Witch Hunts And Church Essays - Witchcraft, Magic,

Witch Hunts And Church I am a witch, now please kill me! Many innocent women happily welcomed death by confessing to witchcraft in order to end their excruciating torture during the witch hunt craze between 1450 and 1750. Since many records were lost, destroyed or never kept, the best estimation of the total deaths is several million (4). The main cause of the witch hunts was the Church inflicting fear upon the common and educated man by lying to them about what witches do and who they are. The Church also directly and indirectly increased the pain that accused women would go through during their torture. The Church made it clear, to all those who would listen, that all women were evil and capable of witchcraft. "The Bible's Apocrypha states, ?Of woman came the beginning of sin / And thanks to her, we all must die.'(Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus 25:13-26.)" (2). Vicious comments like this caused even women themselves to fear what other women may do. This fear only lead to the distrust of woman. A book written by two German men, titled Malleus Maleficarum, "The Hammer of Witches", only furthered peoples fear of women's evil. It states that women are more likely to become witches: "?Because the female sex is more concerned with things of the flesh then men; because being formed from a man's rib, they are only ?imperfect animals' and ?crooked' where as man belongs to a privileged sex from whose midst Christ emerged.' (Malleus Maleficarum, 1486)"(2). The men that wrote Malleus Maleficarum refer to the bible for reasons to why they consider women evil, so if the Church had never incorporated such things into the bible such things may have never been thought. Many ancient myths portrayed goddess's as evil. Consequently those images of evil were kept and later attached to witches who kept goddess worship alive centuries later (4). Even devotion to the Virgin Mary (who is the biological mother of Jesus) was considered an indication of evil (2). One women, named Aldonca de Vargas, was even reported just for smiling at the mention of the Virgin Mary (Henry Kamen, Inquisition and Society in Spain) (2). Once a women was accused of witchcraft she would first have to confess in order to be executed. The torturing of accused women was so unbelievably horrid and sadistic that you would think a man of low standing would be the one to carry it out, but sadly it was the men of educated positions such as bishops, judges, professors and others. By doing the torture themselves it set them in a position of fear throughout the community and it is even said that "after the execution of a wealthy witch, officials [would treat] themselves to a banquet at the expense of the victim's estate. (Barbara Walker)"(2). All of the victim's estate became the property of the government as soon as they were accused. The torture was done in such a businesslike fashion that the relatives were charged for the victims torture and death (4). They were charged for such things as the "ropes that bound them and the wood that burned them. (Barbara Walker)."(2). Some methods of torturing the accused witches into confessing were thumbscrews, whips, red-hot tongs, and the rack, this lead to there bones being crushed, limbs severed and flesh seared. After being locked up and tortured for days on end, most women would confess in order to die and some would also accuse neighbors and friends hoping to end their own pain (4). Another method of determining the guilt of the accused was to stab needles into her eyes and if an insensitive spot was found then she was considered guilty. A Spanish church even went as far as to conform a statue of the Virgin Mary into a device of torture. They did this by covering the front side of the statue with sharp knives and nails, then they used levers to make the arms of the statue crush the accused against the knives and nails (Jean Plaidy, The Spanish Inquisition) (2). Men would also brutally attack the breasts and genitals of accused witches if they became sexually aroused around her, because it was thought that the ?witch' caused them to be. They attacked the breasts and genitals with pincers, red-hot irons and pliers (2). The Churches not only condoned all method's of witch torture but some church members would even perform the torture themselves. A bishop of Wurtzburg was proud to claim the lives of 1900 witchcraft accused people in five years (2). "Churchmen

A mistake can be corrected once found Essays

A mistake can be corrected once found Essays A mistake can be corrected once found Paper A mistake can be corrected once found Paper Learning this course has been very helpful to me. I have acquired skills in conducting researches. Making research is not just reading the references provided by any course instructor. You have to explore more using additional references of your own. In finding references you have to be more specific and do proper selection as some of them were not legitimate. After reading the references you have to find ways of integrating different ideas from different sources. You have to do proper comparison, contrasting, and be able to apply them to your own idea and what is really going on around in the past, and in the present. One indication of the effectiveness of your reading from different sources is when you test yourself by sharing what you have learned based on your own words and not by using the texts word for word from your readings. Sharing ideas in front of the class is very important. A mistake can be corrected once found. The most effective way to find any mistake in any class instruction is to collect ideas from each participating member of the class. It is very possible because each reader has their own understanding of what they have read. Doing the case study is also another way of measuring how a learner has acquired the learning objectives. Case studies enable the student to analyze particular cases, find problems, find solutions, and formulate conclusions. Completing case studies helped us master the process of professional problem solving. You have to identify problems, formulate your objectives, find related literatures, and conduct personal research and experiments. After that you have to integrate your literature readings and every data gathered from personal research and experiments in a discussion. Then afterwards you have to write recommendations and conclusion. Acquiring a skill in pursuing a Research or Study is the most important skill that I have acquired. It takes a lot of hardship and struggle but it is just a slight insight of what we are going to be as we pursue in our field. That is one of the things that I hate. There are situations where I got bored although I am particularly interested in the topic, but I got bored finding more references. All in all, I find my effort fair enough as I have gone this far already. The whole course about Health Information System has given me wider range of perspectives on the importance of Information systems in Health Care. Journeying back to the historical articles have given us a flashback of its early years and of how it has evolved from its traditional state into this present modern technology driven era. The evolution of the system was directly influenced by the impact of computers and the internet. It started as a local health information system that acquires and keeps records of health care and services data which had over years turned into an integrated system composed of health information networks from various locations. One of the biggest problems faced by its early promoters is enabling different network to share information coherently. The problem was solved by the application of JAD (Joint Application Design). Joint discussions of the processes in health information system were discussed on various perspectives of users, systems analysts, and systems modelers. Taking a standard Identification Number that could work from various computer systems and platforms was considered. To enable health information system users to access data from different location, the system was enabled on the internet. It was the first introduction of the system to the Web, which enables many clients to access data simultaneously.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and How It Affected Education Essay

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and How It Affected Education - Essay Example The act suggested the following changes; Annual Testing: States were required to begin testing students from grades three to eight annually on reading, mathematics and science by 2008. These tests had to follow state academic standard. Moreover, in order to compare the states, every state was required to present a sample of fourth and eighth graders to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress testing program. Academic Progress: In order to monitor the progress of an educational institution, â€Å"states were required to bring all students up to the "proficient" level on state tests by the 2013-14 school year. Individual schools had to meet state "adequate yearly progress" targets† ("No child left," 2004). Report Cards: From the start of 2002-2003 school year, states were required to provide annual report cards of school districts that would show a wide range of information on the performance of schools and achievements of students. Teacher Qualifications: The qualification of teachers for schools was set on a standard basis and by 2005-2006 school year, all the teaching faculty hired had to have â€Å"completed at least two years of college, obtained an associate's degree or higher, or passed an evaluation to demonstrate knowledge and teaching ability.† ("No child left," 2004) Reading First: This act created a grant program called â€Å"Reading First† to help states organize â€Å"â€Å"scientific, research based† reading programs for children in grades K-3 (with priority given to high-poverty areas)† ("No child left," 2004). Funding: The act was primarily meant for school districts with higher concentration of underprivileged students. The states were given flexibility in allocating resources for the programs they were required to initiate. The act was subject to hot debate since its enactment as people from the education sector were concerned with its feasibility. The controversial debate rose to an iss ue that had to be addressed. The act has its ups and downs. The comparison of its pros and cons can enable us to critically analyze the depth of its impact. The act affected the education system in many positive ways. Factors that affected the US education system positively are the necessary components of a good assessment system. First and foremost is the accountability factor. The act held teachers and states accountable for the development and progress of the students. Report cards and Academic-progress monitoring were specifically conditioned for this purpose. The ultimate purpose of this act was to improve the education by bringing in the necessary reforms such as â€Å"reading first† and â€Å"annual testing†. This act provided equal opportunity to students, implying that every student could participate in his/her own intellectual development through the initiated programs. Another lucrative factor of this act was the standard for teachers to enter the teaching p rofession. Teachers have to pass a certified test (GACE) in order to teach. As a result of this clause the quality of teaching has improved. With the help of report cards, schools were graded relative to the adequate yearly progress target. If these schools fail to achieve the set target for two years straight, students would be offered choices of other public schools and if a school fails to achieve the set target for continued years than it can even face correctional measures. The last mentionable

Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 7

Case Study Example l has been classified by majority of sport investigators as a game sport, which depends on ‘adenosine triphosphate-phosphocreatine system’ and ‘lactic acid system.’ Nevertheless, it has been argued that a large volume of literature on fitness testing in field and individual sports such as running and cycling are performed more consistently, while the same for court sports such as basketball is contended to be fairly less. In the past, investigations pertaining to physiological and anthropometric profiles of elite basketball players have been evaluated. Notably, the performance pertaining to team sport is generally associated with various factors, specifically fitness of the team members, psychological attributes, team strategies and sport-specific expertise among others. In the present day context, several changes in the rules and development of strategies have been witnessed in the domain of basketball (Schelling & Torres-Ronda, 2013). Correspondingly, such changes have resulted in increasing physical demands of basketball players (Scanlan, Dascombe, Reaburn & Dalbo, 2012). In order to be a successful basketball player, a well-built physical fitness is extremely important for an athlete. Alongside, body size of players and elements including experience, stamina, body composition, stability between anaerobic fitness and aerobic fitness are determined to be vital for evaluating the performance of successful players. Coaches as well as sport scientists are identified to use battery of sport-specific physical tests for evaluating the aforesaid factors such as body size and composition, stamina and aerobic fitness. Testing is usually performed to determine the changes in athletes as well as to draw understanding regarding the efficacy of training programs. Sports science research has established certain values for determining the degree of changes within-athletes as well as between-athletes (Drinkwater, Hopkins, McKenna, Hunt & Pyne, 2005). Lately developed

Comparing and Contrasting General Systems Theories Research Paper

Comparing and Contrasting General Systems Theories - Research Paper Example Mainly, the organizations whose their basic parts are elements of diverse orientation usually differing with the environment they are meant to operate and the relationship which exists amid them. However, in the core operation of the system it may be almost the same but as the system upgrades, to assume its core purpose it changes its modeling explanation that may have diverse mathematical modeling (Shaw, 2009). Information Systems Theory (IST) prior to the current connotation was principally limited to computer science (Von Bertalanffy, 2008). This encompasses computer organizing information, which today the term â€Å"information† is more general and requires more expounding and keen elucidation. Since, each system despite its core role is information centered; processing it for more effective operations meant to fulfill its main value as a system. IST in its actual argument, it implies that system as symbol encapsulated with an idiom. An Idiom refers to an intangible concep t mainly formulated to simply explanations for system symbols and their links. This offers a conceptual link amid set theory plus algebra especially in mathematical explanation (Von Bertalanffy, 2008). ... here it underlies all other entities to enhance more communication, hence offering effective linkage and relations of the entities and the common information space (Skyttner, 2006). These entities interacts further yielding to more multifaceted permutations. For instance, English language an idiom that is a universal concept primarily participates in offering space for the creation of sentences words and other correlated tasks, which will enable the stated language, emerge effectively, thus making understanding better. In mathematics, there a theoretical idiom that allows for the formation of mathematical statements and it accomplishment, hence proving the universal character of an idiom (Von Bertalanffy, 2008). Systems’ thinking, which yielded from Ludwig’s scholarly leaps in 1930s, meant to serve in the WWII (Skyttner, 2006). This was especially in the logistics in ensuring effective attainment of exact soldiers’ population as the war proceeded. System thinking implies how diverse entities in a certain environment co-exist without any dictation from any part entity. It involves dilemma resolution, essentially by having wide perspective of â€Å"problems† as a whole system rather than definite part, results or tasks that may prompt to additional inadvertent consequences (Skyttner, 2006). This proves that system thinking cannot be singular, but set of numerous aspects. These mainly, comprise habits or practices, which make the co-existing entities, live harmoniously. Consequently, implying that the systems parts can best understood by observing or studying their relationships and interactions they poses, which expounds unmistakably their condition of information (Von Bertalanffy, 2008). System’s components also depicts information in the manner interact with

Internal And External Factors That Impact Organisational Business Essay

Internal And External Factors That Impact Organisational Business Essay Every company has an unique organisational culture. Its culture derives from its past, its present, its current people, technology and physical resources and from the aims, objectives and values of those who work in the organisation (Lynch 2003). In recent years there has been increasing recognition of the role that organisational culture plays in the formulation and implementation of firm strategies and in influencing the success of those strategies. According to Deal and Kennedy (1982) research, they also stated that organisational culture defines the success or failure of organisation. Therefore, it is important to understand culture in an organisation as to help organisational leader in making management decision and in achieving excellences strategy. It is necessary to view strategic management from a cultural perspective because successful organisational performance often rests upon the degree of support that strategies receive from the organisations culture (Hodge 1996). Organisational Culture Definition of Organisational culture and its importance to strategic management. When any group of people live and work together for any length of time, they form and share beliefs about what is right and proper. They establish behaviour patterns based on their beliefs, and their actions often become matters of habit which they follow routinely. These beliefs and ways of behaving create the culture of the organisation. Culture is a pattern of shared tacit assumptions that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which has worked well enough to be considered valid in organisation and it is necessary to be taught to new members as the correct way to think, perceive, and feel in relation to those problems that occur in many organisation today (Schein 2009). Culture also influences the selection of people for particular jobs, which in turn affects the way in which tasks are carried out and decisions are made in an organisation. With the word of organisation added to the definition of culture, it can be defined as the patterns of beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience that have developed during organisations history, and which tend to be manifested in the behaviours of its members (Brown 1998). Organisational culture is the taken-for-granted assumptions and behaviours that make sense of peoples organisational context and it contributes to how groups of people respond and behave in relation to issue they face. It means that culture has important influences on the development of organisational strategy. Strong organisational cultures are important strategic asset as it is the heart of all strategy creation and implementation. In the early 1980s, Berry (1983) mentioned that by using culture, organisations could become more strategically effective. In order to support this statement, the popular global online book-seller known as amazon.com, used their culture which described as intensely customer-focused to drives their organisational strategy creation by focusing more on intensive training of each individual employee as these could reinforce the culture. As the result of using their culture and become more strategically effective, todays amazon.com has become one of the most successful online shop worldwide (Bezos 2007). Moreover, an effective strategic leader should understand and shape the culture of organisation in order that vision can be pursued and intended strategic implemented. This is something that leaders of Apple Inc. have applied, by leveraging their culture of innovation toward product as well as internal processes; they have been able to survive among their competitors as well as venture into new and profitable markets. In fact that in third quarter of 2012, Apple Inc. has made more than $35 billion revenue as this determine their success in technology industry (Fekete 2001). Moreover, organisational culture is dependent on the leadership such as particular individuals. For example, organisational culture of the body shop company is b ased on the commitment of their founder, Anita Roddick, to produce only environmentally friendly products (McGuire 2009). Through her commitment, nowadays The Body Shop has grown and prospers to become large and international businesses. From all examples above, it shows us the connection between culture and strategy of an organisation is necessary in order to understand roles of culture that affect the creation and implementation of strategy in an organisation. Key characteristics of culture in an organisation. There are some key characteristics of culture in an organisation. Firstly, culture can be shaped by people as employees personality and experience create the culture of an organisation. For example, if most of employees are very outgoing, the culture in the organisation likely to be open and sociable. The other characteristics are culture is negotiated; this is because culture cannot be created by only individual person. Employees must try to change the work environment, the direction, the way work is performed, or the manner in which decisions are made within the general norms of the workplace. Its difficulty to change is another characteristic of organisational culture (Heathfield 2012). Changing in culture require people to change their behaviours. It is often hard for people to unlearn their old way of doing things, and to start performing the new behaviours consistently. It takes time and effort to change the culture in an organisation especially in firms with strong culture. Ol der strong culture organisations have established stories, use symbols, conduct rituals and even use their own language. In this type of strong culture organisations, the core values are widely shared, respected and protected. However, according to Beamish (2008) research, he argued that culture is not static. He mentioned although a strong culture is extremely resistant to change but culture is not static. Once a culture is established in an organisation, it tends to be reinforced by the types of leaders chosen, by the selection, induction and training processes, by the systems, procedures and structures, and by the statements and communications of senior leaders about the way things are done around organisation. In addition, overtime, the environment changes, new technologies develop, new social norms occur, and new competitors emerge, cultures will evolve to match these developments (Beamish 2008). For example, as new technology developed, CEO of General Electronic (GE), Jack Wel ch develop new strategy calledGrowYourBusiness.com, aimed at getting the various businesses to embrace electronic commerce as the new way of doing business and this had a significant effect on the required culture (McGuire and Rhodes 1999). Benefits of electronic commerce are cost saving, provide faster answers for customers and offer more interesting assignments for employees. Nowadays most of GEs customers are using web to track orders, sometimes right to the location of a delivery van and instantly getting details of products. The last characteristics of organizational culture is more than one culture might which means that two or more subcultures might exist in same organisation. However, most of the researchers assume that there should be a single culture for the organisation (Stanford 2010). It might be true for small or extremely focused or geographically concentrated organisations, but for organisations with a broad range of products, customers and geographical locations, se parate subcultures are necessary. For examples, the China operation of a multinational manufacturer seeking low-cost production will have quite a different culture from its sales and marketing operation in Singapore and Australia, where the company is trying to present an up-market image. Therefore it is important for an organisation to have appropriate cultures in each unit and to be able to coordinate these cultures for the benefit of the organisation as a whole. Internal and external factors that impact organisational culture. Organisational culture is subjective by several factors which affect its development, performance and growth. Organisational culture originates and keeps evolving from the dynamics of the interaction between internal and external factors (Wilson and Bates 2003). Internal factors consist of organisations values, leadership style and structure (Kwamme 2010). Values in an organisation determine the inner culture of each individual employee. Moreover, managerial focus and leadership style has known as the contributor of shaping organisational culture as it could preserve an innovative and creative culture in an organisation. Healthy organisational structure includes procedures, expectations and policies are likely for employee to be motivated, more efficient and creative that could influence the culture in an organisation. On the other, external factors that affect organisational culture, includes business relationships, technology, laws and policies (Kwamme 2010). Business relationships have a great impact on employees behaviour and the culture in an organisation. For instance, if an organisation has association with a further business and that business is based on high prospects, staff may react in their working as the reason of those high prospects. As the result of todays technology advancement, it could lead to changing in culture of an organisation particularly with an increasing interaction between human and machine. Furthermore, technological creating competitive organisational culture as it reduces face-to-face interaction between human. Lastly, organisational regulations, policies and external work related acts significantly influences organisational culture, for example employee who work in organisation that performs a strict work to rule policy, they exhibit characteristics such as do things as they are told, less passionate about their job and refuse to be creative, thus it could directly change the whole culture in an organisation. This combination of internal and external factors will influence the organisations culture and have an effect on interpersonal relations. What is important is to be aware of it and to take account of how plans to develop the organisation may be affected by and affect its culture (Wilson and Bates 2003). Organisational cultures and organisations performance Studies of Peter and Waterman (1982) stated that high-performance organisations usually have strong organisational culture. A strong culture will help to align the elements required for effective implementation. Each organisation in same industry requires different business strategies. Different strategies require different cultures. Clearly, the culture of the organisation needs to be matched to the business strategy of the organisation. The issue is to align the culture with the strategy, not to seek some ideal culture. There are some views on the relationship between organisational cultures on organisations performance. The most common one known as strong-culture thesis, that assumed the commitment of employees and managers to the same set of values, beliefs and norms will have positive results that directly correlated with the level of profits in a company (Dess 2008). It is possible that success brings about a common set of orientations, beliefs and values. This culture may be m ore than just a by-product of high performances, but values and meanings may reproduce a successful organisation and thus contribute to performances. Since the cultural values are observable and measurable, it can be compared directly between organisations, employees and organisational performance. Recently, employee engagement has become a key measure of peoples commitment to the organisational culture and high scores have been linked to high organisational performance. For example, Italian eye ware and eye care company Luxottica improved its employee engagement and achieved improved performance. This company found that employees in its Australian and New Zealand operation of total 6500 people were disengaged and 56% of them did not understand the business strategy. However after employee engagement program was constructed which include understanding the culture of the organisation, Luxottica has achieved 15% of improvement in engagement, 30% reduction in recruitment costs and an 8 % reduction in turnover (Story 2009). Many business leaders are convinced that culture does have a substantial influence on performance. Therefore, when an organisation performs consistently at their capability, the outcome is not only improved strategic success but also an organisational culture permeated with a spirit of high organisational performance. Organisational culture influence on strategy Because of its crucial role in organisation performance, it is necessary to examine the relationship between culture and strategy because chance of success will be higher if there is a close incident fit between culture and strategy. Organisational cultures should be accompanied by any changes in strategy of organisation; otherwise the strategy is probably failed. In other hand, if supportive cultural arrangement is supported by right strategy, most likely the strategy will be succeeding (Montanari, Morgan and Bracker 1990). The taken-for-granted nature of culture makes it centrally important in relation to strategy and the management of strategy. George Davis (2010), the founder of clothing retailers Next and GIVe, sees culture as central to management. He added that culture is the thing that makes us do things and stops us doing things. There are benefits in the taken-for-granted nature of culture. Josephine Dumont (2010) supported this view and stated that because of all employees take as given the way the firm operates, it reduces the need for constant supervision. The stronger the fit between culture and strategy, the less managers have to depend on policies, rules and procedures, which means that lesser supervision needed to enforce what people should and should not do. There are then benefits to the taken-for-granted aspect of culture. Moreover, a positive culture might influence in achieving strategy in an organisation. For example, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) is the second largest financial institution in the world which comprises of more than 10,000 offices in eighty countries. HSBC has their own unique and effective culture as part of its strategic management. One of the known practices within the HSBC organisational culture is its regard for work-ethic endorsement. This practice involves the careful screening of employees with the necessary skills and high potential for improvement. Through this culture, the HSBC are able to cr eate an effective workforce that is determined to succeed and is highly committed to work. It believes that when employees are highly committed with their job and always do their very best, it could help in achieving strategy and plan in an organisation. Business strategies of HSBC are to increase revenue growth, developing brand strategy further, improving productivity and maintaining the companys prudent risk management and strong financial position (HSBC 2011). According to appendix 1, it shows the effect of culture in an organisation to strategy development. In the situation of declining performance of an organisation, managers or leaders need to improve the implementation of existing strategy such as trying to lower cost, improve efficiency, tighten controls or improve accepted way of doing things. If this not effective, a change of strategy may occur, however change in line with the existing culture. For example, when there are attempts to change highly bureaucratic organisations to be customer-oriented so there is a need to change a cultures of an organisation. However, some employees do not readily to accept the cultural change in an organisation as they are used to the culture they had before. People prefer the familiar and typical culture as to minimise uncertainty or ambiguity in the organisation. The connection between success and culture may seem obvious as successful business is the result of successful execution of a good strategy, and therefore culture is all about execution (Stanford 2010). Strategy can be effectively implemented only when an organisations culture is both strong (consistent) and healthy (employees are engaged and committed, customers are satisfied and other stakeholders are included in organisational discussions). Appendix 2 summarises the link between the two through the case of Southern Airlines. They believe that the link between strategy and its culture are the one of the reasons that makes this organisation become successful. The culture in an organisation is strong as there is consistency of what people see, hear and feel about it and employees are clear of how things are done and are willing and able to help the airline achieve its goals. Furthermore, their business strategy is good includes stretching and addressing short-term and longer-term goa ls and they are clearly articulated. As the result of the strong culture and good strategy, Southern Airlines has reached their business success in airline industry. The CEO of Southeast Airline, Gary Kelly (2009) added that strong culture contributes to business success and is instrumental in some of the strategic decision of the organisation. Organisational Culture and Strategic Decision Nowadays, terms of strategic is used more often in its broader sense, including strategic decision. There are some important key elements of strategic decisions that are related primarily to the organisations ability to add value and compete in market place (Lynch 2003). This include making sustainable decisions that can be maintained over time, it must be able to delivers sustainable competitive advantages over its actual or potential competitors, it has to exploit the many linkages that exist between the organisation and its environment and lastly it must have the ability to move the organisation forward a significant way beyond the current environment. Therefore, it is the responsibility of strategic decision maker to reach and maintain key elements of good strategic decision to an organisation. It is important to a strategic decision maker to make decisions by considering the different cultures, agencies, agendas, personalities and desires in an organisation (Guillot 2003). Strat egic decision makers must not only be aware of the culture within an organisation, but they must also work to shape an organisations culture to help achieve its objectives. If an organisation needs to improve the publics perception of its customer service, then strategic decision makers must steer the organizations culture so it promotes or encourages high achievement in customer service activities. Changing an organisations culture helps guard against unethical or illegal behaviour by members of the organization. Organisational culture directly affects how the members of the organisation view and interact with the environment the organisation operates in, including their interactions with the general public. For example, Howard Levin, President and CEO of Digicon Electronics, he took the time to understand the company as an organisation and he even undertook the benchmarking the companys culture against companies with reportedly effective business culture and not just in that indus try. Every operational improvement and new strategic decisions he undertook was linked to the new culture that he was building for the company. He was determined that the company would have a culture that would support enlightened leadership. Over time, the student of culture became the teacher as Digicon became an industry leader (Want 2006). Conclusion In conclusion, this academic essay has explored the role of culture in the overall scheme of organisation in terms of strategic management. An organisational culture is observable and powerful force in organizational that can influence the development and change of organizational strategy. Culture and strategic management of the organisation are closely tied together. Adjustment in one often signals the need for changes in the other. Therefore, strategic system approach emphasizes the need for alignment between culture and all other aspects of the organisation. It is important for organisation to have creative and learning organization in order to improve companys efficiency and effectiveness, as well as being the source of inspiration on changing and improving organisation. Moreover, it is a power and beneficial potential when culture and organisations performance well integrated in a set of effective values, beliefs and behaviours with the purpose of achieving organisations systems since cultural values are observable and measureable through stakeholders (organization, employees and organizational performance). In addition, a chance of success will be higher in organization if there is a close incident fit between culture and strategy. When culture has clear values, beliefs and behaviours and it connects to the vision, objectives and strategic, it will encourage to the right behaviours and actions on supporting the strategy. Therefore, with understanding of organisational culture, strategic leader will be able to make a wiser decision by means adapting with external environment on strategy formulation and encourage and leads his/her people on strategy implementation.

Terry Tempest Williams Refuge Essay -- Refuge Terry Tempest Essays

Terry Tempest Williams' Refuge In Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams weaves together her experiences and relationships with family and nature, two major themes of Refuge, as well as two apparently important aspect of Williams’ life. The book is the story of the destruction of her family and the nature surrounding her, but it is these places that are being destroyed are the same places where Terry Tempest Williams finds comfort before, during and after cancer started to consume her life. I believe on the surface it is nature and family that provides her with comfort, but in actuality, it is something beneath the surface. As a young child, Williams was taught through the Mormon teachings to appreciate nature and family, finding God in both. It is through her Mormon faith that Williams is able to survive the pain, suffering and fear cancer causes her. Williams describes the deep-rooted connection between her Mormon faith and her family in the opening pages of Refuge. Through her family, Williams supported her mother and grandmother through their fatal cancers, while acknowledging that her Mormon faith stresses family and community (Williams 13), providing Williams, her mother and her grandmother with a support network through these difficult times. The National Cancer Institute articulates the importance of this support to a cancer patient, suggesting, â€Å"that having good information and support services can make it easier to cope,† adding, â€Å"friends and relatives can be very supportive,† and concluding with the usefulness of support groups (NCI website www.nci.nih.gov). In Refuge, Williams shows her support by sacrificing her own achievements, stating, â€Å"I have traded my position as curator of education for naturalist-in-resistanc... ...cember 2004): 1210-1214. Spiegel, David. â€Å"Spirituality and Cancer.† Integrating Research on Spirituality and Health and Well-being into Service Delivery Conference. Bethesda, Maryland. April 2005. Death is another beginning and What happens to families after death? 2005. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Site. April 12, 2005 www.mormon.org Spirituality in Cancer Care: Health Professional Version. March 22, 2005. National Cancer Institute Website. April 11, 2005 www.nci.nih.gov/cancertopics/pdq/supportivecare/spirituality/healtherprofessional.com Support for Women with Breast Cancer. October 30, 2003. National Cancer Institute Website. March 30, 2005. www.nci.nih.gov/cancertopic/wyntk/breast/page5 Expressing Emotions Helps Women with Breast Cancer. June 12, 2000. American Cancer Society Website. March 30, 2005. www.cancer.org