Functioning Management Essay Example

Functioning Management Essay Example Functioning Management Essay Functioning Management Essay Qualcomm Incorporated: Functioning Management Katie Atkinson, Farrah Mason, Jennifer McMahan, Robert Briones, Nichol Vann University of Phoenix MGT 330; Israr Hayath Qualcomm Incorporated: Functioning Management Qualcomm is an American wireless telecommunications research and Development Company, as well as the largest fables chip supplier in the world, based in San Diego, California. Qualcomm was founded in 1985 by UC San Diego Professor Irwin Jacobs, MIT Alumni Andrew Viterbi, Harvey White, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen, and Franklin Antonio. QUALCOMM, 2010) Qualcomm’s mission statement is: â€Å"Life, Connected with technology. From the written word, to image and photos, to music, to videos, games, streaming content, and more, Qualcomm is on a never-ending quest to feed the mind. Whether by developing our technologies or partnering with companies who share our vision, were leading the charge in the digital revolution. † (Qualcomm, 2010) The external and internal factors that affect Qualcomm’s four functions of management (planning, organizing, leading, and controlling) are as follows but not limited to; Globalization, Technology, Innovation, Diversity, and Ethics. This paper will review how external and internal factors affect the four functions of Qualcomm, and how managers and executives use delegation to manage the different factors and functions listed above. Qualcomm; Planning and management’s function When planning the future for any company, especially Qualcomm, you must consider internal and external factors. Qualcomm’s sustainability and value to its stockholders is dependent upon the ability to predict future trends in technology, the global environment and maintain its strategic advantage. For example, Qualcomm’s core objectives include expanding the use of 3G technologies in emerging markets (Business Civic Leadership Center, 2006). Realization of this objective requires that Qualcomm be aware of political, cultural and economic factors in the markets they may wish to enter. Internally, Qualcomm must be structured to be agile and prepared to quickly form partnerships in response to developing opportunities. : Like a manufacturer who uses the best quality materials to produce a product, Qualcomm’s most valuable asset is the intellectual capabilities of its engineers. Qualcomm must create a corporate environment that attracts and retains the best minds. Qualcomm is a global enterprise. The corporation is chartered to function in the international development of wireless technologies. Planning to achieve corporate objectives must scan the external horizon on an ongoing regular basis. This corporation cannot afford to publish a five year plan that sits on the self. Executive planners must evaluate what is going on in the world almost on a daily basis and asking the question, â€Å"How does this affect our objectives and positioning? † Intelligence is critical to this process. Information on the stability or instability of governments, financial markets and emerging research is critical to the sustainability of Qualcomm. Qualcomm is in the technology business. The future of Qualcomm is dependent upon the ability to invest and develop products that are compatible with and have an advantage over the competition. An innovator cannot assume that if they develop the best can opener, they will be the world’s leader in can opener sales. New technologies often compete until one becomes the industry standard upon which other compatible technologies are based. Qualcomm has declared that one of its core objectives is the expansion of 3G technologies in emerging markets (Business Civic Leadership Center, 2006). They are heavily invested in mobile platforms that utilize 3G technologies. G technology may be adequate to support the utilities presently needed by a small home based business in Malaysia, but will it be adequate to support explosion of demand as this market becomes more globally aware? Qualcomm planners must position the design of Qualcomm technologies to expand and morph to respond to tomorrow’s expectations. Qualcomm does business in almost every corner of the globe. As a corporation they must be prepared and plan to foster diversity in every aspect. They must foster a corpor ate culture that supports and respects the culture, religion, and ethnic backgrounds of employees, customers, and partners. Qualcomm takes to heart their Global Workforce Inclusion policy. The policy states in part: â€Å"Inclusion and Diversity are at the very heart of innovation. It requires different perspectives to take an idea, perfect it, and turn it into world-changing technology. And it requires an energetic, diverse workforce to come up with those different perspectives. Here at Qualcomm, we find diversity, and the creativity it brings, vital to our success. To this end, we are committed to providing all employees the opportunity to achieve their professional goals. † (Qualcomm, 2010) Qualcomm portrays itself as a responsible global corporate citizen. Cutting edge research and product development is the life’s blood of Qualcomm. Unethical practices that infringe on the research and product development of competitors may be costly and detrimental to the sustainability of the enterprise. Planning to mitigate the potential damage of infringement disputes was demonstrated by the recent settlement with Broadband wherein the two giants agreed to cross license each other’s patents. This agreement protects Qualcomm from future infringement lawsuits that could cripple its development (Sinapse, 2010). Qualcomm; Organizing and management’s function Organizing can be defined as â€Å"assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals† (Bateman Snell, 2009). The company called Qualcomm primarily operates in South Korea, where they employ over 16,100 employees. The external factors affecting organizing in Qualcomm are making sure there are enough resources to complete the jobs for the telecommunication devices. Having an organizational structure is the key to internal aspect of Qualcomm, with employing a lot of employees there must be a clear and concise structure of job duties assigned. Another internal factor is Qualcomm grants out their licenses for use of their telecommunication devices. â€Å"Qualcomm also grants licenses to use its intellectual property portfolio, which includes certain patent rights useful in the manufacture and sale of wireless products†. (Thompson, 2010). Qualcomm has stretched globally in areas such as Italy, Asia Pacific, and United Kingdom which reinforces there leadership in the worldwide messaging market. With Qualcomm going globally all employees have to be organized in the supplier chain of sending over the new product to the global areas as well as manufacturing the new product. This new technology was called Eudora, were it allowed different time zones to still communicate. With Qualcomm becoming so innovated, the company created an agreement with the international publishers which allowed for faster product delivery and improved distribution. With reaching out their market globally Qualcomm has become very diverse, by adding this new agreement it allowed the international countries to keep the delivery and distribution more organized. â€Å"Republisher’s customers will now be able to purchase these localized products and receive localized support in the respective countries† (Qualcomm, 2010). With it now being localized to re-publisher’s customers Eudora is also offered in different languages such as Italian, Chinese and Korean. Qualcomm is such a huge corporation that their ethics have to be very structured, and organized. All employees at the corporation are expected to do their job duties with honesty and in an ethical manner. It’s very important for managers to be organized and follow the code of ethics as well as all employees. By implementing a strong code of ethics all employees and managers will know what values are expected from them. Qualcomm; Leading and management’s function What is Leadership and what makes a good leader? Basically, a leader is one who is able to influence others to attain certain goals that must be met by the corporation or department. According to James Kouzes and Barry Posner, great leaders have five key traits or behaviors which make them outstanding at leading others (Bateman Snell, 2009). Those five traits are: challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, leading by example, and being generous with affirmations. These traits are always being tested both internally and externally. The people who are being led have many things to deal with in their own lives which require them to juggle an enormous load, between work life and personal life it is enough to make anybody go mad if it wasn’t for effective leadership. Internally a leader must face the issues of budgeting effectively, creating a vision that he can get everyone on board with and the overall morale of the organization. There are many times a leader must put aside his own desires to be able to â€Å"lead by example† and show his subordinates what is best for the company as a whole. All in all a great leader is going to be able to nstill in his workers/followers a sense of ownership in the vision which he created. This vision can is affected not only by the internal factors previously stated, but also by those elements from outside the organization. So examples of external factors are the economy, world events, and the leaders’ personal life. If there is a bad economy he must know ho w to restructure while keeping morale high. If the world faces an immediate threat or, even, something positive that will change how his organization runs, how will he handle the change and lead his people in the same direction? Lastly, personal lives, everybody has them and something always happens that will potentially throw you off course, how do you plan for the worst or the best and keep your organization or department running like a well-oiled machine? The amount of knowledge of the vast array of topics a leader must be familiar with is astounding. They must know how everything from globalization and technology to diversity and ethics affects his organization. Globalization and technology are a huge area for a manager to have a handle on due to the advantages and disadvantages they bring. For example, an advantage technology can bring to a manager and his organization is the ability to serve his clients or customers quickly and more efficiently. The disadvantage is if the manager either doesn’t know of the technology available to him or doesn’t know how to use it properly, the client could decide to change providers due to lack of quality of service. Technology has also made it harder for managers to keep up with the demand. Technology has also affected the kind diversity the workforce can have. So often the baby boomers may be losing out on promotions due to the fact that they do not know how to use the technology given to them, which in turn allows the younger generation to take over their positions. On the flip side, the younger generations, know how to use the technology, may end up stuck at their current position because the boomers, with more experience, are better suited for the management positions. They will just need to have an advisor for things that they are not familiar with or take a class. Ethics has also being greatly affected by technology and diversity. Ethics, basically the theory of right and wrong, has been pushed to the background because of the insurmountable amount of information the manger most learn. Ethics can affect a leader’s role by the way he corresponds with and conducts himself around fellow employees. Qualcomm; Controlling and management’s function When reviewing the controlling aspect of management one should review how revenues are invested, and recognize the importance of the previous steps of planning, implementing and leading (Bateman Snell, 2009). A strong company will invest in its innovative team to plan out future or expected needs, and create viable, efficient and effective solutions to these problems. Pushing forward into new territories helps a company remain on the forefront of their industry, which is highly important in the fast pace business of technology and communications. Qualcomm has the opportunity to continue their innovative steps and continue to hold their established presence in the United States, while expanding to our European neighbors. The ability to properly control the leadership of the planning and implementing process will prove to be Qualcomm’s success. Qualcomm’s established presence as a communication provider prompts innovative thoughts and controlling of company policies that have been implemented. Qualcomm has expanded their presence globally and in doing so have extended their responsibilities for ensuring their company standards are upheld. The creation of operating procedures during the planning, organizing and leading processes allow for thorough monitoring. Qualcomm expresses the importance of controlling company assets by smartly investing â€Å"23% of our gross revenue †¦ into RD (research and development)† (Qualcomm, 2010). The monies invested into planning and implementing or research and development, has provided Qualcomm with the security of being the first to implement new technologies and upgrades to consumers (Qualcomm, 2010). Using Delegation to Manage Delegation is the assignment of tasks and responsibilities and has many potential advantages for managers, subordinates, and organizations. In order to be effective, the delegation process must be managed carefully, defining the goal, selecting the right person, soliciting opinions, providing resources, scheduling checkpoints, and discussing progress periodically. (Bateman Snell, 2009). Qualcomm used delegation by setting up different divisions within the company. Each division is responsible for different factors such as Qualcomm Global Trading Inc (QGT) is responsible for the globalization factor. (Qualcomm, 2010) Qualcomm uses a decentralization decision making process within each division. The decentralized decision making process allows the employees most directly affected by the decision that is made and have the hands on knowledge of the problem or project to make the decisions. (Bateman Snell, 2009). The authors of this paper believe planning is centered on all of the four functions of management. Managers of an organization are to carry out the functions to assist in the organizations growth. Therefore, they delegate and perform the functions of management. The functions the managers are using to delegate are planning, organizing, leading and controlling. They are to make sure that clients are valued by specific planning. They also must contain a certain amount of people skills. The managers are to lead, motivate, and communicate effectively. (Bateman Snell, 2009). Delegation is a critical skill in the effective management of organizations. Qualcomm has used delegating by first separating each function into a division such as Technology (IT) and each division has their own vice-president who does planning and his subordinates do the organizing, leading, and controlling of the different projects or product management. Qualcomm, 2010) In conclusion, to live up to their missions’ statement Qualcomm used the external and internal factors, the four functions of management, and the delegation management style. Qualcomm is now the world leader in next generation mobile technologies, Qualcomm’s ideas and inventions are driving wireless growth and helping to connect people to information, entertainment and one another. (Qualcomm , 2010) Qualcomm uses the four functions of management (planning, organizing, leading, and controlling) to manage globalization, technology, innovation, diversity, and ethics. In this paper you have read how the external and internal factors affect the four functions of Qualcomm, and how managers and executives use delegation to manage the different factors and functions listed above. Qualcomm management style allows them to evolve quicker then the competition and gives them the flexibility to change with the times. References Bateman, T. S. , Snell, S. S. (2009). Management: Leading collaborating in a competitive world (8th ed. ). Boston, MA: McGraw, Inc.. Business Civic Leadership Center. (2006). Qualcomm and Gramenn Foundation. Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC). Washington, D. C.. Retrieved on November 27, 2010 from http://bclc. uschamber. com/awards/qualcomm-and-grameen-foundation2006 Sinapse. (2010). Qualcomm and Broadcom settle. Sinapse; An Intellectual Property Rendezvous, A Brain League Institute. Powered by Blogger. Retrieved on November 27, 2010 from sinapseblog. com/2009/06/qualcom-and-broadcom-settle. html. Thompson, B. (July 5, 2010). New market research report: Qualcomm Incorporated – SWOT analysis. PR-inside. com; News and Free PR. Retrieved on November 24, 2010 from pr-inside. com/new-market-research-report-Qualcommm-incorporated-r1983909. tm. Qualcomm, (2010). Enabling small and diverse businesses. Qualcomm, Inc. San Diego, CA. Retrieved on November 27, 2010 fro m qualcomm. com/citizenship/diversity/supplier_diversity. html. Qualcomm: Italy, (June 15, 1998). Qualcomm increases worldwide presence of Eudora Pro ®. Qualcomm Italy, San Diego, CA. Retrieved on November 24, 2010 from http://italy. qualcomm. com/news/releases/1998/press843. html. Qualcomm, (2010). Pathway to innovation. Innovation. Qualcomm Incorporated, San Diego, CA. Retrieved November 26, 2010 from qualcomm. com/innovation/pathway/index. html.

A Beautiful Mind Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A Beautiful Mind - Essay Example Ironically, trying to solve like an equation cannot work out. We find our true happiness by letting go and just let life to happen on us. ‘A beautiful mind’ is an exaggerated tale of the life law, and how terrible life can get if we attempt to solve its nonexistent formulas. John Nash is a really awkward person, poor in social situations, but astonishingly talented mathematician. He is always finding a revolutionary discovery to change life or rather a life formula. About halfway of the movie John Nash suffers from a severe form of schizophrenia. Half of places and situation existing in his life are only part of his beautiful mind. Nash gets along very well with roommate, Charles, making the audience suspicious from the start picturing that Nash does not get well with anybody else (Ebert 56). There is also Parcher who works out well with everybody and is working on a conspiracy of an atomic bomb threat against the U.S. when the conspiracy saga messes up in Nash’s head, that is when he is actually in need of mental help. He can no longer think right, feel or act right. Suddenly, he stops using medicating and his schizophrenia situation worsens. He starts to battle against hallucinations of his own instead of going back to hospital. This is the turning point in the movie were Nash gets to learn on how to really live his own life. Nash comes to learn that life is more than making discoveries: there is love involved emotions and love involved, a wife, a baby to take care of and daily joys of life. John goes back to teaching classes and shares his experience and knowledge with students instead of focusing his time with himself. At one point Nash says that dreams will gradually vanish, if we do not focus on them, and have constant action towards them. Nightmares will always recur, as long as we feed them our attention. At the end of the movie John Nash wins a Nobel Price, for his contributions in the society. A Beautiful Mind is a movie that expla ins the benefit of enjoying life and not being caught up in ridiculous theories and discoveries or fantasies for a future that may never be. Embrace life daily but don’t embrace a fantasy world (Ebert 123). A beautiful mind offered the filmmaker some rich visual possibilities, being featured with nourished intrigue, an uncommon love story and time frame spanning several years. In fact, it is one of the dynamic films of Howard’s career so far. Putting our perception of events with John Nash is required a consistent visual accentuation on his perspective, and when Daekins’ camera is often looking out with prowling crane or circling with stead cam shots. Thematic Concerns The producers of the film are trying to highlight the issue of the mind. The mind is the reason for human beings’ ingenuity, humanity and artistic originality. However, the producer is explaining the fact that sometimes, the mind can work against us. The mind is able to alter people’ s sense of being and is able to make people believe that the unreal is the real. Therefore, while the mind is a very important aspect of human beings’ lives, it can also be a set back. This is the principle that the producer of the movie, ‘’A Beautiful Mind’’ is passing across to the audience. The story, based on a true story, has noteworthy brains behind its creation (Crowe 45). For starters, we are introduced to John Nash who is a mathematical genius, who only visualizes life through numbers. He is such an avid thinker, that even when pigeons are feeding, he tries to create an algorithm that would characterize their feeding patterns. Even when he witnesses a mugging, he is describes the incident as vectors and then he summarizes it in the form of complicated formulas and theorems. Therefore, John Nash is simply trying to explain that

ESOL and Training for Security Industry Authority Licence Essay

ESOL and Training for Security Industry Authority Licence - Essay Example This essay explores the topic of teaching and training that becomes more and more challenging for the educators or trainers of many migrants. The researcher analyzes the effects of the diversity among the community, that strengthens its economic and social status. On the other hand, it entails social responsibilities that involve the need to educate then effectively especially its immigrants. Continuous expansion of the European Union has brought about the increase in migrant workers struggling to fit into the new community that demands the need to learn the English language to meet the needs and the demands of the society. In addition, the researcher mentiones that learning the English language moreover helps migrants understand more the ideas that they need to know in accordance to the society’s requirement as member of the new group of civilization. Their limited English proficiency therefore implies a need for further development or innovations of the teaching and training strategies. Their difficulty in the English language limits their capability in understanding the ideas and ideals that the community would want to emphasize. The researcher then states that the increasing number of English as Second Other Language learners choosing the Security Level 2 training in the Security Industry Authority that involves Licensing affects the teaching modes such that a more interactive and transactional oral communication should be developed in order to meet the needs of the learners.

Bertoly Brechts Mother Courage Drama Essay

Bertoly Brechts Mother Courage Drama Essay Bertolt Brechts view on the function of theatre was that it should provoke its audience to change. The epic theatre, Karl Marx and German directors Max Reinhardt and Erwin Piscator were all inspiration for Brechts theory on the social function of theatre. ( 2004: 709) Brechts essays Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction and The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre clearly outline his understanding of what epic theatre is and how it should be used in practice. In both essays, Brecht explains what makes the epic theatre different from modern and dramatic theatre and discusses the techniques available with epic theatre and the effects they can have on the audience. When comparing his play Mother Courage and Her Children to the two essays, it is clear that Brecht has used the essays almost as guidelines to write the play and put his theories on epic theatre into practice. Mother Courage and Her Children is an extremely typical Brechtian play as it contains all the elements that Brecht wanted to include in his plays in order to present his new form of theatre which he believed had a greater social function. One of the most obvious examples of Brechts essays being put into practice in Mother Courage and Her Children is Brechts use of narrative instead of the plot. Each scene begins with a narrative description of what will happen in that scene, and the play itself starts with a prologue which introduces the central character (Mother Courage) and reveals what the play is about. Despite the fact that there is a storyline running through the play, the narrative style ties in with Brechts aim of not giving the audience the chance to become emotionally attached to the characters. The way in which the play jumps with each scene keeps the storyline general and tied more to the greater social events running throughout the play rather than single, individual events in a particular scene. Having spent much of his life in Germany and experiencing two world wars, it should come as no surprise that many of Brechts plays, including Mother Courage and Her Children, feature war as the overriding theme of the play. Brecht believed that war was a continuation of business by other means. Brechts theory on theatre meant that he did not want his audience to emotionally empathise with the characters on stage. In fact, Brecht deliberately created characters which would be subject to criticism from the audience. In order to invite this active rather than passive response from the audience, to provoke a reaction, Brecht instils traits in his characters which tend to make the audience not identify with them, but criticise them. Mother Courage is portrayed as a strong, witty, formidable woman whose sole purpose is to provide a living for both herself and her children. She is a sacrificial character and her love for her children draws an audience to like her. What prevents the audience from empathising with her is her extremely contradictory nature. Whilst pulling out a knife at the Sergeant and Recruiting Officer to protect her children, Courage calls refers to herself and her children as peaceable sorts. The Sergeants cool reply of your knife shows the sort you are further displays Courages contradictions. (Brecht 2004: 715) When sending her daughter Kattrin into town with the Clerk, Courage tells her not to worry and that nothing will happen, but upon Kattrins return where she is wounded, Courage claims she should never have let her go. When arguing with the Cook over a possible move to Utrecht, Courage tries to end the conversation with thats enough, only to continue it herself moments later. In the same scene, Courage encourages Kattrin for the two to go with the Cook to run his pub in Utrecht because life on the road is no sort of life, but after she sees Kattrin trying to run away she quickly turns on the Cook and questions what she and Kattrin would ever do in a pub. Of course the greatest contradiction of all throughout the play is Courages constant criticism of the war off of which she makes her living. It is this contradictory nature of Courages which constantly reminds the audience to view the character from a distance, analyse her so to spe ak, and not empathise with her situation. Had Mother Courage been presented as a fully-rounded character, the audience would have been tempted to empathise; but her presentation as a paradoxical character helps to jolt the audience into some kind of reaction. (Leach 1994: 136) Mother Courage is not the only character in the play that is given a specific trait to keep the audience empathising and becoming emotionally involved with her. Her sons Eilif and Swiss Cheese are both killed in the play, and it is because of their flaws that they are killed. Her eldest son, Eilif, is strong and intelligent, but his boldness costs him his life. Her younger son, Swiss Cheese, is simple and honest, but he too is led to his death because of his stupidity. The audience are constantly reminded throughout the play by Mother Courage that her children have these traits. I have another who is foolish but honest is just one example of Brecht giving Mother Courage a specific line for two reasons: both to remind the audience of the paradoxes each character possesses, to stop them from being empathised with, and to support the epic idea of the play that each scene should be its own. It is frequently seen in Brechts plays for an off-stage characters absence to be explained throu gh an on-stage characters dialogue. (ref) Robert Leach argues that for Brecht, character is only of interest in so far as it illuminates the fleeting event which provides the writer, or the actor, with a usable gesture. What Leach is saying is that for Brecht, the character is only a function to the greater social and economical forces which control and shape the world (within the constructed reality that are his plays), and that the actors, whilst portraying characters, can use them as tools to show the effect of these greater social implications. This can be linked to Brechts observation in the essay Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction that actors too refrained from going over wholly into their role in the sense that not only did actors do so to invite criticism from the audience of their characters, not only to draw attention away from the individual and place it on the social, but to also show that the characters are simply functional to the social. Another one of Brechts main aims was to not focus on the individual emotions of the character, but to explore and show the importance of the greater social implications. In Mother Courage and Her Children, emphasis is not put on the decisions the characters make but the social events which dictate the action of the play. War, religion and family are three main themes which run through Mother Courage and Her Children, and ultimately the fate of each character is determined by these themes. Unlike naturalistic plays where emphasis is usually placed on the individual, in Mother Courage and Her Children Brecht focuses on the relationship between the social implications and the characters of the play. All of the characters in the play are linked together by these themes, and their inability to change their individual (or in the case of Courage and her children, combined) situations. (Examples) Brecht has created Mother Courage as the central character of the play, but because it is not on ly her, but all the characters that are affected by the war, the spectators focus is neither on the central character Mother Courage nor any of the character. The spectators focus is drawn, by linking the characters and making them unable to change their situations, to the superseding social themes presented in the play. Brecht liked the notion that epic theatre allowed for jumps in time, and this is reflected in Mother Courage and Her Children. There is a jump in time between each scene of the play, usually a year or two, and the constant curves and jumps in the play the dialectic approach allow for Brecht to show a process and effects over time rather than one particular point of time and its individual effect on characters. (Brooker 1994: 189) These jumps in time also allow the play to be epic in the sense that they allow each scene to stand independently. The jumps in time also go hand-in-hand with Brechts idea that with epic theatre, the audience should be looking with eyes on the course rather than eyes on the finish. Swiss Cheeses death and Mother Courages refusal to admit the body is his is one of the most intense moments of the entire play, but it comes as early as Scene Three. Also, the jumps in time show man as a process rather than man as a fixed point. Rather than focusing on the centr al character (Mother Courage) at one particular point, Brecht draws out the play so that the audience view Courages process and development as a character subject to the social and political circumstances. The end of the play sees Mother Courage, now completely alone; walk with soldiers who are singing the same song that is sung in the prologue, reminding the audience of the process that has begun from the very beginning of the play and the effect it has had throughout. The jumps in time between each scene of Mother Courage and Her Children are typical of Brechts aim to get the audience to look at the events that have taken place from a more general period of time rather than a specific point. One of the key parts of Brechts theory on theatre was that the audience should constantly know that what they are watching is not reality but a construction being presented on stage. By doing so, Brecht could show to his audience that what they were watching was not reality but a presented image of reality, and that could inspire change. To this end Brecht used several techniques in many of his plays (including Mother Courage and Her Children) which allowed him to reveal that the play was indeed a construction. A typical Brechtian technique used in the play is the use of stage directions at the start of each scene, which then reveal what is going to happen in that scene. By using these stage directions (either spoken aloud or displayed with placards on stage) Brecht is able to both remind his audience that what they are watching is a construction. Also, by telling the audience what will happen before it happens, Brecht can eliminate the shock factor, thus keeping the audience away fr om having an experience and focused on learning from the action on stage. Openly revealing that the play is not real allows Brecht to prevent any sense of emotional attachment to the piece. This can be linked to Brechts essay The Modern Theatre is The Epic Theatre where he says: †¦once illusion is sacrificed to free discussion, and once the spectator, instead of being enabled to have an experience, is forced as it were to cast his vote; then a change has been launched which goes far beyond formal matters and begins for the first time to affect the theatres social function. Brecht states in his essay The Modern Theatre is Epic Theatre that words, music and setting must become more independent of one another. (reference) This statement is echoed in Mother Courage and Her Children as Brecht uses not only dialogue and stage directions but songs and music in the play, and makes sure that the songs used are seen on an equal level to the other elements such as words. In fact, Scene Ten of the play is constructed entirely of only a few stage directions and song. By giving the songs such importance in the play, on the same level as stage directions and dialogue, Brecht implements his idea into practice, showing that he has used his two essays almost as guidelines for writing Mother Courage and Her Children. Songs are also used in the play to fit in with Brechts theory that plays should not be presented to the audience as reality, but as a construction. The direct delivery of a song from a character to the audience, thus breaking the fourth wall, is one of the w ays in which the audience is reminded that they are indeed watching a play. The songs also tend to reflect the social and political themes of the play and inspire the audience to think about what they are watching. Looking at Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction and The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre in comparison with Mother Courage and Her Children, it is clear to see that the play falls into all of the categories that Brecht lists in his two essays for his theory on the function of theatre. Throughout the play the focus is taken away from the characters individual emotions and drawn to the greater social and political forces which affect the characters. The play is used as a discussion forum of sorts for some of the common Brechtian themes such as war, religion and family. The use of non-naturalist techniques such as placards and songs helps to break the illusion that the audience creates and prevents them from developing empathy for and emotional attachment to the characters. The jumps in time between each scene of the play keep the audiences focus on the process over time and not at a fixed point. Mother Courage and Her Children is without question of Brechts most typical pl ays and it is clear to see his essays Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction and The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre have been put into practice to create the play and inspire the audience to change, rather than experience.

Rethinking Project Management Essay

The systemic models show behaviour arising from the complex interactions of the various parts of the project; they demonstrate how behaviour arises that would not be predicted from an analysis of the individual parts of the project and thus show how the traditional decomposition models in some circumstances can be inadequate. The project behaviour shown in this body of work is complex and non-intuitive. It shows causal feed-back, leading to nonlinear behaviour, and produces e? ects which can sometimes manifest themselves after signi? cant time-delays; and the behaviour of such systems is di? cult for the human brain to predict and understand intuitively. Furthermore, the models di? er from the bodies of knowledge in their empha- is on ‘‘soft’’ factors; the factors within the feedback loops are not only hard ‘‘concrete’’ factors: ‘‘soft’’ variables are often important links in the chains of causality and are thus critical in determining the project behaviour; such variables might include morale, schedule pressure, client changing his mind and so on; in addition, there is a recognition that the models need to incorporate not only ‘‘real’’ data but management perceptions of data. ‘‘Systemic’’ models have been used to explain failures occurring in projects which might have been well-managed by traditional project-management methods. The failures analysed by these methods are in complex projects subject to uncertainty. Conventional techniques are designed for projects with large numbers of elements, but the assumed structures are subject to very limited types of interdependence, and conventional methods are even more unsuited to projects under high uncertainty. It is when uncertainty a? ects a traditionally-managed project that is structurally complex that the systemic e? ects discussed above start to occur. But the systemic models demonstrated an important aspect: it is management actions to accelerate perturbed projects which particularly exacerbate the feedback; when the project is heavily time-constrained, so the project manager feels forced to take acceleration actions, and this produces the problems from feedback. Thus we have identi? ed the three compounding factors which come together in complex structures of positive feedback to cause extreme over-runs when projects are managed conventionally: structural complexity, uncertainty and a tight time-constraint. Recognition of the problems inherent in conventional prescriptive procedures has led to the development of contrasting project management methodologies. While being within a strategic framework, these methodologies are usually identi? ed by words such as ‘‘lean’’ or ‘‘agile’’, and are particularly prevalent in the software industry [55] (perhaps due to the particular goal-uncertainties of such projects). These methods contradict the underlying emphases of conventional approaches: the project emerges rather than being entirely pre-planned; the management style is much more co-operative, recognising that the Plan prepared pre-project is fallible and incomplete, and there is acceptance that the plan cannot be fully prepared because of the in? uence of the external environment. The systemic modelling work analysed the reasons for project over-runs for many seriously over-run project, giving explanations in terms of positive feedback, often exacerbated by management actions, and importantly including both ‘‘hard’’ and ‘‘soft’’ factors in the causal analysis; the analysis shows that conventional methods can be inappropriate and potentially disadvantageous for projects that are structurally complex, uncertain, and heavily time-limited. Projects which exhibit these three characteristics would appear to lend themselves less to conventional methods and newer methods might be more appropriate, such as ‘‘agile’’/’’lean’’ methods often called ‘‘agile’’ or ‘‘lean’’. However, the thesis of Williams [54] is not that we should simply ignore conventional project 684 S. Cicmil et al. / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 675–686 management methods and move to these opposing techniques. Rather, with the understanding gained from this analysis of the systemic modelling work, we need to move our discourse to take account of the e? ects encompassed in this work; then we need to categorise projects according to the dimensions which give projects a propensity for the type of systemic e? ects, so that an appropriate management style can be speci? d, in particular an appropriate balance between conventiona l methods as espoused in the bodies of knowledge and these contrasting methods. This work suggests that once a project is subject to disruptions and delays dynamics then the traditional project management tools are probably inappropriate for managing the project. The use of traditional tools is likely to unintentionally exacerbate the undesirable consequences and lead to greater overruns than need be the case. Even the nature of the agenda at project progress meetings needs to have a di? erent focus and emphasis. Awareness of the potential consequences of mitigation becomes important as possible traditionally ‘obvious’ actions are proposed. 7. Conclusions, implications and the way forward Our aim in this paper has been to discuss critically the nature of knowledge that could be created about the actuality of projects and how it contributes to our understanding of project environments, to improvements in practice, and to educational and developmental e? orts. We attempted to shed some light on the assumptions behind theoretical and methodological approaches to researching the actuality of projects and project management that, in our view, can be helpful in broadening the boundaries of the project management body of thought and contributing to more satisfactory processes and outcomes of contemporary projects. Researching the actuality of projects, as presented in this article, draws on: – a combination of practical philosophical considerations and concrete empirical analyses towards understanding human action, and for that matter, managerial action in the concrete situation and – requires a theoretical shift from more common normative rational approaches to individual and project performance towards a more developmental one which focuses on practical action, lived experience, quality of social interaction and communicative relating, operations of power in context, identity, and the relationship between agency and structure in project environments. The research presented in this paper as exemplars of actuality research provide some compelling and interesting insights into the actuality of managing projects addressing on-going gaps in our knowledge of how to e? ectively manage complex undertakings. Cicmil and Marshall develop an empirically grounded understanding of project complexity that incorporates processes of communicative and power relating among project actors dealing with ambiguity and equivocality related to project performance criteria (success/failure) over time that is in constant ? ux. Cicmil and Hodgson’s work casts light on the traditional foundations of project management practitioner development and demonstrates the need for developing both instrumental and value rationality as the basis for project management practice. The research by Thomas and Buckle questions the underlying assumptions embedded in traditional project management discourse and explores the impact of these embedded assumptions on the practice and practical discourse of practitioners. The Strathclyde research team’s work on understanding complex project failures contributes signi? cantly to our understanding of the complex interactions between the actuality of projects and the unintentional consequences of applying traditional ‘‘best practice’’ control oriented project management to complete projects under extreme time pressures. All of these research studies make signi? cant contributions to an understanding of the actuality of projects and provide insights into how project management practitioner development needs to change to address these project realities. Methodological issues (epistemology, ontology, and representation) are also of dominant concern in these studies. The argument is that theory and empirical research must proceed simultaneously on micro and macro levels of analysis and within both objective and subjective methodological traditions, focusing on action which is habituated, practical, tacit, dispositional, and at the same time structured. From this perspective, it is important not only to explore or explain what is but also to examine why it is as it is and what activities are encouraged or discouraged by this focus, and how it comes to be. The recommended methodological approaches are capable of addressing a much wider range of mportant project issues such as: the social responsibility of management, ethical conduct, bounded rationality, anxiety, emotions, the operation of dominant discourses, power/knowledge relationship, culture, and identity. Despite this, we do not promote ‘actuality research’ as a comp eting or privileged stream of thought to the more mainstream ones. We argue for it as an alternative lens through which new insights into projects and project management practice can be generated. One of the key assertions is that the understanding which drives much of project management literature does not satisfactorily explain the richness of what actually occurs in project environments. http://www.uwe.ac.uk/bbs/trr/Is7-cont.htm

Employee Benefit and Google Essay

Google, Inc. was ranked by Fortune magazine as the best place in the U.S. to work in 2009, and it has reached another zenith by becoming the most popular Web site. Google, Inc.’s goal of providing benefits and rewards is to â€Å"strip away everything that gets in our employees’ way† (Google, 2009). Google, Inc. provides a standard package of fringe benefits, but on top of that are first-class dining facilities, gyms, laundry rooms, massage rooms, haircuts, carwashes, dry cleaning, commuting buses – just about anything a hardworking employee might want. Schmitt states, â€Å"Let’s face it: programmers want to program, they don’t want to do their laundry. So we make it easy for them to do both† (Google, 2009). Google believes in providing both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. They understand that many humans are not motivated by pay incentives alone. Google Inc. believes in administering rewards and that good company culture is vital to company success, therefore, Google hired a Culture Czar. Google, Inc.’s CCO, Chief Culture Czar, Stacy Sullivan, is devoted to one thing—make Googlers happy. One way of maintaining Google, Inc.’s culture and keeping employees happy is administering the best perks and rewards (Culture, 2009). Along with its compensation and traditional extrinsic benefits such as free health and dental benefits, flex spending accounts, 401K plans, insurance, tuition reimbursement, and vacation packages, they also have very unique benefits. These unique benefits include maternity benefits up to 18 weeks off at approximately 100% pay. In addition, new mothers and fathers get Take-Out Benefits to help make things easier. They are provided with expenses up to $500 for take-out meals during the first three months that they are home with their new baby. Additionally, Google, Inc. provides back-up child care and in the Gift Matching Program, Google, Inc. matches contributions of up to $3000 per year from eligible employees to non-profit organizations. With Adoption Assistance, Google, Inc. assists their employees by offering financial assistance in the adoption of a child. Google, Inc. will reimburse employees up to $5000 to use towards legal expenses. Free lunch and dinner from gourmet chefs create a wide variety of healthy and delicious meals every day. Got the munchies? Google, Inc. also offers snacks to help satisfy you in between meals. At Google headquarters in Mountain View, California employees have the convenience of seeing a doctor on-site. Google, Inc. is pleased to provide its Mountain View employees with free shuttles to several San Francisco, East Bay and South Bay locations. At Google headquarters in Mountain View, there is on-site oil change, car wash, dry cleaning, massage therapy, gym, hair stylist, fitness classes and bike repair. Google, Inc. will reimburse an employee for buying a hybrid car, up to $5000. Google, Inc. provides other benefits, too many to list, but one can assume that their full-time culture czar is not finished inventing new ways to reward employees (Google, 2009). More than the extrinsic rewards, people who choose to come to Google, Inc. come for other reasons besides just the outward perks and rewards. They come for freedom.

Memories Of The Past Has Influenced American History

Memories of the past has influenced many of the early traditional historians in creating their ideas of early Texas History. Personal narratives passed on to historians became the foundation for many of the early writers in developing an early identity for the state. Unfortunately, many of the early histories supported and primarily Anglo culture and a Top-Down approach to history. Most of the early history was written relative to the Anglo viewpoint and biased opinions. Fortunately, many underrepresented cultures now have a voice and the capabilities to provide personal accounts and history as passed down within said culture. Now, new historians can use personal narratives and memories from within other cultures to validate or†¦show more content†¦Web was a son of teacher, spent allot of time farming and taking care of animals on farm in west Texas. He drew up poor on the range and was exposed to many cowboys with pistols and ranching. These early experiences influe nced Webb in his writing and was based on his perception of what they were instead of what they were in actuality. J. Frank Dobie was one of three friends credited with â€Å"inventing† Texas Literature. Dobie, Roy Bedicheck and Walter P Webb.3 Inventing history instead of writing as it happened is another example of writing based on memory. Memories can be true or false but cannot necessary be understood as factual events. Most of his writings would be classified as folklore rather than history however he did have standards to his writing. Dobie demanded of historical writing: reality, vividness, authenticity, and readability.4 Unfortunately, readability may be an area that truths were distorted in favor of a entertainment or support of a higher Anglo cause. Yet because history, memory and personal accounts are entertaining, they will be passed on from each generation. 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