one see’s an image, object, or person, primarily, and secondly by wealth etc. These varying perspectives can be captured in full motion at Stanstead College, where there is a clash of cultures. There are Mexicans who prefer their candy hot and spicy, to almost anyone else who frowns at first taste, and asks for something sweet instead. This does not only hold true for candy, it can be found in almost any other perspective of life; style, likes, sports (aside from soccer as it is known as the global language), and interest in the opposite sex. Where one boy might find a girl in his class to be the next best thing since sliced bread, the young man next to him might completely disagree. Another example can be found in the music industry, where one boy might find Mozart atrocious, and be madly in love with his favourite heavy-metal band. The guy in the room next to him that gets mad at this loud, satanic noise as he might refer to it, might fancy classical music and think it is amazing. All these reasons may lead one to believe that we are not all witnessing the s ame images, or hearing the same sounds, that tastes and likes are more than acquired, that perhaps it’s the way it comes through our ears or mouth that differs. These examples all lead to the next question; if people’s perspectives and tastes vary so heavily, how do we know which one is right, or real? Is their a wrong side of the bridge? Is there a way to determine this? No. Due to the limitations of reason and logical thinking, for now all we have is our opinionated guesses. These opinions have been known to get us in trouble as a race. Since the first religious wars, people have been fighting over beliefs, territory, and who the stronger is. Life would almost be much easier if a right answer was determinable. Exert from: From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest: p. 207 Hegel’s Metaphysics: Absolute Idealism Reality as totality of conceptual truth† – Idea that total reality is an absolute mind, or the mind of god, which is an integrated and structured source of truths. â€Å"Reality as absolute mind† – reality is absolute conceptuality which reveals itself through human experiences in all aspects of life. â€Å"The real is the rational and the rational is the real† â€Å"Reality is knowable by its intelligible, rational structures† – Hegel is very against the principle that reality is unknowable, for he believes it is present for every human to attain through reason. Hegel, much like Plato, is a relativist, and a strong one at that. â€Å"Hegel is as confident a rationalist as Plato had been.† (From Socrates to Sartre, p. 209) He is a firm believer that reality, and what is real, is determinable through rational thought, something that is present in all humans. He feels that â€Å"what is real?† all depends on the person, and their personal experiences. Exert from: Philosophy, a Text with Readings – p. 178 â€Å"Let us settle ourselves , and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the covers the globe till we com to a hard bottom of rocks in a place which we call reality.† –James Thomson. Thomson feels that for humans to have a solid sense of reality, furthermore, what is real, they must first put behind them their differences in opinion, tradition, appearance etc. This is found to be a very good point, as it makes sense. How can we expect a world to come to terms on things such as reality, when we cannot come to terms on smaller things such as oil prices? As a race, our attitude towards each other must change, and as a people, we must take into account everyone’s perspective in a respectful manner. Globalisation, as much as it is frowned upon by some, is believed to be a possible answer. Globalisation is allowing us to become more united as a world, making it easier to reach out to one another. â€Å"1st phase of globalisation(discovery of the new worlds in 1490’s) changed the size of the world from large to medium, 2nd phase(industrial revolutions) changed it from medium to small, the 3rd phase, which is taking place now, changed it from small, to tin y.† ***politics paper The Materialist View (â€Å"materialism: the metaphysical position that reality is ultimately composed of matter† definition from Philosophy, a Text with Readings) Eastern- Eastern materialism dates back to around 600 B.C.E, was a principle held by the Charvaka philosophers of India. They believed that the only form of reasoning was sense perception. They felt that other sources of knowledge, such as inductive, or deductive reasoning were invalid. They believed that the only reliable source of knowledge is what we can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste with our senses. Along with this belief, they argued that if we cannot know something, it is wrong to say it exists. They did not believe in spirits, nor did they believe in an afterlife, because it is not something we are able to perceive with our senses. â€Å"Human life begins in this world, and ends in this world, so people should try to get as much of the bodily pleasures of this life as they can.† Charvakaian Belief Western- Western materialism can be traced all the way back to 460 B.C.E. Much like the Charvakian philosophers, the early Western philosophers believed that reality could be explained in terms of matter. According to Democritus, everything in the universe, even the soul, is made up of atoms. Almost a millennium after Democritus came another great Western philosopher, Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes felt quite similar to Democritus, as he believed that measurable matter is all there is in the universe, that only matter is real. â€Å"The universe, that is the whole mass of things that are, is corporeal, that is to say body; and has the dimensions of magnitude, namely, length, breadth, and depth. Also every part of body is likewise body, and has the like dimensions. And, consequently, every part of the Universe is body, and that which is not body is no part of the Universe. And because the Universe is all, that which is no part of it is nothing, and consequently, nowhere.† exert from Hobbes’ Leviathan Objections to Materialism- The main objection to materialism is the fact that it is very neglectful in accounting for human consciousness. Many people feel that activities such as loving, wishing, dreaming, hoping and hating all come from nonmaterial spiritual entity. The Idealist View (â€Å"idealism: in metaphysics, the position that reality is ultimately nonmatter, in epistemology, the position that all we know are our ideas – definition from Exert from: Philosophy, a Text with Readings) Western Idealism- Western idealism dates back to the ancient Greek, Pythagoras (about 600 B.C.E). Pythagoras held the belief that â€Å"individual entities are merely shadows of reality.†( Exert from: Philosophy, a Text with Readings) This thinking can also be found with the Christian thought, developed by Saint Augustine. In The City of God, Augustine warns the reader to beware of the world, and flesh, as they are temporary. What was claimed as real is the spiritual world, or; the world without matter. Eastern Idealism- The most commonly known Eastern idealist, is an Indian philosopher by the name of Vasubandhu. He strongly believed that all we ever perceive are sensations within us. He is famous for saying â€Å"Only mind exists.† The other Eastern idealists held most of the same ideas as the Western ones, letting idealism to be quite similar all over the globe. Objections to Idealism- Almost all objections to idealism are based upon the fact that it is all based upon assumption. Idealists have also been accused of committing the fallacy of anthropomorphism (giving human attributes to nonhuman entities, mainly god). Nancy by Chuck Close | Overview and Analysis Nancy by Chuck Close | Overview and Analysis What can be seen as a beautiful work of art by one person may not appear that way to someone else. So much in the art world is subjective, yet when artists are able to come up with something revolutionary while showing technical prowess it tends to garner attention. Nancy by Chuck Close is one of those paintings that forces people to take notice. Creating portraits at a time when they were considered dead by many; Close was able to achieve success while overcoming diversity with his larger than life portraits. Nancy not only helped to vault Closes career into the mainstream, but also assisted in the rebirth of realism into American art. Close took the fame that came with his early portraits and later on adapted the style around his needs and feelings at the time. All of these reasons are part of why Chuck Close is one of Americas most influential artists today. Painted in 1968, Nancy was Chuck Closes second portrait belonging to his heads series. Measuring in at 108 3/8 x 82 1/4 in, Nancy is a black and white portrait painted using acrylic on canvas (Milwaukee Art Museum). It shows a woman from the neck up looking at the viewer with an empty almost emotionless stare. It is rather bland in the fact that there is no real focal point that stands out in the portrait. Instead he centers Nancy on the canvas with no background behind her. Close portrays Nancy with a lot of details. When first looking at it she seems unwelcoming. She has straw-like hair, which is shown unkempt; she has a bit of a cross to her eyes, and a slight snaggletooth. Close shows all of her wrinkles and age lines along with all of her freckles. Nancy does not appear to have any hidden symbols seeing as how it follows the photorealism style. Nancy is a portrait that does not hold anything back. Everything about her face is there for everyone to see. It is incredibly detailed having even the hair follicles on her face being visible. When you look closely it looks like a whole different picture than when you view it from afar. Up close one can become confused as to what they are looking at because of its enormous size. Since all the physical features of the face are so grossly enlarged it is difficult to determine exactly what everything is. Even though Close used a grid system to paint Nancy, just like all of his heads portraits, it is not as if the grid is actually visible to the naked eye (Dantos). He does a good job of smoothing everything out to look fluid. From further away Nancy has all the details seem to take shape together and it is possible to tell it is a portrait of a person. Again because of its colossal size, even when standing afar it is possible to see Nancy is an exceedingly detailed portrait. Chuck Close has done a lot of different types of work in his career but none are as famous as his heads portfolio which stems from his notorious self-portrait (OHagan). Nancy belongs to this famed portfolio and has an interesting background on how it came to be. Close started painting these close up portraits almost by accident when one of his previous projects seemed to be on the verge of failure. It started when Close decided to paint a giant scale 11 by 22 foot nude portrait of a woman rendered from a photograph. As he started to work on it he realized that while it certainly was big in size, it lacked certain flair. In the midst of this he decided to take a picture of himself and start experiment painting that on the same grand scale. His photo was of him from the neck up in a disheveled type of manner. The photo is taken in such a real manner that it seems very uncongenial and unexpressive. He took the photo and divided it up into a grid and from this grid he took the small sect ions of the photograph and one at a time transferred them over to the larger canvas (Gomez). This allowed him to concentrate on depicting all the little details in a large, almost photograph like fashion while still maintaining the big picture effect. The result as previously discussed is a very powerful portrait with a looming presence. From the success of this self portrait, Close then started on a whole collection of these close up portraits. The subjects were himself, his family, and his friends. One of these people was the artist Nancy Graves. One of the things that make Nancy different from some of Closes portraits is that most of Closes subjects were not known before the portraits and gained notoriety after; Nancy Graves however was already in the midst of making a name for herself with her own artwork at the time. He took the photo of her that the portrait was based off in much the same manner as the one he took for his original self-portrait. This means she was sitting there showing almost no expression, seemingly void of all emotions. Taking these kinds of photos requires a certain comfort level with the subject seeing as how they are essentially being shown with all their faults exposed. Robert Storr, an organizing curator for one of his exhibitions, describes the dynamic between Close and his subjects wel l when he says Close has an, extreme intimacy with his subjects which Close, as a portraitist, presumes would be impossible to sustain if the artist were genuinely indifferent to them (Johnson, Learning from Exhibitions: Chuck Close. 34). This might be the reason Close used friends and family with whom he had a strong relationship with, and therefore people who he cared for. Storr goes on to say the corresponding intimacy he establishes between a given sitter, locked in photographic permanence, and the view, who is at liberty to examine his or her every crease and follicle, as if he or she were a laboratory specimen, is predicated on a subdued yet powerful sense of mutuality. (Johnson, Learning from Exhibitions: Chuck Close. 34). Here he reaffirms the notion that his portrait subjects had to feel a sense of connection and trust with Close in order to be viewed by everyone in a kind of vulnerable state. Close has always had certain affection for photography, daguerreotypes in particular, and therefore loved working in this manner of portraits from photographs. Daguerreotypes are early photographs created by using the developing process of Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (Craven 238). The daguerreotype had a huge impact on the world in the 1800s because they brought photography within the reach of the common population. People praised them for the accuracy in which they could represent things. While a very old technique, Close appreciated daguerreotypes and showed this by choosing them to be the things from which he painted from. Close has said Its like holding a book in your lap. When you look at something with a bunch of other people it is a different experience. I just love the object status of a daguerreotype (Beem). This is a viewpoint that visibly carries over into his work. He uses the photographs over actual models because he says the photographs give him something very specific to do that wasnt going to change (Beem). Another major driving force behind using photographs compared to the actual person is that Close suffers from a disease called prosopagnosia. This condition makes him unable to recognize peoples faces. According to him from an interview with Jeffrey Brown, taking the photograph and working from that makes things flatten out for him which allows him to establish it to memory. Close goes on to say that one of the reasons he does portraits of people who are close to him, such as family and friends, is because that is who matters and how he helps himself create their faces in his memory. This fact also goes back to relate to the previously discussed comfort level with his friends and family members as subjects. Close says this is the only way he has found to work around his condition with such detail and prowess. Working in photographs helps him recognize things as they are and create the images as well as portrays the message he wants to pass along. This methodology was common in a lot of his portraits and even underwent some evolution as his career went along. Nancy belongs in his early portraits from photographs in that it is in black and white and still uses the grid system of representing each grid square as an individual portrait that come together as a whole creating a very real almost photo like quality. He later took this method and expanded upon it to include the use of colors, as well as taking the grid system and making each square their own abstract in which they blend together to create a general portrait, almost having a mosaic quality. This has made his later works lose their photographic quality but they still take on a style of their own. This evolution has occurred due to a couple of different reasons but the biggest is due to the fact that he has been partially paralyzed from a spinal artery collapse in 1988, an occurrence in which Close calls The Event (Brown). He now paints using brushes strapped to his wrists but still maintains the same portrait from photograph style with the grid system. While Close himself does not like to classify his works as part of art movements (Brown), a lot of his works, including Nancy, fit into the pop art movement; more specifically the New Realism or photorealism style in the 1960s. The term photorealism was created by Louis K. Meisel in 1969 and became to be known by other names including super-realism, hyper-realism, new realism, and neo-realism. (Meisel 12) While it may have all these different names, the art works are very similar in format. They usually take a photograph of something to capture all of the little details and then recreate a painting of it on a grander scale. The end result is a painting that mimics a photograph but the viewer still views it as a painting. The attraction that brings people to view these paintings has a lot to do with the technical detail and in the way it is painted more than the subject matter itself (Genocchio). This can also lead to the paintings seeming a bit stale and seemingly devoid of life however. Due to the high levels of details in these works, the artist needs a high level of technical prowess to depict everything as it is. Genocchio goes on to compare photorealism to Trompe loeil in that it elicits the same response from people in the way that the painting may not be of the most important or beautiful subject manner, yet the viewers attention is grasped by the technical prowess and tricks it plays on your eyes. Nancy definitely falls into this category seeing as how the painting itself cannot be claimed as beautiful, but it still garners interest due to its realism and bluntness of detail. Another interesting aspect of Nancy, and all of his heads portraits, is the timing of their painting and release to the public. At the time Close, along with many others, thought portraiture was viewed as a bankrupt form, dead in the water (OHagan). Close called them heads for this reason so as not to attach a negative stigma to them. Tim Marlow, a British art historian, has said of Close that he was a main driving force in reinventing portraiture in America (OHagan). These portraits were so different from other things at the time that there was not a correct term in describing them. In this way one could say that Close did succeed in creating a movement by himself which transcends a traditional label such as photorealism. The reason I picked this particular work to write this paper on was because it had a shock value on me when I first saw it. It was interesting how such an unattractive portrait could capture my interest and force me to do a double take. At first glance I thought it was quite grotesque and did not recognize that it was actually a portrait of a real person; I thought it was some distorted idea of an ugly person. In fact as I was standing there more than a couple of people came along and commented on how hideous it seemed, further adding to the mystique. It also got my attention because the incredible detail levels make it seem as if it actually is a photograph instead of just a portrait. As I looked at it more it seemed to emit a sort of aura or presence due to its enormous size. I thought it was one of those painting that you can look at for a long time and still find small little nuances you did not notice before. It also has the ability to play tricks with ones eyes depending on how far away one views it. Up close it does not seem to be much of anything and it is possible to see all the intricacy that went into the portrait as it seems to come together all smooth. When gazed upon from further away one is able to see that it comes into focus and look like a detailed photograph. I went back home and researched Chuck Close, became engrossed by his style and story and therefore determined Nancy was the work I decided to write about. The feeling it gives me is almost unsettling in some regard. It is in such large scale that it almost takes a life of its own. Nancy also amazes me because it makes me think how confident Nancy Graves must have been to have her portrayed in such an unsightly manner with every flaw on showcase for people to see. It is almost as if she is making a statement with Close of that even though the human body is not perfect and can be ugly at times, that it still can be used as an art form. This seems to add an almost mystical quality that is hard to describe. The fact that Close can make something like this portrait and still make it a beautiful because of its detail is absolutely astounding to me. Typically when asked to think of famous portraits it is human nature to think of such greats as DaVincis the Mona Lisa or Gilbert Stuarts Portrait of George Washington. These are portraits which are much more aesthetically pleasing and follow closer to the thought of form that makes up portrait pa inting. While it seems as if no one thinks of Closes portraits in this same beautiful manner, I enjoy how Close makes them well revered and well heralded among art critics and general viewers alike. It makes me think when one takes anything and zooms in enough to expose all the little flaws and it becomes grotesque just as Nancy looks, how even grotesque things can still be subjects of great works of art. The fact that Close works with faces even though he cannot recognize them because of his condition also interests me. Coupling this with his paralysis suffered from the Event, along with him being wheelchair bound makes him a remarkable topic of study. From reading some interviews with him and looking at some of his quotes he seems very driven and passionate about his work which adds to the mystique of not only Nancy, but also his artistic career as a whole. He also seems to be quite the eclectic character and likes to do things his own way. Chuck Close accomplished setting himself apart while painting his heads series, including Nancy. By painting Nancy he created an awe striking portrait that captures the viewers attention. Nancy showcases Closes technical proficiency with all of its details, yet also manages to congeal all the details into one smooth image. Close not only started to set himself apart, but also helped bring photorealism into the mainstream in America with his larger than life portraits. These portraits exude a sort of mystique that is not easily ignored and it is one of the many reasons Close remains one of the most influential painters in the history of American art.