Wanderer in a Waste Land Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Wanderer in a Waste Land - Essay Example Indeed, his reference to the fire represents certain unnecessary desires for human beings. In particular, Eliot suggests in â€Å"The Fire Sermon† that these desires cause intense destruction to their respective immediate environments. Ideally, human beings should be free from such desires as numerous seductions (Thesing & Wrede). However, this is not what happens in the contemporary world, as Eliot would wish. The fire burns up a moral civilization and replaces it with one that is sinful in a symbolic manner. Consequently, the desires, which Eliot dislikes, cause uncountable evils hence the need to avoid them. There is a noteworthy divergence in the use of fire in this film called â€Å"The Way Back†. This is because fire does not refer to any human sins in this film. However, it is a positive phenomenon for the wanderer who experiences several hardships. For example, the wanderer needs the fire to warm himself on his way to India. The wanderer cannot survive without the fire given that the place he has to go through has extremely cold weather. In addition, the nights get cold hence necessitating the presence of the fire to the wanderer. Moreover, the wanderer must have fire to cook all the foods because there are no alternative cooking methods in the desert. The fire also plays other significant roles in the wilderness, for example, providing light (Weir). Eliot uses the phenomenon of water to introduce a feeling of realizing ones sins. For example, in this section of the poem he reveals characters who finally understand their sins. In addition, these characters wish to cleanse their respective souls because they now hate sin. Consequently, this significant realization occurs through water. Indeed, there is an admirable change in the characters that change from their respective sinful manners. Consequently, the film uses water to indicate an element of survival for the wanderers

Managing involvement and participation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing involvement and participation - Essay Example In the 1990s, worker motivation, productivity and the like became priority issues.3 In fact, raising productivity is a key government objective in the United Kingdom.4 Do employee involvement and participation initiatives contribute to increased employee motivation, productivity and retention? There are differences between these two subjects, 5 but they are not entirely distinct from each other .Employee involvement is â€Å"a range of processes designed to engage the support, understanding and optimum contribution of all employees in an organization and their commitment to its objectives.† Employee participation, on the other hand, is â€Å"a process of employee involvement designed to provide employees with the opportunity to influence and where appropriate, take part in decision making on matters which affect them.† Both of these definitions are those of the Institute of Personnel Development.6 In terms of engaged work, therefore, participation is more extensive than involvement. This paper looks into employee participation and involvement individually, discussing the concepts in relation to motivation, productivity and retention, and finally integrates them in a conclusion. Motivation, productivity and retention, however, will not necessarily be presented as a cluster every time a relationship is made with employee participation and employee involvement. In like manner, from the other end, organisational performance as a construct may point to the dimension of productivity, hence suggesting motivation and possibly even retention when related to employee participation and employee involvement. Participation may refer to ‘influence in decision-making exerted through a process of interaction between workers and managers.’7 But variations are possible in the degree or depth of participation, the range or scope of decisions subject to participation, the form that participation structures might take, the

Women and Decency in Islamic Culture Literature review

Women and Decency in Islamic Culture - Literature review Example According to the study conducted the story â€Å"Saudi in Bikini† opens debate into a question of cultural relativity as a being responsible for many cases of abuse on human rights. Such abuse, he presents, have been knit strongly into religion and way of life such that the abused never really get to see anything wrong with the practice. Kristof’s story may be seen through the prism of Plato’s Cave where ignorance and lack of exposure play a critical role in determining the manner in which people perceive realities and illusions. His work presents that whereas many women in Islamic culture are truly oppressed, they remain under the illusion that all is well. That is particularly so since their understanding of what is right is still limited within the oppressive definition of Sharia Law that gives no liberty to women. Many women around the world face cultural oppression that has been indoctrinated in the society such that not all of them would see such practices as instances of oppression. When Kristof observes that women in Saudi Arabia have to walk around in abayas (black cloaks), he, like many people, cannot help to wonder why culture has to put women to go such lengths. Although the culture leaves the women at liberty to choose what they put on, the choices are greatly narrowed down. One cannot help but wonder from the fact that many Middle East countries are very hot, women have to endure much discomfort to remain culturally relevant or acceptable. Only the face and hands are left out.

Zara Company Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Zara Company Analysis - Essay Example This marketing report presents a set for recommendations for the fashion retailer, Zara. These recommendations are based on the analysis of external and internal environment. The analysis of the external environment relies on theories such as the PESTLE Analysis and Porter’s Value Chain Analysis. The analysis of the internal environment relies on the analysis of the company using Resource/ Capabilities Analysis and Value Chain Analysis. Zara is a fashion retailer owned and operated by the Spanish company, Indetix Group. This fashion retailer has introduced a different strategy within the fashion market that goes against the existing strategies of the fashion industry (Anon, nd.). Despite this, or rather on account of this, the company has managed to record profitable growth since its inception. However, in order to pursue further growth, it is necessary to analyze the current strategy. ANALYSIS OF EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT PESTEL Analysis PESTLE Analysis is a widely used analysis to understand the external environment of the company. It is an acronym for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal factors that have an impact on the overall operations of the organization (Henry, 2008). Political Factors Since companies operate within a certain geographic boundary or boundaries, the government has an impact on the company. It impacts through the laws and restrictions placed on the companies. Since Zara operates mainly in Spain and the UK, which falls within the EU countries therefore the political landscape of this area should be understood. The EU is beneficial for the company as it has made the entire region work as a local market. This allows the company to get fair advantage in the entire EU market. Zara is also operating outside Spain and EU markets and in markets such as USA, Dubai and Singapore. In this regard, the company needs to ensure that such countries have friendly relations with the national base of the company which is Spain. Also such countries should have a politically stable government so that the company continues to enjoy friendly terms. Economic Factors In terms of the economic factors, companies all around the world have been seriously hit with the financial c risis that struck the entire world in 2009. This has hampered the buying power on the consumers and most

Bowmore Islay Single Malt Scotch Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Bowmore Islay Single Malt Scotch - Case Study Example This distillery is famed for its single malt scotch whiskey. Rather than marketing a blended scotch whiskey, Bowmore prides itself in marketing the best aged and single brandy whiskies. Their brand Bowmore Islay Single Malt Scotch is wildly famous not only in the united kingdom but also in other parts of the world like Japan and china. The success of this brand can be attributed to the marketing strategies that had been adopted by the marketers of this distillery. One of them is creating a brand that is unique in quality. This means that the scotch is priced highly and this sets it apart from other run-of-the-mill scotches. The marketers have long realised that sophisticated consumers are looking for the expensive scotch and not necessarily the best scotch. As such, when a brand is able to combine expensive and good, it is bound to succeed. This is what Bowmore Distillery has done; they have produced a very expensive and a very good scotch whiskey. This report is a culmination of a market research that was carried on Bowmore Islay Single Malt Scotch. It was commissioned by Bowmore Distilleries and conducted by this research outsourcing company. The major aim was to analyse the domestic and international markets of this brand. The aim of this research was to determine how these trends in the domestic and international markets may affect sales of the product. ... 1) definition of the problem of the study 2) methodology for the research 3) presentation of the findings of the research a). an analysis of the domestic market b). an analysis of the international market c). competitor analysis at both international and domestic markets d). impacts of the domestic and international market dynamics on sales of the product e). Bowmore use of different market research methods to enter the African market Problem of the Study It has come to the realisation of the marketing department in Bowmore that the domestic sales have dropped below those of the international market. In fact, when the sales accrued from the international market increase at a high rate, those of the domestic market seem to decrease at a very low rate or stagnate at times. The executives of the distillery needed to know where this discrepancy was stemming from. Another impetus for this research was the fact that the marketing department wanted to launch the product into the African market. Kenya, a country in the eastern part of the continent, has been chosen as the entry point into the region. The executives needed to know the different types of marketing research that they can use to make inroads into this market. Methodology of the Research There are various methods that the researcher used to collect information for this study. Liang (2003) opines that the success of any market research lies on the methods that were used to execute it. If the research design was poor, this will be reflected in the findings of the research and vise versa. The accuracy of the research is of paramount importance given that the policy makers rely on the findings and recommendations to make their decisions. As such, if they are presented with a

Corporate governance for lebanese SMEs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Corporate governance for lebanese SMEs - Essay Example This study hence is an analyzing assessment for whether this model would be, to any extent, applicable to the Lebanese context. It reveals the results of the first phase of an ongoing research aiming at investigating the extent to which the Anglo-Saxon System of Corporate Governance be adopted by companies in Middle-Eastern countries, specifically the case of SMEs in Lebanon?Identifying whether it contributes in improving or hindering their performance? Using a purposeful sampling approach, semi-structured interviews and focus groups technique is applied to 90 owners/shareholders, managers and employees from the trading, hotel and restaurant sectors that dominate Lebanese SMEs (table 1) and comprise 50.40% of the total population.This technique provides the advantage of comparing all participants’ responses to the main question and provides more in-depth information that cannot be obtained through questionnaires. This discussion answers the above mentioned research questions t hrough adopting the interpretive approach and a thematic analysis. Data will be collected and interpreted deeply in order to identify the extent to which socio-cultural factors affect a firm’s corporate governance structure and hence its performance. 1.1 Purpose of the Study According to the literature, there are much more forms of corporate governance, based on different structures of ownership and affected by large variations of cultural background, legal framework, political environment and economic climate (J. Solomon & A. Solomon, 2004). The â€Å"fit† between cultural values and organizational structures resulted from a fusion of human culture with the models of organization; therefore, it is recommended that organizations enter into arrangements that match with our basic cultural perspective (Hofstede (1991). In other terms, the organizational structural elements are shaped by values that are compatible with and suitable to cultural values as a component of the organization’s implicit models (Hambrick & Brandon, 1988). Swidler (1986) argues that organizations can be viewed as social entities integrated into the institutional and value structures constituting the culture of a society; in this view, organizations and societies tend to reflect each other structurally. In particular, national cultural differences influence the shape and functioning of organizations (Hickson & Pugh, 1995; Hofstede, 1991). Besides, literature found that good governance has a positive impact on organizational performance. Gemmill and Thomas (2004) note that good corporate governance and firm value are positively correlated. Corporate governance mechanisms can guarantee for shareholders an adequate return on their investments (Shleifer & Vishny, 1997). Given the culture-structure link and the correlation between good governance and performance, the purpose of this study is to identify the extent to which corporate governance model in Lebanon fits with the A nglo-American model. If it fits, the objective of the study will be how to maintain it? If not, the study will analyze the benefits of proposing a new model of corporate governance or adapting the existing one. 1.2 Nature of the Study The empirical analysis contained herein is of qualitative nature. Qualitative research seeks to understand the social world from the perspectives of research participants and the detailed descriptions of their experiences (Myers, 2000).The richness and depth of explorations and descriptions represent one of the

How Technology in the Workplace has shaped Outsourcing and Essay - 1

How Technology in the Workplace has shaped Outsourcing and Globalization - Essay Example ivilization or Christianity, but the real objective, according to Thurow & Lessard (2002), was to exploit the untapped resources of poorer countries so the richer countries can enhance their wealth. Probably because of this striking resemblance between colonization and latter-day globalization, analysts saw globalization coming as early as the mid-19th century. One of them was Karl Marx, who perforce warned of dire consequences: â€Å"It will make the poor poorer because it will bring down wages, increase class and country inequality, create monopolistic companies with global dimension and create economic collapse in places characterized by social, economic and political instability (Mahdavi, 2004).† Marx in his Das Kapital even expressed fear of â€Å"religious terrorism† as a possible reaction to the concept of globalization. These are exactly the same social concerns that many are raising to intersperse with the chorus of praise for the otherwise welcome benefits of technology as represented in today’s world by computers and the Internet. The questions that this paper seeks to satisfy are: Has any of Marx’s predictions come true? While technology is generally viewed as a good thing, are there any downsides to the resulting globalization that fostered business outsourcing? The information revolution as we know it traces its roots to the family computer that made video games possible. Then in mid-1970s, the electronic principle that made the family computer work was successfully expanded through a gadget that came to be known as personal computer. The personal computer with its subsequently developed Internet capability was soon hailed as a device that revolutionized information dissemination in a much bigger way than the telephone. Whereas the telephone established connection between only 2 or 3 nodes, the Internet allows simultaneous exchange of information in digital form among a limitless number of nodes. The economic impact of the