Organisational Culture Essays

Organisational Culture Essays Organisational Culture Essay Organisational Culture Essay The Intel Corporation produces microprocessors that are used in computers. It has a market share of over 75% and has been praised for its highly innovative culture. Do you think that an innovative culture can be relied on to guarantee the future success of a business? Justify your answer with reference to Intel and/or other organisations you know. (40 marks) An organisation’s culture refers to ‘the way we do things around here’ and is determined by the values, attitudes and beliefs of the people who work within it. As such, culture will undoubtedly influence the success of a business. In particular, it can be argued that an innovative culture can lead to business success because it enables companies to share ideas more freely and thus innovate and develop their business strategy. Furthermore, in light of Handy’s view of â€Å"discontinuous change† being ever more present in the business world, an innovative culture is likely to enable business to be flexible enough to cope with challenges that the future holds. However, it is important to bear in mind that when a business possesses over 75% market share that it benefits from economies of scale which can be an important determinant of success, regardless of culture. Perhaps more importantly, not every success international business possesses an innovative culture. A successful business strategy can be underpinned by other business cultures and thus the type of industry a business is in, and the different challenges it faces may determine what is the most suitable culture for them. Innovative cultures are essential in companies who are involved in technological markets, where developing new products and ideas can be key to success. The Intel corporation operate a very innovative culture which has lead to huge dominance of the market, capturing 75% market share after the production of microprocessors used in computers. Another example where innovation has lead to success is at Google, where CEO Eric Schmidt commits to innovation, making sure all employees are comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. The relaxed feel around the company allows employees to be creative, which has allowed Google to be one step ahead of competitors, which is especially important working in a technological industry. BMW use a similar culture where everyone is expected to help find solutions. They have a network of committed associates with few hierarchical barriers, allowing every employee to voice their opinion. This culture has allowed BMW to promote new products and get the product just right through thousands of brainstorming sessions. These examples show how innovation can lead to success in technological industries. Innovative culture can be relied on to guarantee the future success of a business, as the external environment is constantly changing. This can be linked to Charles Handy’s theory of ‘discontinuous change’ which means that in the future change is constant, and therefore an innovative culture would most likely guarantee a business success. Being highly innovative would mean that managers would have to be flexible and react to the constantly changing external environment, therefore adopting an innovative culture would mean businesses would have to come up with ideas and strategies for the future in order for the business to remain competitive and successful. Innovative culture should equip firms with the ability to cope better with change. For example Intel’s strategy of diversification where they use tactics such as job swapping and controlled employee role changes to increase the efficiency of their teams. This is useful as the workforce is flexible to the externally changing environment, and can guarantee future success of a business as they would be able to react to any change within the business. Hence I think that an innovative culture can determine the future success of the business, especially in a technological industry as the external environment is constantly changing meaning a firm has to be flexible and prepared to react and respond if it wishes to remain competitive and profitable. If a business did not react to changes and maintained there current strategies and plans then this could have negative effects on the business such as a declining market share due to competitors coming up with new innovative ideas and hence a lower profit. One way in which we can see that an innovative culture cannot be relied on to guarantee the success of a firm is that there are other organisations that have a different cultural approach that have been very successful. I believe that the culture within Tesco has significantly helped it to become one of the most successful retailers in Britain. Tesco use a person and role culture which I believe have helped to contribute to the success of the firm, there are ‘six levels between the till operator and the CEO’ in Tesco and I would think that this would have helped lead to the success of the firm as employees would feel like an important asset of the firm and are therefore motivated to work harder for the benefit of the business. Also it is evident in Cadburys, the biggest confectionary retailer in England who take a role and task approach to their culture that an innovative culture is not needed to guarantee the success of a firm. I believe that the putting an emphasis on results and giving staff specific roles within the business has led to the success of Cadburys as there is a specific focus on achieving targets and working as a team which I believe can highly motivate employees. So it is evident in a range of businesses that an innovative culture is not the key to success in business, various different cultural approaches such as task and role can have a significant contribution towards the success of an organisation. However, it can be argued that the size of Intel’s organisation provides it with its main competitive edge. Intel has a market share of 75% bringing with it certain benefits that are arguably more influential to its success than its innovative culture. A firm of this size is likely to benefit from economies of scale, propagating lower unit costs that can lead to higher profit margins. Higher profit margins enable greater re-investment into the firm, allowing Intel to continuously expand. Therefore, it seems apparent that even without its innovative culture, the sheer size of the firm would enable it to compete successfully. However, one cannot say that a large firm is guaranteed future success as demonstrated by the IBM monopoly that quickly lost majority market share to Microsoft and today only operate within a business-to-business niche market. Although business â€Å"success† is essentially easy to measure through examining market share, revenue, profit and other such measures, the factors that lead to such success are less easy to see. Factors such as a strong business strategy, good leadership, a favourable competitive environment and culture all contribute to a business’s success but being able to separate out which factor contributes more to success is near impossible. Furthermore, being ble to measure how effective an innovative culture versus a role or person culture is very difficult. Ultimately, the ‘best’ culture will vary according to industry and the nature of the business structure itself. Some industries such as the technology industry has developed its products at an exponential rate, inconceivable just 20 years ago. The nature of such a fast moving industry relies on quick and consistent innovation which is no doubt dependent on an innovative, networked culture like the type we see at Google and BMW. Other industries such as retailing and supermarkets, however do not face such radical and constant need to develop their product offering, and factors such as good quality service and product quality may be more important. As a result, a role and person based culture are more likely to lead to success. However, in light of Handy’s â€Å"discontinuous change†theory, all businesses, regardless of industry will face an ever changing external environment and so although an innovate culture may not be the most suitable per se, having an element of innovation and flexibility is key to any business intending to succeed in the future.

Revamp Your Resume How to Choose Fonts

Revamp Your Resume How to Choose Fonts Within the bounds of taste and good judgment, a resume can be a place to express your best professional self. While â€Å"Best Resume† lists often focus on formatting and use of white space, don’t forget to think about your font choices- your first presentation of words to a potential employer. Patricia Antonelli over at TalentEgg has some more specific guidance for those of you who don’t know your Papyrus from your Antigua Bold. Generally you want a font size that is legible, even on mobile devices, but not so big that it looks like a sign posted on a billboard- shoot for size 11, except for your headers.1. Serif FontsOpen up a Word document and try out some of these, like Baskerville or Georgia. Serif fonts have little lines at end of each letter stroke. Fonts with serifs come across as â€Å"more traditional and reliable†- they tend to look better in print than on a screen, so select one of them if you’re going to be handing out your resume in ha rd copy.Avoid Times New Roman! It’s an obvious choice that signals employers you don’t know how to make your work stand out.2. Sans Serif FontsFonts like Helvetica and Calibri lack the little tails on serif fonts, and read more cleanly on-screen. These are safe choices for business jobs or any online application process. Coordinate your choice with your cover letter for a cohesive, polished look.Formal and traditional? Serif is the way to go. Contemporary and sleek? San serif probably sends the right message.3. Script FontsYou can get away with a script font for your name at the top, but fancy fonts like Zapfino or Bickham Script can look messy in print or fail to translate on another operating system. The last thing you want is an unintelligible resume, so don’t try to make yours look like someone wrote it with a quill pen.4. Display FontsAnything in the â€Å"other† category like Giddyup or Jazz is a big risk- some people may see them as fun and creativ e, but unless you’re applying for visual arts jobs (like a graphic designer or teaching artist) it’s probably better to err on the side of professionalism. Check out the company’s website to see what their visual style is, and try to find something complementary.You want your resume to show off your experience and achievements, and any font that distracts from that is the wrong choice. Have a friend glance over your resume before your submit it; if the font is the first thing they notice, before your name or objective, keep looking until their first response is, â€Å"What a great-looking resume!†

Pursuing Public Safety.A Loose Fish in the Sea of Criminal Justice Term Paper

Pursuing Public Safety.A Loose Fish in the Sea of Criminal Justice - Term Paper Example The states have enforced or applied the principles of incapacitation and rehabilitation as ways to ensure public safety. Recidivism is defined as â€Å"a tendency to slip back into a previous criminal behavior pattern† such as the return to prison or a new sentence for a new offense (Beck, n.d.) The principle behind incapacitation follows that a person who is imprisoned will not perpetrate a crime. Imprisonment and capital punishment are the major ways to compel incapacitation which will prevent a person to commit a crime. Rehabilitation, on the other hand, is non-punitive and believes that a person can be prohibited to commit a crime by helping him to solve his issues that led him to commit a crime. This principle considers that each person is defective and commission of a crime is not the person’s purpose but may be a result of other physical, emotional, sociological factors (Renter, 2008). The paper talks about how the government should focus on determining the strat egies that will actually lessen the recidivism. According to Gomez (2008), although there are lots of theories on how to reduce recidivism and ensure public safety, resorting to incapacitation has not been very helpful to achieve these goals. This is because the government and the criminal justice system has devoted its resources and focus on isolating the lawbreakers and not on how to treat the criminal behaviour of the offenders. The treating of behaviour of the criminal offenders is more important than just merely imprisoning them. Thus, according to the Gomez (2008), it is better to make sure those who are capable of earning an honest living be allowed and encourage doing so. During the time the study of Gomez (2008) was still ongoing, Minnesota is suffering the highest unemployment rate in seventeen years thus the government thought that it should be the time to address the reality and let this offender work without sacrificing the public safety of the people. Aside from being able to give a chance for the offenders to earn and support their family and earn an honest living, they can help Minnesota on solving issues on impaired bridges, highways, dams, plants and water systems (Gomez, 2008). This is something like â€Å"hitting two birds with one stone.† The offenders are more likely not going to commit crime again because of the employment opportunity given to them. If this is the case, recidivism issue is addressed and community problems are solved without sacrificing public safety. Another Look at That Loose Fish But certainly, this approach will not always be giving us the positive effects. If there should be a reason why we should not try to reduce recidivism among the state and federal prisoners by teaching them to build houses and highways that would not otherwise be built is because of the fact that there will be a number of prisoners that will just run-off and leave the responsibilities. Another reason is that it is going to be unfair for the public because as we know, there is a high unemployment rate, meaning there are still a lot of people in the community who are unemployed and are not given an opportunity to get a job because these jobs are given to the offenders or felons. Billions of dollars are spent by the government to incarcerate felons to train and at least some of them so they can re-enter the free world more capable of

Geoffery Jack vs Wessex City Council Coursework

Geoffery Jack vs Wessex City Council - Coursework Example According to the research findings, it can, therefore, be said that the legal issues, in this case, were as follows: first, the council argued that under Section 41(1) of the Highways Act 1980 it was only under a duty to maintain the highway and this duty did not extend to, as Mr. Jack alleged, keeping the road free of snow and frost at all times. Second, the issue was to construe the exact meaning of the word â€Å"maintenance† and whether it could contain the duty to keep the snow and ice off the road. Third, the issue was the scope of the duty that had to be attributed to the local authority to maintain the highway. Was it an absolute duty? Was it based on negligence on nuisance? Fourth, whether the council at that point in time when the accident occurred was under a duty to maintain (meaning according to the one decided upon earlier) and did it breach that duty. It is likely that Lord Hoffman stuck to the literal rule of interpretation. When construing the meaning of the w ord â€Å"maintenance† he laid down the possible meanings of this word, alluding to â€Å"repair† whether that included maintenance or not. But he also mentions in line 218 that regardless of what meaning is attributed to the word â€Å"maintain† the material issue in this question is that of whether the council had a duty to ensure that no ice has been present on the road that morning. The purposive rule is seen applied where Lord Hoffman tries to observe the intention of the parliament (or the draftsman) and looks at the entire historical context to hold that as far as maintenance was concerned, the council was already carrying that out. In rules of language, it could be said that Lord Hoffman made use of the ‘Ejusdem Generis’ as he quoted different meaning of maintenance in line 44. In determining whether a duty existed or not, the court clearly applies literal rule in holding that the council did not owe a duty to make sure that there was no sno w – and it held that a duty to maintain only includes maintaining the fabric of the road and not to make sure no snow was ever present on the surface. Lastly, from line 156 to line 190 the court seems to be operating on the presumption that the common law has not changed and no legislation (1959 or 1980) purposed to change the common law, instead of subsequent acts only codified it. There is evidence that Lord Hoffman referred to the long title of the Highway Act 1980 and that constitutes an intrinsic aid in statutory interpretation. Other intrinsic aids that he alluded to were the definitional section contained in the act itself.

‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck Essay Example for Free

‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck Essay ‘Of Mice and Men’ is written by John Steinbeck. The novel is set in the 1930s during the great depression in California. The two protagonist characters, George and Lennie are farm workers who have a dream of one-day owning their own ranch. They find work in a ranch near Soledad, after escaping from Weed because of George’s incident. They are met by different characters on the farm that all have a dream. To be lonely means to lack friends or companionship and to feel isolated. Most of the characters are lonely and the only thing that keeps them alive is their dreams. Some of the loneliest characters they meet are Candy, an old man with only one hand, Crooks, a black cripple and Curley’s Wife, a woman who has no identity, she is lonely even though she is married. Although they are all on the ranch together, they are lonely because of who they are and their history. ‘Of Mice and Men’ is an emotional story with many different themes and characters. Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife as the only women in the ranch and because she doesn’t have a name it shows that she is not important and she is someone’s belonging. The first time you hear about Curley’s wife is when candy describes her to George. Candy uses expression such as â€Å"she got the eye† and goes on to describe her as looking at other man because of this they call her a â€Å"tart†. Through Candy’s words, we could develop an initial perception of Curley’s wife as Flirty and even promiscuous. This manipulates us by leading us into having a negative view of her. Her first appearance in the Novel focuses on her appearance. The way she acts, the way she looks and the way she speaks with others. The first sentence about her was â€Å"the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway cut off† this shows how she stands there to get attention and get noticed by the ranchers. This make us think as a reader in other way she stood in that certain place because she knows that they will look at her. Her physical appearance of â€Å"full†, â€Å"rough lips† and â€Å"wide-spaced eyes†,† Heavily made up† and â€Å"her fingernails were red† this shows how see got the natural shape on an actor. The â€Å"heavily made up† this shows that she want to make herself look attractive so the ranchers will look at her and feel love in her. The colour â€Å"red† shows that it’s a symbol of danger and on the other side the thick bright colours stands out from other things so this can make herself get noticed by others that is all she wanted. George seems to believe Candy he says to Lennie â€Å"don’t you even take a look at that bitch† this shows the feelings that George got towards Curley’s wife. She is lonely â€Å"stands there looking in† which shows she nothing to do and because of her loneliness she wanted to be loved by others so she acts like she is flirting. They say she is a â€Å"flirty† but it is the only way she knows how to get attention.

Essay :: essays research papers

Unit 1: Narrative Essay Feeling complete with your own personal mental and physical standpoints is essential if you ever want a fulfilling relationship. Knowing your own ability to live vigilantly day to day, being gratified with the prospects of how you are living your life up untill this point. This is what determines wether your ready to take the step into entering a relationship. Every point in ones life is a learning experience. Treating past relationships as learning experiences help to better your understanding of what your really looking to gain out of future relationships. The following paragraphs discuss a story of my past. This story revolves around a relationship taking place at a negative point in my life. So my lesson to you is one I learned the hard way. Being happy with yourself is vital before attempting to by happy with someone else. To mentally set the scene for my story, I will give some background into my mental and physical standpoint. During the time of this story, I was under a lot of stress from various circumstances. I had just recently lost my job at Subway and had no source of income. Becouse I lost my job, I had no longer the money nor the resources to continue with athletic training. Taking the three months off from athletic training had a negative effect on my physical appearence. With a noticable loss of physical appearence, my self esteem began to drop slightily. So all together, threw one run of bad luck into another, i was spiraling down into a depression like state. It all started the first week of grade 10. I was walking to math class and i met up with a few of my lunch crew friends. I noticed my friend Ashlea talking to Erin Berring. Erin was an attractive, smart and fashonable girl. I always had a thing for smarties. In school she had straight A's, and was also the leader of the female wrestling team. I felt a little up on myself that day for some reason. I figured there was no better time then the present to chat it up a little. The conversation went quite well, which was different from what I expected. She even asked for my number so we could continue our talk later that night. "Why would she be interested in me?," I said to myself. After all, she seemed way out of my league.

A World Without Water Essay

Water is one of the essentialities of life on earth, without water life will not exist. Water is everywhere, we can find it from the foods we eat and beverages we drink. It has also many uses in our daily lives like cleaning ourselves, washing the clothes, watering the plants and others. Water can also refresh us during hot days of summer, like swimming. When we go to supermarkets we see different products which contain water. All living organisms need water, without it, they will die. Humans, being a living organism need water to survive; we do need water but it must be clean and sufficient in supply. But what if there is access to water but the water is too contaminated? Or there is really no sufficient supply? Or the place where there is water is too far from home? That will be a big problem for those who will or currently experiencing this kind of situations. Water is a need and not just wants; clean water is needed in every community not only to survive but also to function well . Each one of us whether rich or poor has the right for available clean water. The film â€Å"A World Without Water† is an eye-opener. It shows how rich survives and poor tends to die because of dirty water, lack of supply and accessibility. Too sad to see people of a certain community being deprived by their own land’s water supply, they become envious while looking at a clean fountain of water in a certain company as shown in the video. The worst, big companies that are abusing their powers seem to have no considerations to the people of the community being affected by their operations; their only concern is to gain money. Those people that have money to buy their products do not know how others suffer just for them to drink a bottle of coke, and watching this film might change their mind. This kind of privatization is just too greedy, they own what they must not own, safe water is becoming scarce and those companies just had a selfish idea that is worst than water pollution. Safe water is a right. Moreover, I can be an advocate in the future that will regulate or at least control privatization and support the right of each one of us to clean and safe water. But for now, as a student, what I can do is to conserve water, appreciate its importance to us, and minimize consumption of bottled drinks like canned softdrinks; I can also encourage my friends to do the same thing and spread it through social networking sites. I could say that I am more than lucky that I have easy access to clean and safe water from birth and up to now. How I wish that Bolivians and other people suffering from deprivation of their own right of safe water will also have easy access to clean, safe and sufficient water.