Cultural Shift through the Eyes of Ginsberg and Kerouac :: Allen Ginsberg

Cultural Shift through the Eyes of Ginsberg and Kerouac    Brothers of the San Francisco Beat scene, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg lived in the midst of a consumer cultural revolution, patriots of a forgotten mindset. While the regional characters of the nation were quickly being homogenized by television, Kerouac and Ginsberg wrote poetry and prose that both captured and contemplated the moment. They were contemporaries, sharing the same circle of friends and drawing from the same influences but produced works seeking divergent means to the same conceptual end. Kerouac wrote with an enlightened nostalgia, fascinated with preserving a form of the pioneer spirit of individuals and tall tales in the midst of cultural change, while Ginsberg's poetry directly criticized the shortcomings and decay of society; neither author completing the picture or the message, leaving something for the other. American culture of the mid nineteen fifties and early sixties is described with disgust and rejection in both Kerouac's and Ginsberg's works. They bore witness to and documented a rich, variant culture homogenized and sterilized by Dial television ads and The Saturday Evening Post. Beat calls to rebellion and cancerous grey images show America on the decline and readying for revolution. In Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums, Japhy's ideal revolutionary rejects the new developments of American culture, " refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production, and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn't really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, at least new fancy cars, certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume..."(97). Their America was a land of mass-marketed uselessness. At a time when st ores across the nation carried identical products, and everybody saw the same three channels of television, the sparkle of regional character started to evaporate. Kerouac paints his Dharma Bums as the heirs of Whitman, poetic thoughtful wanderers. Ginsberg also used Whitman to link the past to the present in the poem "A Supermarket in California", asking the bard "Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely. / Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?

Comparing Death of a Salesman and Fences

When it comes to comparing and contrasting two different cultures and morals the differences can be night and day. In Death Of A Salesman and Fences, these stories follow two middle-class families around the same time period (late 1940-1950’s), who are both facing problems within their own household’s. From marital issues to failing father/son relationships, both of these stories paint a picture to the audience of what life in an urban family living in that time setting was like through the author’s eyes.And even yet with all the things between these two plays that make them alike, there are also many things that make them very different. In Fences we follow Troy Maxon, an ex baseball player and hard headed â€Å"family man† who takes pride in providing for his family with his job as a garbage man. Along side him is his wife, Rose Maxon, a â€Å"tell it like it is† type of woman who cares for her family and wants nothing more than to keep it togethe r. Their teenage son, Cory Maxon, a high school football player with college bound dreams and the talent to take him there.And then there is Lyons, Troy's son from a previous relationship, and a talented jazz musician who has a hard time finding a source of income. In Death Of A Salesman we follow Willy Lowman, a troubled traveling salesman who wants nothing more than to see himself and his family succeed in the â€Å"American Dream†. His wife Linda Lowman, a loving woman with a big heart, who would do anything to keep her husband and her sons happy. And their two sons Happy and Biff.Happy being a sex crazy ladies man working in a department store, while Biff is an unemployed ex high school football star who turned to a life of stealing after failing high school and not graduating. Both Troy and Willy have two sons and even their children are alike in ways, both Biff and Corey played/play football and both were/are very good at it, but biff lost his ambition soon after high s chool though his father wished he would have done better with himself. while Corey tried to use his talent at football to take himself places but Troy selfishly stood in his way.Willy's son Happy constantly stands in biff's shadow while Lyons is Troy's son from a different mother who never saw Troy through his childhood due to Troy being in jail, unlike Corey, so its almost as if he stands in Corey's shadow as well though Troy nor Rose treats him any differently. Unlike Willy and Linda, who seem to put more attention towards Biff than Happy. So it seems that the boys all have similarities between them but the way they are treated by their mother and father are where the differences lay.In Death Of A Salesman Willy treats his wife Linda, as though he does not appreciate her. He talks to her disrespectfully and even ignores her on occasion, and even though he does this blatantly she still stands by his side and acts as his support. In Fences Troy treats his wife Rose with a certain am ount of respect but when he does step out of line Rose is not the one to take it. A perfect example of this would be the fact that both men had found a way to have an extramarital affair, and both for validations reasons. Linda chose to ignore the fact that Willy was having an affair.By ignoring what was happening, Linda did not have to admit to herself what was going on, and saved herself some difficult choices. Linda was not strong enough to make those choices. When Rose found out that Troy had been unfaithful she chose to leave him. And even through it all she still chose to take care of the child he had with another woman, because in her eyes Troy was guilty, and not the child. This shows how strong Rose is in comparison to Linda. Both Death Of A Salesman and Fences were very dramatic plays that touched on many subjects that people even today can relate to.From infidelity, to fighting, to lost friendships/relationships and even death. both stories left the audiences with somethi ng to think about in their own personal lives and both stories made sure to create a character everyone could relate to in some way. there are common themes that run throughout both stories. Among these are two, hard working men that can be a bit disillusioned by life. The main characters of each story may be similar in many ways but both authors made it a point to highlight the differences between them and the differences between the stories themselves.

The Impact of Downsizing on Manufacturing Industries

The amount of information on the effects of down sizing on manufacturing was not plentiful, however one main point that flows through all of the articles is that even though down sizing may be done to help a company it can end up hurting them in the long run. In the paragraphs to follow we look at the effects that downsizing has on people and companies as well as look at whether or not downsizing is truly the answer. Parker (2003)Reports that in 2003 the expected job losses among the manufacturing industries in Great Britain would create the effects of rising input costs and oil price increase on the job cuts; Downturn of the purchasing managers' index for manufacturing; Decrease in the rate of manufacturer's orders. So even though these cuts may be necessary he pointed out that it would have an overall negative effect. The Midwest may be the focus of manufacturing layoffs and financial woes(Link, 2005), but according to this survey, people who live in the area of the country that includes Cleveland and Detroit in the low- to moderate-income lax bracket are using less of their income to pay for housing than other areas of the country. The study, dubbed the Housing Landscape for America's working Families 2005, revealed that from 1997 to 2003 the number of America's working class who spend more than half of their income on housing leaped from 2. million to 4. 2 million. The study also revealed that immigrant families are 75% more likely to use more of their income to pay for housing than American-born citizens. Across the country there are 14 million people that spend too much of their income 10 pay for housing. About 35% of that group is low- to moderate-income families. In 2003, the critical housing need for the Midwest totaled 8. 7% of residents while the West Coast had a need among I6. 89 (of its residents. The South followed the Midwest for a lower critical housing need with 9. % while the Northeast trailed California with a need among 14. 2% of its residents (Link, 2005). (Palley, 1999) Reported that given the dismal economic performance that marked the period from 1990 to 1995, when downsizing was widespread, inequality widened, and real wages fell, the subsequent U-turn in performance has been completely unexpected. Moreover, it has been cause for further surprise that the economy has continued to prosper despite the East Asian financial crisis, which destabilized global financial markets, undermined U. S. exports, and unleashed a surge in U. S. imports. A second source of uncertainty (Palley, 1999) concerns the sustainability of the growth of personal consumption spending, which had been the principal engine of economic expansion in the past two years. In 1997, personal consumption expenditure contributed 59 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and in 1998 it contributed 85 percent. Meanwhile, in 1997 and 1998 nominal personal consumption expenditures grew 5. 3 percent and 5. 7 percent, respectively, while nominal disposable income grew only 4. 7 percent and 4. 0 percent. From the Federal Reserve's perspective, this pattern is not sustainable since consumption is growing faster than potential output, which implies that the economy will eventually hit an inflationary wall. An alternative interpretation is that such growth is not sustainable because households must inevitably run short of financial wherewithal, and when this happens, an economic decline will ensue. According to this view, recession rather than inflation is the danger. A last scenario concerns the possibility of a full-scale crash or economic depression. Such an outcome is the least likely of the three scenarios, but it is still more likely than it used to be. In the 1960s and 1970s, the possibility of an economic depression was truly far removed. However, in the 1990s such a notion has surfaced as plausible, even if unlikely. Recent events in the global economy have added further credibility to this possibility. One reason a crash has become more likely is that many of the factors precipitating a hard landing are already in place, which means that many of them could be realized simultaneously. Indeed, many of these factors are linked in trip-wire fashion so that if one occurs, it triggers another. Thus a Federal Reserve-induced increase in interest rates could trigger a stock market crash, and this could then trigger an end to the spending boom. It could also trigger renewal of global financial instability. Similarly, a renewal of global financial instability could become the event that bursts the stock market bubble. Alternatively, a realization that the existing U. S. urrent-account trajectory is unsustainable could trigger a foreign exchange crisis that would renew global financial market instability, trigger a stock market crash, or evoke a Federal Reserve rate hike to protect the exchange rate and guard against imported inflation. Finally, if the economic expansion begins to flag of old age, overoptimistic projections of corporate profitability could pop, triggering a stock market crash. Also, a flagging economy could renew global financial turmoil by ending the U. S. conomy's role as buyer of last resort, thereby undermining the rest of the world's economic recovery, which rests significantly on export-led growth. However, it is not just this interconnectedness of negative factors that lies behind the increased plausibility of a crash. A second and more important factor concerns changes in the structure of the domestic and global economy that have diminished the presence of â€Å"automatic stabilizers† and replaced them with â€Å"automatic destabilizers. â€Å"These destabilizers work in a pro-cyclical fashion. On the cyclical upswing they make for stronger and longer expansions, but on the downswing they make for deeper and more sustained contractions. One important change concerns patterns of employment and remuneration. In earlier business cycles, labor hoarding was a common practice–firms held on to workers through downturns in order to retain their skills and avoid future hiring costs. However, the changed pattern of the employment relationship means that firms now hire and fire much more freely, making labor incomes more pro-cyclical. It is also the case, especially in manufacturing, that overtime has become more important as firms have sought to save on employment costs by extending hours rather than hiring new personnel. Wage income is therefore more vulnerable to downturns since hours can quickly be cut back in a downturn. Finally, casual evidence suggests that there may have been an increase in the use of incentive pay, with greater reliance on stock options and profit-related bonuses. In a downturn these forms of pay are likely to fall off rapidly, contributing to a larger decline in household income and spending. In sum, the above labor market developments all make wage income more procyclical, thereby increasing the pro-cyclicality of demand (Palley, 1999). Another development concerns the general flexibility of wages. In the period from 1950 to 1980, recessions were characterized by a decline in the rate of increase in nominal wages. However, the important point is that wages still rose in recession. The recessions of 1981-1982 and 1990-1991 suggest that a new pattern may have emerged. Now not only does the rate of wage inflation slow, but nominal wages can fall. This is a very important development when it is considered in conjunction with the new debt-driven business cycle. The ability to repay consumer debt depends on the nominal value of income. In a recession the value of debts remains unchanged, but now wage incomes may show a tendency to fall. This will tend to increase debt burdens and raise the prevalence of bankruptcy, thereby deepening recessions. Just as developments in labor markets have contributed to the emergence of automatic destabilizers, so have developments in financial markets. Households now have significantly increased access to credit. In particular, households are able to borrow more heavily against their assets, thereby increasing their ratio of debt to income. Home equity loans are the most prominent example. Another is the ability to borrow on margin against stock holdings. These innovations and their spread give the economy a strong pro-cyclical impulse, but they also generate greater financial fragility. Thus, in upswings when asset prices and wages are rising, households borrow more and spend more, thereby lengthening the cycle. However, when the downswing occurs, households are now saddled with greater indebtedness and may also be subject to margin calls. This worsens the downturn and may contribute to even greater stock market corrections (Palley, 1999). The shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pension plans is another automatic destabilize. First, households are able to borrow against these contributions. Second, these plans may change household consumption and saving behavior since each month they receive statements showing how the value of their pension holdings has increased. Thus, as stock market prices rise, households cut back on saving and increase consumption, while some households borrow against their appreciated 401(k) accounts. However, stock prices are likely to fall in a recession, while the incurred debts will remain unchanged. At that time, households will have larger debts and reduced holdings of liquid assets. Finally, it is worth noting that prices in the stock market may have been at bubble levels for more than three years; recall that Chairman Greenspan gave his â€Å"irrational exuberance† warning back in 1996. This means that a considerable amount of borrowing and spending has taken place on the basis of these bubble prices, so the bubble may be deeply embedded in the balance sheets of agents. This means that a market correction is likely to be all the more severe. In effect, the size of the negative impact of an asset price bubble is positively related to the duration of the price bubble. Accompanying these changes in the domestic economy have been changes in the global economy that have contributed to the emergence of international automatic destabilizes. One change is the increased degree of international financial capital mobility. When a country's financial markets begin to fall, it is easier for asset holders to exit, thereby creating a larger stampede for the exit. Foreign holders have an incentive to exit to protect the domestic-currency value of their holdings, and they now have a larger impact because of their increased holdings. Domestic holders are also more likely to exit because of reduced transaction costs and the increased sophistication of financial markets. They recognize that exit is the way to maximize the dollar value of portfolios when the dollar is under pressure. A second development is the increased international integration of goods markets. In theoretical terms, the foreign trade expenditure multiplier has become larger, which means that economic activity across countries has become more connected, making for greater amplitude in the world business cycle. In the 1950s and 1960s it was said that when the U. S. economy sneezes, the world economy catches a cold. Globalization of goods markets may have created a situation in which the U. S. economy sneezes and the world economy catches pneumonia. In this study (Wertheim, 2004), has developed a hypothesis which combines the effects of both economic impact and pre-disclosure information with the financial distress and potential benefit hypotheses developed in prior research in corporate downsizing. Instead of offering that these two hypotheses as competing and mutually exclusive, evidence are provided that supports the conclusion that these hypotheses simultaneously explain concurrent and additive effects on the stock price reaction to announcements of company layoffs. Finally, results indicate that the relationship between economic impact, pre-disclosure information and stock price reaction to layoff announcements depends on the relative dominance of the signals provided by the layoff about both financial distress and potential benefit. (Palley, 1999)stated that for policymakers at the Federal Reserve, the goal is a soft landing, though some (those who continue to believe in the natural rate of unemployment) think a bumpy landing is desirable since they believe that the unemployment rate is now below the natural rate. Thus not only is the economy expanding more rapidly than potential output, but the level of output already exceeds the level of potential output. Consequently, not only must the rate of output growth decrease, but the rate of unemployment must also rise back to the natural rate in order to avoid accelerating inflation. Since around 1980, there has been a determined drive to downsize American organizations (Budros, 1999) and there currently is no end in sight to this movement, even though studies underscore its technical-economic and human dysfunctions. This situation indicates a need to consider why organizations downsize in the first place, yet the shortcomings of the scholarly literature on this issue are conspicuous (Budros 1997). Therefore, in that paper he offered some systematic thoughts on the causes of downsizing. He developed a conceptual framework for exploring organizational innovation that features two under explored dimensions associated with this phenomenon, the basis of organizational action (rational versus irrational) and social context (organizational versus extra-organizational). He then portrayed downsizing as an organizational innovation and identified factors that lead organizations to downsize. (Palley, 1999) suggests that there are three possible future paths–a soft landing, a hard landing, and a crash. A soft or hard landing is by far the more likely outcome, but, that said, it is possible to imagine conditions in which a crash will occur. Japan's prolonged hard landing, East Asia's economic crisis, and the October 1998 near-meltdown of global financial markets have all added plausibility to such an outcome. A soft landing has the rate of output growth gradually slow to a level consistent with potential output growth. According to current consensus thinking, this potential rate of growth is somewhere between 2 and 2. 5 percent, though New Economy optimists claim it to be as high as 3 percent. A bumpier version of the soft landing (a. k. a. growth recession) has the rate of output growth slowing below potential but growth still remaining positive. Under this scenario, unemployment rises but the economy avoids a formal recession since output continues to grow. A hard landing has the decline in output growth such that it turns negative so that the economy is pushed into recession and unemployment rises even more. Finally, a crash involves a collapse in the rate of output growth, so that the economy enters a deep recession that may even border on a depression (Palley, 1999). The use of an organizational innovation framework to examine downsizing clearly has shed light on this phenomenon (Budros, 1999), revealing that organizations may make people cuts in response to rational organizational, rational extra organizational, irrational organizational, and irrational extra organizational processes. Of particular interest is the realization that scholars have focused almost exclusively on rational (organizational and extra-organizational) causes of downsizing, neglecting the role irrational forces may play in work force reductions. Perhaps this situation prevails because of the longstanding inclination among scholars to view organizations as efficiency-minded social actors. But if we are to develop a complete understanding of downsizing, then we must evaluate the impact of rational and irrational factors on this practice. This research investigates organizational practices in downsizing after a restructure and the effects of these practices on an organization and its employees (Labib, 1993), in particular, and on other stakeholders in general. Findings indicated that it is not downsizing that causes negative effects on both terminated and surviving employees, but rather the human resources practices used to implement downsizing; such as advance notification, method of termination, and amount and type of post-termination assistance given. This research further found that organizations often do not achieve their strategic goals after downsizing because they do not adjust their work processes and their human resource management practices to the new size and structure of the organization. Based on the literature review, a process model for the development and implementation of downsizing plans is proposed. The model is designed to provide a guide to be used by organizations when downsizing to ensure that the interests of all stakeholders are taken into account. The proposed model is tested through a field research in the form of case studies of five major organizations in Canada. The actual practices of these organizations are outlined and compared to the proposed process model, both collectively and individually. The differences are then analyzed and a new revised model is proposed that emphasizes, not only the downsizing process itself, but also what organizations must do during and after downsizing to ensure that employees' needs are met and that the new strategic goals that prompted the downsizing are achieved. Two conclusions are drawn from this research. The first is that downsizing, if it is necessary, must be undertaken in a way that would cause the least amount of pain to those affected which is the ethical responsibility of good corporate citizenship. The second conclusion is that downsizing, in itself, is not enough to ensure increased profitability and goal attainment, but rather, it is how the organization functions afterward that will indicate whether or not the downsizing was a good or bad thing(Labib). The topic of off shoring generates extreme differences of opinion among policy makers, business executives, and thought leaders. Some have argued that nearly all service jobs will eventually move from developed economies to low-wage ones. Others say that rising wages in cities such as Bangalore and Prague indicate that the supply of offshore talent is already running thin. To a large extent, these disagreements reflect the confusion surrounding the newly integrating and still inefficient global labor market. Much as technology change is making it possible to integrate global capital markets into a single market for savings and investment, so digital communications are giving rise to what is, in effect, a single global market for those jobs that can now, thanks to IT, be performed remotely from customers and colleagues. The newly integrating nature of this global labor market has strategic and tactical implications for companies and countries alike. Information and insight about it are sparse, however, and executives and policy makers have little of either for making the decisions they face. To provide help for governments and companies in both high- and low-wage economies, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) analyzed the potential availability of offshore talent in 2. 8 low-wage nations and the likely demand for it in service jobs across eight of the developed world's sectors (chosen as a representative cross-section of the global economy): automotive (service jobs only), financial services, health care, insurance, IT services, packaged software, pharmaceuticals (service jobs only), and retailing. These sectors provide about 23 percent of the nonagricultural jobs in developed countries. The study, which projects trends to 2008, aims to assess the dynamics of supply and demand for offshore service talent at the occupational, sectoral, and global level and thus the likely impact on both employment and wages in the years ahead. MGI's analysis provides a panoramic view of the off shoring of services, as well as a number of useful conclusions, including: Off shoring will probably continue to create a relatively small global labor market – one that threatens no sudden discontinuities in overall levels of employment and wages in developed countries. Demand for offshore labor by companies in the developed world will increasingly push up wage rates for some occupations in low-wage countries, but not as high as current wage levels for those occupations in developed ones. Potential global supply and likely demand for offshore talent are matched inefficiently, with demand outstripping supply in some locations and supply outstripping demand in others. The more efficiently the emerging global labor market functions, of course, the more value it will create for its participants by allocating resources more economically. Both companies and countries can take specific measures to raise its efficiency in clearing demand and supply. Broadly speaking, a suitably qualified person anywhere in the world could undertake any task that requires neither substantial local knowledge nor physical or complex interaction between an employee and customers or colleagues. Using these criteria, we estimate that 11 percent of service jobs around the world could be carried out remotely. Of course, some sectors provide an unusually large number of such jobs. As a rule, industries with more customer-facing functions have less potential in this respect. Consequently, the retailing sector, in which the vast majority of employees work in stores, could offshore only 3 percent of its jobs by 2008. Yet because retailing is such a huge employer around the world, this would be equivalent to 4,900,000 positions. In contrast, by 2008 it will be possible to undertake remotely almost half of all jobs in the packaged-software industry, but in this far less labor-intensive business, that represents only 340,000 positions. Some occupations also are more amenable than others to remote employment. The most amenable to it are engineering, on the one hand, and finance and accounting, on the other (52 percent and 31 percent, respectively). The work of generalist and support staff is much less amenable (9 percent and 3 percent, respectively), because those workers interact with their customers or colleagues extensively. But generalists and support workers permeate every industry and therefore provide the highest absolute number of jobs that remote talent could fill: a total of 26,000,000. In practice, just a small fraction of the jobs that could go offshore actually will. Today, around 565,000 service jobs in the eight sectors we evaluated have been off shored to low-wage countries. By 2008, that number will grow to 1,200,000. Extrapolating these numbers to the entire global economy, we estimate that total offshore employment will grow from 1,500,000 jobs in 2003 to 4,100,000 in 2008 – just 1 percent of the total number of service jobs in developed countries. To put this number in perspective (in what is, to be sure, not a direct comparison), consider the fact that an average of 4,600,000 people in the United States started work with new employers every month in the year ending March 2005. Why is the gap between the potential and actual number of jobs moving offshore so large? Many observers think that regulatory barriers stand in the way, but MGI interviews indicate that company-specific considerations (such as management attitudes, organizational structure, and scale) are generally more powerful deterrents. Companies cite cost pressures as the main incentive to hire offshore labor, for example, but the strength of cost pressures varies by sector. Many companies lack sufficient scale to justify the costs of off shoring. Others find that the functions they could offshore in theory must actually stay where they are because their internal processes are so complex. Often, managers are wary of overseeing units on the other side of the world or unwilling to take on the burden of extra travel. On the supply side, developing countries produce far fewer graduates suitable for employment by multinational companies than the raw numbers might suggest. Nonetheless, the potential supply of appropriate workers is large and growing fast, and some small countries boast surprisingly large numbers of them.

Christmas Celebration

Christmas Celebration Many people celebrate Christmas but don’t believe in God or Jesus. It’s a holiday that many people will celebrate together by giving each other gifts and spent time with family. The day of Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ. It is usually celebrated on December 25 each year. Many people around the world will usually celebrate it. It’s a time for family and friends to come together to celebrate a time of joy and love. People also think that on the day of Christmas it should be a day of peace around the world.Little kids will be exited on the day of Christmas because they often get many gifts or present from their friends and family. Many of them will also believe in Santa Claus. On the night before Christmas, kids will prepare a list or a letter to Santa telling him what they wish for. They will also have some cookies and drink on the table for him to eat. Kids have been told that if they are bad and naughty then they will get coal. But i f they are nice then they will get gifts.In their mind Santa Claus is dressed wearing a red coat with white collar, a Santa hat, black boots and leather belt with white bearded. They believe that on that night which is called Christmas Eve, Santa Claus will deliver presents with a sleigh and many reindeer to the well behaved children’s. He will come through the chimney on the roof. Then slide down and walk through the fire place. Then on the morning day of Christmas kids will wake up and presents will be under the Christmas tree. Some kids don’t believe in Santa Clause because they think it’s not real.They might have found out and knows about it. Some kids might be bad and never really got presents. It could also be when they were a kids their family never told them about how Santa Claus exist and how they deliver gifts. They think it is their parents the one who got the present to them and pretend to be Santa. Even though some kids know it’s not true but they still pretend to believe in it. They could be happy from writing the letter to Santa and waking up next morning seeing the presents.It really depends on themselves if they believe it or not. Maybe as they grew older and found out it is their parents then they might be sad and disappointed. I once believed in Santa Claus as a kid because I got present the next day I woke up from every Christmas. But then later on as I grew older I kind of know it was my aunt the one who gave me the presents. I remembered that as a kid before I know the truth it was fun on Christmas Eve because I went to sleep early and the next day I woke up with presents.And once I don’t believe in it then every Christmas there wasn’t gift to me from Santa Claus. I just got gifts from friends and family. This belief can be something going on till today. If each family has children then they can be the one telling them about Santa Claus and make them believe into it. Different culture can celebrat e Christmas in their way but it’s quite the same. With a Christmas tree and giving gifts. Santa Claus is always the same look. Mostly every country in the world will celebrate Christmas.Some of them celebrate early in December and others celebrate early in January. On December 24 the day or night before Christmas which is Christmas Eve is a night where they prepare things. I think Christmas has a beautiful decoration. Mostly if Christmas is celebrated then they would also have a Christmas tree. The Christmas tree will have lights and ornament. The house itself might as well be decorated. Some people will decorate their yards with Christmas figure. And at night it looks nice when it is dark and those Christmas decoration has lights.

Rise and Fall of Enron Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Rise and Fall of Enron - Research Paper Example Enron was an energy company that had the marketing of electricity and natural gas as its main activities.  Its’ revenues in 2000 were (supposedly) of $ 100 billion and the market value of the company exceeded $ 60 billion, which meant 70 times earnings and six times book value (Thomas, pp.41).  The company benefited from the deregulation of the energy market, facilitated by the company's own lobby in donations to political campaigns, but without the use of accounting gimmicks and management practices suspicions never had reached this level. Enron collapsed taking along with itself pension funds of its employees and other investors in the same category, a shortfall of at least $ 1.5 billion and dragging a debt of more than $ 13 billion.  For years, the company's directors maligned balance sheets, wiped the losses and inflated profits.  The magic book worked until the end of 2001.  Enron is the product of stunning deregulation of the energy sector.  It was a success and everyone wanted to invest in its actions as it was an excellent company with a higher rate of return, their investment valued up every month, even in times of crisis. The stock prices fell from a record high of $90 in 2000 to $0.60 at the end of 2001, after the scandal was revealed (Bratton, pp.1275). Trade operations of the company were based on complex financial transactions, most referring to businesses that would occur several years later, a practice that inflated their profits.  Operators placed the value of the company's shares way high, suggesting that before these future actions would even appreciate, without having to justify the markdown price, was the mark-to-market. Mark-to-market means considering a company’s assets so highly valued that it is possible to liquidate them at any time by the current market price.  The actions came to be worth about $ 85, behind the scenes; however, the company could only lose on failed projects internet and plants that never operated in India (Thomas, pp.50).   There is evidence that senior company executives were also involved in the fraud, as well as major banks.   The Securities and Exchange Commission initiated an investigation.  Enron was forced to redo their balance sheets for the last five years and admit that its profit in the period was $ 600 million lower than originally reported (Thomas, pp.44).   Auditors Fabricating the Facts The company’s auditor was Arthur Andersen, one of the key executives of the company, which contributed to concealing the scam, while, manipulating the revenue recognition principles.  Since being involved with the collapse of Enron, Andersen lost many prestigious clients. The company's employees took damage by losing their jobs; their savings in most cases were invested in Enron stock (Thomas, pp.46).  The tragic end of Enron shook the confidence of the American financial system.  According to the lawsuit filed by former shareholders, Enron hid th e injury and decreasing profits with the connivance of accounting firm, Arthur Andersen auditor (Healy & Palepu, pp.12).  Former Enron auditor approved fraudulent accounting practices and illegal schemes adopted to hide losses and then destroyed the evidence of the crime.   Involvement of White House   Enron was regarded as an innovator, admired (elected between 1996 and 2001 as one of the most admired companies according to  Fortune  magazine) and dynamic, and Kenneth Lay was a celebrity worlds of business (something that is not seen much in the post

Perspectives on Industrial and Corporate Change Case Study

Perspectives on Industrial and Corporate Change - Case Study Example Organizational structure and the leadership style as they realized that to improve the quality  of work they needed to improve the quality of work life of the employees as well.  To achieve this they began using a five-phase diagnostic model with two aims in mind. The first aim was whether this model of strategic human resource development could still be in use in five years and the second aim was to see what the changes were to achieve this goal. The diagnostic model of assessment required to see the strengths and weaknesses of the organization in question as well as every aspect within the organization itself (including employment, finances and leadership style and atmosphere). The model of SHRD (Strategic Human Relations Development) since it was delegated into phases took several years to be implemented. One of the most important benefits gained for the Tetra Pak project1 was the implementation of better communication systems in every area (especially that of employer-employe e relationship) and as a result of these several employees who have never been able to communicate effectively began to see this as an opportunity to voice out their opinions. The betterment of communication within the organization is very important  because effective communication allows for a better work environment and dissipates any resistance or discontent among the workforce. Proper understanding leads to a better quality of work as the supervisors and management are able to convey what they want to the workforce and the workforce has the ability ask what is required and needed and whether they will be able to do the task at hand.  Dosi, G., Teece, D. J., & Chytry, J. (Eds.). (1998). Technology, Organization, and Competitiveness: Perspectives on Industrial and Corporate Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved May 5, 2007,   L., Hailey, V. H., Stiles, P., & Truss, C. (1999). Strategic Human Resource Management Corporate Rhetoric and Human Reality. Oxford: Oxfor d University Press. Retrieved May 5, 2007 C., Cole, C., & Brunning, H. (1997). A Manual of Organizational Development: The Psychology of Change. London: Karnac Books. Retrieved May 5, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qsta=o&d=55270794

Overseas Market the Spiderman Computer Games in Africa and Asia Research Paper

Overseas Market the Spiderman Computer Games in Africa and Asia - Research Paper Example The marketing of the product should be done online. The company applied state of the art technologies to market its product. The technology enables the company to directly link with the customer’s enabling the buyers to know the kind of product in the market (Chang, Jul 27, 2012 ). The company will in response send the product to the customers. according to Chang (2012 ), the company can also avail the service free, where the users in different countries can access the computer games free but are required to pay to get some per-ups or add-ups. The users will have to pay for items such as powerful magic weapons which support them in winning the game against the enemy or they will be required to pay to access more advanced versions of the game. Alternatively, the company can avail a trial version of the game, where the user is given a timeline to use the game free. After then, the user should pay to continue playing the game. This strategy enables the users to get acquainted and develop an interest in the game. In the process, more market for the game is gained. The company has to do a lot of research to find out what needs to be done to win their international customers and what they would do to fulfill the intention of capturing international market. The technique will not only enable the company to solve their inventory problems but they would satisfy the international computer game users. The state of the competitors can also help.