Araby by James Joyce Essay Example for Free

‘Araby’ by James Joyce Essay What impression of Dublin and its people does James Joyce give in his story ‘Araby’? James Augustine Alrysius Joyce, an Irish writer, was born in Dublin 2nd February 1882 and died in Zurich, Switzerland 13th January 1941. He was born into a well-off Catholic family and was the eldest surviving child; two of his siblings died of typhoid. Joyce was originally educated at Clongowes Wood College, a boarding school in County Kildare, which he left at the age of 6 because his father could no longer pay the fees. James Joyce studied at home for a brief period of time before being offered a place in the Jesuits’ Dublin School. At the age of 16 he rejected Catholicism which changed his life completely. At the age of 20, after graduating from the UDC (University College Dublin) he left for Paris and tried studying different occupations like teaching, journalism and even a doctor. At the age of 21 he returned to Ireland after receiving news that his mother was diagnosed with cancer. After she had died James Joyce became a heavy drinker but gradually stopped as he got over her death. He then stayed in Dublin for a period of time from 1904-1907 writing the â€Å"Dubliners† and also started many other books. The book â€Å"Dubliners† is a collection of short stories and â€Å"Araby†, like all of them, have â€Å"paralysis† meaning that they can’t leave Dublin. For example in the short story â€Å"Clay† Maria has the chance to make a new life and leave Dublin but turns it down because she is too scared. This also occurs in â€Å"A Painful Case† and â€Å"Eveline†, as they don’t have to courage to leave Dublin. In the short story â€Å"The Boarding House†, Bob Doran wishes to leave Dublin but can’t because he is trapped inside marriage. Most of the short stories, unlike â€Å"Araby†, go in circles, for instance, â€Å"Two Gallants† when Lenehan just wanders around Dublin. This also occurs in â€Å"The Dead† because a horse just goes around and around in circles, and also in â€Å"An Encounter† when a pervert tries to stop but end back in the same perverted world. At the end of the short stories James Joyce always write an epiphany, which is a revelation, but in all but one story the revelation is only noticed by the reader but in â€Å"Araby† both the reader and the protagonist – the protagonist is the main character – have an epiphany – an epiphany is a moment of revelation, usually at the end of the story. In the streets of Dublin James Joyce writes them as being â€Å"blind†, meaning that it’s a dead end and there is nothingness, it also means that you can’t escape and there is nowhere to go (there is no way of getting out of Dublin). The main reason is that there is no vision, meaning that you can’t see how terrible and run down Ireland really is. He describes all things by the colours â€Å"brown† and â€Å"yellow† that symbolises human excrements. He writes â€Å"the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns†, the word â€Å"feeble† shows that the light is not even strong enough to even penetrate the darkness. â€Å"Jostled by drunken men and bargaining women†, the word bargaining in this case can mean two things. The first meaning of it is that they are just selling items and changing the prices of them, and the second meaning is that the women are bargaining for their bodies, they are prostitutes. There are â⠂¬Å"street singers† who sing about the problems in Ireland. Also that weather is always extremely violent, and this is shown by the words â€Å"cold air stung us†, â€Å"rain impinge upon the earth† and â€Å"the air was pitilessly raw†. Religion in Dublin is exceedingly poor. In the second paragraph it says â€Å"a priest, had died† showing that the faith in Dublin has disappeared off the face of the earth. Inside the house of the dead priest there were books that were â€Å"curled and damp† meaning that the interest in them was lost. The books were â€Å"The Abbot† which is a religious story, â€Å"The Devout Communicant† which is a book on how to receive Holy Communion well and the last one â€Å"The Memoirs of Vidocq† which is about a thief. The books are muddled up indicating that religion in Ireland is a sham. When it talks about the priest again it first says â€Å"very charitable priest† making you think that the priest was a good man, and suddenly says â€Å"in his will he had left all his money to institutions and the furniture of his house to his sister† presenting the complete opposite. This means that the priest was only charitable went he knew he was dieing and he wasn’t a nice man. In the dead priest’s â€Å"wild garden† there is an apple tree in the centre signifying the Garden of Eden which is a source of evil. In a bush in the garden, there is a â€Å"rusty bicycle-pump†, this can denote three things. The first description of the bicycle-pump is that there is no escape because, if you can’t pump up your tires, then you can’t go anywhere. The second explanation represents the snake, or Satan, in the Garden of Eden because the pump is approximately the same size a snake. The last reason, symbolizes a heart, meaning that, because the heart is not pumping, there is no love or life in Dublin, symbolizing that everything is hopeless. A good part in the story when you know that religion is just a phoney in Dublin is when the boy’s Aunt says â€Å"I’m afraid you may have to put off your bazaar for this night of Our Lord† actually saying that he should just forget about it in a nasty way. Although she I using religious word she is using them without kindness, meaning that she is not caring about him. The family life in Dublin isn’t very pleasant either. In the beginning of the book, the boy says â€Å"if my Uncle was seen turning the corner, we hid in the shadow† indicating that he doesn’t live with his parents, and also that he’s scared of him. On the night of the bazaar his Uncle came home late, â€Å"I heard him talking to himself† meaning he was obviously drunk and had forgotten all about Araby. The love in Dublin is bland. For the boy he loves and stalks â€Å"Mangan’s sister†. She is called thins because he doesn’t actually know her name so he names her â€Å"Mangan’s sister†. He defines her as â€Å"light† because he thinks of Dublin as the dark and Mangan’s sister as a light to brighten up Dublin. When he looks at her â€Å"her dress swung as she moved her body, and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side†, she is describes as lively and everyone else is not. â€Å"Followed her†, or stalking her is the meaning, â€Å"I kept her ‘brown’ figure always in my eye†, â€Å"brown† indicating that she is actually just an ordinary person with nothing special about her. Within one paragraph there are five words â€Å"chalice†, â€Å"prayers†, â€Å"praises†, â€Å"tears† and â€Å"adoration†, he describes her with religious word, and because he left Catholicism she is now his secular religion (one without God). She is also like music to his ears because it says â€Å"my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires†. Also showing that he uses her in a secular religion is a sentence saying â€Å"I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: ‘O love! O love! many times† showing that he worships her a lot. â€Å"At last she spoke to me†, this is the moment he was waiting for the whole time. She then talks about â€Å"Araby† and says she can’t go. While she was talking to him â€Å"she turned a sliver bracelet†, silver indicating bright. In two sentences he uses six words to describe how radiant and bright she is and how drawn he is to her, they are â€Å"light†, â€Å"lamp†, â€Å"white†, â€Å"lit†, â€Å"lit† and â€Å"†white†, repeating â€Å"white† and â€Å"lit†. â€Å"Waking and sleep thoughts† and â€Å"chafed against the work of school† imply that he can’t do anything besides thinking about Araby and Mangan’s sister, and it also says â€Å"I strove to read† hinting the same thing. â€Å"Lie at the window† signals that he stalks and spies on Mangan’s sister, and he is â€Å"singing† because he is happy about getting Mangan’s sister a present. Lastly he has a sexual desire for Mangan’s sister because it says â€Å"border below the dress† suggesting that he is growing quite fast and is into the puberty stage of life. â€Å"Araby† is a fair or, a â€Å"bazaar† – which is a foreign word from the east. In the boy’s eyes, â€Å"Araby† is an exotic place that gets away from all the darkness of Dublin. Also Araby is close to the word Arabia which is in the east signifying that it’s exotic, rich. And because it is in the east it signifies that the sunrise comes from the east, representing a new day, a new hope, a new light. Also Jesus resurrected in the east, epitomizing a new beginning or day. When he eventually arrives to Araby, he goes around the stalls and finds that most of them are closed. There is one that is open but when he sees the people at the stall he discovers they all speak in English accents indicating that the bazaar is not exotic at all. A â€Å"young lady†, who is probably a prostitute, because she is seen flirting with two men at the same time, asks the boy if he wants to buy anything but he says â€Å"no, thank you†. And from this, all of his dreams end because, the items are too expensive and mundane. At the end of the story there is an epiphany, which is the moment of revelation, to both the reader and the protagonist, because usually the epiphany is only recognisable to the reader. On the second from last paragraph at the end it says â€Å"complete darkness† signifying that all hope is gone. The whole of the last paragraph says â€Å"gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger†, this is the exact moment when he realises that all Dublin was in vain and all he did was in vain. He figures out from this that there actually is no love, no romance and no chivalry. ‘Araby’ by James Joyce. (2017, Aug 28). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Reflection paper about the annishnaabe people Research - 3

Reflection about the annishnaabe people - Research Paper Example Each tribe has its own medicine wheel. The Ojibway believe that their medicine wheel offers them direction in life. In the same way, the wheel of medicine is a life-cycle that represents the natural cycles of life from delivery, to growth, to demise, and even regeneration. The wheel of medicine not only includes the Ojibway people, but also the nations of the earth. The four cycles are viewed in a clockwise manner. North is at the top, East to the right, South at the bottom, and West on the left of the viewer. Even though the wheel has neither the beginning nor the end, it is crucial to enter the wheel from the South and proceed in a clockwise direction. At the centre is the Creator and is also the Medicine Wheel itself. We begin from the East because it is where life starts and everything starts to come alive from people, vegetation, and seasons among others. The medicine wheel comprises of the following (Lawson, McDowell and Thomson 56-57): West – Sage; it cleans the air, its smoke can also be utilized to cleanse one from spirits, help one to observe, feel, and taste things effectively. Besides, the tea made from sage is beneficial for the throat. Sage can also be used to provide direction when one

Hidden Job Market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hidden Job Market - Essay Example A strong strategy is to identify the industry that you are interested in being involved in and looks for activities and ways of connecting with them. One strategy is to get involved in volunteer activities, particularly those that people from your desired industry are also likely to be involved in. This gives you the chance to connect and socialize with the people that you are hoping to be employed by, leading to the establishment of relationships. For example, look at getting involved in volunteering for activities that are sponsored by a company you are interested in, or in a political campaign that the company supports. Another method is to get in contact with companies that are likely to need new stuff even if they have not advertised as such, such of those that have recently replaced someone important in management, or are involved in placing large or many advertisements. Getting in contact with the leadership of companies such as this an informing them of your interest even if they are not hiring is often an effective strategy. A second technique is pull; this involves making yourself visible so that potential employers contact you about employment. The internet is a prominent tool in this. One method of doing this is the use of social networking sites to create a networking profile on social networking sites. Sites such as Facebook are very broad and widely accessible, and there are also sites such as LinkedIn which are more professionally and industry related. Another way of doing this is to create a blog or webpage where you advertise you own personal skills, advantages and abilities. The use of such a site is important, as it will come up when a prospective employer searches your name through Google. It is important that when creating a page you create one that shows both your knowledge and your professionalism. The final technique is maintaining your network. This remains true even if you have

Global Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Global Leadership - Essay Example With suitable policies in place it would be possible to hasten the allocation of required materials and assimilate federal and military aid. Introduction It is time that both the common people and policy makers understand and accept the fact that climatic changes are rampant with the increasing global temperatures and the melting ice slabs in the Arctic and Antarctic regions and the resulting global rise in sea levels. The past year has been recorded as the warmest year and this warming has resulted in the melting of the glaciers and leaving behind open waters. The mudslides in China and soaring temperatures during summer in Russia are also the result of changing climatic trends (Homer-Dixon, 2010). This continuing change in climatic conditions and the small disasters occurring within short intervals can lead to cascading catastrophes of huge magnitudes that could leave behind severe damages to both human life and property. And in order to effectively combat such catastrophes, a more detailed response option needs to be framed which is different from the traditional responses as these would be ineffective during such circumstances.

Project Based Organization (PBO) Analysis

Project Based Organization (PBO) Analysis In todays turbulent market, a lot of organizations is still seeking for a strategic advantage over others and a lot of them has actually seek Project Based Organization (PBO) as a way to propel them for greater height and thus, gain a strategic advantage over other companies. However, there are still questions how they can best make use of this new organization structure approach to create a synergy between company business mission, strategy, and project as well as portfolio management PBOs refer to organizational forms that involve the creation of temporary systems for the performance of project tasks or activities. PBOs are gaining increased attention as an emerging organizational form, but there is very little knowledge on how PBO function in practice and what value or benefits in adopting the practice of PBOs. Needless to say, there are not many findings on how the extensive use of unique and temporary endeavors like projects can help influence the strategy and organizations design. By making using of project management best practices, PBO will help organization to become more dynamic, flexible and responsive when dealing with a turbulent environment. This PBO approach will ensure organization to be more creative and innovative when coping and responding quickly to the ever changing market demand. EMPLOYING PROJECT BASED ORGANIZATIONS In order to deploy project based management more effectively and efficiently, organization need to engage the top management to recognize this new approach of embracing project management best practices. They need to engage the right attitudes throughout the organization. In doing so, it will help the organization to fully reap the benefits of this new formidable and competitive weapon so as to fight for continue business growth and making sure the corporate will gain a better chance to survive in todays highly competitive market. Establishing executive ownership and responsibility for project based management with the organization is equated with authority in organization structures, the closer something is to the top, the higher its level of authority, acceptance, adoption and autonomy is perceived to be by the organization. It has to be a top-down approach whereby we need to engaged CEO, senior management of the company and sell them the ideas of how PBOs concept is able to propel the company to greater height. Positioning the project based management function at the top in a hierarchical organizational structure establishes its autonomy and thus ownership of the responsibility for setting up, distributing, supporting, and managing the application of project management best practices. Enterprise-wide adoption of project based management best management called for single ownership of the function. Establishing common practices across an organization at all levels is difficult, if not impossible, without a clearly established sole ownership. We do believe, however that establishing a PBO is the right thing to do, because global competition in the marketplace will continue to increase. Therefore, project based management is one of the best answers for surviving global competition. We need to first identify the roles, responsibilities of senior management team and their business function when structuring the PBO. Once we have identified their function focus and agreed upon their roles, we will then need to proceed to clarify relationships between these functions, like who is leading, supporting and following. This will help to ensure clarification on how these units can work or function together in a team. For example, typical teams in IT might include a strategic management team, an innovation management team, a project/program management team and a product management team. Each team is comprised of more than one unit and there are overlaps between the teams. The objective of this structure is to create team accountability. TRADITIONAL AND PROJECT BASED ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND OPERATION TRADITIONAL ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND OPERATION Traditional management has been applied since twenty century and is well developed on the core principles of standardization, specialization, common goal, hierarchy organization, planning and control and external-reward (Hamel et al., 2007). A traditional organization is constructed based on those core principles of traditional management and functioned through vertical and horizontal operations which are a hierarchic structure with various functional departments as the vertical operation and a work process designed for specific generalized task models by using Standard Operating Procedural to link individual functional. DISADVANTAGES Project members from each project teams are dispatched from functional departments; this normally causes conflicts between functional departments and project teams when the resources and priority of urgency are conflicting. Hard to assess employee performance since employee can belong to functional department and project teams. This will always cause confusion and unhappiness to employees involved. What project he/she participates is decided by the project manager and department head instead of self-actualization, which reduces the performance of both personal development and organizational learning. Hierarchy structure, functional department operation model and Standard Operating Procedure are characteristics of a traditional organization, which makes its disable in dealing with changes. Contention of resources between functional department and project team, which will develop conflicts within organizations, resulting in disharmony and distrust. No organizational synergy due to lack of inadaptable interactive relations between functional departments. Lack of ability to adapt to changes in related to market uncertainty or other external factors. This is caused by rigid, stagnant Standard Operating Procedures which are regulated according to generalized task model and therefore not capable of responding to any changes conditions timely. THE PBO STRUCTURE AND OPERATION A project based organization is a structure that facilitates the coordination and implementation of project activities. Its main reason is to create an environment that helps enhance interactions between team members with a minimal disruptions, overlaps and conflict. One of the important decisions of project management is the type of organizational structure that will be used for the project. Every project has its unique characteristics and the design of an organizational structure should consider the organizational environment, the project characteristics in which it will operate, and the level of authority the project manager is given. One of the main objectives of the structure is to reduce uncertainty and confusion that typically occurs at the project initiation phase. The structure defines the relationships among members of the project management and the relationships with the external environment. In PBO project managers have a high level of authority to manage and control the project resources. The project manager in this structure has total authority over the project and can acquire resources needed to accomplish project objectives from within or outside the parent organization, bind only to the scope, quality, and budget constraints identified in the project. In the PBO, project members are assigned specifically to the project and report directly to the project manager. The project manager is responsible for the performance appraisal and career progression of all project team members while on the project. This leads to increased project loyalty. Complete line authority over project efforts affords the project manager strong project controls and centralized lines of communication. This leads to rapid reaction time and improved project based organizations are more common among large and complicated projects. PBO KEY TO SUCCESS FOR TODAY ORGANIZATION INNOVATION ENABLER 10 Tips by the Worlds Best Innovators Organize yourself globally because it beats local Life treasures through communication Turn â€Å"not invented here† into a quality seal Focus on Big Ideas (there are enough small ones) Think platform Minimize time-to-test Appoint your customers as your boss Leverage design Take care of the jewel innovation organization culture that reacts to changes Use business model innovations as the turbo PROJECTS AND INNOVATION HOW THEY INTERLINKED WITH ONE ANOTHER What does PBO has to do with Innovation? We will start by defining both innovation and projects and identifying common ground in their concepts. Projects and Innovation share common roots in their definitions, both are: Temporary: they end when they become integrated to the normal routine of operations Produce unique results: the end product or service should be, in some way, different than the existing. Characterized by progressive elaboration: they cannot be understood entirely at, or before, the start, therefore the decision-making and realization phases are iterative. Many statements concerning innovation can be applied to projects and vice versa; to a certain degree, many of the characteristics of both are interchangeable. Classic definitions of innovation include: The process of making improvements by introducing something new (Wikipedia, 2007) It seems reasonable from above description that projects and innovation share a natural conceptual background. It would be hard to imagine how a traditional organization would be able to innovate since their structure only has roots in routine, repetitive works and a much predictable work output and stagnant culture. The whole philosophy and the historical background of both projects and innovation seem interlinked. A strong project outlook with proper governance structures would typically help to promote strategic goals that call for development of innovation. In their quest for innovation, many organizations have felt the need to establish social networks; the project approach has the advantage of proposing an internal network between projects if properly enhanced through program management, as well as involvement of stakeholders. Since Schumpeter (1947), many researchers have demonstrated that innovations are most often â€Å"new combinations† of existing technology. â€Å"Thus, individuals or divisions within a firm must be both able and willing to share their capabilities or resources with other parts of the organization. This author also mentions that organizations need to create common language, otherwise the ability to share knowledge will be hampered (Sampson, 2007). To counteract some of these pitfalls, several companies have found it useful to introduce systems where staff from all levels of the business can input their ideas. An interesting example of the usefulness of such systems comes from Paul Sloan (2006) â€Å"A copy-machine operator at Kinkos, a chain of copying and document services stores, noticed that customer demand for copying dropped off in December. People were too preoccupied with Christmas presents to do much copying for the office. So he came up with a creative idea: allow customers to use Kinkos color copying and binding facilities to create their own customized calendars using personal photos for each of the months. He prototyped the idea in the store and it proved popular. The operator phoned the founder and chief executive of Kinkos, Paul Orfalea, and explained the idea. Orfalea was so excited by it that he rushed it out as a service in all outlets. It was very successful and a new product custom calendars and a new revenue stream were created.† Corporate recognize that their organizations are always in danger of developing products and services with little or no market appeal. Some organizations are great at innovation like 3-M that produces 30% of its revenues from products that did not exist 4 years ago. However, others are really very bad at innovating such as Xerox who is famous for innovations it did not exploit, like fax machines and laser printers. Others, like Procter and Gamble have successfully reversed a 40 years innovation slump from their last major breakthrough (Pampers in 1961) with recent innovative products like â€Å"Swiffer† and Crests â€Å"Whitestrip† (Brooker, 1999; Moss-Kanter, 2006). Other companies just struggle with innovation like Motorola when it resisted going from analog to digital and lost its lead in cellular phones, or Kodak, when it lost its share of the camera market to Canon and Sony for having miscalculated the impact of digital camera in the mid 90s. Although organizational innovation needs more than just taking up a project view, we have to examine if the project management approach, when well integrated and focused on the broader view of project, could possibly promote principles that are conducive to innovation. Rosabeth Moss-Kanter (2006) describes four major reasons for failure to innovate: Strategy: Lack of sound innovative investment spread between breakthrough and incremental Process: Tight controls that strangle innovation and refusal of deviations from plan Structure: Lack of connections between innovation areas and the rest of the business Skills: Lack of networkers, communicators or connectors and relationships Most traditional organizations are better suited to stable environments and employ a top down approach to innovation. Strategy is formulated at the top along with the major initiatives for achieving it. Some of these initiatives will be innovative in nature, related to the development of an innovative process, product or service and often led within an RD Department, independently from the rest of the business. Top down approaches may solicit input from deeper in the organization, but the formulation of the innovative ideas remains at the top or within one of the organizational silos. Many of these organizational models are encouraging excessive control and reporting and, as Holmstrom, (1989) argued: bureaucracy, sometimes symbolic of the old hierarchical organization, can be hostile to innovation. We have seen that organizational structure and governance are determining factors in the development of human and organizational innovation and that PBOs change the nature of the traditional organizational structure. We can therefore ask ourselves: â€Å"How can a PBO structure influence innovation (either positively or negatively)?† Three recent empirical studies (Bresnen Goussevskaia Swan, 2004; Lindkvist, 2004; Dovey Fennech, 2007), have recognized that organizations that adopt a project management approach in a traditional mechanistic context, often have to deal with a choice between the flexibility and dynamism of the project approach and the desire of firms functional and strategic stakeholders to exercise control at organizational level. The authors have already reported on a case study that demonstrates evidence of such a division when an organization is moving from a more traditional model to the PBO model: â€Å"This very diverse and competent group of people had approached a new task in a most conventional manner, which seemed coherent with the ingrained performance paradigm, still a remaining legacy of the organizations historical culture and values. It was felt that one of the important emergen needs of the group was to â€Å"develop lateral, more creative thought processes and encourage a bit less conformity† to foster use of available potential and growth in this new work environment.† (Thiry, Deguire, 2004) Sampson (2007, p.382-383) argues that â€Å"the effect of the organization on innovative performance is contingent on absorptive capacity.† A program approach where strategic decisions are implemented through a series of related and interdependent projects (Thiry, 2004a, OGC, 2003) would support this approach, as change and innovative initiatives will be broken down into projects manageable, not only in technical terms, but also in absorption capability terms. The selection of investment activities through portfolio management is also essential, for example, at Apple in 1996, after Steve Jobs was reinstated as CEO, he led a massive review of the RD effort. As a result, Apple focused its resources on projects that had the greatest potential, and eventually produced the iMac, iBook, iPod, and iTunes (Vise Malseed, 2005). Most traditional organizations experience communication and resource allocation problems, especially between functional managers and project managers (Alsene, 1999; Bishop, 1999; Payne, 1993); this generates issues at the executive level, when conflicts are escalated and disturb the â€Å"political harmony† of the organization (Dovey Fenech, 2006). This last empirical study showed that even when the value of a â€Å"projectized† approach to deliver strategy is demonstrated, it can still be challenged by the organizations establishment. Many authors have confirmed that â€Å"the environment in a project-oriented organization is more dynamic and discontinuous.† (Huemann, Turner Keegan, 2004) and that the role of the project manager has evolved from that of a single person with specific technical skills to that of a team of individuals which exercise a wide ‘function that spans from strategic to technical (Frame, 2002).. The project management (PM) function is now evolving towards a co-managed business-technical partnership (Frame, 2002), which gives it authority over strategic level resources and therefore true decision-making power (Spradlin, 2004). We feel that given the nature of the project/program approach, PBOs can significantly contribute to the development of a distributed network that forms inside the organization and takes on the role of much of the innovation work. Through projects and programs, individuals become connected to the network and generate their own ideas, conduct experiments, do their own findings, build support, and help transition some of the ideas to formal pilots or direct implementation. An interesting example is Harley-Davidson, Inc. Management at Harley-Davidson has been recognized worldwide for its successful use of progressive, cutting-edge management techniques (Certo, 2003). This company has long developed its use of cross-functional teams to design new products and representatives from engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, and marketing have always had some influence on the future direction of new products. In order to achieve this, management has been committed to cross-functional teams and these team members work together daily and are totally dedicated to the new product development process on a full-time basis. We have therefore seen that innovation, for most companies, depends upon the individual and collective expertise of employees and it seems to have become more important for an organization to be cross-functionally excellent than functionally excellent. In addition to formal planning at the business level, best-practice companies are using cross enterprise initiatives on major issues in order to challenge assumptions and open up the organization to new thinking. This further enhances innovation as organizations are, for example, able to match their technological developments with complementary expertise in other areas of their business, such as manufacturing, distribution, human resources, marketing, and customer relationships. To lead these development efforts, cross-functional teams need to be formed and PBOs would make a significant difference in developing both the culture and necessary structures to help businesses in their quest towards innovation. As reported by Dhyani and Singh (2006) in the following case, most traditional mechanistic models do not endorse an innovative philosophy: â€Å"Service Delivery is based on standards, repeatability, reference architectures, proven and robust technology, guaranteed quality, efficiency and meeting SLAs. The resulting culture is inherently in conflict with innovation, which inescapably entails increased risk. SD has no processes or targets for regularly engaging in Client Innovation. It does not employ people for this purpose and has no measurements or incentive programs to perform this task and indeed expects the opposite behavior.† PBO through the consistent use of cross-functional teams presents a clear organizational advantage over the more traditional mechanistic organization as it supports individuals in its effort by policies, practices and resources that acknowledge this risk and provides space for experimentation. The organization shoulders some risk as do individuals and teams. Everyone in the innovation culture strives for success and learns from failures by documenting them and hearing about them from others. Given that this is a necessary condition for empowering different players and that sharing failures can be difficult for human beings with sensitive egos. The team setting provided by PBOs most probably allows the diffusion and publication of failure with minimal harm to individual egos and enhances organizational learning that can be used towards future innovative initiatives. If we accept the view that innovation can be seen as an organizational means to reach strategic goals, it would be interesting to explore and understand the link between the implementation of a PBO structure and culture and organizational innovation and to compare it to more traditional settings. In particular, we can refer to the fact that, since Burns and Stalker (1961), many authors recognize that traditional mechanistic organizations are struggling to adapt in todays turbulent environments. Nevertheless, in order to sustain innovation, PBOs need to be structured to foster creative synergy between vision and mission, strategy, portfolio, program and project management and be framed in a project-based governance approach; they also need to generate tangible value for the stakeholders. Rosabeth Moss-Kanter, who has conducted research and advised companies during what she terms: â€Å"four major waves of competitive challenges† (2006, p.74) since the 70s claims that successful innovation requires â€Å"flexible organizational structures, in which teams across functions or disciplines organize around solutions, [which] can facilitate good connections.† (2006, p.82) â€Å"[Innovation] is among the essential processes for success, survival, and renewal of organizations, particularly for firms in either fast-paced or competitive markets† (Brown Eisenhardt, 1995, p.344) â€Å"‘Innovation refers to a phenomenon where a new idea has been implemented into action.† (Taatila, 2005). the recognition that project management practice can and will influence organizational practices and, in so doing; that an alternate position may open a door for a redefinition of organizations through projects by supporting the adoption of new challenging organizational theories for project-based organizations; that the adoption of these new organizational models could generate higher stakeholder involvement, create more value and enable better integration between projects and strategy to sustaining innovation. CHALLENGES FACED BY IMPLEMENTING A PBO To adopt a project-based organization presents some challenges to senior managers: Project Manager has little or no â€Å"position power.† The position power which is so prominent in functional organizations will change when project-based organization is implemented. Project Manager will have minimal control over the career path of project members. Instead, project members require an independent career path over which they themselves have control and to which the project work can contribute. Senior managers need to develop project managers and project management so that the project managers can lead based on influence rather than positional authority. Conflicts arise over project member time and resource requirements. Thus senior managers must have a good plan and work schedule priority. Alternatively, senior manager need to come out with special reward scheme to allocate scarce resources-individuals that will help to maximize the value of the project. No clear Organizational boundaries. Project management often requires seamless cooperation among organizational units. If project managers/members see evidence that cooperation is not valued, then achieving cooperation is going to very hard. Senior management needs to create a structure where cooperation is rewarded Time and organizational pressures abound. Senior management must be ready to support the best practices that will help to reduce project time. This includes forming a core team system, having a project goal vision, allowing more time for project planning so as it wont interfere with project operations, facilitating communication with customers, and supplying necessary resources. Project members do not know one another. Effective project teams require a high level of trust and openness. The climate of trust and openness will need to be a top-down approach. If senior managers are not trustworthy, truthful, and open with each other, there is little chance that project members will be so with one another. Trust and openness are the antithesis of most bureaucratic organizations. Senior managers coming from a less trusting organization will have difficulty developing high levels of trust. CONCLUSIONS Having knowing that successful innovation needs flexible organizational structures, in which cross-functional teams or disciplines organize around solutions, PBOs could be a possible answer when their structures provide horizontal integration from business strategy to operational benefits and vertical integration between corporate objectives and the prioritized portfolio of projects. It is also very likely that the adoption of an integrated wide-scale project approach could enhance an organizations capacity for innovation for the following reasons: Given the nature of the project/program approach, PBOs can significantly contribute to the development of a distributed network that forms inside the organization and takes on the role of much of the innovation work. Along with these basic innovation processes, in a, PBO structure locus of control and decision making is normally decentralized through the creation of program and project teams in order to modify aspects of the culture so employees receive consistent and positive messages about initiating and implementing change and innovation. In PBO structures, the stakeholder approach is combined to the concept of value and permeates all levels of the organization by increasing the reach of both stakeholder and value concepts. An integrated vision of projects would directly link projects and programs to governance and strategy, encouraging social networks and value creation. In conclusion, we would argue that the sensible adoption of an integrated project approach should not only encourage the emergence and enactment of new organizational dynamics, but develop a stakeholder approach and innovative concepts leading to increased value creation. Finally, we can also conclude that it is not enough to set up a PBO if we use a mechanistic framework. In order to foster innovation, all the project and organizational elements must be integrated from start to realization. REFERENCES Alsene, E. (1999). Internal Changes and Project Management Structures Within Enterprises, International Journal of Project Management. 17(6): 367-377. Bishop, S. K. (1999). Cross-functional Project Teams in Functionally Aligned Organizations. Project Management Journal. 30(3): 6-10. Bresnen, M., Goussevskaia, A., and Swan, J. (2004). Embedding new management knowledge in project-based organizations. Organization Studies, 25(9), 1535-1555. Brooker, K. (1999) Can Procter Gamble Change Its Culture, Protect Its Market Share, and Find the Next Tide? Fortune, April 26, 1999, pp. 146-50, 152. Brown, S. L. and Eisenhardt, K. M. (1998). Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MACerto, S.C. (2002). Modern Management, 9th Ed. Burns, T., Stalker, G. M. (1961). The Management of Innovation. London: Tavistock Publications. Dovey, K. and Fenech, B. (2007). The role of enterprise logic in the failure of organizations to learn and transform: a case from the financial services industry. In print: Management Learning: The Journal for Managerial and Organizational Learning, Sage Publications. 38(3). Dhyani, A. and Singh, R. (2006) â€Å"Risk and Innovation Case for Building a Methodology Tool to Assist Informed Decision Making for Managers† (July 22, 2006). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=919180 Frame, J. D. (2002) PMNetwork, Project Management Institute. PA: Da Sylva. Gann, D.M., Salter, A.J. (2000) Innovation in project-based, service-enhanced firms: The construction of complex products and systems. Research Policy, 29, 955-972. Hamel, G. (1996). Strategy as Revolution. Harvard Business Review. July/August 1996. Holmstrom, B. (1989). Agency costs and innovation. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 12: 305-327. Huemann, M., Turner, R. and Keegan, A. (2004). The Role of Human Resource Management in Project-Oriented Organizations. Proceedings of the 3rd PMI Research Conference, London, July 2004. Lindkvist, L (2004). Governing Project-based Firms: Promoting Market-like Processes within Hierarchies. Journal of Management and Governance. 8: 3-25. Moss Kanter, R. (1990) â€Å"Follow-up and Follow-through,† Harvard Business Review, March/ April 1990, p. 8. Moss-Kanter, R. (2006) Innovation: The Classic Traps. Harvard Business Review, November 2006, pp.73-83) Payne, J. (1993). Introducing Formal Project Management into a Traditional Functionally Structured Organization. International Journal of Project Management. 11(4): 239-243. Sampson, R.G. (2007). RD Alliances And Firm Performance: The Impact Of Technological Diversity And Alliance Organization On Innovation. Academy of Management Journal. 50-2; 364-386. Schumpeter, J. A. (1947). The creative response in economic history. Journal of Economic History, 7: 149-159. Sloane, P. (2006) The inspiration for innovation. Computing Business 20 Jul 2006 Spradlin, T., (2004) A Lexicon of Decision Making, DSSResources.COM, 03/05/2004. Extracted from: http://dssresources.com/papers/features/spradlin/spradlin03052004.html on 12 Jan 2007 Sydow, J., Lindkvist, L. and DeFillippi, R. (2004). Project-Based Organizations, Embeddedness and Repositories of Knowledge: Editorial. Organization Studies 25(9): 1475-1489. Taatila, T.(2005) Innovation Mechanisms in Network Economy, SoL 2nd Global Forum, Vienna September 2005. Thiry, M. (2001) â€Å"Sensemaking in Value Management Practice† International Journal of Project Management, Elseveir Science, Oxford (Feb. 2001) 19 (2); 71-78 Thiry. M. (2002). The Development of a Strategic Decision Management Model: An Analytic Induction research process based on the combination of project and value management. Thiry, M. (2004a). Program management: A strategic decision management process. Thiry, M. (2004b) How can the benefits of PM Training Programs be improved? Thiry, M. and Deguire, M. (2004). Program Management as an Emergent Order Vise, D. A. Malseed, M. (2005) The Google Story. Delacorte Press. Weber, Max. (1904 [2002])

Analysis of Pauls Case by Willa Cather Essay example -- Pauls Case W

Analysis of Paul's Case by Willa Cather Willa Cather’s â€Å"Paul’s Case† is a story about a young 16 year-old man, Paul, who is motherless and alienated. Paul’s lack of maternal care has led to his alienation. He searches for the aesthetics in life that that he doesn’t get from his yellow wallpaper in his house and his detached, overpowering father figure in his life. Paul doesn’t have any interests in school and his only happiness is in working at Carnegie Hall and dreams of one-day living the luxurious life in New York City. Paul surrounds himself with the aesthetics of music and the rich and wealthy, as a means to escape his true reality. In Paul’s true reality he has a lack of interest in school. His disinterest in school stems from the alienation and isolation he has in life. This disinterest in school reflects Paul’s alienation because of the unusual attention he receives there that he doesn’t get at home. In class one day he was at the chalkboard and â€Å"his English teacher had stepped to his side and attempted to guide his hand† (Cather 1). Paul, at the moment of being touched, stepped backwards suddenly and put his hands behind his back. In other classes he looks out the window during lectures and pays little attention to his teacher’s lessons. Paul, growing up without a mother figure in his life, is unaccustomed to any affection or care from his teachers that mothers tend to give. Therefore, his alienation is portrayed in his attitude toward school, and the fore...

Trebuchet Lab

Objective: * To determine the how changing the throwing arm length and/or the counterweight mass affects the distance and direction that a can is thrown by a trebuchet. Trebuchet Test Results Our trebuchet had some technical and engineering damage and it did not worked properly. When we launched the sauce can, it moved in opposite direction (away from the target). In the other hand, when we tried it in previous moments it did worked. Design: Drawing of your trebuchet Questions and analysis: 1. Did your trebuchet worked correctly? If so, what was the maximum distance achieved?If not, why did it fail? It failed because the materials were damaged. The rope that attached one end of the throwing arm with the counterweight was damaged. This did not let the throwing arm to complete it cycle, to the can was launched before it was supposed to and the can moved backward. Also, the throwing arm was too loose and it moved from one side to the other side. 2. How might you measure the maximum heig ht your trebuchet could launch the can? You might you measure the maximum height your trebuchet could launch the can using a reference point.Watching which was the highest point that the can reached and measure the distance from it. 3. What simple machine is the throwing arm? The throwing arm is a lever and a lever a long stick that you push or pull against a fulcrum to move something. 4. What drawback and advantages does the trebuchet have in battle? Some drawbacks and advantages of the trebuchet in battle are that it helped to throw heavy things at enemies, have greater range capability and greater accuracy than the catapult, it launch object at a higher speed and its power is the counterweight. . How might you measure the maximum distance your trebuchet could launch? You might measure the maximum distance the trebuchet can launch the can by performing many trials, measuring and recording the different distances. The largest distance is the maximum distance your trebuchet could la unch a can. 6. What component makes the majority of a trebuchet? The component that makes the majority of the trebuchet is the frame because is supports the other components such as the throwing arm and the counter weight. . What is used to power the trebuchet? What is used to power the trebuchet is the counterweight because it is what pulls the throwing arm. 8. What is the object that is thrown called? The object that is thrown is the projectile. 9. Compare and contrast the trebuchet and the catapult. * A trebuchet is a catapult that uses a counterweight to supply the energy for throwing. * Catapults are any device that throws an object. * The trebuchet has greater range capability and greater accuracy than the catapult. Both are used to throw an object, a large distance. * The trebuchet launch an object at a higher speed than the catapult and its power is the counterweight. 10. How does the placement of a pivot point on the arm affect the mechanical advantage of the trebuchet? The higher you place the pivot point on the arm, the higher the object will go. The lower you place it the lower the object will go. 11. What should the mechanical advantage be for optimal throwing distance?The power into and out of the arm must be the same, so forces applied to points farther from the pivot must be less than when applied to points closer in. 12. What should the mass of the counterweight be for optimal throwing distance? The mass of the counterweight must be much greater than that mass of the object. 13. What should the length of the sling be for optimal throwing distance? Long slings have a smaller angle of release, short sling have a larger angle of release. 14. How is the throwing accuracy affected by the above mentioned factors? Mechanical advantage- The power into and out of the arm must be the same, so forces applied to points farther from the pivot must be less than when applied to points closer in. Otherwise, the object would not reach the target. * Mass of the counterweight- The mass have to be the correct one, a small mass would not power the trebuchet and an extremely large mass will change the direction of the can trajectory. * Length of the sling- Long slings has a smaller angle of release, so the can will reach a short distance.