TRADITION VS MODERNITY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

TRADITION VS MODERNITY - Essay Example teenth and nineteenth centuries witnessed the lustful desires of the European powers to capture the lands and resources of the weak Asian and African countries for the prosperity of the European nations at the cost of the poor Asian and African subjects. As a result, the cruel Europeans invaded over these regions of the globe in the name of so called exploration, occupied the countries, toppled the governments, enslaved the populations and declared them as their colonies. Though colonial system paved the way towards the development of the colonized countries and showed them the path towards progressive western countries, yet the sense of slavery told upon their minds and nerves, and their generations still have not come out of the same imagination of slavery their ancestors had to undergo severe trials and humiliation in past. Somehow, the colonial era has not gone still from these regions, as the powerful states are still ruling over them through their culture, technological advancements and so called funds and donations. The novel under analysis throws light on the same problems and argues that the main objective before the Europeans was not to bring improvements in the life of the colonized population; on the contrary, they aimed to impose their culture on the subjugated people. The story of the novel revolves around the brilliant and outstanding Senegalese child Samba Diallo, who has been studying in the local Koranic school (called madrassah in local language), where the mentors focus upon religious education including the Holy Qur’an, the Prophetic sayings (i.e. Hadith) and education related to Islamic jurisprudence. Being the part of the African culture, the writer explores how harshly the religious mentors treat the innocent children, where physical torture is the order of the day in almost all Muslim societies. Since religious mentors of this kind have little concern with the spiritual values of Islam as well as no knowledge regarding the modern

The effectiveness of SSL and Certification authentication and how can Research Paper

The effectiveness of SSL and Certification authentication and how can the client be better protected - Research Paper Example Clients deserve to know how their personal information is being stored and what it being done to protect their information from getting into the wrong hands. To this end, the SSL and Certificate Authentication processes have been developed and refined over the years to better protect the client and enhance the security of information stored digitally and electronically via the Internet and other mediums (Alnatheer, 2014). The problem is that the Internet is increasingly becoming a place where the transmission of private information, such as credit card data, is a potentially dangerous activity that could result in the data being intercepted by hackers that would seek to do harm. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the concepts of the secure socket layer (SSL) and certificate authentication in order to determine how the client can be better protected. The objective is to determine how this technology is currently being utilized to make the transmission of electronic data via the Internet safer and more secure, while also looking at potential barriers to security that must be addressed moving forward. Failure to address these important issues will undermine the very integrity of the Internet and potentially lead to a general populace that is leery of trusting Web sites with their most private and confidential of information. Research questions are invaluable to the researcher in terms of guiding hi or her in the proper direction, in addition to working to ensure that the project remains focused and relevant to the reader. In consideration of this, this particular study has several main questions that, when answered, will lead to the conclusions that form the basis for chapter 5. This will enable the reader to effectively ascertain the need to keep clients safe when transmitting information online, and how SSL and certificate authentication can help to make this possible. Authentication Certificate - Digital certificate

Comparing a play to two poems

Comparing a play to two poems A play, a lyric poetry and an epic poetry are some of the kinds of literary works. A play is normally written by a person known as a playwright, it usually consist of scripted conversation among characters who aims at performance rather than reading. Hence, play can be used to refer to both playwrights written work as well as to their whole theoretical performance. A play can either be a comedy (Designed to be humorous), farce (Generally nonsensical form of a play), a satire (Generally meant to poke fun at current situations, issues, places and people), tragedy (These generally involve death or tragic events meant to make people feel sad) and historical (Focus on actual historical events and may include all other play types.) A poem is simply a composition in verse form. Poems depend strongly on precise word choice, metaphors, and symbolism. One cannot readily characterize poetry precisely. Typically though, poetry as a kind of literature makes significant use of the real properties of the words it uses All these literary works make use of different elements which include; plot, setting, theme, character and style. These elements therefore become the basis by which these literary works are differentiated from one another. Analyzing the element of character in these three categories of genres will show how similar they can be and to the extent they differ. A play has three major categories of characters i.e. the protagonist, the antagonist, and the foil characters. The protagonist is the main character in a play. The word protagonist means the one who plays the first part, the chief actor. The terms leading role, major character and hero are differently and sometimes not so well defined and, depending on the origin, the theme, the setting and the style may denote different concepts of a story, for example, in fiction protagonist story might be narrated from the viewpoint of a various character. This character may be but not necessarily the narrator. An example would be a narrator who relates the fate of a protagonist, perhaps as a famous figure recalled in a historical perspective. The chief rival of the leading role is a character known as the antagonist, who represents and creates barriers that must be overcome by the protagonist. As with a protagonist, there might be more than one antagonist in a story. Sometimes, a play may take a particular character as a protagonist in the early stages of a play only to dispose off that character in the later development of the play as a dramatic device to make the play interesting. Such a character is known as a false protagonist. Where a play contains sub plots, these sub plots may contain different antagonists from the main plot. In some plays, characters might not be easy to identify, since multiple plots in the plays do not allow clear identification of one as the major plot. Such characters are illustrated in Alexander Solzhenitsyns The First Circle, showing a variety or different characters imprisoned and live in a gulag camp, or in Leo Tolstoys War and Peace depicting 15 major characters involved or affected by a war. The antagonist in a play is the opponent, competitor or the rival of the protagonist character. This character presentments the opposition in the play for which the protagonist must fight to overcome. In other words, a person or a group of individuals opposing the protagonist i.e. the protagonist is or are the antagonist or the antagonists. In the storys classic style whereby the in the action involves a hero fighting a villain, the two parties can be considered respectively as protagonist and antagonist. The antagonist is not constantly the bad character, but simply those who oppose the major character unlike popular belief. The antagonist is in no way in any play the good guy. Play writers have as well formed more complex situations. In some situations, a story is told from the wicked persons point of view, and any protagonist trying to stop the wickedness can be considered as antagonist. In the story K-19: The Widowmaker an American movie of the Soviet Cold War submarine group, United States enemies as portrayed as protagonists, creating a paradox, as always the American film industry tries to portray the forces of the America as the people fighting for good and justice, which is contrary to Russia (particularly the former Soviet Union) being as the antagonists who always have maniacal intentions (like world control). Characters of that kind are typically police officers or other law enforcement bureaucrats. Antagonists and protagonists can overlap at a time, in regard to what their final objectives are considered to be. A foil is a character that contradicts another character (in most cases the protagonist) so as to bring out the different features of the chief characters personality and to throw the trait of the main character into sharper relief. A halt always posses some significant personality in common with the other character, frequently, superficial traits or personal history. A corresponding task of the foil might be accentuated by physical differences. For instance Don Quixote the dreamy and impractical in Cervantes is thin in comparison to his cohort, the practical and realistic Sanco Pansa who is fat. Sherlock Holmes is tall and lean thus becoming additional popular illusory character; Dr. Watson is always described as middle-sized, strongly built. However, the straight man in a comedy pair is a comic foil. The other illustrates a humorous, dumb, or just unconventional one while the straight man presents a practical and serious character. The funniness in these affiliations results from t he relations among these drastically different personalities. In some other cases, a subplot can always be used as a halt to the major plot. This is particularly true in the case of Meta-fiction together with the story within a story motif. The style with which poetry is written by the poet depends on the various elements of literary works including the purpose and the message it is meant to deliver. Poetry also has characters as a play(Alexander, 1988). This is one major similarity between a poem and a play, however, while the characters in a play are categorized into three major ways depending on the role taken by each of the characters, a poet is one major character in a poem who principally centers the theme of the poem to another character which includes both the living and non -living things. In a play the characters are majorly human beings or living things associated with supernatural being. In a poem, the characters various greatly from places, people, objects, super naturals, etc. As we are aware, both the play and poems are of various categories. A play focuses on love, praise, politics, gods and ancestors and so on. Poetry is also categorized into the following depending on the topics as highlighted above. It is therefore only imperative that the kind of characters in both the play and a poem therefore depends on the category within which these literary works belong. Poems in some cases can be categorized into more than one category and therefore one need not to focus on this classification too much. In analyzing characters in a poem, lyric poetry is a form of poems that expresses personal feelings of the poet. For example, romantic lyric poetry consists of first-person accounts of the opinions and approaches of a definite moment; feelings are tremendous, but personal. As opposed to a play Wright, the poet becomes the central attention in a lyric poem because of these personal feelings and not the characters themselves as seen in a play. The character in such a poem for example becomes the lovers, the moments shared by the duo, the features of a place or the feeling of one lover to another. One of the lovers might be the poet in which case expresses a personal feeling. This is similar to a play in the sense that both have characters but totally different from the viewpoint that in a play, the characters has particular roles such as overcoming the obstacles presented by the other character while in a poem the characters becomes the centre from which the theme and the message of the poem is derived. As noted, a play has stages where the conflict is developed, where it is at its maximum and fully developed and where finally a solution as a result of such a conflict is reached (Alexander, 1988). The role of characters in a play is therefore one of bringing out such conflicts, developing the conflicts and finally availing a way of solving the conflict. This is different from the poem where majorly the poet praises, or generally gives a particular description of one character to emphasize his personal feelings towards such a character. In general, the poem may be regarded as a mere prose however, in deeper form it quiet intensely and appealingly brings o ut and expresses the personal feelings of the character (usually the poet) towards the other character (e.g. love). In the poem Wedding Eve by Dr. Everett Standa, Should I Or should I not Take the oath to love For ever this person I know little about? To love without hope? The poet here is in conversation with himself. In this poem, the poet introduces dialogue and achieves a conversational tone with himself. He is expressing his fears about marriage and the uncertainty with which man and woman take each other to the altar for matrimony. But Standa is doing it in an enquiring or questioning way. In other words, he is posing rhetorical questions which do not necessarily require immediate answers but which gives the reader an opportunity to reflect upon the issues the poet is raising including his feelings. The characters in this poem are the poet and the woman who is to take him to the altar (Everett, 1999). The poet expresses his feelings and doubts towards this marriage. The woman is brought out as the centre of analysis. She is the reason the poem is composed because the poet keeps on wondering whether the woman is truly and sincerely in love with him or his riches. An epic poetry is a long narrative poem. It is mostly concerned with a serious subject with details of the heroic actions and happenings important to a culture or a country. However, the first epics were the products of pre literate communities and traditions. In these times, the epics were transmitted to the viewers and from the actor to actor purely by oral means.epics try to be constructed in the short episodes, all of equal status, interest and significance. This facilitates easy memorization as the poet recalls every episode in turn as well as using the whole episodes in recreating the complete epic to be performed. Epics present characters of high position in adventures creating a natural whole via their interactions to a major heroic figure and also through their episodes development that is important to the history of a country. The main character is the hero. The hero takes part generally in a repeated journey or mission, encounters opponents that try to defeat him and retu rns home considerably reformed by the journey. The epic hero shows characteristics, actions and exemplifying some morals that are greatly valued by the community from which the subject comes. Most heroes are repeating characters in their native cultures legends. An epic poetry is different from the lyric poetry in the sense that while the former is a long narrative poem concerned majorly with legends, the latter is a poem expressing the individual attitude of a poet. The character in an epic poem is usually a person, object, or a thing associated with some supernatural power which forms cultural and beliefs of a community. The poets articulate a peoples collective experience; it must enrich the precious safe in which the sinews of the collective group are preserved (Everett, 1999). The character therefore, offers an opportunity for shared experiences since it consists of spontaneous recollections which stir the emotions of the community. While a play might also convey the same legends, the protagonist character is helped by other characters to attain the appraisal status which the community sees as being of supernaturalism and hence contains some cultural associations. This therefore brings out clearly the difference in terms of characters b etween a play and an epic poem. The poem Nyalgunga by A. D. Amateshe, .. you led selfless life Now you return home, a hero, Crowned in silent casket Your speech and sight embalmed. You will need a guide, our son,.. This poem talks about a hero who died fighting for the freedom and liberty of a community known as the Luo in Kenya. It brings out the ways and the styles of the community on burying a hero and the warm send off the Hero receives during burial (Amateshe, 2004). He becomes a memory and a mentor of the young boys in the community who holds his name high and usually strives to be like him. The poet showers the character with praises bringing out in details the characters personality and journey that makes the members of the community view him as a hero. In conclusion therefore, the character as brought out in these three literary works shows some similarities and differences. All the three literary works makes use of characters in building and bringing out their story. In a play the characters convey the message to the audience in the same way the character in a lyric poem conveys the feelings of the poet to the audience. In an epic poem, the character usually a hero associated with supernaturalism conveys either a moral lesion or a strong warning by which the ways of a particular community lives and is shaped forming a major basis of their culture and beliefs. Of the three, however, the various characters depend on the style, the setting, the message or theme of the literary work. The number of characters varies in a play with its length and the message while in the other two literary works, the character is usually one. This one character becomes the centre of analysis by the poet. In a play, the main character is helped to fight against the obstacles presented by the antagonist to solve the conflict as brought out in the play. In the other two literary works the character becomes the only attraction and the centre from which the story is developed. References Alexander S. (1988). The First Circle. New York: Harvill P Amateshe D. (2004). Nyalgunga. Franklin Watts: American Library Association Everett S. (1999). Wedding Eve. Oxford University: Oxford University Press

Aristophanes Assemlywomen and Lysistrata Essay -- Athenian Athens Gen

Aristophanes' Assemlywomen and Lysistrata Typically in Athenian society, women took care of the things in the household while men, although still retaining the final say over matters of the household, focused most of their attention on the world outside the home. In the plays Assemblywomen and Lysistrata, Aristophanes explores roles of men and women in society, specifically what would happen if women were to take on the roles of men. Looking at these two plays about Athenian society as metaphors for marital life, it shows that men and women were incapable of having balanced power in their relationships. In both of these plays, the men were unable to keep their own sense of power when the women took over politics, and they eventually moved into the submissive role of women. In Lysistrata, the women used their seduction to gain power. Similarly, in Assemblywomen, the women came into power through deception and clever planning. This paper explores why women rarely stepped up to take power; how they would gain power when they would step up to claim it; and how the men would respond once confronted with a woman in power. This all serves to show that in Athens, a marriage of man and woman could not exist with mutuality of power – rather, one (typically the man) would dominate, while the other (typically the woman) took the submissive role. Throughout both Lysistrata and Assemblywomen, both the men and women were convinced, to varying degrees, that the women were incapable of handling any kind of authority or challenging task. In fact, only the dominant, leader women (Lysistrata and Praxagora) of the two plays had enough confidence to handle a position of power. These women have been brought up i... ...brought this power imbalance to the open, however, by exploring what would happen if women took the initiative to claim the dominant rold in society. The women, when able to successfully overcome the men and take power in the city, left the men with no choice but to either fight to regain the power, as they attempted to do in Lysistrata, or succumb to the women’s plans, as they did in both Assemblywomen and, eventually, Lysistrata. In relinquishing their power to women, the men forfeited their masculinity and became stereotypically feminine while the women also forfeited their gender norms to stay in power. Athenian unions, therefore, subsisted on a constant inequality of power kept carefully balanced by each partner staying in their designated role in the marriage – the husband the strong moneymaker living outside of the house, the wife the submissive homemaker.

Principles Of Supporting Business Events

Section 1 – Understand how to support the organisation of a business event1. When organising a business event, describe the range of support activities that may be required.When planning a business event you should find out how many people are coming then book the right venue. Organise the catering i.e. food and drink for the right amount of people. Book any accommodation for the people that may have travelled from overseas or can’t make same day travel. Arrange the guest speaker. Publicise the event to make people aware of the date/time/place. Name the guest speakers2. Complete the table below by identifying two ways of providing support before, during and after a business event.Before During After1.  Send out meeting invites With RSVP to know how many people will be coming. Always greet people with a smile and be polite. Be approachable1. Talk to individual parties/companies get their feedback and thank them or coming2.  Make sure the venue you book caters for eve ryone and has everything you need and the room isn’t too big/small for the amount of people coming 2. Sign people in, issue everyone with a name badge/information pack. Show people where to sit if you have allocated sitting plan.2. Review the event with your colleagues, this way you can find out if anything need to be improvedSection 2 – Understand the purpose of displaying professional and helpful behaviour whilst supporting a business event and how to do so1. Explain the purpose of displaying professional and helpful behaviour when supporting a business event.How you behave will affect the event and your business, if your friendly and polite and well groomed then this well make you more approachable for others to come and ask questions about the event. When talking make sure you always speak clearly, make eye contact and always have a smile e.g. you will more likely get support for similar events and also promote and advertise your business which is one of the main p urpose of organizing an event/meeting2. Describe ways of exhibiting professional and helpful behaviour whilst supporting a business event.All staff is well presented i.e. clean, well groomed. Greeting people as they come in, hand out all information packs name badges, smile make eye contact when spoken to be polite, speaking clearly so people can understand you. Have a friendly approach. Having a positive attitude gives a positive outcome.Section 3 – Understand how to deal with problems encountered when supporting a business event1. What are the main types of problems that may occur when supporting a business event? You should include at least three different types of problems in your answer.Process problemOrganising an event it’s always important to ask about any special requirement people may have limited mobility/disability e.g. Wheelchair accesses and disabled toilets and emergency exits, and any visually impaired and hearing problems. or have dietary NeedEquipment problemsThe event requires catering then the failure of kitchen equipment may result in people not have the right refreshments or foodPeople problemsLate or absent people can have an effect on the whole outcome of the event,  such as people turning up late means late start to the meetings staff in the wrong place at the wrong time2. Identify possible solutions for each of the problems you have listed in Question 1 above.Process problemFinding out any special requests before hand is important such as people with limited mobility need to be able to access all area such as entrance, toilets. People with eyesight problems should have a choice to sit near to the front if the meeting/event has visual equipment. Find out if anyone had dietary restrictions such as vegetarian, diabetes, any allergies.Equipment problemsCheck the Equipment is in fully working order before you start the meeting/event. People who are properly refreshed and fed are more than likely to enjoy the event/meeting a nd make more of a contribution.People problemsPeople arriving on time means everything can run smoothly and staff will be in the right place at the right time if the staffs have more than one area to cover. And the meeting/event can go ahead as planned at the planned timeIt is also to remain calm and apologise to the people attending the event/meeting to all the above and make sure it doesn’t happen again

Candid Communication Essay

Due to the costly failed attempt to expand to the European market, and recognition of the major underlying cultural problems which resulted in the unsuccessful expansion, our team has been tasked with proposing plans for revitalizing your corporate culture. Key personnel, who could have provided advice to avert the flawed expansion strategy, did not voice their concerns or advice because such actions were not culturally encouraged. As an executive management team, you have recognized that this failure to uphold a corporate culture which values candid communication at all levels was the ultimate cause of this setback. This proposal is designed to uncover potential obstacles to creating a culture which foster candid communication, and present a plan of action to alter the corporate culture from the ground up. Question 1: The obstacles of fostering candid communication can be categorized into three areas: personal, physical and cultural. When discussing personal obstacles, the outer layers peel back to find both interpersonal and intrapersonal barriers that your organization will find in their journey to value candid communication. For example, interpersonal barriers occur between team members, such as differences in personality styles or behavioral preferences. Ignoring or not addressing these differences can lead to rivalry, competition and fear of speaking up due to retaliation or further dislike from other co-workers. Though individuals in your company may not like or be willing to work with one-another, the major obstacle is to first get them talking to address their differences. Furthermore, even if your employees hold similar behavioral or personality styles, another obstacle may be that their relationships might not be strong enough to support constructive criticism from others, indicating a lack of trust. The absence of trust is the first dysfunction of a team, according to Patrick Lencioni. â€Å"Trust is the foundation of a team† and the lack of trust is the team’s inability â€Å"to understand and open up to one another† (Lencioni, pg. 43-44). Strong, trusting relationships support providing feedback to other employees and supervisors without fear of future scrutiny. Lack of trust within a group also holds a strong influence on intrapersonal barriers to speak freely. Intrapersonal barriers are those that occur within the individual self or mind but are strongly influenced by their surroundings. For example, without the feeling of trust, employees may revert back to their safety zone by keeping quiet and holding back opinions in order to protective themselves (Lencioni, pg. 195). Likewise, other intrapersonal barriers can be as simple as the individual’s self-confidence level or working with individuals who prefer not to provide criticism for fear of rejection from the group. In addition, another obstacle is the absence of individual’s sense of belongingness to the company, one of Maslow’s steps in his Hierarchy of Needs. Belongingness comes from the company support of employees through personal development and job enrichment which play a critical role for employees to recognize that they and their opinions are valued enough to be shared. Secondly, physical barriers of separation, such as the physical distance between locations, geographic barriers like oceans or even walls between offices, can also hinder the ability to communicate openly to employees,. For example, as your company expands internationally, it will face the creation of virtual teams. Virtual teams are at a disadvantage to build trusting, strong relationships because they do not have the luxury of sitting across the table from one-another to work out disagreements. And, even if they wanted to, it would be extremely expensive for the company to fund trips back and forth across the pond. On the other hand, co-located employees may still feel that physical barriers impede their ability to share from blocked areas and closed doors providing visual cues to employees that they are either not needed or wanted. Last, as your company grows it will face both society and company built cultural barriers. Societal barriers, such as international relations and generational differences can influence the effectiveness of conducting business and building relationships in the future. For example, do the companies that we are working with international hold the same emphasis on candid dialog? Do cultural barriers or age differences enable employees to provide productive feedback or criticism without violating a social norm or without fear of creating adversarial relationships? Both examples of societal based barriers greatly influence the ability of people to feel they can share openly. Likewise, company built cultural barriers continue to obstruct straight talk if the culture does not reward such behavior and the population contains individuals who do not fit the cultural mold. For example, Nordstrom employees who are not fanatic about how amazing you Nordstrom’s is will â€Å"be ejected like a virus† (). Employees who do not see rewards for behaviors or do not agree with the cultural behaviors will not be comfortable to share candidly. Question 2: In order to combat these negative obstacles the company must first create and communicate a solid value structure, mission statement and form committees to help implement and generate ideas. The assurance that people feel valued needs to be the primary focus of the company citing the well known fact that employees are the number one customers. A credo similar to the one mentioned in Built to Last (p. 9) for Johnson & Johnson, listed open for all to see, must be presented to the employees specifically listing core values including but not limited to: welcome change, be honest/open, recognize success but not shun failure, treat everyone with respect and spend considerable amount of time nurturing culture. For maximum impact management needs to proactively practice (MBWA) by walking around displaying, encouraging and measuring the success of all these values. These values and structures need to be engrained early in the employees so that the culture will become second nature. The objective is for the employee to be culturally rooted early. This is why the processes of recruiting, hiring, socializing and training new employees is critical, similar to Nike within Built to Change â€Å"the company fostered a â€Å"just do it† identity that was reflected in its structure, the people it hired†(p. 46). Once hired, the cultural foundation has been set and injection into the company’s system will receive little resistance making it simple to promote candid communications. Disregarding early processes may allow people to slip into the company who don’t fit the cultural mold and/or they are not properly adjusted into the system. These outcasts have a possibility of being rejected from the system resulting in employee turnover or a multitude of other problems. Recruiters can ensure recruits fit into the open communication culture by various techniques of evaluation, starting at first contact, including socializing events and interview processes. Events that require potential employees to socialize with current employees at their peer level will help evaluate their compatibility within the system and the employees. Employees administering interviews are encouraged to ask more behavioral questions rather than job function related questions. This will also ensure that new candidates are on the right path to successful transplant into the company. Once hired, new employees are to be indoctrinated with the concept of free speech. In order to build relationships and foster vertical communication, all new employees regardless of position, are to attend a high level onboarding training that is done within one large room. Next they participate in a communication building scavenger hunt requiring them to find and speak to certain individuals within the organization. The new employees are then paired with existing employees in their own department for 3-6 months because it typically takes a while for employees to become situated and comfortable in their new environment. By training employees in this way you guarantee little deviation from expected culture and instill the free speech initiative, making it easier to have candid conversations. People tend to respond positively to change when they receive recognition from managers. Displaying exceptional behavior is often overlooked leading employees to believe that the attribute is not exceptional or essential to success. When establishing a system for rewarding positive behaviors, especially those that revolve around the core values and candid communication, the rewards need to be in high regard to the employee and not necessarily monetary, Microsoft shows this in Built to Change when it â€Å"employees have challenging work and, of course, one of the most highly rewarding stock plans around†¦. hereby attracted some of the country’s top software engineers and marketing geniuses†(p. 47). Equally important within the innovation process is having more time to develop new ideas shown in Built to Change 3M’s â€Å"policies and practices that give employees time to experiment, and its reward system recognizes innovative work† (p. 39). The rewards and time provided for ideas generated will bring about open communication but would be ultimately ineffective in the event that there isn’t a way to evaluate these ideas and innovations. Therefore a committee consisting of white and blue collar workers should be assembled to evaluate and investigate ideas that are submitted for validity or cost effectiveness. To instill a culture that embraces and utilizes open communication candidly the company must have a way to promote and judge the performance of the changes. A committee will be formed in order to set goals, establish who will be in charge, schedule mingling events, enrich communications and ultimately ensure that this initiative isn’t forgotten. The mingling events would serve as a tool to not only build relationships between employees, breaking down communication barriers, but to strengthen and reinforce ties to the company. Some examples of the events would include speed mentoring, company picnics, benefit fairs, blood drives and fundraising events. Next the committee would be responsible for enriching communications throughout the company by fostering goodwill, laying out company-wide changes and compiling and maintaining the medium for communication disbursement. Mediums of communication can vary from newsletters, memos, banners or blogs. In Corporate Culture and Performance, Tandem Computers practices this by displaying achievements â€Å"are regularly recognized on bulletin boards as Our Latest Greatests†(p. 16). Communication transmitted must be professional to avoid wasting time across the organization. Some additional information, including information about the CEO’s family, may be added to show that she is human and the message is genuine. The committee would also explain new product information, organizational issues that might be confusing and benefit changes that might seem to only benefit the employer. By doing this managers can build rapport to increase employee understanding of the company, products, ethics, culture, and external environment, showing that the managers are not hiding information. This builds trust and fosters open communication. In order to facilitate information sharing, the company must utilize various ways of mentoring. Level mentoring should be skipped so that employees get an opportunity to meet with someone above the direct management. Reverse mentoring will be also instilled in the company as the younger person might have some fresh ideas and new tools. Sometimes, a new set of ideas might be the solution to a lingering issue in the company. Training sessions are organized by putting the management and employees on the same teams. Likewise, large group information sessions are implemented to talk about issues related to employees with management information similar to Merck’s communication meetings that are held three times a year. These meetings will have the full support of upper management and are used to open communication, improve the flow of information among all levels of management and to provide employees with information they need to do their jobs better. There could also be an improvement in information sharing by having no doors on offices or no physical barriers between management and lower level employees. Honda and Harley Davidson have an open door policy as described in Built to Change (p. 9). The company should clearly define fair policies and procedures. This will help the employees to know what is expected of them. If employees know what the company expects, it is easier for them to be accountable for their own behavior and contribute accordingly. Clear guidelines for professional conduct will be established by the company so that co-workers treat each other with respect regardless of their position in the company. Also, a process of performance review system will be implemented to ensure the employees are promoting the company’s value structure. A 360 degree review process will be utilized by the company which will help to provide on-going feedbacks to all the employees. This will enable all the subordinates, peers and supervisors to have their input towards the company. This will also help to assess all employees on a continual basis on how they are performing to business needs as well as adapting to the values of the company. The results from these reviews can be used to make administrative decisions as well as to plan for training and development in the future. The company should also not sway from their core values no matter what, as described in Built to Change (p. 4) in the Southwest Airlines example. This will enable the employees to stay loyal and feel comfortable knowing that their jobs are stable. Finally, the company will provide proper benefits to the employees including fair pay based on individual performance, team performance and seniority so that the employees feel valued. A proper organic organization structure will be designed to empower people and allowing them to make their own decisions. This will make the employees accountable with their decisions. A flatter organization structure will be designed in order to enable employees to speak freely to higher levels of management for advice. This will also enhance the mentoring process and help to build effective relationships. After assessing the culture and gathering input, the company should identify the system, policies and procedures that must be either changed or implemented to support the new culture. The new infrastructure should address role expectations, accountability, rewards and selection systems. The company will also have defined job descriptions and encourage people to switch departments so that employees won’t feel pigeon-holed. In other words, the company will also allow mobility within the organization in order to get the most out of their employees and employees will be more flexible. The employees should also understand other roles and jobs in the company to be able to relate to them and provide input for improvements. The company will focus more on team based design that will eventually help to elevate individual performance in the company. Individuals in the company will be cross trained or conditioned in order to improve the overall performance of the whole team. Although the word â€Å"team† is heavily used in the industry today, teams often play a major role in initiating organizational change. A cross functional team design will create mutual accountability for results and joint ownerships of work products. Above all, a properly designed organic organization structure will positively impact the ability to focus, directly affects the communication channels and empowers people by giving the employees a drive to make their own decisions. Question 3: While designing and implementing an effective, company-wide communication structure is vitally important, the activities performed by leaders at all levels are paramount to sustaining an effective communication culture. Managers are the face of your company’s culture and their interactions with their direct reports will be the frontlines of the company’s culture battles. Beginning with the hiring process, managers must be mindful that they are not only assessing the potential hire’s technical skills and abilities, but also their fit within the culture. They must abide by and practice recruiting and hiring techniques that will reasonably ensure that the company is hiring candidates that will express the desired behavior and align with the culture. These techniques could include maintaining relationships with contacts at local universities and recruiting firms. If these contacts are familiar with your company and culture they could aid in providing a stream of potential new hires and would be able to â€Å"pre-screen† for cultural fit. Mangers should openly discuss the company’s culture and ask explicit questions regarding how the potential hire feels he/she will fit within the culture. This will set cultural expectations of open and candid communication with all interviewees long before any are hired. Also, managers should use behavioral type interview questions to test the candidate’s attitudes, trust and ability to speak freely. Additionally, the interviews should be conducted by employees of varying levels of the company, both managers and non-mangers, with a single manager soliciting feedback from all other interviewers regarding their assessment of the recruit. Once potential employees are deemed to be a cultural fit and are hired it is important to continue the initiation process into the culture. Managers need to immediately begin teaching new employees about the open communication culture and submerging them in it. The Container Store, for example, submits all new hires to a weeklong orientation in which they are taught the inner workings and philosophy of the company (FoE, pg. 75). Socialization techniques can be utilized to build the relationships between the new and established employees, understanding that well socialized employees are more likely to share information freely. Managers can organize gatherings of new and current employees to introduce the new hires to their co-workers. Examples would be ice cream or pizza socials in which ice-breaker type games are used to introduce and socialize new hires to their peers. Mangers can also take new hires to lunch with a small group of their fellow employees in an effort to socialize the new employee in an environment outside the workplace. An emphasis should be made at these types of gatherings to learn about the employee’s life outside of the work environment. Other practices like a mentoring or buddy system could also be utilized to engage the new employee in an open communication culture. The focus of these activities should be to build trust and a sense of value within the new hire. Employees that perceive themselves as being valued and have strong trust relationships with their direct reports and co-workers are more likely to give of themselves, that is, to invest their â€Å"heads and hearts† with your company. While recruiting and initiating new hires into the culture is vital, most of a leader’s time will be spent maintaining the open communication culture. These tasks can be broken down into activities that build relationships, empower employees and provide reviews and feedback. Mangers should spend a considerable amount of time getting to know and nurture relationships with their direct reports. Leaders should adopt a Management by Wondering Around system where managers spend time with employees getting to know what they are doing, how they are doing it, what kind of problems they are facing, and what help is required to solve the problems (Dynamic Business Strategy, info from Vick). This type of communication should be seen as an integral part of managing people, not as an additional burden to a manager’s already busy schedule. An open-door policy should be utilized so that managers are available to their employees as much as possible. Leaders should also maintain a database of employee birthdays and employment anniversaries and recognize these occasions with cards and/or gifts. Management could also hold monthly get-togethers to celebrate the birthdays, anniversaries and milestones that occurred that month. Managers should be encouraged to spend time with their direct reports outside the work environment. Informal gatherings like lunches and happy hours could be utilized to get to know direct reports on a more personal level. Managers should hold occasional casual days in which employees are allowed to wear themed casual attire like university t-shirts to kick off football season or Hawaiian shirts at the start of summer. Additionally, leaders could send out daily or weekly e-mails informing employees of what is going on around the company.