Hellenistic and Greek Essay Example for Free

Hellenistic and Greek Essay The Hellenistic world between 323 and 30 BCE represents the time of the Hellenistic civilization that was brought about by the influence of the Greek in the ancient world. This is the period between the time when Alexander the great died and when Augustus became the first emperor of the Rome. This Greek culture was adopted and had an eventual effect on the world of the Mediterranean and even beyond. This age was then preceded by the classical age which became known in the 19th century. Alexander the Great played a key role in the spread of Hellenism to the Middle East, East Asia and the African continent (Manson, 4). During his time of campaigning he conquered the Persian Empire, and other lands like Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Egypt and other parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The end of the period is when the Roman Republic conquered Greece. Part 2 The Greek architecture dealt with decorations mostly sculptures of which were the basic feature of the temple. Among the most common seen works include those of Parthenon. Apart from the temples, the Greek also built the theaters which can be seen from the ruins in the present time. The works of the Greeks represented a kind of repose, harmony and proportion to its effect which is identified by the selection of materials, their style and site, and the arrangement of the masses of stones. Most importantly, there were the distinctive Doric temples which were twice as long as they were once wide, and half as they were wide. The Greek architecture is different from that of the Egyptian culture (Manson, 2). In particular, Egyptians used to cover nearly every bit of space with ornament. The Egyptians did not make a gable to the roofs as the Greek did in order to ward off the weather. This thus shows how weather brought about new different features between the two cultures. Concisely, Apart from internal aesthetics, the outer architectural designs were controlled by the climatic conditions of the two locations.

The Struggle in Sylvia Plaths Lady Lazarus Essay -- Lady Lazarus Essa

The Struggle in Lady Lazarus  Ã‚  Ã‚      Lady Lazarus repeats the struggle between Nazi and Jew which is used in Daddy, with the Nazi atrocities a background across which the amazing, self-renewing speaker strides. The speaker orchestrates every aspect of her show, attempting to undermine the power an audience would normally have over her. She controls her body, instead of being a passive object of other eyes. The speaker orders her enemy to Peel off the napkin, telling the audience that there is a charge for her performance, but death to her is nothing but a big strip tease. Do I terrify? she asks rhetorically, she knows her effect on them. Lady Lazarus intentionally contributes to the spectacle that fetishises her; she compartmentalises herself, These are my hands, / My knees, harshly mocking the gentlemen and ladies as she reveals their morbid avidity. She is both pitying and scornful: Do not think I underestimate your great concern. Her disenfleshment at the hands of the enemy, viewed avidly by the peanut-crunching crowd, is something that she wills, just as ...

Social Capital has been described as involving egocentric, weak ties and socio-centric types of relationships

Social Capital has been described as involving egocentric, weak ties and socio-centric types of relationships. How might these concepts help to improve the way organisations generate new knowledge. Might some these concepts also act as a barrier to generating and sharing knowledge? Explain your answer. Introduction In contemporary, highly developing business environment, the success factors of many organisations have been affected with the rapid advancement in communication and ways of sharing knowledge. The knowledge economy has changed the basis of trading and doing business. Success and wealth of businesses no longer depends on their wealth of organisations but on the abilities and knowledge of their employees and the degree to which an organisation harnesses and develops those skills. The more effective the relationship between supplier and customer, the more successful an organisation is. This success depends on their abilities to operate in today's fast moving global marketplace. Defining the notion of Social Capital The notion of social capital first appeared in discussions of rural school community centers by Lyda Judson Hanifan's. Hanifan addressed the cultivation of good will, fellowship, sympathy and social intercourse among those that ‘made up a social unit.' More recently however, the work of Robert D. Putnam (1993, 2000) launched social capital as a focus for research and policy discussion. Putman defined the concept of social capital as â€Å"Features of social organisation, such as trust, norms and networks that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated action† (Putnam, 1993). This definition of social capital can be criticised for adopting a single view, and being too narrow, as it ignores the fact that social capital can generate negative externalities as well as positive. Putman assumes ‘trust, norms and networks' to have positive outcomes for an individual, or a group however fails to recognise that it can be harmful for an organisation as a whole. Michael Woolcock on the other hand defined social capital as â€Å"the norms and social relations embedded in the social structure that enable people to coordinate action to achieve desired goals† This definition not only recognises both positive and negative externalities of social capital but focuses solely on sources of social capital, rather than also including the outcomes derived from it. One of the most famous examples where social capital is commonly referred to is in Silicon Valley (San Francisco). Silicon Valley is in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. It contains many high tech businesses that are supplying the global market with many innovating technologies and silicon microchips. In Silicon Valley, there is a very high level of knowledge held within individual firms, but this would be true whether they were located in clusters or in isolation. There is also a very high level of knowledge about the firms as well. This information is differentially more available to those in the Valley and in the network. This knowledge is not just technical, it is knowledge about who is a good manager or well connected. It is embedded in the social setting, a knowledge that comes from learning and being in the place where the knowledge is being used, and having an opportunity to use it in that setting. It is about knowled ge use and production in action. Social Capital – promotes knowledge sharing and communication Many contemporary theorists who conducted studies on social capital identified two differing perspectives within the concept. These concepts are socio-centric, and ego-centric. The socio-centric approach argues that the social structure of interpersonal contacts is important for organizational success (Sandefur and Laumann, 1998). A business can benefit from a strong social structure, by allowing employee cooperation that will enable flexibility and innovation. Knowledge sharing helps employees perform their jobs more effectively, retain their jobs, and guides them in personal and career development. It also rewards them for successful achievements, and brings more personal recognition so that knowledge sharing will become more practiced. By sharing and collaborating with others an employee is more likely to succeed in providing solutions to his/hers own jobs and by helping others achieve their objectives. The philosophy of modern knowledge management exponents is that ‘intrinsic motivation' is the only real motivator of knowledge sharing. This is where an individual, group or community are sympathetic to each other's goals, those of the organisation work for collective goals-if these are best achieved through sharing then this is what happens. Intrinsic motivation is making sure that individuals feel part of the business and culture through reward and recognition. The second perspective of social capital is concerned with the relationships between individuals. Sandefur and Laumann (1998) refer to this as the egocentric approach of social networks, where â€Å"an individual's social capital is characterized by their direct relationships with others and by the other people and relationships that they can reach through those to whom they are directly tied†. From this perspective, social capital is able to explain the differences in the success of individuals and firms in a competitive environment (Adler and Kwon, 1999). A learning organisation views its future and subsequent competitive advantage based on continuous learning and adaptive behaviour. It develops a culture and processes to improve its ability to learn and share both at an individual and organisational level. The main aim is to create a flexible, agile organisation able to handle uncertainty and then hopefully organisations will use this uncertainty to generate new ways of working, to build on this success and learn by mistakes. For example: a large multinational company, British Airways (BA) identified its culture as the biggest barrier it had to learning and sharing so it set out to create an environment where this was made easy. BA developed facilities for staff to access knowledge, libraries, have meeting rooms, training rooms that enhanced its culture. Therefore the facilitation of personal contacts and network, and the enhance role of training and development being a core was British Airways success for its new culture. Social capital – barrier to knowledge sharing and communication As developed in Ronald Burt's theory (1998), the socio-centric notion can act as a barrier to generating and sharing knowledge in an organisation. The socio-centric perspective includes the concept of power benefits acquired by individuals that control structural holes. This idea shows how certain individuals within an organisation may have power over groups of employees and act as the link between them. Such individuals are said to be ‘filling a structural hole', therefore their relative contacts have no direct contact with one another. This allows such an individual to have a certain level of manipulation over knowledge sharing between the two groups and benefit from the social capital derived from them. This can be both an advantage and disadvantage to the firm. It can be an advantage to the individual in that their social capital is increased, and that it allows the two departments to communicate ideas effectively. However the filling of structural holes with one individual could also act as a barrier to generating and sharing new knowledge within the firm. Because when implemented in a firm it means that individuals in different departments do not need to communicate between each other eliminating knowledge sharing within the individuals in each department. Within an egocentric network, sharing of knowledge can be one of the most difficult problems faced by knowledge organisations. In most organisations knowledge sharing requires a change in corporate culture, from ‘information is power' to ‘knowledge sharing build power.' Many organisations decide that the most effective way to encourage individual sharing appears to be through appraisal systems where individuals are asked to assess their own knowledge-sharing behaviours and consider their colleagues view of their sharing performance. The most obvious disadvantages are: an employee may fear senior experts or a supervisor. This fear can have an impact on the way the employee conveys his/her opinions. Another disadvantage is that employees can get compromising solutions from a group of experts with conflicting opinions. This would not give the knowledge engineer an accurate view of the knowledge needed. Also, there can also be a Lack of confidentiality as employees may feel threatened by knowing that their contributions will be shared with and evaluated or validated by other domain experts. However, the results of the appraisals may affect promotion and salary but their use is part of the development culture that includes knowledge sharing as a core competence. Conclusion Social capital has been described as a non-tradable form of capital that will depreciate if not used. Social capital increases in value through use, as relationships get stronger and weak ties are increased (Klaus Nielsen, 2003). In this article we have established that social capital is a rapidly growing notion, more commonly referred to by theorists when discussing issues of economics and organisational knowledge sharing. The concept has been criticised for the diversity of its definition, measurement challenges, and over-versatility (Woolcock and Schuller, 2000). These theorists concluded that social capital can have both a positive and a negative impact on the overall success of an organisation. Positive, in the aspects that a well working network of sharing knowledge can lead to innovation, and greater efficiency of the employees working relationships. Negative in the sense that strong social capital for an individual, or a group of employees does not necessarily guarantee a benefit on a macro scale for the organisation.

Positive Organization Taps the Best Workforce on their Skills, Creativity, Talents and Ideas They Bring Free Essay Example, 1000 words

I would offer an authentic leadership; I would know the Asian cultural beliefs and values, by this I will win the trust of the Asian community. I will encourage a open door policy to increase information flow and communication. I would be a moral manager embracing ethical behavior and reasoning all the time, not acting as an after thought as Jones did. I would call for an employee meeting both the safety team and the Asian women, brainstorm on the problem, this is a proactive way of solving the issue while being reflective of the matter. I would seek an opinion of various Asian community forums and legal expert on the same to be in compliance with the law and promoting religious freedom at the same time. With knowledge of the situation, possible options available from the various responses and critical analysis of the immediate and future consequences, I will call the leaders forum and develop a work plan to incorporate a win-win situation. CEO Chris Blount should appoint Carmellita Suarez as CIO. Carmellita should be the next CIO. ReasonsBenchmarking both Pat and Carmellita we conclude the following; Pat had preconceived notions on his success in IT thinking he has more expertise than the rest, further during the interview he stated that the board should consider the position on merit of work and reputation. Carmellita had a success in working across departments, i.e. teams and suppliers and she could solve any problem arising in the section. Where as Pat had more narrow capabilities only on technical and intelligence aspect. By evaluating both candidates CEO Chris Blount, is seeking to fill the position with the candidate with the best talent and skills i leadership and managerial. We will write a custom essay sample on Positive Organization Taps the Best Workforce on their Skills, Creativity, Talents and Ideas They Bring or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The person should be able to make decisions, thus working with other stakeholders is a key factor of a leader. Carmellita works well with other people and adapts with the trends of the company. Carmellita has skills, she is responsible and she represents the company well by solving issues even with suppliers.