Monday, September 30, 2019

Acc/ 544 Internal Accountant Brief

Internal Accountant Brief Candace Schneider ACC/544 April 15, 2013 Christine Errico Internal Accountant Brief When a business is experiencing an out-of-control accounting system the business might consider hiring an internal accountant to help alleviate the problem. Before a company decides to hire this type of accountant the company should look at the array of services this kind of accountant can provide to the company. Services of Internal Accountants An internal accountant can provide array of services to a business. One service an internal accountant can provide to a company is performing an internal audit on the business.Some of the audits an internal accountant can perform are compliance audits, operational audits, or financial statement audits. Compliance Audit If a company hires an internal accountant for a compliance audit the accountant determines if the company’s internal controls and accounting is in compliance with company policies as well as laws and regulation. If the accountant finds that internal controls or the accounting information is not in compliance the accountant must determine the cause of the non-compliance as well as recommend ways the company can prevent future deviations (Cytraus, 2013, para. ). Operational Audit If a company hires an internal accountant for an operational audit the accountant â€Å"measures the effectiveness and results of certain business procedures† within the business (Farlex, 2013, para. 1). This type of audit is unlike the compliance audit because this type of audit challenges assumptions and goals of procedures by moving toward improving efficiency within the business (Farlex, 2013, para. 1). Financial Statement Audit If a company hires an internal accountant for a financial statement audit the ccountant determines if the preparation and reporting of financial statements by the company follows General Accepted Accounting Principles. Other Services Other services an internal accountant can provid e to a business are examining a company’s operations, investigating fraud, examining financial reporting, safeguarding assets, checking for mismanagement of funds, and examining compliance of the laws and regulations set for the company. The employment of internal auditors helps to improve a company’s internal controls.Effective working internal controls detect and prevent fraud, which internal auditors test to see if the controls are functioning appropriately. If the company still decides to hire an internal accountant, the company will benefit from this decision in many ways. Benefits of Hiring an Internal Accountant Many benefits exist for a company when the company hires an internal accountant. Some of these benefits include saving money over time, protecting assets, improving performance, and ensuring accuracy of financial statements. Saving Money An internal accountant can help a business save money over time.This is because the service an internal accountant pro vides saves the business from potential legal or financial issues. This leads a business to save â€Å"more money over time than it costs to employ the accountant† (Good Accountants, 2012, para. 2). Protection of Assets Every year businesses lose billions of dollars because of employee theft. An internal accountant can help alleviate this problem by installing a system of internal controls into the business. The accountant can also monitor the system to ensure no opportunities exist in the system â€Å"that might tempt an employee to steal from the company† (Good Accountants, 2012, para. ). Along with installing and monitoring the system an internal accountant can perform random checks on the system to ensure that the internal controls are functioning appropriately. Improving Performance An internal accountant can improve a company’s performance by increasing the company’s value when the accountant critically analyzes the company’s efficiency. An a ccountant does this by performing an operational audit of the company. This type of audit can help determine whether the company markets its products and services effectively at competitive rates as well as if the company is meeting its short and long-term financial goals.Ensuring Accuracy of Financial Statements Auditing financial statements by a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) can offer value to a company. These audits puts a company’s investors at ease in knowing the company’s books are accurate as well as the information in the financial statements are accurate. These audits can lead lenders to view one’s company as more reputable, which can lead to lower interest rates for the company when borrowing (Good Accountants, 2012, para. 5). After a company determines the need for an internal accountant the company must find the right internal accountant for the job.Recommendation One recommends hiring an individual who is a CPA with several years of experience i n this field of accounting. This is because the individual will need to have the experience to correct the company’s out-of-control system as well as provide additional services the company may need. These services will help the company make informed decisions for the company to exceed and be profitable. One individual in mind to solve the problem of one’s out-of-control system is John Tongren. This is because Tongren has experience in this field of accounting and auditing.Tongren â€Å"specializes in management control process and the impact of technology on their effectiveness† (Tongren, n. d. , para. 1). He also has â€Å"international recognition for his expertise in the audit and control aspects of information systems† (Tongren, n. d. , para. 1). By one hiring this individual one will know that this individual will solve the problem right as well as inform the company on how to keep the business functioning effectively and efficiently for the company to exceed and be profitable. References Cytraus, A. (2013). Compliance Auditing.Retrieved from http://www. referencefor business. com/encyclopedia/Clo-Con/Compliance-Auditing. html Farlex. (2013). Operational Audit. Retrieved from http://financial-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com/operational+audit Good Accountants. (2012). Benefits of Hiring an Accountant for Internal Audits. Retrieved from http://www. goodaccountants. com/blog/2012/11/benefits-of-hiring-an accountant-for-internal-audits/ Tongren, J. D. (n. d. ). Operational Auditing: Adding Value to Organizations Digital Seminar. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Compare the use of motivation theories at Center Parcs Essay

I will be researching different job types in Center Parks so I can see the different management styles of each sector and I shall be looking at the motivational factors within the organisation. Three different job roles at Center Parcs and what theorist is involved. The first job I will be looking at is a Water sports Instructor, they’re looking for somebody who can windsurf, use a dinghy, a powerboat, a kayak and is confident in abseiling, rock climbing and playing football. You will be asked to instruct people in all of the above, first-aid is a must as you will be working with activities which could all pose a significant risk to health including activities including deep, cold water. They also expect that you maintain a professional attitude at all times, despite the customers getting on your nerves. Staff will be given free day passes to the park, I think this is typical of Mayo as people like to feel like the part of the team, this also meets their social needs at work. If they’re working in a team then you have a good chance to get your ideas across to other team members for them to take action on your ideas, suggestions and opinions. The second job I will be looking at is a food and beverage assistant, they require that you maintain a professional attitude at all times, they state that your duties are table services, preparing the restaurant to a set standard, taking orders, bar duties and you must serve drinks from the bar, serving meals, cleaning and tidying up at the end of your shift. You will be handling a lot of cash through your shifts, they expect you to be honest about it and full training will be given to work with cash in hand. You must ensure that all the guests are happy with their stay and their meals. The theorist behind this would in fact be Taylor, this is driven by money as you’re handling quite a lot of money. As with this you’re typically paid by every table you clean, take orders from and hours behind the bar (as one of my friends mention, she got paid by every table she cleaned and took orders from). Taylor also comes into play as you get a bonus at the end of the month and a t ypical bonus at the end of the year (around Christmas time) and  this makes employees strive to do as much as they can as it is a performance related bonus. The last job I will be looking at is a Lifeguard, they’re looking for somebody to assist in the â€Å"smooth running of the subtropical swimming paradise† by guarding the inside and outside of the pool areas, the lifeguard must maintain a high standard of hygiene in order to offer the best services to holiday guests. They also request that you maintain a professional and a reliable attitude at all times and to put the safety of their swimmers first. The motivational theory behind this job would be Herzberg as being a lifeguard can bring some sense of achievement, this proves that you are qualified to take care of people, watch them and possibly save their lives when the time comes. A high hygiene standard is required for this and this can be an achievement in itself as if you get through this shows you have nearly impeccable hygiene. Conclusion I think Center Parcs has chosen different rewards, for example different bonuses and different objectives to obtain these bonuses and different material bonuses such as free day passes and unlimited use of services and stations around the park, because it scales with the difficulty of the job. For example, anybody can be a beverage assistant but it takes a lot of qualifications and knowhow to become a life guard and since lifeguards are scarce and they’re offering really competitive pay and bonuses to compete with other companies that want life guards. It’s the same with Water sports instructors as they have to be highly skilled in all forms of water sports, it takes a lot of time to get that much knowledge of water sports so it’s a difficult job to do as you need to remember everything. I agree that this is one of the best policies to have as the bonuses and rewards scale with the harder jobs. The harder the job, the better the rewards.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Mary Shelly Essay

In this essay I will be commenting on the effects Kenneth Branagh, the director and actor, has used on the â€Å"creation scene† in the film â€Å"Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein†. The film was released in 1994 but before it was a film it was a novel that was published in 1818 by a writer named Mary Shelly. The film version of this was then named with the writer’s names in the title in order to make it sound authentic. The film has a gothic/horror genre or theme, and I will try to analyse the different types of effects used e. g. camera angle, sound and music, lighting and special effects, costume, make-up hair and props. Robert De Niro plays the monster in this film. The reason that such a famous actor was picked to play this role and not just any random person in a suit is because then Kenneth Branagh can put Robert De Niro’s name on the front cover of the film to show that they have at least one famous person in the film. Another reason might be because then other people, considering watching or buying this film, might want to watch it to see the famous actor. When Victor Frankenstein, played by Kenneth Branagh, first enters the laboratory he is dressed in a red cape with gold embroidery, this has connotations of royalty and power. A boxer might wear this type of cape before he begins to fight to show that he is scared of nothing and is a hard man. Branagh, knowing this, is trying to project it on Victor. Victor has got nothing else on his top half but on his bottom half he has tatty trousers and shoes to show that he hasn’t had much time to spend on appearance. Another technique Branagh uses to make Victor seem strong and/or bold is by filming him through a low angle shot, making it seem like he is towering above everyone else. Also, non-diegetic, fast paced, loud music is played to make it seem like what he is doing is really important but also that he is in a rush to finish it and make history. Not only is Victor made to seem important but so is the monster by pulling it up with the pulley on to the track and as it ascends, a bright light is shone directly above it. Since this light is so strong it creates a circle of light around the creation. I believe that the effect of this is to suggest the creation as a gift to God or even to make it seem like it is so close to him that Victor can show God he is about to create life just like he did. Victor is filmed using a high angle shot running at the same speed as the monster on the cradle. The effect of this is to show that Victor is completely dependant on the creation of the monster, therefore not letting it out of his sight. If Victor didn’t care as much about it, he would have waited by the tank where the track finishes. Lots of diegetic sound is used when the log knocks the cradle and as it is running along the tracks. When the creature is put into the tank, and is above the fire, Branagh uses a series of extreme close up shots as the spikes are being stabbed into the monster. This type of shot is used so that you can almost feel the spikes going into you as you sit at home or in the cinema. This also creates sympathy for the monster. As the camera shots dissolve through all the bits of machinery and all the electric lines, which have sparks coming out of them to show that they are high voltage, it shows that there are loads of different things going on at the same time. The effect of this is to show that the task of creating the monster is extremely difficult because there are a lot of things to do and think about. While Victor is fastening a tube to the tank the camera slowly zooms out and pans to the right to show that the tube is connected to a big sack, which is shaking, that retains electric eels and a lot of amniotic fluid. The effect of this is to suggest that this is like a real birth because Victor uses amniotic fluid held in a sack or a container like in a real mothers womb. The sack is also filmed in a low angle shot to make it seem as it is a main part in the creation of the monster. As the eels are released into the tank they start to attack the monster at first. Then it looks like they are trying to heal him as they go for stitches to make it seem like they are repairing the monster. The first of this part is filmed using a close up, panning shot running up the monsters body, then an over the shoulder shot of the eels repairing him is employed. There is a lot in the mise en scene when Victor is standing on the tank. Victor himself standing on the tank, with the sack that held the amniotic fluid in, shaking the chains, looks to me like he has got eight hands due to the way the light is shone onto the sack. I think that if this was deliberate then it is meant to portray that he is Godlike with eight hands meaning that he is more powerful than an everyday man. The fire under the tank looks like it has been over fuelled so it is jumping up the side or even dancing.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Comparison in graduation in engineering Assignment

Comparison in graduation in engineering - Assignment Example The five countries have not developed to the point of First World countries. There are very many challenges in the economy that may affect the number of graduates being released into the market. Many engineering institutions are well equipped thus may not enroll many students. In order to reduce the deficit of engineers, these countries must put more resources in engineering colleges. As the economies of these countries grow, there will be the need for many more engineers. The shortage of engineers in these countries can be attributed to the imbalance in the intake of engineers to various local colleges and the level of economic growth. The five countries rely on developed countries’ institutions of higher learning when further trainings are required. A majority of engineers who want to further their studies must go abroad in order to acquire the skills they need. The five countries take postgraduate students to countries such as Japan, US, UK and Germany, among other countries (Orpwood et al., 2013). Although there have been a shortage in the number of engineers, these countries are now putting more resources to ensure that they enroll more graduates in order to satisfy the local

Thursday, September 26, 2019

International Strategic Management- Case study (Emirate airline)

International Strategic Management- (Emirate airline) - Case Study Example Some of this training involves diversity, as the business employs more than 150 different nationalities and must deal with a diverse demographic of clients (Matly & Dillon, 2007). Training and development is a key internal resource, in terms of human capital, to provide ongoing customer service and support to fulfill the company’s mission and differentiation tactics toward competitive edge through service. The business has also been able to establish a network of internal capabilities including an ever-growing fleet of planes which allows Emirates the distinction of being the only airline across the globe to offer non-stop flight service to all six continents from a single airline hub (emirates.com, 2009). This requires internal flexibility and expertise in coordinating flight services in a manner which does not project, to the travelling client, delays or inferior scheduling capacity. This is an internal competency which gives Emirates a reputation for being both innovative to meet international client demands and also coordinate on-time arrivals and departures. Much to the dismay of Emirates Airlines, the company’s cash position is quickly deteriorating, due largely to heavy financing of current planes and also the current economic climate which is causing drops in passengers as they cut back on business and personal costs (Kerr, 2009). The business has attempted to diversify its holdings, including new investments in the construction of a hotel and its ongoing dividends being paid to the Dubai government (Kerr). However, the business still maintains a strong cash position of $2.4 (US) billion, giving the business considerable opportunities to further diversify its business holdings and generate more long-term revenue. Therefore, from an internal strategic analysis, Emirates Airlines is well-positioned with positive cash availability to strengthen its ability to expand as deemed

The Religious and Social Perspective on Living Aspects of Humankind Research Paper

The Religious and Social Perspective on Living Aspects of Humankind - Research Paper Example Lewis uses politics in the first letter to replace reason, and show the prevalence of propaganda in the current society (Lewis 8). The year 1941 has been used as a case that depicts actual propaganda, affecting religion and world politics. Screwtape’s letter stands as one of the most non-religious societies where the evils of both worlds and entities are considered outdated and logical minds do not consider them in their lifestyles. Referring to the Bible, Lewis claims that we used to encounter evils and temptations from Satan and his followers as a daily strive. The patient in the first and second Screwtape’s letters has been converted from a Christian to believing the assumptions and thoughts presented in the letters. Lewis mentions to Wormwood that they must keep on working on his mind. Propaganda is further instilled in the fifth and seventh letters with reference made to war and the condition of the human mind. The patient’s engagement is used to corrupt his thinking and adopt their culture. Implying that the World wars are still occurring, Lewis makes note of the spiritual and physical aspects of the human body. The spiritual conflict had been in our lifestyles, starting from when Christians were converted. Lewis uses full propaganda words to replace reason and explain the tribulations of the last days. The tribulations have been manipulated to overshadow the logic of Christianity and the sanity of today’s world politics (Lewis 11). According to Lewis, humankind undergoes continuous suffering phases in our lives for no apparent reason (Lewis 17).

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Building block assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Building block - Assignment Example A weakness of Starbucks Cafà © is that its product is a luxury item that performs poorly during bad economic times. Another weakness of Starbucks Cafà © is high raw material costs. Starbuck Cafà © uses only fair trade coffee at its stores which is more than twice as expensive as regular coffee. Starbucks Cafà © is a company that has expanded its operations oversees. The company has further opportunities for expansion into foreign markets. The firm must expand internationally because the U.S market has become saturated. Another opportunity for Starbucks Cafà © is the potential to grow its sales in the retail marketplace by selling unprepared pounds of Starbucks coffee at supermarkets and other establishments. A threat that Starbucks Cafà © must be aware of is substitute products. In terms of competition in the coffee marketplace a major threat to the company is the continued expansion of McCafà ©. McDonald’s has over 34,000 establishments worldwide and its McCafà © operation sells quality coffee at lower prices than Starbucks

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Organizational Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Organizational Leadership - Essay Example The critical role of a strategic leader in the overall success of the organization therefore is really important in terms of ensuring that the organization has a direction and a vision to achieve while at the same time ensuring that it can successfully deal with its external environment. Leaders and leadership within the organization therefore are probably the most important facets of a modern organization in order to help it to become successful and strategically managed. However, leaders ability to understand the general business environment, competition as well as the political economy are some of the really important aspects which make a leader successful in the current business environment. Above all the strategic thinking is extremely important in order to ensure that the leaders have the enough skills and capabilities to successfully negotiate with such challenges. This paper will look into the effects of strategic thinking and practices of business leaders in dynamic business environment. Leadership defined Before discussing on the strategic role of leadership, it is critical that a comprehensive view of the overall concept of leadership is presented in order to ensure that a solid theoretical foundation is laid for further discussion. Leadership has been defined in different manners and its definition has also changed over the period of time as the overall research on the subject evolved. What is also however, critical to understand that the leadership is often associated with the achievement of a common goal and how leader through his or her influence can actually get best out of the individuals to perform to their best.? It is significant to understand that leadership is often associated with the achievement of defined and shared objectives which are set... From the discussion it is clear that leaders and leadership within the organization therefore are probably the most important facets of a modern organization in order to help it to become successful and strategically managed.   However, leaders ability to understand the general business environment, competition as well as the political economy are some of the really important aspects which make a leader successful in the current business environment. Above all the strategic thinking is extremely important in order to ensure that the leaders have the enough skills and capabilities to successfully negotiate with such challenges.This paper stresses that  leadership has been defined in different manners and its definition has also changed over the period of time as the overall research on the subject evolved. What is also however, critical to understand that the leadership is often associated with the achievement of a common goal and how leader through his or her influence can actual ly get best out of the individuals to perform to their best.? It is significant to understand that leadership is often associated with the achievement of defined and shared objectives which are set at the beginning and the organizational resources are committed in order to ensure that the desired objectives are achieved. Leadership therefore is also associated with the effective utilization of the resources in order to achieve the desired objectives of the firm.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 29

Case study - Essay Example The fact that the business has existed for numerous years makes the renovations as proposed by Jason inevitable. Similarly, narrowing the business’ target market as proposed by Bradley would enhance its operations thus improving the profitability of the company. Mr. Lynch must therefore consider the possibility of consolidating the two approaches with the view of enhancing the longevity of the business and quelling the differences between his sons. Renovating the pub will place it in the modern society. The renovation will seek to satisfy the demands of the modern day customer. In renovating and expanding the pub, the management must consider the demands of the modern day customer thus safeguarding such features as convenient and comfort. As stated earlier, renovating the pub is inevitable. This implies that Mr. Lynch and his two sons must determine the most appropriate ways of renovating the pub thus positioning the business strategically in the modern society. While doing this, the management must narrow the pub’s target market a feature that will enhance the management. In doing this, Mr. Lynch must consider the importance of diversity in enhancing the profitability and longevity of business in the contemporary market. In expanding and renovating the pub, Mr. Lynch can therefore develop a section of the pub and permit Bradley to customize it strategically for its LGBT target market. Jason should then manage the other section that targets the general consumer. This way, the business diversifies its services while safeguarding the peace and unity of the two siblings. Such is an appropriate approach that will serve as an effective marketing research and analysis tool that will provide the two sons with the most appropriate trends in the market thus enabling the two to change the structure of their business based on the response of the market. Diversity is

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Steven Biko Essay Example for Free

Steven Biko Essay â€Å"Steven Biko is not a hero, he is man like Donald Woods. They are both fighting for a better South Africa. † Cry Freedom, written by John Briley is about apartheid in South Africa. Steve Biko is a black leader who encouraged his people to stand for their rights and fight without violence. Donald Woods, an editor for the local newspaper, was shown by Biko the difficult lives of the black people under the white government. Consequently, Woods understands the struggles of the blacks, and tries to help spreading Biko’s messages after he died. I believe that both Steve Biko and Donald Woods are heroes because they were both fighting for a better South Africa. The situation in South Africa was that the black people wanted to break away from the control of the whites and wanted to have equality between white people. For example, White people live in big houses with electricity, whereas black people live in small and old houses without electricity. The black people must have a pass when they enter white peoples area, otherwise, they will go to prison. For example, Steven Biko said â€Å"and even to stay In a legal township like this on, the white boss must sign your pass every month, the white government tells you which house to live in and what the rent is. † Pg. 17 Steve Biko is a hero, he risked his life for a better South Africa. He had helped people and the majority of black people liked him, some white people too. â€Å"Let us have our place, in our own way, and then we will come together with our white brothers and sisters and find a way to live in peace. † Biko said to Woods. Page16. Steve Biko built a clinic in Zanempilo. He was explaining to Woods why he started clinic at Zanempilo, â€Å"when I was a student, I suddenly realised that it wasn’t just the job I was studying for that was white. The history we read was made by white men, written by white men. Television, medicine cars all invented by white men. Even football. † Because he wanted black people to believe they have the same ability to be a doctor or a leader as a white man. When Steven Biko took Donald to show him the clinic, Steven Biko described the clinic as ‘A Clinic for black people, with black workers and a black doctors. I think Donald Woods was also a hero because he was a very brave man and heroic person. He became a banned person when he tried to go to America and talk about Steven Biko’s death. The police said to him â€Å"You Donald James Wood are declared a banned person, for a period of five years. † He even put his family and himself in danger to go to England and publish the book about Biko’s death. Also, Donald Woods gave a job to Mapetla and Tenjy who were two black people. He was happy to incorporate black people with white people to show this. They’re going to cover black news. Weddings, music, sport, crime. There is nothing illegal in that. † Donald says this when he tells Ken that Mapetla and Tenjy will be working for the Daily Dispatch. In conclusion, Steve Biko and Donald Woods were heroes. They did lots of things to improve South Africa. Steven Biko and Donald Woods wanted equality between black people and white people. Also, they both fought for the equality of races in South Africa. They both tried to Let South Africa governed by both white people and black people.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Soft Drink Industry: Competition and Structure

Soft Drink Industry: Competition and Structure This work aims to study the way the soft drink industry, a major part of the global beverage industry. The research will provide an introduction of the soft drink industry. Using Porters 5 Forces framework, the research seeks to map the structure of the industry. The research will further analyze the macro-environment of the industry using the PESTEL framework to identify changes in the industry. In addition, the research seeks to identify the structural drivers of change within the industry. The study undertaken intends to focus also on learning about the current stage of industry life cycle and what are the driving traits that make this industry worthwhile. From the above scenarios, the research will identify the most likely scenario for the future of the industry INTRODUCTION The Soft Drink Industry consists of establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing non-alcoholic, carbonated beverages, mineral waters and concentrates and syrups for the manufacture of carbonated beverages. Principal activities and products: Aerated waters; Carbonated beverages; Mineral and spring waters; Soft drink concentrates and syrup; and Soft drink preparation carbonating. (Hrsdc, 2005) The soft-drink battleground has now turned toward new overseas markets. While once the United States, Australia, Japan, and Western Europe were the dominant soft-drink markets, the growth has slowed down dramatically, but they are still important markets for Coca-Cola and Pepsi. However, Eastern Europe, Mexico, China, Saudi Arabia, and India have become the new hot spots. Both Coca-Cola and Pepsi are forming joint bottling ventures in these nations and in other areas where they see growth potential. (Fargos, 2005) Soft drinks are the largest beverage market segment in the global market and are forecasted to reach approximately $550bn in 2013 (business insights, n.d). The key players in this industry are: Coca -Cola Company Pepsi Co Cadbury Nestle Porters Five Forces Bargaining Power of Buyers Different level of bargaining power exist among the group of buyers Vending machine no buyer bargaining power Fast food chain- more bargaining power Bargaining Power of Suppliers Bargaining power of suppliers is weak. The ingredients are easily available and there are many suppliers, reducing companys switching cost. Many substitutes for sugar can be used like corn syrup ,sweetener. Threat of Substitutes The threat of substitutes can be reduced by expanding the products such as non carbonated drinks like juice ,tea, coffee and plain water. Alcohol is a threat too esp. as these companies dont manufacture alcoholic beverage. But due to social, time and health constraints its moderated. Rivalry among Competing Firms one could characterize the soft drink market as a duopoly between Coke and Pepsi, resulting in positive economic profits. There is intense rivalry between coca-cola and Pepsi. there is no price differentiation and consumer has no brand loyalty. Threat of New Entrants It would be nearly impossible for a new bottler to enter the industry because of the tremendous market presence of Coke, Pepsi, and a few others .Soft drink industry require substantial capital investment, which would deter entry. Further existing bottlers had exclusive territories in which to distribute their products PESTEL ANALYSIS (P)olitical Factors Non-alcoholic beverages fall within the food category under the FDA. The government plays a role within the operation of manufacturing these products in terms of regulations. There are severe penalties set by the government on companies if they try to violate the laws. (Pbawa, n.d.) (E)conomic Factors There is a deep impact of Recession on Soft drink industry. If cost of raw material rises than production costs will increase. The companies are vulnerable to exchange rate fluctuations, resulting in a drop in profits through foreign currency earned versus production investment. (S)ocial Factors Many people are concerned about their healthier lifestyles. They are switching to bottled water and diet colas instead of beer and other alcoholic beverages. Consumers from the ages of 37 to 55 are also increasingly concerned with nutrition. They are becoming more concerned with increasing their longevity (T)echnological Factors The new technology of internet and television which use special effects make some products look attractive. This helps in selling of the products. Introduction of cans and plastic bottles have increased sales for Coca-Cola as these are easier to carry .As the new technology in packaging system rise the production higher. (E)nvironmental Factors Soft drink industry degrade the environment by transport and fuel wastage ,industries production and waste process. They are required to have more eco friendly products and practices now. While coca cola and pepsi both are emphasizing on recycling of cans. (L)egal Factors Legal restrictions are put in place so that companies products do not fool and harm the consumer. Companies are required to aware the consumer about negative health impact of soft drink and also mention the ingredients and warning on product. Structural Drivers of change Social/demographic The consumer has slowly become more health conscious. . Changing consumer demographics resulting in changing consumer tastes and increased demand for healthier products. There is a increased in competition from other non-alcoholic beverages, such as energy drinks and sports drinks. Packaging and distribution The majority of soft drinks are sold in aluminium cans and PET plastic bottles. They are also sold in bulk through soda fountains. Bottles, most of which comprise PET plastic, Only a very small portion of soft drinks are still packaged in glass bottles .Companies are trying to make packaging more eco friendly such as many companies have introduced re-sealable packs which can be resealed after drinking. The industry distributes its products through supermarkets and grocery stores, drug stores, convenience stores and gas outlets, mass merchandisers and warehouse outlets. The foodservice and hospitality industry, in particular fast food outlets, is another method of distribution. Vending machines also provide a distribution channel for these products. Now the companies can directly sell to the consumer, reducing their dependence on distributors, decreasing costs and increases direct contact with the consumers. (Hrsdc, 2005) Industry Life Cycle The soft drinks market is now in the matured stage of the life cycle. Growth in the industry has remained stagnant. It is natural for product to go in decline stage but coca cola and Pepsi Delay this decline by constantly developing the product or brand in order to extend the cycle. Coca Cola has maintained its leadership for several years. The reason behind is that it constantly developing its brand image and reinforcing the core product benefit of taste and refreshment to ensure that brand remain in maturity stage. . As in a mature industry, it is characterised by high competition, price wars and competitive advantage through economies of scale. As in their domestic market is saturated so many companies are now turned towards overseas markets. Another way to extend the product in a life cycle is to adapt it as consumer s needs change. For example when consumers attitude towards health and diet is changing than coca cola has introduced diet coke. Also these companies have aggressive and high advertising spends in order to maintain a reminder of their products in the minds of the consumers. (Irish Times, 2000) Future Scenario The soft drink industry can have 3 possible scenarios in its long term future which are as follows:- Health conscious Now days consumer are more concerned about their health. Consumers are also aware of the negative health impact of soft drinks (esp. carbonated), like lowering bone density, obesity etc. So consumers are looking to the healthier options. So may be the soft drink industry will decline or will be rooted out of the market. Due to the negative image of the soft drink industry ,there may be some restriction or limitation on supply just like hard drink industry. There may be age or quantity restriction like in alcohol or tobacco. This may lead to drop of sales for soft drink industry. Or it could carry on at the same rate as now with steady and predictable growths. There already is a growing demand for healthy juices, fruit drinks, cereals etc. thus the industries should continue product innovation and expansion of their product line. Diversification and Market share As saturation is taking place in soft drink industry , companies will start diversifying into new product categories and markets. Also, having a diverse product line will make the industry very stable, which is appealing to investors and creditors. Soft drink industry could diversify into many segment. .. So they should diversify according to the consumer needs. Kids segment will be another market that companies will directly begin to target because this is the market where soft drink industry get most of it sales. So there may be low calorie drinks that will do good for the kids and will be the trend in all households. Soft drink industry also diversify on alcoholic beverages. They will make the combination of little percent of alcohol with soft drink which is already popular to attract the hard drink customers. As alcohol is a substitute threat for soft drink this would minimize their risk. Another Possible future is, to expand their global market share. This is very important to sustain because it is the source of the majority of their profits. If they lose global market share, their profits will decline dramatically. So soft drink should take over the local drinks in different countries. Each country has its own local product based on traditional flavours and tastes. The soft drink companies could expand into this new market too. So soft drink industry should acquire local companies and manufacturing these drinks on a mass scale. Special drinks By continually introducing new products, soft drink industry will be able to increase their profits and allow the company to continue to grow. They should introduced special drinks to attract the customer . The global soft drinks market is estimated to reach a value of around $ 49.9 billion by the end of 2014. As with all functional soft drinks (FSDs), the original target segment who initially bought this concept 16 to 30 year olds are growing older and entering a different lifecycle that requires less energy stimulation. Maintaining interest in the sports drinks sector will be vital in order for steady growth to continue. Sports drinks glucose enhancing drinks and all others that specifically boost certain needs of the body Along with new and innovative flavours, which also require a level of familiarity and recognition is important for competing in the saturated soft drinks industry. Consumers also want to see that the product is naturally good for them . The more portions of fruit or vegetables a drink contains so that it tastes good over a normal soft drink Most Likely Scenario The most likely scenario will be the diversification and expansion for the future of the industry. As this industry is already in saturated stage so this scenario will be very helpful. There will be some stage when people get bored with the soft drinks. . Diversification and expansion will create more scope for innovation, profits and new market in these sectors individually by sharing of customers and resources and also enhance performance of the core industry. If the industry wants to keep moving and doesnt want to slipped in decline stage than industry have to adopt the diverse and expand strategy in other segments to keep profit going.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Gender Stereotypes and Toys Essay -- Gender Roles in Society

Often when a couple becomes pregnant and finds out the sex of the infant, stereotypes begin to form. If the child is female, their room will often be painted pink with cutesy borders. The crib will have pink blankets with ruffles on them. The baby girl will be presented with soft toys and cute stuffed animals, as well as perhaps a baby doll or two. At the baby shower, the mother will typically be presented with pink and purple clothing, the colors of choice for a female child. When the baby finally comes along, she will typically be treated as a gentle princess. When it comes to girls, adults are often more careful, as if the baby girl will break. On the other hand, if the couple is having a male child, the room will be painted blue or green with borders usually depicting superheroes or sports oriented paraphernalia. Though the boy may receive stuffed animals, they are typically of a more ferocious nature than the stuffed animals a girl might receive. The blankets are usually blue or another color associated with little boys. Perhaps one of the boy’s first gifts will be a tiny little catcher’s mitt, or something else sports related. At the baby shower, the mother will receive blue and green clothes. Family and friends are more likely to take a little boy to a sporting event than their female counterpart. Clearly, from the moment a child is brought into this world, they are pushed toward a certain stereotype. Now, the real question is – Are boys naturally more aggressive due to higher testosterone levels, or is it more culturally defined, by the way we treat our children and the gifts we bestow upon them? As mentioned in Human Development – A Lifespan View, â€Å"Children don’t live in a gender-neutral world for long. Althou... ... boys, who – away from the battle zone of their friends and brothers – turn out to be surprisingly cuddly and clingy? (Blum, 238)† Not every male or female is going to fit the mold, if there really even is one. The stereotypes stated above created by society and parents are most often useless in truly predicting a child’s choice of play and toys. Kids are going to gravitate toward what they enjoy. Even the author Deborah Blum states â€Å"I don’t think in pastels, myself. I think jungle-green, blood-red. (Blum, 236)† Stereotypes give us something to group people by, but we cannot always judge a person by them. Works Cited Blum, Deborah. â€Å"The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?† Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. 6th Edition. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 573-580. Print.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Downfall of the Governess in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James Essay

Downfall of the Governess in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James In the governess's insane pseudo-reality and through her chilling behavior, she managed to bring downfall to Flora and Miles, the children of Bly. With compulsively obsessive actions, irrational assumptions, and demented hallucinations, the governess perceived ghosts bearing evil intentions were attempting to corrupt and destroy the children she had taken the role of care for. In reality, the governess herself brought tragedy to the children through her own selfishness and insanity. From the first interactions with the young children, the governess's infatuation with their uncle, her employer, eventually proved to be her own failure in every fashion. In talk with the head maid, Ms. Grose, the governess explained her meeting with her employer and how she had fallen in love with him on their first meeting. Ms. Grose then began to explain that that was the nature of the her employer, to draw a women he could entrust his estate to, and that the governess was not the only one so taken by him to leave the infatuated governess without further communication. In restless sleep and longing for contact with those outside of Bly-- particularly her employer-- the governess placed hope in chance meetings of random individuals. In her walk in the yard, the governess began to wish for the sight of her employer who she was still madly in love with. The governess's desire to see him and receive his reassuring approval conceived the ghost of what was later revealed to be Peter Quint she believed she had seen. Later in her climax of interaction with her ghosts, the governess is afraid that the master will come home, for she is fearful of what he will think of her. ... ...d in the governess's eyes. After feeling she had lost Flora to the ghost, when in reality the governess had scared the child to death, Miles still shown to be a ray of hope for the demented governess. She refused to leave him alone and began to become angry and suspicious of his corruption when he would ask of his desire for schooling. In the governess's last attempt to consume the children for herself, she sends Ms. Grose away with the sickly Flora and keeps Miles with her at Bly. After her last vision of Quint and with Miles dilapidated in her ineludable arms, the governess frightens Miles so that he collapses and dies, by the governess's conniving will, and to her own bane. Although the governess seemed to have good intentions, her root of mind was self-serving and deceptive. Works Cited: James, Henry. "The Turn of the Screw." Esch and Warren 1-85.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Macbeth :: essays research papers

A struggle is present in every tragedy, as a person tries to overcome their flaws and fit the mold of their ideal. William Shakespeare plainly defined a good man in the play "Macbeth". This goal by it's definition is a difficult one for any man to achieve. Prudence and logic, temperance and patients, as well as the vindication of honor are Shakespeare's defining characteristics of a good man.As with any well written tragedy, Macbeth's title character and hero had to fall from his place of greatness to see his faults and begin his agonizing climb back to his previous position. His position, that of a good man, was one that demanded respect in the beginning of "Macbeth". The Sergeant described Macbeth's honor and bravery to king Duncan in act I, scene 2."For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,Which smoked with bloody execution,Like valour's minion carved out his passageTill he faced the slave;..."Macbeth defended his king's honor as well as his own, as Shakespeare showed a good man never backed down from a foe.In the later acts of the play, Shakespeare furthered the definition of a good man by portraying what a bad one was not. In Macbeth's darkest hours, he showed no sign of prudence and logic as he slayed king Duncan, and hired assassins to murder his friend Banquo. Macbeth displayed his temerity in act IV scene 1 saying,"...from this momentThe very firstlings of my heart shall beThe firstlings of my hand. And even now,To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done;..."Macbeth was no longer the logical, thinking man whom many admired. He had become reckless, acting with only his passion and not his mind. The tragedy of the murders he brought on fair Scotland was a direct result of this violation of the criterion of a good man.The most apparent flaw, and perhaps the most tragic in Macbeth's character, is his lack of patients and temperance. These shortcomings haunted Macbeth, causing him to let his "overvaulting ambition" rush fate, and hasten his doom. Macbeth could not wait for an appointment to a position of more power. Instead, he murdered the king to take his place. Opting not to wait to see if Banquo would be loyal to him, Macbeth had his companion murdered. His impatience led Macbeth to listen to his wife, the witches, and his darker side. Macbeth :: essays research papers A struggle is present in every tragedy, as a person tries to overcome their flaws and fit the mold of their ideal. William Shakespeare plainly defined a good man in the play "Macbeth". This goal by it's definition is a difficult one for any man to achieve. Prudence and logic, temperance and patients, as well as the vindication of honor are Shakespeare's defining characteristics of a good man.As with any well written tragedy, Macbeth's title character and hero had to fall from his place of greatness to see his faults and begin his agonizing climb back to his previous position. His position, that of a good man, was one that demanded respect in the beginning of "Macbeth". The Sergeant described Macbeth's honor and bravery to king Duncan in act I, scene 2."For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,Which smoked with bloody execution,Like valour's minion carved out his passageTill he faced the slave;..."Macbeth defended his king's honor as well as his own, as Shakespeare showed a good man never backed down from a foe.In the later acts of the play, Shakespeare furthered the definition of a good man by portraying what a bad one was not. In Macbeth's darkest hours, he showed no sign of prudence and logic as he slayed king Duncan, and hired assassins to murder his friend Banquo. Macbeth displayed his temerity in act IV scene 1 saying,"...from this momentThe very firstlings of my heart shall beThe firstlings of my hand. And even now,To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done;..."Macbeth was no longer the logical, thinking man whom many admired. He had become reckless, acting with only his passion and not his mind. The tragedy of the murders he brought on fair Scotland was a direct result of this violation of the criterion of a good man.The most apparent flaw, and perhaps the most tragic in Macbeth's character, is his lack of patients and temperance. These shortcomings haunted Macbeth, causing him to let his "overvaulting ambition" rush fate, and hasten his doom. Macbeth could not wait for an appointment to a position of more power. Instead, he murdered the king to take his place. Opting not to wait to see if Banquo would be loyal to him, Macbeth had his companion murdered. His impatience led Macbeth to listen to his wife, the witches, and his darker side.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Review of Hr Policies and Practices

64 A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN SELECTED PRIVATE SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS IN INDIA 1. Executive summary The new economic environment is primarily marked by the freeing of shackles for entrepreneurship and economic growth. The â€Å"license system† has been replaced, to a great extent, by a â€Å"market system†. The challenge of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices would be to create an environment of resilience, which can accommodate and assimilate successfully changes in systems, structures, technologies, methods, etc. People would have to ascribe the right meaning to the change process.India is well-equipped to succeed on global markets. It has a pool of highly educated people, a well-developed judicial system, democratic governance, an established banking industry, and fairly sophisticated and inter-linked fi nancial markets. Knowledge industries will be at the vanguard of economic opportunity, and India will be poised to take advantage of this trend with its corpus of highly skilled people. The changes on the market scene have necessitated the Indian industry to look inward for the development of human resources (HR).People develop themselves in a globalized scenario with new directions along with new problems and issues arising to develop new competencies to meet the changing requirements, aspirations, and problems. There are, however, some universal goods towards which all human resource management efforts should be aimed at. The emergence of Japanese human resource management has led to the concept of culture in a big way. At the organizational level, the goal of HRM is normally to have competent and motivated employees to ensure managerial effectiveness and growth of the organization.Organizations normally direct their HRM efforts towards the development of competencies and organizational culture. Organizations use mechanisms to achieve HRM goals with competent and committed employees. Organizations can achieve v ery little even if they have excellent technological and other resources at their command. Such an assertion gains better credibility in the context of developing countries like India, that is, typically in early growth stages in terms of economic development, and growing more rapidly than the ‚traditional‘ developed economies of Japan,North America and Europe. The countries with higher rates of growth are mostly in South East Asia, South Asia and some Latin American countries. Research evidence shows that HR practices along with culture do affect effi ciency in the organization. There are hardly any or very few studies which show a link between HRM practices and organizational culture in India. The review of literature has identifi ed that the major chunk of research in India emanates from descriptive data and experience sharing, which does not serve certain practice-oriented concerns.There is very little systematic, empirical research in the scientifi c paradigm that h as been carried out in the Indian HR lexicon. HR research is inspired by western models, and lacks an indigenous perspective. The review of literature on HRM practices has revealed that the most of the work done is in relation to organizational strategy. The methodology employed a sample of 95 respondents from two private sector organizations. The questionnaire consists of 90 items, of which (1) 69 items concern HRM practices of the organization, and (2) 21 items concern organization culture.The correlation analysis has been used to infer the relationship between variables of HRM practices and organizational culture. A healthy culture is required for utilizing and enhancing employee competencies and to develop people. This study focuses on the positive signifi cant relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture in private sector organizations. There is a positive signifi cant relationship between HRM practices and variables of organizational culture operationalised in terms of self-realization, status enhancement, inventive values and socio economic support.The pressures are most likely to be felt by those who have led and managed the change process in such a volatile economic environment. HRM would have the ability to attract and retain people and this would be the key to manage this macro change—in terms of both pace and rate. Change leaders would be confronted with the need to reorient culture, thinking and paradigms. HRM as a function and as a prime mover would need to focus on this changing and emerging role with the help of organizational culture. 2. Introduction The global turmoil has witnessed the growing importance of Human Resources Management (HRM) in both business and public life.The turbulent business climate brought in the wake of liberalization, globalization, changing technologies, growth in knowledge and advances in information technology is offering managers a complex and challenging situation (Davis, 1995). Indian organ izations are tending to become competitive to meet globally relevant standards. The growing emphasis on privatization has warranted a new focus in terms of result orientation, long-term strategies, consumer focus, initiative and different mindsets for internal and external communication.The Indian business scenario is characterized by the historical rigidities arising largely out of centralized planning. Our decision-making is infl uenced, among other factors, by posing more a constraint rather than a facilitator. The practice of protecting Indian industries through protective tariffs and quotas for over four decades has led to a lack of global competitiveness in terms of quality of products, services and prices. Indians are more accustomed to thinking in terms of narrow identities like our own selves, caste, and community, regional and linguistic groups.A failing and defi cient infrastructure and frustrating bureaucracy at operating levels, and the cultural and indigenous barriers added fuel to fi re. Hamel and Prahalad (1991) contend that a competitive advantage is obtained if a fi rm can obtain and develop human resources, which enable it to learn faster and apply its learning more effectively than its rivals. The HRM has emerged and evolved as one of the most important areas of organizational science and practice. It has not been developed in isolation, but rather in the context of industrial change and economic development.The uniqueness of the Human Resources (HR) approach requires a totally different type of attention from managers. The HR has characteristics that provide the greatest challenge as well as opportunity. A company‘s HR is fragile with delicate relationships, along with unpredictable contributions, and permanency is uncertain (Guest, 1991). Wright, Smart, and McMahan, (1995) mention that the crucial inputs, among others, to an organization are its human resources. People bring to their jobs diversity of skills, needs, goals, and expec tations. They are ocialized into the organization through their hiring to begin with, and their continuous functioning in the organization. According to Bulla and Scott (1994), we need to ensure that the human resource requirements of an organization are identifi ed and plans are made for satisfying those requirements. Guest, Conway, Briner and Dickman (1996) are of the opinion that the interface between the individual and the organization is critical to full utilization of human resources. The individual and the organization establish a „psychological contractâ€Å".Individual members expect to make contributions to the organization and receive certain rewards in return. The organization provides certain rewards and expects in return certain contributions from the individual. It is at this interface between the individual and the organization that issues such as HR planning, work analysis, career development, leadership, job motivation, the appraisal-reward process, and the organizational culture become important. The patterns of work relationships at work refl ect the HRM philosophy.The practices and philosophy of HRM are perpetuated by managers who are encouraged to follow the role model of their seniors. In the process of organization socialization they internalize the values and attitudes of their leaders. The entire process is thus institutionalized (Snell, Youndt, and Wright, 1996). In general, HRM has been described as: broad and strategic; involving all managerial personnel; regarding employees as the single most important organizational asset; being proactive in its responsibilities; and having the objective of enhancing organizational performance and meeting employee needs (Poole, 1990). . Organizational culture The idea that organizations have culture has been acknowledged since Lewin, Lippitt and White’s (1939) research on creating social climate. Culture and climate are integral parts of an organization. Organizational culture refer s to a system of shared meanings held by members that distinguishes one organization from other organizations (Schien, 1985). Organizational culture provides employees with a clear understanding of the way things are done in that organization. Organizational culture is the perceived, subjective infl uence of the formal system, the informal ‚style‘ of managers and other ignifi cant environmental factors on the attitudes, beliefs, values and motivation of the people in a particular organization (Litwin and Stringer, 1968). The concept of culture is seen as a kind of bridge between the individual and the organization. Culture performs a number of functions within an organization. It creates a distinction between one organization and another, it conveys a sense of identity for role incumbents, it facilitates the generation of commitment, and it enhances social system stability. Finally, culture sells as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitude s and behaviour of employees.Hofstede (1980) felt that cultures which are high on the long-term orientation focus on the future and hold values in the present that will not necessarily provide an immediate benefi t (e. g. , Japan, China), while cultures with short-term orientation (e. g. , USA, Russia) are oriented toward the past and present and promote respect for tradition and for fulfi lling social obligations. The fi ve dimensions discussed by Hofstede (1980), help us understand the potential problems of managing employees from different cultures.One interesting fi nding of his research was the impact of culture on a country’s economic health. He found that countries with individualistic cultures were wealthier. Collectivistic cultures with high power distance were all poor. Cultures seem to affect a country’s economy through their promotion of individual work ethics and incentives for individuals to increase their human capital. Research into the link between org anizational culture and effectiveness is also limited by lack of agreement about the appropriate measures of effectiveness. The current literature has its roots in the early 1980s.Deal and Kennedy (1982) and Peters and Waterman (1982) focused their attention on the strategic importance of organizational culture and stimulated interest in the topic. Kotter and Heskett (1992) expanded on this by exploring the importance of adaptability and the fi t between an organization and its environment. Peters and Waterman (1982) argued that companies with strong culture are highly successful. They argued that superior fi rm performance is achieved if a company moves away from a purely technical, rationalistic approach towards a more adaptive and humanistic approach.Carroll (1983), Reynolds (1986), and Hitt and Ireland (1987) questioned the approach taken by Peters and Waterman. Owing to such results, the causal link between strong culture and performance was seriously questioned by the end of t he 1980s. Most of the studies lack a clear theoretical conception of the nature of the cultureperformance link. Siehl and Martin (1990) elaborate on this view and also suggest that culture may serve as a fi lter for factors that infl uence the effectiveness of the organization.These factors may differ between organizations. A more thorough understanding of the mechanisms at play is essential for research on the culture-performance link. Wilderom and Van den Berg (1998) found no direct signifi cant zero-order relationship between culture and performance. Taking the perceived performance and managerial leadership along with HRM practices into account, Wilderom and Van den Berg (1998) did discover that a signifi cant relationship exists between culture and performance.This fi nding illustrates the importance of the development of more elaborative theories on the direction and contingencies in the relation between culture and performance. Without such theories, we may draw overly simple or even misleading conclusions. In light of the above fi ndings, it is necessary to understand the relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture. The presumption is that more effective systems of HRM practices, which simultaneously exploit the potential for complementariness or synergies with organizational culture, lead to better performance and enhanced effectiveness.Indian organizations are embedded in Indian culture, which infl uences and is infl uenced by the economic, political and social factors, and is also subjected to global business infl uences. Sinha and Sinha (1994), found self-realization and inventive values as the highest form of work values in Indian culture. Organizations appreciate corporate core values of self-realization and inventive values as they encourage and recognize innovation, creativity and achievement. 4. Review of literature Schuler (1992) suggests that Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) has many different components, includin g policies, culture, values and practices.Strategic business needs of an organization are infl uenced by its internal (which mainly consist of factors such as organizational culture and nature of business) and external characteristics (consisting of the nature and state of economy in which the organization is existing and critical success factors, i. e. , opportunities and threats provided by the industry), which are infl uenced by HR activities. Thornhill, Lewis, Millmore, and Saunders (2000) found a potential role for HR-centred strategies to be used to change or realign the culture of an organization.An organization can change its culture through its recruitment strategy of replacing managers with those from outside, restructuring the organization, downsizing the workforce, training programmes, new reward strategies and performance management to alter employee behaviours or reinforce emergent ones. After the economic liberalization, Indian organizations were under pressure to cha nge from low-cost, indigenous, less effi cient and outdated technology to high-cost modern technology and prepare people to use it. This was done to develop and maintain their competitive edge in the larger business environment (Khan, 1999).The potential value of the employees is to be increased by collectively enhancing and linking their skills and capabilities in tune with the contemporary requirements of the market, and to be faster than the competitors. The success of the HRM will be determined by its ability to harness the intelligence and spirit of people by creating a learning climate. Indian organizations normally direct their HRM efforts towards the development of competencies, culture and effectiveness among employees individually or in groups 69AOP 18(4), 2010, ISSN 0572-3043 (Singh, 2003). Organizations may use many mechanisms to achieve their HRM goals as without competent and committed employees, an organization can achieve very little even it has excellent technologic al and other resources at its command. Such an assertion gains better credibility in the context of developing countries like India, that is, typically in early growth stages in terms of economic development and growing more rapidly than the ‚traditional‘ developed economies of Japan, North America and Europe.This also includes most South East Asian, South Asian and some Latin American countries. Selection in organizations is based on non-job related criteria like attractiveness, goal orientation, and interpersonal skills: a general lack of concern for value congruence (Prakash, 1994). The dominant emphasis has been on the universal practice of identifying and improving on existing performance strategies. This practice would require a complete reversal where congruencies of values should fi nd a place in selection and training.Only then would it possible to achieve linkages with the values of the wider socio-cultural context in India. In order to make an organization eff ective, the values of the society and the cultural milieu should be synthesised with those of the organization and its functioning. Fombrun, Tichy, and Devanna (1984) expanded these premises and developed the model of SHRM, which emphasises a ‘tight fi t’ between the organizational strategy, organizational structure and HR system. Political, economic and cultural forces are responsible for an organization’s mission and strategy.This explains these causal relations, which form the ‘tight fi t’ between strategy, organization structure and HR polices and practices. On the basis of mission and strategy, the shape of organization is structured, i. e. , people are organized to carry out different tasks to achieve the organization’s mission. Hendry and Pettigrew (1992) propose that a number of internal factors such as the organizational culture, structure (positioning of HR), leadership, level of technology employed and business output directly contr ibute to forming he contents of HRM. HRM could be seen as a menu of strategic choices to be made by human resource executives in order to promote the most effective ‘role behaviours’ that are consistent with the organization’s strategy and aligned with each other (Sparrow and Hilltrop, 1994). The present study The present study is to examine the relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture. To this end, HRM practices are viewed in terms of planning, recruitment, selection, training and development, performance evaluation, career management and rewards.Organizational culture is viewed in terms of self-realization, status enhancement, inventive values and socio-economic support. Self-realization consists of values such as achievement, ability utilization, advancement, aesthetics, personal development, and peace of mind. Status enhancement, one of the variables of organizational culture, consists of values of altruism, authority, physical activity, and prestige. Inventive values, another variable of organizational culture, consists of values of autonomy, creativity, lifestyles, risk-taking, and variety.Socio-economic support consists of work values of social relationship and interaction, comforts, dependency, good working condition and economic gains. The self-realization and inventive values give inner satisfaction to a person while performing a job in an organization. The variables of status enhancement and socio-economic support are extrinsic values, which are required in the Indian environment. Indian society and developing societies are ridden with insecurities and lack of resources and people generally have a history of failures.Fear of failure leads to giving importance to socio-economic support and lack of resources lends too much importance to status enhancement (Sinha, 1990). The idea that individuals are capable of development rests on the conviction that people are important and their involvement is necessary for a n organization to be effective. This conviction is translated into practice through a variety of programs that facilitate individual development and lead to better adjustment with the environment. In a growing economy, the emergence of the new organization and shift in the HRM paradigm have ecessitated a review of the skills, roles and competencies of the ‘new’ HR managers (Ulrich, 1997); in this new era, HRM has evolved in the context of the globalized economic environment. As such, it represents a response to the dramatic and continuous change that globalization has had on society and the world of work. Those who will man the HRM will undergo a change in roles. It will be necessary to inculcate in employees the required new skills, competencies and motivation (Dyer jr. , 1999). The understanding of HRM practices would require a comparative study of practices in the organizations.The relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture among private sector org anizations is studied. This paper also studies similarities and differences in HRM practices and organizational culture between two different organizations in the private sector. 5. Objectives of the study 1. To investigate the various HRM practices, i. e. , planning, recruitment, selection, performance evaluation, training and development, career management and rewards at the managerial levels in private sector organizations. 2. To study and examine the relationships between various aspects of HRM practices and organizational culture. . To fi nd whether there is any difference in the organizational cultures of the two organizations under study. This study was conducted at a time when Indian organizations were facing a very different competitive scenario compared to the past. They were facing competition from MNCs in the new liberal and global economy on the domestic markets. The competition was in terms of reduced cost, improved quality of products and better services. These enviro nmental constraints placed more pressure on managers. More often than not, these concerns were looming large on the horizons of Indian organizations.The fi ndings have bearing in this context. Managers across organizations in the private sector strongly endorsed self-realization (one of the variables of culture), which was signifi cantly correlated to almost all HRM practices. These are planning, recruitment, selection, performance evaluation, training and development, career management, and rewards. While organizations fi nd themselves in worldwide competition, most of the individuals are striving for achievement, ability utilization, advancement, aesthetics, personal development, and peace of mind.Realization or anticipation of realization of the values has resulted in better performance. Self-realization encourages people to satisfy their achievement needs in the work situation (Super and Nevill, 1986; Sinha, 1990). Self-realization in India came quite close to self-actualization in Spain. Status enhancement was strongly related to HR practices in private sector organizations. The values loaded on this factor are authority, altruism, prestige and physical activities. The desire for authority, altruism, prestige and physical activity has a positive impact on the performance of managers.Managers developed a positive attitude towards their work and contributed signifi cantly to self-realization and status enhancement, which were the most valued factors in India. Recruitment, selection, and performance evaluation, training and development, career management, and rewards turned out to be strongly correlated to status enhancement in the private sector. Selection based on planning along with proper recruitment leads to status enhancement. Rewards (fi nancial and non-fi nancial) were strongly related to status enhancement. Performance evaluation (one of the HRM practices) was strong related to status enhancement.Performance evaluation served as a key input for admi nistering formal organizational rewards, career growth and a tool of punishment (Cummings, 1973). Managers working in the organizations were in an excellent position to analyze newcomers’ skills and abilities and to provide feedback (House, 1995). As a purveyor of organizational expectations, performance evaluation was critical. Through the evaluation process, those working in the organization were aware of how well they were meeting their task and role demands (Asford and Cummings, 1983; Nelson, 1990).Clear rewards are the hallmark of an organization that effectively socializes newcomers. In addition to their readily apparent value, the rewards provide 75 AOP 18(4), 2010, ISSN 0572-3043 challenging assignments, promotions and salary increases, etc. , which give encouragement that provide status enhancement for managers (Chatman, 1991). Rewards were also found to be strongly related to inventive values in private sector organizations. Those working in the organizations with d esired values of risk-taking, variety, autonomy, lifestyle and creativity were rewarded.Rewards encourage people to be more creative, have variety and autonomy in their work life along with risk-taking and help to chalk out one’s own lifestyle in the organization. Similarly, training and development in private sector organizations were strongly correlated to inventive values. So, rewards and training and development in the private sector affect both individual esteem and lifestyle signifi cantly. Managers have developed to take on a variety of tasks in order to perform at an optimum level.Managers in the organization have developed to be autonomous and chalk out their own lifestyles to be more effective in the job. This also means employees will expect organizations to offer them opportunities to develop a portfolio of skills that enhances their marketability. Thus, organizations will have to provide work assignments and learning opportunities that allow for challenge and gro wth and self-development (Maurer and Tarulli, 1994). Socio-economic support consists of social relationships and interaction, comforts, dependency, good working conditions and economic gains.Managers were indifferent and did not care much for social interactions and relationships, whereas Indian managers held signifi cant value expectations concerning economic gains, good working conditions and comforts. HR practices were signifi cantly related to socio-economic support in the private sector. Through planning, recruitment and selection practices, newcomers with stronger systems of support report fewer adverse psychological outcomes related to job performance than do those with less support. Quality relationships with organizational insiders can even help newcomers to overcome the negative effects of unmet expectations (Major,Kozlowski, Chao, and Gardner, 1995). Interacting with enthusiastic newcomers may be good for insiders’ attitude and morale. The study also found a relati onship between career management and socio-economic support. People working in the organizations look for career management that will give them the breadth of experience that seems to be needed now, and start looking down on the in-depth expertise of the command-centred manager. So, a shift in culture happens, not because people have changed, but because their beliefs about what they have to do to get ahead have changed (Gunz, Hung, 2000).Rewards were strongly related to socio-economic support in private sector organizations. Litwin, Bray and Brooke (1996) felt that the nature of rewards is the key determinant of how effective they are. Managers who emphasized recognition and encouragement were more effective in shaping the culture of the organization or targeted results. The reason could be that managers working in the private organizations are experiencing a tremendous amount of change around them, thereby realizing that socioeconomic well-being will provide them with stability in a fast changing environment.Furthermore, evidence from literature found the contention that similar work experiences result in uniformity of culture characteristics (Schein, 1987). 76 ACTA OECONOMICA PRAGENSIA 4/2010 Rewards (one of the HRM practices) were strongly related to all the variables of culture in private sector organizations. There is hardly any difference between the two organizations when it comes to practicing rewards and training and development. People within the organizations are either rewarded or trained for acting in accordance with the dominant values of the organizations in India.Although this sample is not large enough to generalize the results, still rewards send clear and consistent signals about desired values and norms expected from people working in the organizations (Sethia and Van Galinow, 1985). The perception of the respondents from both private sector organizations were compared and it was found that there was a statistically signifi cant difference in the variable of socio-economic support between the two organizations, as shown in the table. This means employees in organization A perceived it in a better manner in comparison to their counterparts in organization B.Prakash (1994) felt that Indian organizations are congruent with their cultural surroundings (which is marked by diversities and paradoxes). There is a need to use multiple perspectives at different levels of analysis such as society, organization, management and the individual. It is important that organizations continue to grow and evolve newer perspectives in terms of their values and redefi ne their linkages with the society. Such fi ndings provide support that market economies have the inevitable consequences of rendering organizations competitive.Newman (1972) predicted that the Western work relationships are likely to appear to a great extent in Indian organizations as well. That is, employees in the organizations are likely to become achievement- oriented. There is a struggle for survival, where no one can afford to ignore an opportunity to get optimum results. As one moves higher on the hierarchical ladder of an organization, the individualistic orientation becomes stronger. The correlation analysis between dimensions of HRM practices and dimensions of culture shows that HRM practices do affect the culture of the organization.Ulrich and Lafasto (1995) felt that HRM practices provide information and shape behaviour and experiences of employees. Thus hypotheses H1a, H1b, H1c, H1 d, H1 e, H1 f and H1 g are validated. 11. Conclusions This paper has shown a signifi cant, positive and meaningful relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture. HRM practices become the means whereby organizational culture is created and sustained. Designing new culture requires that HRM professionals are ahead of the cultural change curve with innovative and exciting HRM practices.HRM has been proposed by others to be a potentially powerful le ver for shaping and changing the culture of an organization to make the organization more effective (Schien, 1983; Ulrich, 1997). This is a study of HRM practices in two large private sector organizations in India. HRM practices differ between the private sector organizations. This variation provides support to the fact that the adoption of HRM practices is contingent on the specifi c requirements of each organization (Schuler and Jackson, 1981).There is a signifi cant difference between the socio-economic support variable in organizations A and B. One fi nds no signifi cant difference in the other three variables of organizational culture in private sector organizations, i. e. , self-realization, status enhancement and inventive values. The results developed through inferential analysis to measure differences among the variables of HRM practices and organizational culture in private sector organizations are as follows: 1. The two private sector organizations showed that the perceiv ed mean of organization A was higher for all HRM practices. . The comparison of the dimension of organizational culture in the two private sector organizations showed that employees of organization A perceived the socio-economic support more than those in organization B. 3. It is evident that organization A showed relatively better perception of planning, recruitment processes, selection, performance evaluation and career management aspects of HRM practices in comparison to organization B. 4. There is no signifi cant difference between organization A and organization B in training and development and rewards as per the response of the respondents. 5.Planning, recruitment, selection, training and development, performance evaluation, career management and rewards are signifi cantly correlated with all the dimensions of organizational culture. Human Resource Management Practices – Literature review Human resource management (HRM) practices are being increasingly treated as depen dent rather than independent variables. Whereas in the past researchers focused almost exclusively on how changes in HRM practices affect employee performance or satisfaction, researchers now are beginning to ask how organizational conditions shape HRM practices.Examples of organizational conditions hypothesized to impact HRM practices include strategy (Hambrick and Snow 1987; Snow and Hrebiniak 1980; Olian and Rynes 1984; Lawler 1984; Hambrick and Mason 1984; Gupta and Govindarajan 1984a, b; and Miller, Kets de Vries and Toulouse 1982), organizational life cycle stage (Kochan and Chalykoff 1987; Kerr 1982, 1985), technological change, union presence, internal labor markets and even whether or not an organization has a personnel department (Osterman 1984; Pfeffer and Cohen 1984; Cohen and Pfeffer 1986).Until recently almost all HRM research was dominated by the technical perspective. The technical perspective presumes that organizations wish to plan, staff, appraise, compensate, tra in and develop their employees in order to ensure that the right people (skill-wise) are in the right place (job) at the right time (Collins 1979). The technical perspective leads to research designed to develop techniques for maximizing the match between employees' knowledge, skills and abilities on the one hand and the demands of the jobs on the other (Schneider 1985).The presumed result of good matching is organizational effectiveness, from which individual employees and the organization as a whole both benefit. The control perspective views HRM practices as a means for organizations to ensure the predictability and reliability of social interactions. The goal is to ensure that employees behave as solid citizens, living according to organizationally approved norms and values (Noland and Bakke 1949; Hollingshead 1949; Bowles and Gintish 1976; Edwards 1976; Collins 1979).This perspective recognizes that organizations attempt to govern social performances in addition to job performa nce. Desirable social behaviors presumably include getting along well with others and acting as a good citizen who shows concern for the organization's functioning. The institutional perspective posits two major explanations as to why organizations use particular HRM practices: organizations copy the practices they see being used by others, and/or they adopt practices to gain legitimacy and acceptance (Meyer and Rowan 1977; Zucker 1977; Meyer 1980).The institutional perspective assumes that legitimacy and acceptance are important objectives for most organizations because constituencies have the power to offer and withhold resources which, in the long run, may determine the firm's economic performance. 180 The political perspective holds that HRM practices reflect the distribution of power in an organization. For example, having an extensive set of HRM practices implies a powerful personnel department upon which others must depend when making personnel-related decisions (Osterman 198 4; Pfeffer and Cohen 1984).But existence of other powerful groups-such as unions or competitors who minimize their labor costs-may act to countervail or suppress the expression of the personnel department's wishes (Doeringer and Piore 1971). As suggested by Kochan and Chalykoff (1987) the economic perspective can also explain variations in HRM practices. Relatively affluent conditions in an organization permit it to pay higher wages. This in turn enables an organization to attract more job applicants and be more selective. Higher selectivity (lower selection ratios) diminishes the need to train employees.Furthermore, the attraction of more highly qualified individuals may lead to conditions that give more power and discretion to the employees, thus reducing the attractiveness to them of collective bargaining. The reverse scenario holds under less affluent economic conditions (Osterman 1984). Based on the five perspectives previously presented which help explain some of the variation and similarity in HRM practices across organizations, we aim to diagnose two private organizations from human resource management practices perspective.Our hypothesis is: HRM practices differ based on the company’s size and activity length. Conclusions Based on the analysis, we can conclude that both companies are efficient from HRM point of view. Both organizations are continually developing, having a market in expansion, the difference between them, which may influence the HRM practices, are the size and the activity length: organization 2 is large and relatively old compared to organization 1. The differences recorded are elated to prospecting, selection methods, training needs evaluation, working conditions, and social protection area where organization 2 is more developed. From the five perspectives presented, only three are representative for the analyzed organizations. The technical perspective presumes that organizations wish to plan, staff, appraise, compensate, tra in and develop their employees in order to ensure that the right people (skill-wise) are in the right place (job) at the right time. That is why both organizations are carrying out trainings for their employees and the trained people usually got promoted.The political perspective holds that HRM practices reflect the distribution of power in an organization, having an extensive set of HRM practices implies a powerful personnel department upon which others must depend when making personnel-related decisions. The results of the analysis point out that human resource department of the two companies are relatively strong and well organized. There are no conflicts, which can mean that either the employee are satisfied with their work and rewards or the labor unions are not very strong compared to the management and HR departments of the companies.The economic perspective can also explain variations in HRM practices. It is well illustrated by the analyzed organizations as they have a conti nually growing activity volume which means that they can give higher salaries. In the case of organization 2, which is larger and relatively old compared to organization 1, the management offers, besides rather good salaries, non-financial benefits. Also, the social protection is more developed in the case of organization 2. Based on all these results, we can conclude that our hypothesis is confirmed, HRM practices differ based on the companies’ size and activity length.In an early review of the HRM – performance literature, Dyer and Reeves (1995) posited 4 levels of outcomes of HRM practices—employee, organizational, financial, and market— suggesting that the impact of HRM is likely to work outward through these levels. Employee outcomes consist of affective reactions such as satisfaction and commitment as well as behavioral reactions such as absenteeism and turnover. Organizational outcomes focus primarily on operational performance measures such as qua lity, productivity, and customer satisfaction.Financial outcomes, such as accounting profits, represent the next step in their causal chain. Finally, market outcomes consist of measures of the market value of firms based on stock price. Becker et al. (1997) similarly argued that HRM practices operate most directly through employee skills, motivation, and work design, resulting in behavioral outcomes such as creativity, productivity, and discretionary effort, which are expected to work through operational and eventually through financial market outcomes.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Dream Analysis Essay

John [customer may change/remove his/her name here] has a military background and has spent his childhood in a boarding school. Overall, his childhood was happy and content and his favorite toys to play were trucks which he sometimes even wanted to build out of stray wooden logs and old tires. For the past couple of days John has been having a few recurrent dreams. In the following discourse of dream analysis and analysis on the basis of psychoanalytic personality theory, it will be examined how the fascinating world of the unconscious portrays to the conscious world a glimpse of that infinite universe that resides within each and every one of us. Every night John dreams that he is being chased by a figure in a hooded cloak and long hair that suddenly fades into a door which he cannot open. Bizarre as it may seem, John walks into the door and there is darkness everywhere – but as soon as there is enough light for him to see, he realizes that he is walking on water and there are ships all around him. Without furtherance, the dream ends and John wakes up confused and worried. John can neither comprehend the worry he has nor can he understand the odd turn of events in his dream. It is often said that each human being is a tiny universe within himself or herself. Each person has within him/her a great constellation of ideas, feelings, emotions, wants, needs and many other such aspects which make the person unique and individual and thus even a single case study can prove to be a study of a lifetime. â€Å"The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego-consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness extends. † These words belonged to this very noted and lauded psychoanalyst, Carl Gustav Jung, a proponent of Analytical Psychology and the inventor of the famous terms of today such as ‘collective unconscious’, ‘archetypes’ and ‘persona’. In the therapy, Jung’s methodology of treatment worked on the profound principles of word associations, free associations, dream analysis, transference and counter-transference. Dreams remained, however, one of the most significant works of Jung since there had been little work done on it since Freud. Jung’s therapeutic techniques and analysis of dreams provide a much more culturally rich and avid interpretations that cover a great breadth of subjects and ideas. Whereas Freud would interpret dreams as a ‘royal road to the unconscious’ that mostly leads to sexual discussions of a male-dominated structure, Jung’s discussion would profit the reader more in terms of how rich his theory is with motifs from all across the world. He had the cultural and cognitive openness to absorb ideas and patterns from cultures which belonged to distant lands as well as to designs which were close to his own religion, nation and race. His theory of personality speaks of not simplistic desires of sex and aggression; rather it takes a comprehensive look at the various types of personality in terms of their functions. According to Jung’s theory, personalities are categorized in both extroverted and oriented toward subjective experiences (Miller 2004). Dreams are not looked up by a codebook, dictionary or even an almanac. You cannot have a standard glossary of dreams (Coolidge, 2006) which can simply pinpoint to you the exact source and destination of your dream. Even the most simplest of psychoanalysis would require a complete case study of the person and delve into the backgrounds and relationships of the dreamer – rather than arbitrary guesswork. â€Å"Nobody doubts the importance of conscious experience; why then should we doubt the significance of unconscious happenings? They are also the part of our life, and sometimes more truly a pert of it for weal or woe than any happenings of the day† (Jung, 1970). Jung wrote a variety of articles, developing and perfecting his theory over a period of time (Adams 2004) which led to the collection of all his articles under a book called Dreams (1974). For John’s case we will discuss the two basic categories of dreams given by Jung: (1) Reactive (2) Compensatory Reactive dreams are coming as a reaction to some kind of trauma or repression faced by the individual. Most dreams fall, however, in the compensatory category, where the present moment attitudes or compromises of the ego are reflected back. Compensatory dreams present alternative perspectives that have been repressed, dissociated or otherwise defensively excluded by the ego (Addams 2004). Jung’s theory of personality suggested that there exists the ‘collective unconscious’, a set of influences that we inherit from our own particular ancestors, the whole human race, and even animal ancestors from the past. This collective unconscious is shared by everyone and is displayed by behavior that is shown as common across all cultures. Loving your mother, belief in a supreme being, fear of dark, cold places, and perceiving certain images as positive and certain images as negative are all results of the collective unconscious of which the entire race is a part of. Jung believed that the collective unconscious has ‘archetypes’ which were the universal symbolic representations of a particular person object or experience (Feldman, 1993). One of these archetypes is the ‘mother archetype’, a symbolic representation of a mother-figure present across all cultures, religions, literature, myths and even fairy tales (Virgin Mary, Mother Hubbard, Kali, fairy godmother etc. ). In John’s case the dreams seem to be of the second kind, which is the most common kind. Owing from John’s history that was taken prior to analysis (as per rule of psychoanalysis itself), it is seen that John has not been in any kind of traumatic experience lately which could lead to show that his dreams are in any way a reactive phenomenon to some event. It seems as if the ego, which is conducting the job of maintaining the deep secrets of the collective unconscious which tries to seep through our dreams, feelings, premonitions and behavioral idiosyncrasies. John’s history reveals that his favorite passion as a child was building tracks, as mentioned before, and he would often use his mother’s stray clips and pins while trying to make trucks. Once, he recalls, during his free association sessions, that his mother had gone out for the afternoon for a little while and he was left alone with his toys. John had sneaked into his mother’s room and taken all the clips and pins he could find to build a tiny engine for his truck out of the old cardboard boxes lying around in the attic. It did not thus struck as odd to the therapist when John responded with the word ‘road’ with the word ‘pins’. Word association technique, also propounded by Carl Jung, was a technique where the individual is given a list of words. To these set of words, the individual is asked to respond to the first response that comes to the mind. In modern day interpretation, reaction time and expressions are also noted. In Jung’s original version the main practices were focused on the response the individual gave to the words. In John’s case, the response to the word ‘road’ came as ‘pins’ which could have explained his recollection of his childhood methodology of building trucks through borrowing the pins from his mother’s dresser. John also remembers being scolded by his mother very sternly regarding the stealing of pins. He remembers his mother telling him that although what he stole was not of much significance, it did however matter that he stole something which was wrong on every account. John remembers crying and repeating the word ‘sorry’ many times and considers this to be one of his more memorable events in his childhood. The military set up, of which John is a part of, also establishes a certain emphasis on rule-abiding and a formidable outlook on immoral practices. Discipline and control are a big part of John’s life, so it is not surprising that such an event in childhood where his moral qualities were called into question continue to remain vivid in his memories. Although John’s energies have been channelized constructively, he does report feeling more inclined towards construction and manual labor oriented tasks, which speak of his childhood pastime of building trucks. In his dream John is chased by a figure which has long hair and a cloak, easily represented by an evil mother archetype. John may be harboring feelings in his personal unconscious, which is different from the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is the combination of the residue of the personal events and experiences of the individual’s life, whereas the collective unconscious is the collective residue of the events and lives of the ancestors’ of the individual which is shared by all members of the society. Here since the archetype is professed as the evil mother archetype (given in the form of various myths and religions such as Kali, the Death Goddess, Evil Enchantress, Vivien and the Witch in Hansel and Gretel (Fox, 1994), we can understand John’s residual and unconscious fear of his mother. The dream can be further interpreted in terms of his fear and overall overpowering sense of moral code and ethics which guides his childhood memories as well as present day ambitions. This fear of childhood and present day fear of judgment may be symbolized as the evil mother since the ‘shadow’ may have a will of its own. The concept of ‘shadow’ by Carl Jung is synonymous to the concept of ‘id’ by Sigmund Freud, which represents all the carnal and basic desires of the person. The Greeks separated the mother archetype in both good and bad ways, whether it was the sexual version of Aphrodite, the virgin Artemis, the motherly Demeter and the dominating Hera (Fox, 1994). The mother figure symbolized as evil in John’s dream does not necessarily mean that John hates his mother or considers her as evil. It is simply a symbolic representation and interpretation of ideas and themes that are considered as overwhelming or powerful which have taken the connection of childhood memories, themes and ideas. The door and the sea both represent an initiation into a world that is unknown and thus a voyage into the unknown is found in this particular sequence of the dream. The sea has various interpretations in terms of archetypes and expresses a vast majority of meanings including an initiation, a voyage, an uneasy division between order and chaos, the eternal mother, etc (Carlson, 1986). A study was conducted on the archetype of doors and it was found that doors represent safety and keep bad things from getting in or help in escape if danger threatens. A door may represent a way out, a way to safety (Hatala, 1992). This dream could possibly mean that the door symbolizes a certain escape and balance that was brought from the uncertainty in life. The uncertainty that could have arisen from the difference in ambition and the difference in the current profession is absolved through the doorway of channelizing the energies into a positive way, for example, by joining the military. For the process of deindividuation, which Jung called the process of discovering the deepest of potentials of a person, dreams provide as powerful tools and cues in order to discover and fulfill the calls of the inner psyche. In John’s dreams the call of the unconscious seems to be towards the ego and the persona (synonymous to the Freudian ‘ego’ or reality principle) which absolves the conflicts of the ego. John seems to doubt his ego which the ego in turn does not want it to do. It wants John to make peace with the investment of his energies. The dream starts with the evil mother archetype and seems to end with the ‘sea’ or the eternal mother archetype. This means that there is peace within the system of John’s unconscious, yet this peace needs to be maintained, accepted and realized by the individual himself. Works Cited: Addams, M. V. (2004). The Fantasy Principle: Psychoanalysis of the Imagination. New York: Brunner-Routledge. Carlson, P. A. (1986). Literature and lore of the sea. Costerus, new ser. , v. 52. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Coolidge, F. L. (2006). Dream interpretation as a psychotherapeutic technique. Oxford: Radcliffe. Feldman, R. S. (1993). Psychology. [New York]: McGraw-Hill. Fox, R. (1994). The challenge of anthropology old encounters and new excursions. New Brunswick, N. J. , U. S. A. : Transaction. Hatala, L. J. (1992). Incredibly American releasing the heart of quality. Milwaukee, Wis: ASQC Quality Press. Jung, C. G. (1953). Psychological reflections an anthology of the writings of C. G. Jung. London: Routledge and K. Paul. Miller, C. A. , & Miller, C. A. (2004). Nursing for wellness in older adults: theory and practice. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.