MKTG Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

MKTG - Essay Example Teenagers and young adults spend countless hours in front of their television playing video games. The graphics and capabilities of video game consoles such as X-Box 360 have come so far that it is enabling marketers to become creative in the ads they develop through video games. Video game developers are able to gain extra money by introducing ads into their games. This is a brand new advertising medium that has lots of potential for growth. The use of adverting in video games is done through subtle subliminal messages. A lot of games such as Grand Theft Auto there are entire cities illustrated as part of the plot. Advertisers use these virtual cities as their breeding ground for ads. Companies such as Coca-Cola might place a vending machine in the video game; car manufacturers might use their brand name in the car models players’ use in games such as Grand Turismo. Due to the amount of hours gamers spend playing, marketers want to capitalize on this alternative media to send their messages to potential customers. Work Cited Page Emarketer.com. 2011. â€Å"Video Game Advertising.† 5 April 2011.

Organizational Analysis Motivation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organizational Analysis Motivation - Essay Example The jobs at FMC Green River are task oriented and are, to a large extent, defined by the union. Unlike FMC Aberdeen, the employees at Green River do not have well defined goals. Further, production at Green River is not directly linked to their pay or other organizational rewards. There is little chance of advancement and the union structure discourages any opportunity for promotion. The jobs at FMC Green River are very well defined by the union contract and workers are faced with fulfilling the needs, but have no control over the means of production. FMC Aberdeen is in a constant state of flux as employees are trained in a variety of tasks and are free to move from one job to another. The workers at FMC Green River have very little vertical job loading and their job description limits their horizontal loading. The FMC Aberdeen plant allows its workers to work outside their team and also function as team leaders. This type of organization offers many opportunities for career growth. The FMC Green River plant is structured by definition of tasks and employees have almost no chance of going beyond their current job or position. While the union may offer occasional retraining, it does not enhance the esteem of the employee. Performance reviews at Green River are not adequate to provide any performance or satisfaction impact on the employees. FMC Green River will encounter problems by trying to institute a rewards system based on performance. The workforce may see this as creating inequity and correcting this could have a negative effect on production. The workforce is currently the highest paid unit at FMC and they may respond better to other needs. According to the ERG theory of needs, relatedness and growth may be more likely to motivate the workforce. The jobs at FMC Green River have been structured according to scientific management. They are routine and specialized. This has been done to optimize production and meet the requirements of the union contract. There is little opportunity under Green River's current system for job enlargement or job enrichment. Performance appraisals currently offer little more than a determination to see if the contract is being fulfilled. The culture is not conducive to self-appraisal or peer appraisal. Aside from the union contract, there is a psychological contract with the organization that provides some level of motivation for the employees. Recommendations FMC Green River would benefit from offering a plant wide profit sharing program. This would offer the employees a motivation based on rewards without the perceived inequity of individual pay increases. They should also focus on the employee needs in the areas of relatedness and growth. FMC Green River should foster a more social atmosphere and provide a method of recognition for individual achievement. FMC Green River could broaden the job descriptions to give the employees greater participation in the overall process. Job enlargement could offer an avenue for growth within the existing organizational framework. This would be an intrinsic motivational factor that could lead to a lower turnover rate as experienced at Aberdeen. A job diagnostic survey would be a critical first step in this direction. Green River should begin to develop a performance appraisal system. This should be used as a motivational and self-improvement tool rather than a pay based system. With proper training, peer reviews and self-evaluation would

Comic Book Anti-Heroes Essay Example for Free

Comic Book Anti-Heroes Essay The frequently talked about, critically celebrated – and to some extent excessively hyped – comic book miniseries Watchmen is most often described as a revisionist take on superhero conventions and narratives, and with good reason. Now retroactively referred to as a graphic novel, Watchmen sees writer-artist team Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons deal with costumed adventurers or ‘superheroes’ and attempt to place them within a ‘realist’ context. Moore and Gibbons do not appear to denigrate superheroes so much as purge them of the conceits that have become necessary for comic book readers to be able to suspend their disbelief. Watchmen takes place in an alternate reality of 1985, where Cold War tensions are at their highest and multiple term extensions have allowed Richard Nixon to remain President of the United States. Furthermore, the United States has a long and troubled relationship with costumed adventurers dating back to the late 1930s. While the sensational nature of costumed adventurers acquire much admiration in the initial decades of their appearance, public sentiment turns strongly against them and by 1977, the government passes the Keane Act, which outlaws vigilante heroism. As a result, the protagonists of Watchmen are divided evenly among those costumed adventurers who have retired and those who have not. In the former category lies the perpetually bored ornithologist named Dan Dreiberg, formerly the gadget reliant ‘Nite Owl’, Laurie Juspeczyk, a moderate feminist with assertion issues who was formerly the martial arts oriented ‘Silk Spectre’ and Adrian Veidt, a genius-level intellect and self-perfected athlete once known as ‘Ozymandias’ and now channels his talents towards a billion dollar business empire and renowned philanthropy. Those adventurers who have continued to operate despite the Keane Act provide the most fertile area for ethical and moral analysis, especially in the context of the historical background that Moore and Gibbons have constructed. These include Edward Blake, a brutally gung-ho ‘superpatriot’ known as ‘The Comedian’, Jon Osterman, a former physicist turned emotionally detached god-like being code-named by the U. S. government as ‘Doctor Manhattan’ and Walter Kovacs, an uncompromising moral absolutist and the only one who operates without government sanction as the cruel vigilante called ‘Rorschach’. Rorschach, The Comedian and Doctor Manhattan effectively function as anti-heroes in the sense that although their adventuring careers have persisted beyond the Keane Act, they are far removed from the heroic intentions that have been the traditional feature of costumed adventurers in comic book literature. Furthermore, the morality and ethics which governs their activities is shaded with far darker tones than the unwavering idealism of a Superman or the commitment to vigilance that characterizes a Batman. However, their anti-heroism character is owed in large part to the ways that they evoke the characteristics of traditional superhero archetypes. This is not an entirely unfounded observation. It is no secret that the characters of Watchmen originate with characters from a relatively obscure comic publishing company known as Charlton Comics. Pustz (146-147) and Jensen (47) both recount that the genesis of Watchmen was in a request made by Dick Giordano, then executive editor of DC Comics, that Moore apply his talents to characters that DC had just acquired from Charlton. Moore was selected primarily because of the revisionist skills he had displayed in books such as Swamp Thing and Marvelman. In the former, Moore turned a formulaic horror series into a melancholy drama with an environmentalist streak while in the latter, he toyed with what was a British Captain Marvel knock-off and subverted into an existentialist look at relationship between superhero and alter ego. Because Watchmen presented superheroes as sexually frustrated, politically emasculated and psychologically unstable, it would have presented problems for the commercial longevity of the Charlton characters, making them unusable for future stories. As a result, Moore was instructed to re-write his story with original characters, and the Charlton characters were ultimately re-introduced by DC Comics through different means. This meant that the specific histories of the Charlton characters no longer imposed any limitations on the story that Moore and collaborator Gibbons had chosen to tell. Pustz (147) observes that this was for the better: fewer readers would have the prior knowledge necessary to appreciating the Charlton characters than those who would appreciate original characters. However, for these original characters to resonate properly with audiences on a similar level as established characters it became necessary for Moore and Gibbons to develop them beyond what could be communicated in a finite number of comic book panels, even when allowing for flashbacks and copious amounts of background detail. To do so, Moore and Gibbons made use of various fictional documents such as a report on the political implications of Doctor Manhattan’s super-powered existence and the autobiography of Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl and predecessor to Dan Dreiberg. The characters of Watchmen, as already suggested above, ended up being evocative of superhero archetypes. As Pustz notes: â€Å"Dr. Manhattan [†¦] echoes every omnipotent superhero from Superman to Miracleman to the Spectre. The Comedian refers [†¦] to patriotic heroes such as Captain America and superspies such as Marvel’s Nick Fury. Rorschach is [†¦] every other obsessed vigilante from Batman to the Punisher. † (Pustz 147) By converging the evocation of superhero archetypes with a dysfunctional alternate history, Moore and Gibbons impose profound effects on the psychology of Watchmen’s protagonists. Simply put, Watchmen’s protagonists really are anti-heroes in multiple senses of the word. This is because what Moore and Gibbons have done is make it impossible for their characters to sustain a heroic purity over the course of their careers, especially in the face of history. Many of the longest-running comic book series are those that feature superheroes, and require a moderate suspension of disbelief that allows them to persist in a constant state of present tense. Therefore, in addition to a diminished aging rate (if any at all), the psychological and political development of the characters is limited in order to allow them to sustain continued adventuring careers. Thus, while the Spider-Man of the 1960s hangs out with his pals at soda parlors and the Captain America of the 21st century faces personal uncertainty in the face of international anti-American sentiment, neither never fully achieve any personal disillusionment or psychological resolution that would end their stories. By contrast, the costumed heroes in the Watchmen world do not and cannot possess the static personalities that have allowed the likes of Captain America or Batman to function continuously in their own comic books, despite the changes in cultural and political zeitgeist. Even if their personalities weren’t so troubled and their motivations so void of nobility, the forces of history would still have gradually eroded the initial foundations of their adventuring careers, which they do. As such, the relationship between crime fighting and society changes radically in the decades between 1938, when costumed heroes make their first appearance, and the year 1985, which is when the primary events take place. Klock notes that ahistorical conditions are necessary to support the superhero narrative, opining that â€Å"superheroes only make sense in world where masked opponents support their fantasy, and masked opponents only exist to fight superheroes,† but because history and personality carry greater weight in Watchmen than they traditionally do in other superhero narratives. As a result, Watchmen’s protagonists encompass varying levels of cynicism, neuroticism and societal alienation. They become anti-heroes simply because it is impossible to for their heroism to remain pure at all. It is from this angle that Moore and Gibbons proceed to interrogate the effect of history on the individual viewpoints of costumed adventurers and superheroes, as well as their effects upon history itself. In addition to the geopolitical implications of Doctor Manhattan’s nigh omnipotence, Moore and Gibbons examine how personal humanity is profoundly altered by nigh omniscient awareness of history, whilst the Comedian is the expression of how historical tumult and a life of violence has corrupting effects on the patriotic character, rendering an almost irredeemable cynicism. In the case of Rorschach, who is Watchmen’s most (dis)reputable anti-hero, he experiences constant exposure to the endurance of social and cultural malaise which serves to only harden his moral and ethical absolutism. The result is an unwavering dedication to the pursuit of justice, one which would ordinarily and unquestionably admirable in traditional superheroes, but not in one who ultimately comes across as a fascist. Jackie Earle Haley, the actor who is to portray Rorschach in a feature film adaptation of Watchmen, notes that Rorschach’s personality centers around his contention with the oft-declared complexity of the world that is maintained as the excuse for its ills and woes: â€Å"Rorschach’s complexity is [†¦] an attacking complexity. He tries to simplify the world in black and white. [†¦] Rorschach thinks that you’re not what you say you mean, you’re what you do. You are your behavior [†¦] That sort of forced me to look at my own behavior, to ask myself, ‘Who’s my behavior victimizing today? ’ [†¦] We justify our behavior with complexity. Not for Rorschach. † (Adler 2008) Thus, it is not Rorschach’s relentless commitment to the pursuit of justice that gives him his anti-heroic character, as it is a quality he shares with Batman. Although portrayals of Batman have varied over the decades in both print and film, his ideals are not closely linked with his view of society, giving him a sense of ambivalence towards society’s collective responsibilities to its own welfare. Rorschach on the other hand, views the world with utter contempt, with little faith in its ability to redeem itself. His moral absolutism originates from humanity’s consistent inability to live up to the nobility it ascribes to itself. His development as a vigilante stems from humanity’s failure and inaction. In the case of a woman who had been raped, tortured and killed outside her own apartment building, he remembers that: â€Å"Nobody did anything. Nobody called cops. Some of them even watched. Do you understand? I knew what people were then, behind all the evasions, all the self-deception. Ashamed for humanity I went home. I took the remains of her unwanted dress and made a face that I could bear to look at in the mirror. † Traditional superheroes do not view the world with this much contempt, but Rorschach does. His contempt for humanity is most strongly articulated when he declares, â€Å"This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate who butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. † While Rorschach articulates the most complex relationship between an individual’s ideals and his perception of society, Doctor Manhattan expresses how ambivalence towards the value of human affairs leads to a sense of detachment that reduces an individual’s moral compass down to dehumanized utilitarianism. This is not to suggest that Manhattan’s nigh-omnipotence makes him morally apathetic. Rather, it alters his ethical code in such a fashion that the welfare of a numerical majority takes precedence, regardless of the cost. This is made most evident when he teleports an angry mob, which is a peaceful means of negating conflict, but it also leads to two shock-induced heart attacks. Manhattan maintains that this is statistically preferable to the larger number of casualties that would have been caused by mob violence. Towards the end of Watchmen, Manhattan becomes even more indifferent towards the redemption of humanity, opining that despite the attempts of individuals such as Ozymandias to bring about a peaceful new world order, â€Å"nothing ever ends. † While Rorschach’s desire is to impose his will and â€Å"scrawl [his] own design on this morally blank world,† and Manhattan dismisses the notion that human problems can ever be resolved, The Comedian simply doesn’t care. As a nihilist, the Comedian shares Rorschach’s belief that there is no moral or ethical principle which guides the universe. Despite the fact that he fought for the U. S. during the Vietnam War, he concludes that its outcome matters only to Americans and holds no meaning to the average Vietnamese. The Comedian is so utterly devoid of delusions about the moral value of geopolitical affairs, and his participation stems primarily from his loyalty to Uncle Sam rather than from any sense of idealism. His credo is that existence is one big joke, and he’s one of the few who is in on the gag. These three – Rorschach, Doctor Manhattan, The Comedian – are antiheroes not because they are devoid of any heroism, but rather because they express how a purity of ideals will always be shaped by the forces which history exerts upon them. They do not operate from a corrupt morality let alone from villainy: several moments reveal deeply obscured or twisted nobility within them all. Instead, they are anti-heroic because the gritty realities of society and the debilitating effects of continued crime fighting take hold upon them in ways that are denied to their conventional counterparts. Works Cited Pustz, Matthew J. Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Klock, Geoff. â€Å"Who Watches the Watchmen? † SF Crowsnest, April 2003. Retrieved December 17, 2008 from: http://www. sfcrowsnest. com/sfnews2/03_april/news0403_6. shtml Adler, Shawn. â€Å"Is Rorschach ‘Watchmen’s’ Most Heroic Character? Jackie Earle Haley Thinks So. † MTV Splash Page, 21 August 2008. Retrieved December 17, 2008 from: http://splashpage. mtv. com/2008/08/21/is-rorschach-watchmens-most-heroic-character-jackie-earle-haley-thinks-so/

Systems Development: Concepts, Issues and Approaches

Systems Development: Concepts, Issues and Approaches Systems development concepts, issues and approaches and the relationship between technologies and their social context Question 1: Why are conventional approaches to systems design considered to be techno-centric? INTRODUCTION This paper presents a thorough explanation of the various processes related to systems design and to the problems that face the conventional, or traditional, methods according to which computer systems, of all kinds, are designed. The paper will then explain why the traditional approaches of system design are considered to be techno-centric. Before being able to answer the main question of this paper, we should define certain terms in order to clarify all the elements that will be discussed later on. Simmers (2004, p.542-543), states that â€Å"a computer system is an electronic device that can be thought of as a complete information-processing center. It can calculate, store, sort, update, manipulate, sequence, organize, and process data. It also controls logic operations and can rapidly communicate in graphics, numbers, words, and sounds.† Another definition is presented by Avgerou and Cornford (1998, p.1), as they state that information systems â€Å"refer to information and data handling activities in human organizations. Information handling in this sense is a purposeful activity sustained over time, and includes the activities of collecting information, storing it, directing it to appropriate places and people, and utilizing it in various tasks within the organization.† The designer of the system attempts to identify a specific problem within a given environment of work, for example, and creates a set of processes that should be able to resolve that problem according to pre-determined instructions and requirements (Kelkar, 2004). SYSTEM DESIGN A system is supposed to handle a variety of issues related to an organisation and to enable the people whom are considered to be the individuals that deal with those issues to function properly, swiftly, more efficiently, and more accurately. This usually also involves the interaction (inter-connectivity) between all those working in a specific section. The person (or group of people) that are supposed to design the desired system should study and analyse thoroughly the problem sphere, identifying the various elements and factors involved in it, proposing different system options, put them into test (preferably in real working environments), and finally selecting, with the help of the management of the organisation in question, the best solution. Computer systems designers, almost from the very beginning of this field, tended to work exclusively within their technical realm; meaning that they were identifying the problem and creating the solution that, evidently, was successful, but that was only operable and facilitated to themselves and to people of the same technical background. This created a reality which made it, somewhat, hard for average users, who are also supposed to be the end users of today’s computer systems, to deal, interact, let alone produce efficiently using those systems. The main problem in this context, as explained by Doherty King (2005, p.2), is that the designers do not, in most cases, follow most required steps in what concerns the analysis of the impact of utilising the computer solution on the organisation and in what concerns the interaction between the created system and the human factor of that organisation. According to Poulymenakou Holmes, 1996 (in Doherty and King, 2005, p.2), â€Å"the adoption of techno-centric development approaches can be a very dangerous strategy, as it encourages developers to deliver and implement the information system, and only then, if at all, worry about adapting it to its organizational context.† The conventional methodology, which depends solely on creating a computer system that is successful in resolving a given problem and that works from a technical (or computer programmable and configurable) point of view, is considered to be techno-centric because the most important factor in designing the system, which is the human factor, has not be taken into consideration fully by the designer (or the designers) during the implementation of their initial plan of work. Many specialists and researchers keep on calling for a methodology of system design that focuses more on the social aspect of the created tool: â€Å"little progress has been made in the development of practical socio-technical methods and approaches that have succeeded in making the transition from research laboratory to widespread commercial usage† (Doherty King, 2005, p.2). Davidson and Chiasson (2004, p.6) state that the three main stages of information technology are the development, the implementation, and the assimilation. They stress on the fact that all the details that are related to the daily use of the technology may not be seen at the time of planning because the â€Å"attention is focused on overall business goals and implementation strategy.† This makes the period following the installation and the initial implementation highly important as all the social and human related factors must be adjusted and modified to suit the users and the organisation as a whole. There are various examples of systems that were created according to the conventional, techno-centric, approach and that have failed at the time of implementation because the designers lacked the social-oriented element in their design Doherty and King (2005, p.2) mentioned several failed experiences of this kind; cases such as the London Ambulance System, the Taurus System, and the Benefits Payment Card System. Other examples were presented by Davidson and Chiasson (2005, p.6-12) who reported that the electronic medical record systems (EMRS) that were used in two healthcare organisations were also a cause of concern, to a certain extent. The authors confirm that the original systems created for the health organisations needed to be socially modified through the implementation of TUM (Technology Use Mediation) during system development stages and throughout the period in which the systems were in use. â€Å"System configuration required changes to software infrastructure and code. Organizational size influenced the availability and the effectiveness of mediation resources.† Another factor that is involved in the conventional approach is the total underestimation of previously existing systems which is also another characteristic of techno-centric methods of design and system development. Ignoring the ‘old’ systems leads the designer to create something that is totally new to the organisation, and this also excludes the effects, the advantages, and the usability of the previous system. The usability of the system and the ability of people within the organisation to work with it came as a result of a long period of system modifications (whether hardware or software) and of personal training and different processes of errors and corrections; which is what can be considered as the social-related side of system development. All those elements will be totally discarded by the designer during his/her development of the new system, which will result in the new system going through the same stages that the old system passed through, and this is anot her form of time-related and financially-related losses to the organisation. Chae and Poole (2005, p.19) pose an important question: â€Å"Is it possible for a large-scale information system to be developed ‘from scratch’?† Their explanation confirms that: Accounts of system development and the systems development literature often focus primarily on the new system and tend to underemphasize the role of pre-existing systems Few pay much attention to the role of pre-existing information systems in IS [Information Systems] development. To the extent the new system must integrate with pre-existing systems or use existing hardware and software Existing systems have also been regarded as problems or barriers to the development of new IS and as disablers of IS-based organizational innovation and change†¦ This approach, too, tends to treat pre-existing systems as objects, black boxes (e.g. Markus, 1983). Those mentioned above are the most notable points when studying computer design in its conventional method, which is, as can be seen, techno-centric. CONCLUSION Even though conventional approaches of system design have been applied from the beginning of the age of Information Technology, they are still techno-centric. What designers should focus on are those system characteristics that are more operable by the individuals of an organisation; this includes the interface design, the language used within the various parts of the system (those related to both the software and the hardware) Another important point is the adaptability to the organisation that requested the system; the designers should understand fully that various factors that can lead the newly created system to be more social-oriented and to be what the organisation needs. Techno-centric designs can work, but only in technical related fields and sections. Previous systems should be studied carefully before initiating the design plan for new ones; this will enable the designer to understand what characteristics worked previously, what structure are the employees and the managers used to work with, and which tools can be re-used within the new system. Anderson and Vendelo (2004, p.27) explain the problem of techno-centric design by stating that â€Å"when introduced into a field, the technical system often needs to be changed to take into account the more holistic requirements that are present in the field, as users need to accommodate the technology in their daily routines.† Reference List Anderson, K. V. and Vendelo, M. T. (2004) The Past and Future of Information Systems, Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. Avgerou, C. and Cornford, T. (1998) Developing Information Systems: Concepts, Issues and Practice, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Chae, B. and Scott, M. (2005) The surface of emergence in systems development: agency, institutions, and large-scale information systems, European Journal of Information Systems, 14, 19-36. Davidson, E. and Chiasson, M. (2004) ‘Contextual influences on technology use mediation: a comparative analysis of electronic medical record systems’, European Journal of Information Systems, 14, 6-18. Doherty, N. and King, M. (2005) From technical to socio-technical change: tackling the human and organizational aspects of systems development projects, European Journal of Information Systems, 14, 1-5. Kelkar, S.A. (2004) Structured System Analysis and Design, New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India. Simmers, L. (2004) Introduction to Health Science Technology, New York: Thomson Delmar Learning. Question 2: Are the work systems considered in week 2 readings based on an organisational or activity oriented perspective? INTRODUCTION This paper explains the various modes in which organisations operate in order to achieve their business related objectives. This includes the organisational approach and the activity-related approach. The paper also describes the work systems considered in the readings in order to identify according to which mode they operate, though the understanding of their structure and implementation of the various processes and procedures. To be able to give a comprehensive response to the main question of this paper, we should understand the meaning of each term presented within it; and this will be of great help in the next parts of this paper. As explained by Cope (2006, p.62), â€Å"a work system is a system of people and/or machines which perform a business process. An organisation is normally made up of many work systems. An information system supports and/or structures and/or controls and/or automates the work performed by other work systems† Another source defines a work system by stating that it is â€Å"a complex network of means-ends relations. The basic many-to-many relationships in this network and its loose coupling is the basic source of the need for human intervention in order to remove ambiguity and to control the functional state† (Salvendy Karwowski, 1994, p.69). This means that a work system includes every person and all items or tools that are functioning to perform a certain process required for the continuity, and profitability, of an organisation. ORGANSATIONAL vs. ACTIVITY-ORIENTED As explained by Sachs (1995, p.36-37) there are two perspective methods of performing the various operations and processes of an entity, these are either organisational or activity-oriented. The organisational scheme can be determined and discovered through the evident use of different â€Å"sets of defined tasks and operations such as those described in methods and procedures, which fulfil a set of business functions† The activityoriented method, on the other hand, â€Å"suggests that the range of activities, communication practices, relationships, and coordination it takes to accomplish business functions is complex and continually mediated by workers and managers alike.† As stated by the author, activity-oriented methods allow the employee or worker to improve, learn more, function better, and, ultimately, enhances the way in which the business as a whole functions. â€Å"An activity orientation draws on insights about work practice from several disciplines, includi ng anthropology, history, and psychology, and in so doing provides a holistic approach to the analysis of work.† Anderson and Vendelo (2004, p.143-144) agree with Sachs and explain that the method according to which an organisation functions will affect a â€Å"number of fields – including management studies, business administration, information systems development, organizational behaviour, job design, human resource management, training, etc.† and in relation to systems design, the authors confirm that this growing significant view reconceptualises â€Å"the nature of work and organizational life, and the role of information technology support. It emphasizes work practices, and the way learning is accomplished within communities of practice.† They also state that organizational mode is still the major one in the organisations of today; as it is considered to be â€Å"grounded in scientific management ideas, focusing on training, tasks, procedures, workflow and teams† while the activity-oriented method concentrates on â€Å"learning, know-how, networks, conceptual understanding, work practices, judgement, and communities†. The example reported by Sachs for what concerns the organisational perspective is the one of the Trouble Ticketing System (TTS) which is a huge database system that is based on organising work tasks and distributing them on workers. In this case, the tasks performed by workers are only those that are considered by the system, while the activity-oriented method depends on each worker to solve problems from start to end rather than perform single tasks. â€Å"The underlying design assumption in organizational thinking is that technology design should eliminate human error. This differs sharply from the underlying assumption in activity-oriented thinking, which is that technology design should enhance the human capability of finding problems and solving them. Organizational thinking assumes that people create human error. Activity-oriented thinking assumes that people solve problems.† (p.40). In the case of United Parcel Service (UPS), as explained by laudon and Laudon (1995, p.17), we find that it is clearly working according to the organisational method. This is evident as all the structure of work is organised through the use of a centralised system that communicates to drivers the required destinations of various packages, and gathers the delivery information concerning each package and adds it to its main database which can be consulted by anyone through the use of any Internet connected device. Communications between the employees are reduced to the minimum as all work related information can be obtained from the system; this includes the delivery department, the customer service department, the shipment department and management. Even the requests of customers can be done directly through the system as all the required information is provided (shipping rates, shipment routes, times, etc). But on the other hand, there is a side of UPS that can be considered activity-oriented; this can be found in what concerns the sales department and the marketing department; these two functions require a different approach and it is being followed. The focus, when it comes to these two sections of the work process, depends solely on the performance which is not measured through tasks, but through problem solving from start to end. Communication, training, and know-how are essential here. The duty of the departments in question is to identify problems, locate the causes, and come up with successful solution. A clear case of the organisational approach is the one of the company called Electronic Banking System Inc. In this company, every single individual is responsible for a specific task, he/she is being monitored all the time, the production of each individual is checked continuously, conversations between employees/workers are not allowed if not related to task performance, and even looking out the window (which is considered to be nothing more than distraction from work) is not allowed (Horowitz, 1996, p.322). According to this system, any error is digitally monitored and immediately reported. As explained earlier, in a system such as this one, there is no space for improvement, and there is no need for problem solving skills; what each person should do is pre-set and no special talents or know-how qualities are required. CONCLUSION System design in organisational businesses and entities is, to a certain extent, fairly simple; as the tasks are well defined before the designer, the level of the various users’ rights and privileges is evident, and the processes to perform are directly requested by the organisation. Development in the activity oriented environment is difficult as it is needed to separate the situational and the personal elements and the effects each one has on the other during the process of interaction. The designer should be able to identify the required processes and operations through the help of analytical tools (Peiro, 1995, p.284). This means that a social study in what concerns the various functions of the system should performed by the designer in advance in order to enable him/her to produce the required work system. Another important factor for the designer is to be able to comprehend the various policies within the organisation in question in order to reach the desired system which complies with those rules and policies. It is also possible for the designer to offer a possibility of continuous communications, learning, and enhancement through the system even in businesses based on the organisational method. Reference List Cope, C. (2006) Beneath the Surface, Santa Rosa, CA: Informing Science Press. Salvendy, G. and Karwowski, W. (Ed.). (1994) Design of Work and Development of Personnel in Advanced Manufacturing, New York: John Wiley Sons, Inc. Sachs, P. (1995) Transforming Work: Collaboration, Learning, and Design, Association for Computing Machinery. Communications of the ACM, 38, 9 36-44. Anderson, K. V. and Vendelo, M. T. (2004) The Past and Future of Information Systems, Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. Laudon, K. and Laudon, J. (2005). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, 9th edn, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Horowitz, T. (1996) Mr. Edens Profits from Watching His Workers Every Move, in Kling, R. Computerization and Controversy, San Diego: Academic Press, pp.322-325. Peiro, J.M. (1995) Work and Organizational Psychology: European Contributions of the Nineties, East Sussex, Erlbaum (UK) Taylor Francis.

An Annotation of Paul Laurence Dunbars Ships That Pass In The Night :: Dunbar Ships Pass Night Poem Essays

An Annotation of Paul Laurence Dunbar's Ships That Pass In The Night Laurence Dunbar's "Ship That Pass In The Night" is a cry for opportunity for all men, regardless of race. Dunbar's poem directly parallels a passage from Frederick Douglass' autobiography that gives an account of his life as a slave. Both Douglass and Dunbar look out at the ships that sail by and see hopes for societal changes. Although they both sought change, their aspirations were quite different. Frederick Douglass watched the ships from ashore, wishing for freedom and for slavery to be abolished. Paul Laurence Dunbar on the other hand was already a free man. He was on a ship, still more of an opportunity than Douglass had, yet he was still in search for new opportunities for African Americans. The new opportunities that he seeks are upon a ship somewhere sailing in the dark night and keep passing him by. Links from the poem below are best read in order from the beginning of the poem to the end Ships That Pass In The Night by Paul Laurence Dunbar Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing; I look far out into the pregnant night, Where I can hear a solemn booming gun And catch the gleaming of a random light, That tells me that the ship I seek is passing, passing. My tearful eyes my soul's deep hurt are glassing; For I would hail and check that ship of ships. I stretch my hands imploring, cry aloud, My voice falls dead a foot from mine own lips, And but its ghost doth reach that vessel, passing, passing. O Earth, O Sky, O Ocean, both surpassing, O heart of mine, O soul that dreads the dark! Is there no hope for me? Is there no way That I may sight and check that speeding bark Which out of sight and sound is passing, passing? The speaker begins by looking out into the night sky and sees a storm brewing. The storm represents the future, and like the nature of a storm, the future is unpredictable. A storm can either be threatening with thunder and lightning, or just a gentle rain that comes and goes. The speaker does not know what the future will bring for African Americans. He only knows that something is going to happen. The night is "pregnant" with opportunity and equality, waiting to deliver to people of all races. But the storm brewing on the night horizon is both threatening and promising for the speaker.

Critique of Christmas Time in Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol Essay

Critique of Christmas Time in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol An audience member's gleeful first-hand account of Charles Dickens's public reading of "A Christmas Carol" unwittingly exposes an often overlooked contradiction in the story's climax: "Finally, there is Scrooge, no longer a miser, but a human being, screaming at the 'conversational' boy in Sunday clothes, to buy him the prize turkey 'that never could have stood upon his legs, that bird'" (96). Perhaps he is no longer a miser but, by this description, Scrooge still plays the role of a capitalist oppressor, commanding underlings to fetch him luxuries. While Dickens undoubtedly lauds Scrooge's epiphany and ensuing change, "A Christmas Carol" also hints at the author's resentment for an industrial society's corrupted notion of the "Christmas spirit." Through instances of goodwill which Christmas provokes, Dickens suggests that Christmas is only an interruptive exception from the otherwise capitalistic calendar. Even when Scrooge becomes altruistic, as in the above scene, his philanthropy still operates under the guise of capitalism, measured in economic terms and aimed ultimately at providing himself with pleasure. Dickens subtly turns his critique of ephemeral and selfish "holiday time" to the reader. The straightforward, Aristotelian structure of the narrative and the constant foreshadowing and repetition reduce any potential anxiety about the story's outcome. The main cause for anxiety over the conclusion of any sentimental tale is to identify with the protagonist in some way. Although Scrooge is a caricature with whom few would commiserate (or admit to so doing), Dickens's Three Spirits lure us into sympathy with the miser while simultaneously engenderi... ... it, since they, already presumably aware of their own Scrooge-ness, need the lesson less than the hypocritical Mrs. Cratchits do. Both sets of listeners will, however, seek out the story each Christmas; for the Mrs. Cratchits, an innocuous retelling reduces anxiety about identification with Scrooge, and the Scrooges receive a reminder of the changes that need to be effected on a social, rather than local, scale. In either case, a rereading is what Dickens solicits, and not only for his own canonization. When "A Christmas Carol" marks the memory of various Christmases for readers, they will, if not perceive all time in such a form, at least live in a literary Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Works Cited: Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. USA: Bantam Books, 1997. Genette, GÃ ©rard. Narrative Discourse. Trans. Jane E. Lewin. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1980.

Mlk Letter from Birmingham Essay

Martin Luther King Jr. was the acknowledged leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. King earned several degrees and was a bright man. His â€Å"Letter from Birmingham Jail† was written in April 1963, while he was in jail in Birmingham, Alabama, for acts of civil disobedience (499). His letter is a response to a letter signed by clergyman criticizing his actions towards civil rights. The clergymen believed that his actions were â€Å"untimely.† King states ,†if I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk†¦I would have no time for constructive work† (500). He usually does not respond to letter that criticize his work and actions, but he believed the clergymen were men of genuine good and they meant no harm. King was president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and they had affiliates all throughout the South. King believed he was supposed to spread freedom. He agreed that if Birmingham ever needed him that he would be there . â€Å"Injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere† (500). King used an approach to resolve issues in nonviolent manners. It consisted of sit-ins, marches, and etc. Nonviolent direct action would create a tension that an otherwise ignored subject would have to be faced. With nonviolent direct action and ignored issue would come to light and can no longer be ignored(502). After the direct-action program, King hoped that the doors to negotiation would open. King states that African Americans have waited 340 years for their rights and that to the people not being segregated the word â€Å"wait† is easy for them to say. King talks about the endless perils Africans go through, from disrespect to death, and states why they can no longer â€Å"wait† (504). King talks about how the nation is immoral and unjust and that he must take action. He was arrested for parading without a permit and his arrest was immoral because citizens were denied the First amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest. The clergymen labeled King’s actions as extreme. King addressed the accusation that the civil rights movement was â€Å"extreme†, first disputing the label but then accepting it. He argues that Jesus and other heroes were extremists and writes: â€Å"So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love?† (509-510). King is strong in his beliefs and hopes freedom comes to African Americans. â€Å"If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail† (513). Response Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s â€Å"Letter From Birmingham Jail† is a look into the reality of racial inequality in 1960s America. King writes this letter to fellow clergymen and aims to address their concerns regarding the wisdom and timing of the nonviolent direct-action demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama that King and other leaders orchestrated and carried out in 1963. The clergymen were incorrect with their views on King’s efforts. He wanted to earn freedom for all African Americans throughout the nation. He believed that a nonviolent direct-action program would be the most effective way of earning rights. â€Å"Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crises and foster such a tension that community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue† (502). King believed that eventually the issue had to be dealt with and he was right. The clergymen believed that King was precipitating violence but King replied with, â₠¬Å"We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive† (507). King related the clergymen’s accusations to condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery (507). He was not getting help elsewhere, so King had to take matter in his own hands. â€Å"In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church.† (512). The Church did not offer as much help as King needed. Churches also do not possess the power that they use to. â€Å"Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound†(512). Without the help elsewhere, King was right in demonstrating that nonviolent direct-action would accomplish his goals. The clergymen called his actions â€Å"untimely† when in fact King chose a great time to take action. King stated they had waited for more than 340 years for their rights and that the word â€Å"wait’ usually meant â€Å"never† (530). The laws against African Americans were immoral and unjust. King was arrested for parading without a permit and that was why he was in Birmingham Jail. This was unjust because he was exercising his right for the First Amendment of peaceful assembly and protest. At this time period, if it were a white man, he would not have gone to jail. King was correct in his thinking and all the actions he took. Without King’s efforts, America would not be the great country it is.