Martha Stewart Lost Reputation Essay Example for Free

Martha Stewart Lost Reputation Essay Martha Stewart places her name on her products. She becomes the face of her company and the voice of her brand. When her personal misconduct occurred, she made her company vulnerable and risky as well. This case study examines how Martha Stewart managed her corporate communication when her public image and reputation were tarnished on trial for alleged insider trading scandal. The trial not only led her to prison but also hurt her brand equity. The study shows that Stewart’s early response to her crisis demonstrated lack of situation awareness. In the beginning of her investigation, she kept her public persona intact, ignoring or downplaying her role in it. As a result, what Stewart called â€Å"a small personal matter† later became a full -blown crisis. If she had managed her communication in a more timely manner, the magnitude of her crisis might have been minimized. This article also provides detailed insights for organizations to learn from her crisis response strategies. Keywords: Organizational crisis, Crisis communication, Image restoration 1. Introduction The personalities of strong business leaders can help shape and enhance their corporate image. In some cases, the leaders become the virtual icon of the corporate brand, lendi ng their personal prestige to the brand and personifying the company. They can also threaten the company when they are involved in a scandal. In this situation, the consequences for the company can be critical as in the Martha Stewart’s insider trading crisis in the United States. The crisis management scholar, Roux-Dufort (2000) points out that corporate crises as â€Å"a privileged moment during which to understand things differently† (p. 26). As such, there is a growing body of literature on organizational learning in the wake of corporate crisis (Mitroff, 2002; Shrivastava, 1998). The Stewart case, in particular, drew the attention of media for years. The crisis of Martha Stewart’s insider trading raised the issue about the Martha Stewart’s multiplatform franchise; that is, the media world and homemaking business are intricately interwoven with her persona. Stewart’s empire has an impressive business synergy as shown by her TV programs that promote her magazines, her website which sells her products, and her p roducts which are a link to her TV programs. She is the face, voice and personality behind the brand and, thus, the two – Stewart and the brand – are inseparable. After Stewart’s personal misconduct, the interlocking nature of her business proved to be vulnerable and risky. Moreover, Stewart’s crisis had both legal and public relations components (Jerome, Moffitt, Knudsen, 2007). Allegations of insider trading against Martha Stewart led to her imprisonment. Her strategic plan in response to the insider trading accusations and the media attention su rrounding this crisis left Stewart trying to take action to restore her image. In a sense, it is important to understand how Stewart herself and her company managed their corporate communication when her public image and reputation were tarnished under the investigation of the insider trading scandal. This article explores how the high profile iconic Martha Stewart responded when confronted with an organizational crisis that threatened existence. It also provides detailed insights for organizations to learn from her crisis response strategies. 2. Background of Martha Stewart’s Insider Trading Beginning with the 1982 publication of her book Entertaining, Martha Stewart made a name for herself as a homemaking diva. In September 1997, Stewart became chairperson, president, and CEO of her new company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MSO since 1999. As the chief of MSO, Stewart used her name and face to make connections with various businesses including a line of housewares, television shows, radio channels, magazines and a series of books on entertaining. On December 27, 2001, Stewart sold 3,928 shares of her ImClone stock worth US$228,000 the day before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected approval of Erbitux, ImClone’s anti -cancer drug. By selling ahead of the FDA rejection, Stewart received about US$45,000 more than if she had sold the stocks later. Compared to her wealth, it was certainly an insignificant sum and in fact, during her Larry King Live interview, she said it was â€Å"miniscule, really, about 0.006 percent of my net worth† (Four nier, 2004). Stewart had denied any wrongdoing, insisting she did not receive any advance knowledge from Sam Waksal, the founder and CEO of ImClone about the decision on Erbitux (Pollack, 2002). Instead, her sale of ImClone stock was part of a predetermined plan to sell if shares fell below US$60. Later, Stewart was officially indicted on charges of securities fraud and obstructing justice related to her sale of ImClone stock on March 5, 2004. Judge Cedarbaum dismissed the securities fraud charge against S tewart, saying prosecutors had failed to present enough evidence on the issue (Masters White, 2004). However, obstruction of justice, charges of conspiracy, and making false statements remained. Stewart served a five-month prison sentence between October 8, 2004 and March 4, 2005 for these charges. On August 7, 2006, Martha Stewart reached an agreement with the securities’ regulators over the insider-trading civil charges and agreed to pay US$195,000 to settle a five-year legal battle. 3. Literature Review Crisis events can and do strike organizations of all types. Every kind of organization, from larger organizations to small family owned businesses, have the potential of being a victim of crisis (Seeger, Sellnow, Ulmer, 2003). In many circumstances, crisis immediately raises questions from an organization’s many different publics (Marra, 1998). In this view, for an organization to manage the effects of a crisis it must communicate to both internal and external stakeholders. Ulmer, Sellnow, and Seeger (2007) suggest all crises involve the general communication strategies of reducing uncertainty, responding to the crisis, resolving it, and learning from it. The ability to communicate quickly and effectively is clearly an important component of successfu l crisis management. Effective crisis communication can not only defuse or eliminate crisis, but it can sometimes bring an organization a more positive reputation than before the crisis occurred (Kauffman, 2005). On the other hand, Marra (1998) argues if an organization fails to respond to a crisis in the correct manner, a bad situation can be made worse. Hence, crisis communication strategies can substantially diminish the harm caused by a crisis or magnify the harm if mismanaged. In this study, the stream of crisis response models from communication scholars and public relations professionals (Benoit, 1995; Coombs, 1999, 2007) are utilized as the theoretical framework to interpret the crisis response strategies that Martha Stewart employed in her insider trading crisis. According to Benoit (1995), firms or individuals may take preventative and restorative approaches to image problems. Five strategies (i.e., denial, evasion of responsibility, reduction of the offensiveness of the act , corrective action, and mortification) make up the rhetoric or image repair discourse. Each of these strategies has a set of tactics within them. Denial is the strategy employed when the rhetor simply chooses to deny the actions he is being accused of or shift the blame from the organization to outside individuals or agencies. The second strategy is evasion of responsibility is the strategy that the rhetor can blame circumstances beyond his control. It consists of four possible tactics: provocation, defeasibility, accident and good intentions. Benoit’s third major image restoration strategy, occurs when the rhetor attempts to reduce the degree of offensiveness experienced by the accuser. To this end, Benoit includes six tactics: bolstering, minimization, differentiation, transcendence, attacking the accuser, and compensation. The fourth category of the typology is corrective action, which attempts to correct the situation rather than counterbalance it. The final image restoration strategy, mortification, requires the rhetor to take responsibility for the action and to issue an apology. Benoit and colleagues have applied the model to a variety of different crisis situations. For instance, Benoit and Brinson (1994) analyzed ATT’s defense following an interruption of its long-distance service in New York in September of 1991. Initially, ATT tried to shift blame to low-level workers. As the complete story emerged, however, ATT apologized for the interruption (mortification) and began to bolster its image by stressing its commitment to excellence, the billions of dollars invested in service, and the quality of its employees. Finally, ATT promised corrective action and introduced a comprehensive review of its operations to anticipate and prevent further problems. It also stressed its commitment to providing excellent service and its willingness to spend billions of dollars to do so. Given these corrective action strategies, ATT’s finally restored its image. Benoit (1995) also examined Union Carbide’s response to the Bhopal, India, gas leak that kille d thousands and injured hundreds of thousands. Union Carbide’s primary strategies, bolstering and corrective action, were focused on four specific actions: a relief fund, an orphanage, medical supplies, and medical personnel. Although these strategies were appropriate and timely, Benoit claimed that Union Carbide failed to address the most important question: What were they doing to prevent another tragedy? Coombs (1999, 2007) develops situational crisis communication theory, creating 10 categories of basic organizational crisis communication strategies. These strategies are further grouped into four posture: 1) â€Å"denial posture† including attack the accuser (confronting person claiming a crisis occurred), denial ( asserting no crisis), and scapegoat (shifting the blame to others outside the organization), with an attempt to eliminate the crisis by denying its existence or the organization’s responsibility for the crisis; 2) â€Å"diminishment posture† which takes the forms of excuse (denying intend to do harm or claiming inability to control) and justification (minimizing severity of damage) with the purpose of weakening the link between the crisis and the organization by claiming the crisis is not the organization’s fault; 3) â€Å"rebuilding posture† of compensation (providing money or other gifts to the victims) and apology (taking full responsibility), which strives to restore legitimacy by seeking public approval and forgiveness; and 4) â€Å"bolstering posture† which includes reminder (telling stakeholders about its past good works), ingratiation (praising stakeholders and/or reminds them of past good works) and victimage (reminding stakeholders that the organization is a victim of the crisis, too). Using Coombs’s typology of crisis response strategies, Wilcox and Cameron (2006) examined the case of Intel. In 1993, Intel initially denied there was a problem with its Pentium 586 chip. As the crisis was covered in the mainstream press, Intel used the justification strategy by assuring that the problem was not serious enough to warrant replacing the chips. It minimized the concerns of consumers. In fact, Intel mismanaged the handling of its crisis communication. First, it did not disclose to the public the information about the Pentium flaw when they initially realized there was a problem. Then when the problem finally did come out into the open, they downplayed it instead of helping the users who had purchased the flawed chips. After considerable damage had been done to Intel’s reputation and IBM had suspended orders for the chip, Intel took corrective action to replace the chips. Subsequently, Andy Grove, Intel’s president, issued a full apology. Based on Benoit’s image repair theory and Coombs’s typology of crisis response st rategies, the following research questions are posited: RQ 1. What strategies did Martha Stewart use to manage her insider trading crisis? RQ 2. Were these strategies effective or ineffective? RQ 3. What can we learn from Martha Stewart case? 4. Methodology The case study is employed in this study, as it is effective in illustrating public relations management in real situations (Hendrix, 2004). According to Yin (1994), the six sources of evidence that are typically associated with the case study include documents, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant -observation, and physical artifacts. In this study, texts documenting Stewart’s discourse in response to incidents that threatened her image were collected from multiple sources. Specifically, this study used predominantly two types of data: documents and archival records. It began with gathering data and finding facts related to cases and defining the specific tasks. The actions and communication strategies used by Martha Stewart wer e reviewed with information from her corporate websites, press releases and media coverage. MSO is a publicly traded company. A look at the organizational archival records (e.g., stock prices, sales and annual reports) and official government records (e.g. , court records and commission reports) contributed to understand the impact of corporate scandals have had on the companies’ financial performance and their stakeholders. The media coverage on the Martha Stewart case was found through Lexis Nexis Academi c keyword search of â€Å"Martha Stewart insider trading† in The New York Times and The Washington Post. These newspapers were selected because of their large circulation, prominence and influence on public opinion. For the purpose of the valance of news narration in this study, the period of analysis covered two time frames (during the crisis and post crisis). The first time frame started from the trading day to the verdict, beginning in December, 2001 and running through March, 2004. The second time frame started from the day of sentencing to her release from prison, beginning on July 16, 2004 and running t hrough March 2005. Since the research questions of this study were related to crisis communication strategies, the unit of analysis of this case study was Martha Stewart’s response to stakeholders during and post crisis. Thus, the strategies were apparent through the types of evide nce. 14 By examining corporate communication employed by Martha Stewart during the crisis and post -crisis period, the procedures for analysis involved three steps. First, after the data were collected from multiple sources, a detailed timeline of relevant events leading up to the crisis itself, and the post-crisis process was created. For example, the chronological order of the Martha Stewart case was constructed in the following manner: 1) the investigation (January, 2002 June, 2003); 2) indictment (June – December, 2003); 3) verdict (January May, 2004); 4) sentencing (June – July, 2004); 5) in prison (October, 2004); and 6) release from prison (March, 2005). Second, after the chronological order of actual events was refined, a narrative description and process analysis of each event was thus constructed. A worksheet served as an organizing tool for evaluating each event. All data collected were analyzed using the typology of crisis response strategy. Finally, a thick descript ion and analysis of the findings of each research question was conducted. 5. Analysis of Martha Stewart’s Crisis Response Strategies 5. 1 Investigation The story about Martha Stewart’s ImClone stock sale was broken to the public in the Wall Street Journal on June 7, 2002 (Adams Anand, 2002). In the article, her lawyer, John Savarese, indicated that Stewart had set the price at US$60 for selling the stock but in fact, as of June 7, 2002, the stock price of ImClone sank to a low US$8.45 a share. Using the strategy of differentiation, Savarese further was trying to put distance between Stewart and Sam Waksal. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that she spoke to Sam, or had any information from anybody from ImClone during that week †¦ I am absolutely sure that there was no communication of any kind between her and Sam, no passing of any information from him to her. (Adams Anand, 2002, p. B2) On June 12, 2002, Waksal was arrested for insider trading and soon after, the stock price of MSO plunged 12 percent, closing at US$15. From June 6, 2002, when congressional investigators started looking into Stewart’s sale of ImClone shares, the stock price of MSO had dropped 22 percent. Stewart immediately denied any insider trading or wrongdoing and, in a public statement, she said she knew nothing about the pending FDA announcement. She claimed that when the share price dropped below US$60 – the level at which she had agreed with her broker – she returned a call from her broker and sold the s hares on December 27, 2001. She acknowledged that after the trade, she immediately called Waksal but could not reach him, and he did not call her back. The message she left read: â€Å"Martha Stewart called. Something is going on with ImClone and she wants to know what† (Hays, 2002a, p. C1). She proclaimed her innocence in her statement: â€Å"In placing my trade, I had no improper information. My transaction was entirely lawful† (White, 2002, p. E1). However, the congressional investigator questioned Stewart’s sale, noting that ImClone dropped below $60 at least once before while Stewart owned it (White, 2002). On June 18, 2002, Stewart tried to resolve concerns about her sale of ImClone shares and hired a new lawyer, James F. Fitzpatrick, who submitted several documents to congressional investigators. This was the first time Stewart used a strategy of corrective action as a response to the inquiries. On June 19, 2002, MSO stock rebounded sharply, climbing from US$2.05, to US$14.4 and then to US$16.45, suggesting that her corrective action was working. However, Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the documents would help answer some questions but â€Å"we still don’t have an answer to the most nagging one: was Ms. Stewart’s pre-existing agreement to sell reached in late November, as she says, or in mid-December as some reports have indicated?† (Hays, 2002b, p. C7). On June 25, 2002, she appeared on CBS’s The Early Show, and when asked by the host, Jane Clayson, about the ImClone shares during a cooking segment, she replied while slicing a cabbage with a big knife. I’m involved in an investigation that has very serious implications. I have nothing to say on the matter. I’m really not at liberty to say. And as I said, I think this will be resolved in the very near future and I will be exonerated of any ridiculousness. And I just want to focus on my salad because that is why we’re here. (Clayson, 2002) Apparently, Stewart had no idea how to handle the situation and was unwilling to respond to the questions. She continued to dodge public inquiries and ignored the increasing outcry for answers about her role in the insider trading scandal.

Theories of attribution bias Essay Example for Free

Theories of attribution bias Essay Attribution theory is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how this relates to their thinking and behaviour. Heider (1958) was the first to propose a psychological theory of attribution, but Weiner and colleagues (e.g., Jones et al, 1972; Weiner, 1974, 1986) developed a theoretical framework that has become a major research paradigm of social psychology Fundamental attribution error The fundamental attribution error focuses generally on how people explain how and why things happen in a social setting. There is a strong tendency for people to explain their own behavior as a function of external situations, but attribute the behavior of others to internal factors. The fundamental attribution error explains why people often blame other people for things over which they usually have no control. The term blaming the victim is often used by social psychologists to describe a phenomenon in which people blame innocent victims of crimes for their misfortune. The actor-observer bias tends to be more pronounced in situations where the outcomes are negative.For example, someone might say they did poorly on an exam because it was very difficult or unfair. But when explaining anothers behavior, they would be more likely to attribute something internal, like not studying enough. Actor observer effect The actor-observer bias is a term in social psychology that refers to a tendency to attribute ones own actions to external causes, while attributing other peoples behaviors to internal causes. Essentially, people tend to make different attributions depending upon whether they are the actor or the observer in a situation. 3.1 Self-monitoring in social encounters- Snyder 87-95 3.1 self-disclosure in social encounters- wiemann Giles/Jourard71 3.1 self-presentation in social encounters- duck 88 influence people in positive way

Risk and return strategies

Risk and return strategies Portfolio management is principally about risk and return strategies. Introduction Portfolio management is principally about risk and return strategies. Portfolio management is concerned with the construction and management of investment assets. There are two principal school of portfolio management: passive and active. A passive and active term refers to the method by which the assets are selected for inclusion into the portfolio. A passive portfolio includes the market portfolio; consist of shares in all companies quoted on the stock exchange, or a selection of group of stock e.g. all technology stocks. Passive portfolio therefore does not make any attempt to research each stock and decide if it should be included or excluded from the portfolio. There is no technical or fundamental analysis carried out in order to beat the market portfolio. Passive equity portfolio management is all about long-term buy and hold strategy, usually tracking an index over time. This is designed to match the market portfolio performance. Active portfolio management on the other hand uses research, analysis (both fundamental and technical), economic factors and also an element of subjective judgement in selecting stock into the portfolio. It is believed that the stocks are undervalued and will out perform the market portfolio in the future. Planning The planning stage of portfolio management involves a written investment policy statement. A clearly defined investment policy that includes the preferred management technique, hence, active or passive indexed portfolio management. It also outlines the portfolio goals; level of returns and defined risk tolerances for the portfolio. The planning also involves rebalancing strategies and means of effective internal and external communication of those goals. Asset Analysis Aside from inside knowledge asset selection advice is based on two principal types of investment analysis: technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis is based on studying past trends in share prices in the belief that patterns can be discerned in their movements which can be used to predict future movements. This uses graphs of historical share price variations and it is often referred to as â€Å"chartists† analysis. Fundamental analysis concentrates on the study of the underlying position of the company. Such details as its strengths and weaknesses and future opportunities and threats, also uses ratio analysis in evaluating a particular stock. Asset Selection and Combination Stock selection as part of Active portfolio management has very limited impact on the return investors earn, as a result of stock markets being efficient. The efficient markets hypothesis (EMH) holds that a stock market is efficient if the market price of a company’s share quickly and correctly reflects all relevant information as it becomes available (Lumby, S., Jones, C., (2004)). In asset selection and combination we need to remember that investors are risk-adverse and select their portfolios by the mean/variance criteria (i.e. they are markowitz efficient investors). However, asset combination does result in an increase portfolio returns as a result of how the investment are combined and allocated within the available asset classes. The combination of stocks vs. bonds vs. cash, large companies very smaller ones, UK companies vs. overseas stocks and value companies vs. growth companies. Evaluation of Performance Portfolio performance evaluation involves return measurement (weight average return) over several periods. Performance measures such as market timing and security analysis. Style analysis is used to describe a portfolio by evaluating how its returns act, rather than by using a simplistic concept of what the portfolio included. Its objective is also to provide a superior mean of performance measurement for stocks and also the skills of the fund manager. Style analysis uses an asset class factor model: Ri = bi1Fi1+bi2Fi2+ †¦ + binFin+ei Where Fi1 †¦ Fin are return factors and bi1 †¦Ã‚   bni are sensitivities to the factors. All factors are return factors to the portfolio. The factors used in the portfolio are stock index, bonds, value stock, growth stock etc. There are many ways to evaluate the performance of a portfolio, style analysis is one of the newest techniques and it allows us to explain how portfolio returns behave. It is also a useful mean of stock selection for the portfolio.   Re Balancing Rebalancing the portfolio is critical for the financial future. Rebalancing involves buying low and selling high. This process ensures that the portfolio is in line with the initial portfolio asset allocation plan. As the economic conditions change some assets within the portfolio will appreciate faster then others and their weighting within the portfolio will change from the initial allocation plan. This will result in an out of balance portfolio and will need rebalancing by selling high performing stock and buying low performing ones. Indexing – Advantages and Disadvantages As the stock markets are efficient there are various advantages in index funds over actively managed funds as a portfolio management method. EMH theory states that security markets are extremely efficient in processing individual stock information; so undervalued shares are difficult to consistently identify and purchase. Another advantage is the lower expenses in managing an index fund over an active fund. Also lower trading costs versus actively managed funds where stocks are typically traded more frequently and finally, lower capital gains taxes resulting from shares being sold less often. Disadvantages of indexing are in terms of tracking error suffered as a result of changing economic climax where certain stock will out perform expectations. This could result in the portfolio becoming out of balance and rebalancing results in transaction costs and subsequent errors in tracking the underlying index. Active Portfolio Management An Active investor is one that is not passive. Active portfolio manager’s portfolio will differ from that of a passive manager. This is due to that fact that active managers will act on perception of mispricing in stock market, and as such perceptions change frequently, such managers tend to trade frequently, hence, the term ‘active’. Efficient Market Hypothesis would disagree that such mispricing exist in the market and that the stock market is efficient. Therefore, active portfolio manager’s returns are lower then that of passive managers, due to the increase cost of actively managing the portfolio. If the markets are semi-strong or strong form efficient then active portfolio management in terms of fundamental or technical analysis are waste of time as they will not provide a potential gains in discovering the undervalued stocks. Only if the market were weak form efficient than it would permit fundamental analysis to uncover potential gains. Therefore, active portfolio management is an unrewarding exercise and can lead to waste of both effort and money. Passive vs. Active There are various advantages of passive portfolio management over that of active. We have already discussed the EMH and how that would suggest that active management has very little value in terms of portfolio selection in a semi-strong form of market efficiency.   So passive portfolio management costs much less than active management. This give passive investors an increase net returns as the management costs are lower. Passive portfolios are also more tax efficient with their ‘buy and hold forever’ approach result in low income tax costs. Active portfolio often attracts capital gains tax from sell of short-term appreciated gains in stocks. Passive mutual funds have a inherently low turnover of securities and thus are exposed to fewer realised capital gains. Passive portfolios have predictable styles. A passive investor knows exactly what types of securities he or she is invested in. Active managers, on the other hand, can vary the composition of their portfolios significantly over time a problem known as style drift. Conclusion Actively managed portfolio will try to deliver excess returns over the passive portfolio by actively forecasting future returns on individual stocks. However, in reality they do not obtain significant excess return of the market portfolio, which is the primary indexing for the passive portfolio management.  Ã‚   This is in accordance with the efficient market hypothesis that states that stock markets are semi-strong or strong form efficient, with stocks being priced correctly.   Index funds are arguable more successful portfolio management method on the believe that markets are significantly efficient and active manager will not be able to gain excess returns, after taking into account the excessive costs involved in active management. Passive management seeks to deliver the return and risks associated with the chosen index. Evaluation of index funds performance is in terms of how closing the portfolio tracks the underlying index in terms of returns. The costs associated with index funds are in rebalancing the portfolio. It assumes that when the economic condition changes and the assets weight within the portfolio can be redefined automatically. However, in rebalancing the portfolio involves physical selling of high stocks and selling low stocks, which involve transaction costs. This result in tracking errors driven by transaction costs, funds cash flows un-invested, treatment of dividend by the index and index composition changes. Finally, the liquidity of the underlying index stocks can have an impact on transaction costs and subsequently the tracking error encountered by the portfolio. References Bibliography http://www.cypram.com/passive.html Lumby, S., Jones, C., (2004), Corporate Finance – theory and practice 7th edition, Thomson ACCA Paper 3.7 (2001) Strategic Financial Management, The Financial Training Company http://www.nseindia.com/content/press/jul2003b.pdf#search=tracking%20error%20and%20methods%20of%20indexing

Democracy in the novel Lord of the Flies :: essays papers

Democracy in the novel Lord of the Flies M.E. Sullivan said, â€Å"Democracy is only as successful as the people who make it work,† proves itself in the novel Lord of the Flies. I agree with this statement because, if there are to many people opposing one thing there will be war. The boys in this book struggled back and forth trying to establish a stable government. Democracy was forming in the group but, dictatorship was quickly sneaking up behind. Democracy was an essential thing for the boys to survive on the island. Ralph tried to form a democratic nation from the beginning using the conch as a symbol. Everyone listened when the conch was blown. The system was working but after a couple months people started to get different ideas of ruling. Jack, who was basically the leader of the underworld tried to replace democracy with a strong dictatorship. Since the idea of a new type of government, democracy was losing power quickly. Jack and his followers tried to bring down the democracy quickly because he or they wanted to be ruler. Jack did not want to be ruled by someone less superior than him. Jack and his group stopped obeying Ralph’s orders, and also they stopped going to the meetings when the conch was sounded. Jack started a rebellion against Ralph. Since the rebellion most of the kids joined Jack, and some stayed with Ralph. Two tribes were formed the democratic and the dictatorship tribes. Once the tribes formed, democracy was abolished. Jack didn’t have everyone under his rule so, he was still unhappy. To get the children of the island to follow him, he went to the extent of murder. Simon and Piggy were victims of two different governments colliding together. After the death of Simon and Piggy, Ralph was alone. The democratic group was finally gone. The dictators had taken over. In conclusion, democracy in this novel was over thrown by a dictatorship.

Old man and the sea Essay -- essays research papers

The epic journey of â€Å"The Old Man and the Sea† describes struggle, discipline and manhood. The main characters relationships exemplify how faith and skill overcome man’s adversity during life on the sea. Santiago’s growing relationship with the boy idealizes his statute as a father figure and develops his integrity and values towards the boy. Hemmingway shows us how an old fisherman’s will to overcome the sea’s obstacles proves his manhood to himself and the young boy. His skills and knowledge of the sea provide a positive influence for the young boy to become a great fisherman someday. Throughout the constant struggle between Santiago and the fish, he is forced to prove his skills as a fisherman and conduct his discipline to retain his manhood. Santiago’s moral dilemma he faces to converse with the sea regards a large mysterious marlin. From the time the old man hooks the great fish to when he finally captures him; Santiago faces the hardest of adversity that reflects his age and discipline with his stamina to push his own limits. His entire journey amasses conflicts that lead to his own suffering. These unavoidable events leave scars upon scars to his hands and threaten the brink of consciousness for Santiago. He constantly remembers his discipline in order to keep the fish. He wishes the fish would begin to fight back so he can capture him faster. In the prolonged struggle between the fish and the old man his conscience questioned his justifications for battling such a great creature. Always in the back of his mind was the young boy who he valued for frien dship and companionship. These ideals helped Santiago remember his discipline for fishing and his integrity for his own manhood. The pain and suffering the old man must endure to overcome the sea’s adversity help to justify Santiago’s rebirth of manhood. His legendary journey provides mental and physical altercations Santiago must survive in order to prove to himself that he is still a man capable of catching fish. Society labels Santiago as an unlucky fisherman for not catching any fish for 85 days, and yet ignore his skills as a wise, witty fisherman. â€Å"It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.†(32) Santiago coordinates good luck with offerings from the sea. He also said, in order to catch the big fish I must go out far enough where the great one will ... ...as a man once again. I think there are many occasions in a person’s life where manhood is questioned and a rebirth of ideas is abroad. We might be able to call these our phases of life everyone seems to undergo. As Santiago’s life slows down it is harder to prove to himself his own worth, but through the boy he is allowed a chance to reflect his own aspirations and honor for the sea on to the boy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Often times in a persons life comes a test to overcome in order to prove something integral to the rest of ones life. Hemmingway’s amazing journey of an old man, a fish, and a boy, show us the simplicity of life rather than the complex emotions of irrational thought. The situations, style and examples of manhood in this story help to illustrate the importance of proving ones manhood in order to find closure in your life. Santiago’s ideals as a fisherman reflected upon by the boy show the respect of friendship between characters as well as describing admiration within his abilities and hardships throughout the story. Silently the message of manhood obtained by overcoming personal sacrifice shows how Santiago can remember his gift for life, being a fisherman.

Essays --

Television Producer Television producers have one of the most prominent and active roles within the industry; they play a part in each aspect of pre-production, production and post-production. A producer tends to be at the core of any contemporary television show, yet there are several different kinds of producer that are at the threshold. Within television, producers are highly involved in a wide variety of programming, such as dramas, reality shows, game shows, documentaries, sitcoms etc. Like with most media based roles, the ideal outcome for any producer, is a successful broadcast. Producers are the initiators of all projects. Their role deals with issues of creativity, finance and practicality; they must supervise an entire production and creative team. Yet, certain positions are headed by specific types of producer. For example, an 'Executive Producer' will likely be in charge of the finances, along with input on the script and ensuring all cast and crew are content. Yet, an executive producer can be claimed to have very little involvement in the technical side of the video making process, but is still responsible for the project. Typically, an executive producer handles business and legal issues. A regular 'Producer' will run every aspect of the production on a daily basis, because of this, they often duplicate roles and become directors and writers as well. Following this, an 'Associate Producer' will assist the 'Producer', whether that be a research position, coordinating staff, or taking on the 'Producer' role if he/she is otherwise incapable themselves. Many other roles on a television series, include a Line/Field Producer, which takes charge of 'on location' production and a Series Producer, who is responsible for ... ...background in media education is beneficial. However, previous experience within the industry is a requirement, whether it be as a runner, researcher, assistant producer etc; this experience can lead to employment in a more senior position. A strong producer will be creative, a strong financial head, leadership abilities, confidence, good communication skills and strong time and resource management. As long as television exists, so will a producer. Successful producers gain the audience's appreciation with originality, whilst appealing to the masses. They capture the audience's attention through a range of marketing campaigns and creatively successful shows themselves. However, Producer roles are dominated by men. In 2011, women comprised only 18% of all roles within the media industry. Albeit, networking, organisation and creativity are key to becoming a producer.

EFFECTIVENESS ON TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Essay

This survey will be kept entirely confidential and is designed to solicit honest and candid feedback that will be used as a baseline for further and on-going work that will be done to improve overall organisational climate. Dear Sir/Madam, Thank you for taking part in this study. I am a MBA student in conducting analysis study on Training and Development in this organization. The basic purpose of this study is to identify effectiveness of the training and development imparted by you and its results in the performance of the employees. Kindly take some of your valuable time to fill out the questionnaire. Thank you for your valuable time. PERSONAL DETAILS Name : Gender: Q1) Does your company organises a training and development programme? Yes No Q2) Does your organisation identify the training needs for employees? Yes No Q3) How often training programmes organised in your company? Quarterly Half yearly Annually Every 2 years Q4) How well do you participate in various training programmes being conducted in organisation? Highly Fairly well Not always Q5) Training programmes help to improve the performance of employees and productivity of organization? Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree Q6) Do you agree that your company have well designed training policy? Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree Q7) Training programmes helps to increase your motivation? Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree Q8) Training programmes improved your confidence towards work? Yes No Q9) Do you think training programmes are helpful to you in gaining new idea? Yes No Q10) Who in your opinion should give training? Expert from outside Internal faculty Personal department Supervisors Q11) Training helps to reduce stress at work? Yes No Q12) Is there any emphasis given on development of leadership skills through training programmes? Yes always Sometimes Not always Q13) Does the training programmes help you in good decision making at your jobs? Yes No Q14) In your opinion which method of training is useful for your organisation? On the job training Off the job training Q15) How did the training programmes benefit you during your service? Appreciation from superiors Improvement in work Quality enhancement Improvement in attitude Q16) Are you always motivated and looking forward for new training programmes after each programme? Yes always Sometimes Not always Q17) On the whole how will you rate the training programme being conducted in your organisation? Very good Good Satisfactory Poor Very poor Q18) Does the present system of training need any modification? If yes what are the suggestions to make future training programmes more effective?