Organizational culture is fundamentally about symbolic meaning and as Essay - 4

Organizational culture is fundamentally about symbolic meaning and as such cannot be managed. Discuss - Essay Example Similarly, Hutch (2006) indicated that organizational culture is the unique principles, beliefs and behaviors that combine to give each organization a unique character. Essentially, these definitions point out that organizational culture is the pattern of behavior that is distinct to a particular organization. The culture of an organization is created by assumptions early in the life of an organization which become the modus operandi and are passed on to new personnel of the organization. The set of beliefs that form a company’s culture may be written or unwritten but they define the way in which people behave in the organization (Robbins & Judge 2007). It is imperative that culture is cultivated throughout the life of an organization and gives the organization a sense of identity. Symbolic Meaning of Organizational Culture Organizational culture may not be easily captured or defined within an organization due to fact that it is fundamentally of symbolic meaning. The manifesta tions of organizational culture differ from place to place. Culture in itself is a socially constructed phenomenon and it reflects meanings that are constituted through interactions among the members of an organization (Fineman et al 2005). An organization’s norms are built in an organic manner that eventually forms the basis for commonly accepted modes of operation. In organizations, culture is symbolic and it is described by stories and materials that are of significance within the organization. In this regard, the organizational culture is tied to symbolic meanings that are derived from the historical experiences in the organization. Verbal symbols such stories, myths and anecdotes can be used to symbolize company culture. Every organization has captivating stories that define its success and failures. The organization’s history can be captured in myths and anecdotes that are passed to newer employees. It is notable that communication is critical in any human engage ments. Verbal symbols create mythical heroes and heroines who serve as the yardstick for acceptable behavior in a particular organization. For instance, organizations can have symbolic stories on how the founders started in a college dormitory and worked on a shoe string budget during the formative years. This can be interpreted to create a culture of limited spending and avoiding exorbitant. The stories and myths are powerful tools that can help new employees to make sense of the organization’s environment and appreciate its ethos. It was noted that: Beliefs, values and ideology are at the heart of organizations. Individuals hold certain ideas and value-preferences which influence how they behave and how they view the behavior of other members. These norms become shared traditions which are communicated within the group and are reinforced by verbal symbols (Hatch 2006, p.265). Actions such as rituals and events may be used to symbolically show the beliefs and practices withi n an organization. For instance, team retreats may hold a symbolic value within an organization. Such an activity may serve as the springboard of all product and service ideas for a company. It may be a practice within the organization that employees have to go on annual retreats to unwind and come up with product innovations. Hatch (2006) indicated that rituals can also serve as a powerful tool symbolizing the culture. Some organizations may have rituals that determine how the orientation of new

ECO202 - CA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

ECO202 - CA - Essay Example 4. Compare the four countries regarding the Labor Market (Unemployment Rate). The analysis should only cover the period from the beginning of 2008 to the present, and make sure the most recent 2010 changes are addressed. This is a difficult part because instead of reporting and ranking the indicators you must look at them as a whole, in an analytic manner to arrive at conclusions: 5. After reviewing the recent economic indicators for these countries, which is the country that currently has the strongest economic recovery at the present time. Make certain you confine your choice to only one country. 6. What is your prediction about the economic health of the United States over the next 3 to 5 year period? Please confine your comments only to the US economy. The purpose of this paper is to provide an examination and analysis on economic indicators pertaining to United States, Japan, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The format that this paper will utilize is to answer the six questions t hat this paper outlined on the title page through analyzing the nations and then providing insight into the grand picture. 1) The purpose of this question is to provide a comparison of four countries based on output and growth (Real GDP) from the period of 2008 to the present. ... On the other side of the spectrum it could be argued that Japan spent the most amount of time as the lowest performer of the pack of nations, by being at the overall average lowest and reaching the most extreme negative points. Moreover the United Kingdom and the United States both seemed to spend the majority of the time somewhere in the middle (Never spending much time as the highest performer and lowest performers respectively). What can be stated that is that the economic downturn of the 2008-2010 season held a devastating effect on all of the nations with arguably Japan being the most strongly affected and Canada was left performing the best of all the nations. It should also be noted that Japan rebounded to the highest levels of all the nations but this seems to represent an over rebound and the nation has been quickly plummeting over the past year. 2) The purpose of this question is to examine the productivity (Output per worker) of the four nations. Upon early examination it is clear that all the nations seem to follow the same pattern, insofar as when there seems to be a significant tradeoff between which nation seems to hold the highest position. Every single nation held this position at least a few times, and what could be concluded from this is that no one nation seemed to have any sort of competitive advantage over another. However it is also the case that Japan recognized the most significant drop during the economic downturn. What this could arguably translate to is the idea that Japanese industries were more exposed to the effects of a significant depression. It could be that the industries that employed the most people in Japan produced goods or provided services that would

Understanding Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Understanding Art - Essay Example If I would never have read Frida Kahlo’s meaning to her work, I would have thought that this man was in her head, always watching with a third eye and the oppression she feels, but as she expresses to friend, â€Å" I have suffered two serious accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar ran over me†¦. The other accident was Diego.†. Her work compels me, possibly because of her bravery to not only look at the reality of her situation but also because she allowed me to view it and share her emotion.   This painting makes me feel compassion, revulsion, and other unnamed emotions.   That is what makes it good art.  If I would never have read Frida Kahlo’s meaning to her work, I would have thought that this man was in her head, always watching with a third eye and the oppression she feels, but as she expresses to friend, â€Å" I have suffered two serious accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar ran over me†¦. The other accident was Diego.â⠂¬ . Her work compels me, possibly because of her bravery to not only look at the reality of her situation but also because she allowed me to view it and share her emotion.   This painting makes me feel compassion, revulsion, and other unnamed emotions.    Art is defined by many different categories, all in which help give a greater  understanding of the purpose of art. Art can range from the occasional change in color contrast of our room to a fresh vase of roses on the dining room table.

Critical Thinking English- A New Earth Chapters One to Ten Essay

Critical Thinking English- A New Earth Chapters One to Ten - Essay Example These emotions are therefore borne out of our reaction to things, and thus, these emotions can be evil. Nevertheless, from Tolle’s book and from this class, one learns that nonreaction is the more spiritual way and that it can be learned only through the view that change is inevitable. From Chapter 3, I particularly like: â€Å"Nonreaction is not weakness but strength. Another word for nonreaction is forgiveness. To forgive is to overlook, or rather to look through†¦the ego to the sanity that is in every human being as his or her essence† (Tolle 41). Oftentimes, when I react to my boyfriend’s comments or to how he behaves, I would normally react with tantrums. However, after that, I somehow realize that I have acted in a stupid way or that something was not right and that no matter how valid the emotion was, it did not seem to be helping the relationship. Afterwards, I would also feel selfish and thus apologize to my boyfriend for my reaction no matter how m uch I did not want to apologize. Before I became a part of this class and before I read Tolle, I thought long and hard about how to appropriately react to the many different hurts that I expect I would get from my boyfriend or from the relationship itself. Little did I know that the flaw was not in the method of reacting to the hurt or to the situation but it is in the whole concept of reaction itself. I believe people, especially I, would normally react to situations because they do not understand the spiritual principle about nonreaction. True strength, according to Tolle, is not reaction but nonreaction. Moreover, nonreaction happens in us when we see only the ego of another person and not his essence. When we begin to see the essence, we forgive almost automatically and we lose the natural tendency to react. In my case, I particularly like the quote from Tolle not because I follow it but because this is something I still have to go through. Ever since we were young, we were alwa ys told to react, and everything that we have learned is based on the idea of human emotion – that certain things can trigger specific emotions in a human being. Somehow, this concept indirectly also teaches us that we are at the mercy of our emotions, and that we cannot do anything except react. Our society has also taught us to react to political matters as well as anything else that happens in the world of fashion, in the news, and even in science and technology, where our emotions do not actually matter or where our emotions would somehow make us feel justified, recognized and vindicated. Our religions have also taught us the same feeling of being vindicated when we have proven others wrong and ourselves morally right and upright. This is true in my case. I feel the vindication whenever I shout at my boyfriend after he does something I did not particularly like. It is the time that I feel I am right, and I feel I am superior and lofty, and most of all – right. Neve rtheless, as long as we rely on our emotions to vindicate us, we will forever react to things around us and we will forever be subject to sorrow and suffering. The key therefore is change. If we are to experience strength from nonreaction, then we have to free ourselves from our emotions, and therefore we have to change. From Chapter 8, the line that appeals to me is: â€Å"Once you see and accept the transience of all things and the inevitability of change, you can enjoy the

Read short story Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Read short story - Essay Example This side of the valley is symbolic of life and has a seemly association with Jig, while Hemingway links it to her desires to settle down permanently, have the child, and be in a loving relationship. However, the valley’s other side is the opposite. It is sterile, barren, bleak, and a desert landscape that has no life or animation present (Hemingway 12). This side of the valley is representative of abortion and its unwanted and deadly consequences. It is also, perhaps, symbolic of the meaningless and empty nature of the earlier relationships between the couple. In the story, it is as if the author takes the two characters and places them in a landscape, which seems to exemplify the decisions they will have to make, as well as, the major differences that stand between the two of them as individuals. The author deftly and subtly utilizes more than one aspect of the setting in the story to show significant things about what it means, which, in this case, is the valley and its two contrasting

Cultural Critique Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Cultural Critique - Research Paper Example Given that women make up over a half of the human population and give their huge and increasing contributions to every sector of the development the trampling on their rights is not only a great shame, but an unfortunate indictment of the civilized society throughout the world. The subjugation of women’s rights begins right at home. Women are expected to take the lead in taking care of children at home. They are the ones who have to give up their career for at least a significant amount of time in order to ensure the well-being of their new-born babies. Women bear the brunt of child-bearing, an experience still fraught with significant health dangers, especially in the under-developed a countries where a large number of women lose their lives during the birth process. In the family upbringing is meant to be a shared duty for both parents, a lot of the times the woman is still expected to be the one to give up her time and career prospects in order to raise the children. In mar riages, women also bear the brunt of domestic violence; in over 90% of cases reported the women are the victims. In the UK, for instance, one in 4 women aged 16-59 have experienced domestic abuse and 50% of these have also been raped (Women's Health& Equality Consortium 3). In cases of single mothers, women end up playing the role of both mother and father despite the fact that the conception of the child is a shared process. In education too women are at a disadvantage, especially in the developing and underdeveloped world where cultural attitudes and poverty dictate that the education of the girl-child is given less of a priority than that of the boy child. The common perception is that educating the girl only ends up benefitting the family where she will end up getting married into.This means that when a family has to prioritize who gets a chance for education, the girl child is always disadvantaged. In the lower basic education levels, thus, even though the developed countries h ave managed to more or less equalize the schooling of girls and boys, this is not the case in the majority of the rest of the world. A large proportion of women in Africa, Asia, and even the Eastern European states are still greatly disadvantaged when it comes to educational opportunities. When the girls find their way to school, they are still discriminated against when it comes to certain courses of studies. In many countries there are still beliefs that women are somehow not as proficient as men in such fields as sciences, architecture, medicine, engineering, math, and other â€Å"brain taxing† studies which leads to stereotyping of the kinds of courses that women end up taking at school. At the high end of the education ladder too, women still find a glass ceiling when it comes to postgraduate and doctoral studies. In American Universities, for example, despite the fact that 53% of the students are women, 72% of the faculty are men, many of them in tenured positions while the women mostly have untenured or part time positions (Penn State University). The workplace is the one place where women are still very disadvantaged in both the developed and the underdeveloped world. Women face disadvantages and discrimination in getting senior and management jobs, they never get equal pay for equal work with

Corporate strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

Corporate strategy - Essay Example Additionally, the first manmade island, Palm Jumeirah, is one of such tourist destinations that are worth visiting. However, Dubai is inhibited by 1.4 million people, of whom less than 20% are natives of Dubai. This creates a sufficient skilled and un-skilled labor needs that are highly essential to fulfill the needs of development. And this has invited a large number of foreigners. Consequently, to fulfill the dearth of skilled and un-skilled labor, the Government of Dubai have allowed expatriates to serve and help the city of Dubai to become a dream destination of the tourists. Geographically, Dubai is ideally located, connecting the Indian Sub-Continent to Europe, the Far East and Africa. Besides serving a route business point, the tourists from such countries can easily reach Dubai. However, Dubai cannot avoid the threat of political instability in the region and, the criticism raised by the environmentalists over its excessive use of water and power to feed its growth of economy and tourism industry. Some recent reports suggest the ecological and carbon footprint is mostly contributed by Dubai due to its faster consumption of fossil fuels. In the following pages, the PESTEL analysis is followed by the SWOT analysis of Dubai. And in the end, some recommendations with conclusion are suggested in the light of the PESTEL and SWOT analysis. PESTEL analysis PESTEL stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal. The main purpose of PESTEL analysis is to understand and evaluate the impacts of the external environment on an entity or a country or a city. Without any doubt, these factors directly or indirectly influence on the strategic and operational decisions. Consequently, they are taken into account before determining and implementing strategic decisions and policies. Political and Legal Dubai is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (Emirates.org, web). Politically, UAE is run and administrated under the authorit y of federation. The UAE federal government has considerable powers to determine many areas of public interest; however, certain features of governance are assigned to the member emirates to determine and implement them as they wish to do so. Currently, many policies of Dubai towards the tourism industry are considerably aligned with the guidelines of the UAE, and the same line is applicable to the legislative part as well. Economic Dubai is the second wealthiest emirate after Abu Dhabi in the UAE (Dubai. Web). Recently, the global financial crisis of 2007 has severely hit the economy of Dubai, resulting huge job losses and rising unemployment. The recession considerably put on hold the entire economy of the Dubai. However, as the period of recovery is on its way, the city of Dubai has again initiated its journey towards the economic growth and development; in that growth, the tourism industry plays a vital role. Additionally, its projects like the Burj Khalifa skyscraper have attra cted vast amount of foreign investment (news.bbc, web). Technological Dubai cannot remain behind in the field of