Charles Dickens Great Expectations Essay - 1952 Words

Although grandiose questions about life are a standard part of human maturation, many children and young adults with a stable family can answer these questions without drastically changing their lives. Those with steady influences often have authoritative guidance to navigate these uncertainties. Philip â€Å"Pip† Pirrip of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, however, is an orphan reared in a provincial and simple life. He lacks an intellectual father figure to answer these questions, so he is forced to elucidate his own solutions. The closest substitute to a father is Joe Gargery, Pip’s genuine and well-meaning brother-in-law. Pip’s lack of a father leads to uncertainty in his identity and questions regarding where his major influences should lie. In determining these influences, Pip seeks to redeem himself from Joe to higher society, but later does an about-face as he wishes to be redeemed by Joe. As a small child and an orphan in the first part of the text, Pip is an exceptionally malleable being. He has a variety of influences in his early years and is susceptible to all of them, ranging from his sister’s abusiveness and Joe’s docility to Pumblechook’s bloated ego. Although he can look to Joe as a de facto father figure, he is still aware of the simpleton side of Joe that contradicts with Joe’s paternal influences. Joe’s lack of complexity often makes it difficult for him to give insightful counsel. Pip’s ideas regarding authority figures can be summed by his musingsShow MoreRelatedGreat Expectations By Charles Dickens1113 Words   |  5 Pagesadventures that the male characters go on. This seems to be relevant in a lot of movies and books like the story Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. In Great Expectations there are multiple female characters like Estella, Biddy, and Miss Havisham who all play a large part in the main character, Pip’s life. One of the first that we meet the character Estella in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations is when Pip goes to Miss Havisham’s to play with her. The two kids play the game beggar my neighbor when EstellaRead MoreGreat Expectations By Charles Dickens1347 Words   |  6 Pagespoor status of the economy, social mobility does not seem to be occurring at high rates, with the poor getting poorer and rich getting richer. Despite this, social mobility is alive and well, and has been for centuries. In his novel, Great Expectations, Charles Dickens voices the concerns of many that lived in Victorian England during the 19th century by promoting such a desire to live life in a more prosperous social class. One of the most fundamental and reoccurring themes in the novel is that ofRead MoreGreat Expectations By Charles Dickens1426 Words   |  6 Pages Twelve-year-old Charles dickens gets ready for bed after a long day at the blacking house. These Victorian-aged memories will provide him with many ideas for his highly acclaimed novel Great Expectations. Set in 1830 England, Great Expectations is a coming-of-age story about a common innocent boy named Pip and his road to becoming a gentleman through the influence of others. Pip is influenced both positively and negatively by Estella, Herbert, and Magwitch. Estella left a huge impression on PipRead MoreGreat Expectations by Charles Dickens984 Words   |  4 PagesCharles Dickens utilizes his life for inspiration for the protagonist Pip in his novel Great Expectations. They both struggle with their social standing. Dickens loved plays and theatre and therefore incorporated them into Pip’s life. Dickens died happy in the middle class and Pip died happy in the middle class. The connection Dickens makes with his life to Pip’s life is undeniable. If readers understand Dickens and his upbringing then readers can understand how and why he created Pip’s upbringingRead MoreCharles Dickens Great Expectations943 Words   |  4 Pages This is true in many cases but none as much as in Great Expectations. In many ways the narrator/protagonist Pip is Charles Dickens in body and mind. While there are many differences between the story and Charles Dickens life there remains one constant. This constant is the way Pip as the narra tor feels, because these feelings are Dickens s own feelings about the life he lead. Since Great Expectations was written towards end of Charles Dickens life, he was wiser and able to make out the mistakesRead MoreGreat Expectations By Charles Dickens1375 Words   |  6 PagesGreat Expectations by Charles Dickens and The Talented Mr Ripley by Anthony Minghella present similar criticisms of society to a large extent. Both of these texts consider the criticisms of rich social contexts (wealth and status), societal morality (whether a society is good or not. Status [can lead to the wrong people being in a high position i.e. making bad decisions affecting the community/society] Appearance [society appears to be moral/good (if you’re from a higher status) {dickens criticisesRead MoreCharles Dickens Great Expectations1223 Words   |  5 PagesBeloved author Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England. Growing up in a life of poverty, his childhood hardshi ps provided the inspiration to write a myriad of classic novels including his 1861 seminole masterpiece, Great Expectations (â€Å"BBC History - Charles Dickens†). Great Expectations follows the life of an orphan named Pip, who’s perspective of the world is altered when he is attacked by an escaped convict in his parents’ graveyard in the town of Kent. Throughout hisRead MoreGreat Expectations By Charles Dickens924 Words   |  4 Pagesa character driven novel, or a mix of the two. In order for a novel to be character driven, it must revolve more around the characters’ individual thoughts, feelings, and inner struggles, rather than around the quest of the story. Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, is a character driven novel. While the story does have a plot, it is not contingent upon that plot, but rather is reliant upon its characters and their natures. This is evident from the beginning of the novel. From the opening ofRead MoreCharles Dickens Great Expectations1669 Words   |  7 PagesCharles Dickens He was one of England s greatest authors of the 1800 s, better known as the Victorian era. The various themes and ideas of that time are perfectly showcased in his many novels and short stories, such as Nicholas Nickelby, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Christmas Carol. Much of the inspiration for these works came from the trials and conflicts that he dealt with in his own life. His volumes of fictional writing show the greatRead MoreCharles Dickens Great Expectations1017 Words   |  5 Pagesexperiencer is somewhere else absorbing knowledge of a different setting.This abstract adventure is seized by author Charles Dickens in Great Expectations. Great Expectations is historical fiction giving readers comprehension of the Victorian Era.Upon the reading, readers begin to catch on the intended purpose and its significance. A person who lived during the Victorian Era was Charles Dickens himself.He grew up during a time where differences in social class were to an extreme degree.Dickens went through

21St Century Agriculture Free Essays

Todays agricultural community is embracing many new technologies. Innovative researchers have developed new ways to increase yields ranging from the global positioning of satellites to strip till. Strip till is a process of tilling small strips of soil while leaving the strip in between each row untilled to remain rich in organic matter. We will write a custom essay sample on 21St Century Agriculture or any similar topic only for you Order Now The benefits of strip till versus conventional till make it a practical way of increasing farm efficiency. Strip till first began in as a way for large farms to cover more acreage more efficiently in order to save time fuel and labor. The process begins a full growing season in advance with another crop. Once this crop is harvested, the stalks and other debris are mowed to the ground leaving the ground covered in organic matter; this crop is termed the cover crop. Once all equipment preparations are made the next growing season is started. A pass is made through the field with a minimum tillage implement. This implement plows up twelve-inch wide strips and then conditions them. Then the crop is planted and herbicide is applied. Throughout the growing season the crop is sprayed using a specialized hood sprayer, which protects the crop from the herbicide, to control weeds. This is a vast difference in conventional methods, which utilizes several passes to plow and condition the soil while also using herbicides. Environmentalists would have one believe that herbicide applications are detrimental to our ecosystems. However, with proper handling, our ecosystems are better protected from hazardous runoff when strip till practices are utilized. Conventional methods spray herbicide directly onto the ground where they can be washed away by rain or irrigation. Strip till methods spray herbicides onto the organic matter left behind from the cover crop where it can be absorbed into the plant. The method of spraying directly onto the desired area is called banding. The environmental concerns make strip till a more sound way of controlling unwanted organisms. Erosion and soil compaction are other environmental concerns which strip till alleviates. Wind erosion is made less possible because the ground is left with debris and root masses which holds water and do not allow the water to wash away soil particles. Soil compaction is also less of a problem because less passes with large tractors are needed to produce a crop. The greatest benefit to the farmer is cost reduction. Less fuel and less labor being required per acre generate more profit. In an era when commodity prices are at an all time low, generating a profit is of utmost importance. Through less equipment cost and maintenance, strip till allows farmers to produce a crop with less capital investments. The popularity of strip till practices grow each year as farmers find ways of incorporating it into their specific operations needs. Conventional till has been used for many centuries but this practice only stirs up a dust in that weed seed are plowed a way into a dormant stage only to be plowed up to germinate. Utilization of new agricultural technologies, such as strip till, allows producers to go into the 21st century with tools that will enable them to provide agricultural products to sustain the world. How to cite 21St Century Agriculture, Essay examples

Analysing Organisation Creative Technology LTD - Free Sample

Question: Organisational analysis is the process of understanding how a business operates and the ways in which the employees contend with change. According to Ferreira Dominquez (2010), an organisation is social arrangements for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective goals? Answer: Introduction As opined by Dugdale Lyne (2010), organisational analysis is the process of understanding how a business operates and the ways in which the employees contend with change. According to Ferreira Dominquez (2010), an organisation is social arrangements for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective goals. Organisations are set up in a set up with a view of achieving different goals and the structure of a particular organisation are made according to those goals. Any organisation small or big can achieve their target or can increase their profitability if they have a proper structure that meets up the need of the customers they serve (Green, 2015). In this report the learner has divided the structure of the report into 6 parts. The first step of the division is of Paradigmatic Perspectives and the company that will be taken will be discussed properly. The third part will deal with the methodology. The Then in the next part some proper theories will be provided by the author that will help to describe the process and all this theories will play a major role in enhancing the quality of the research. In the last part the most important thing will be discusses the organisation analysis which will show the organisation structure and the culture. Then there will be a conclusion and recommendations. Paradigmatic Perspectives: the selected Paradigm As opined by Dutton (2013), paradigm is a broad framework of perception, understanding, belief within which theories and practices operate. To analyse an organisation it is very important as it is a framework of thought or beliefs through which ones world or reality is interpreted. In this case Morgans sociological paradigm can be applied. According to Bardhan Weaver (2011), these four paradigms as being defined by very basic meta-theoretical assumptions which underwrite the frame of reference of the social theorists who operate within them and it is a term intended to emphasize the commonality of perspective which blinds the work of a group of theorists together in such a way that they can usefully regarded as approaching social theory within the bounds of the same problematic. As stated by Green (2015), each theory can be related to one of the four broad world views. Sociology of regulation provides explanation of society based on the assumption of its unity and cohesiveness (Dugdale Lyne, 2010). As stated by Macionis Gerber (2014), sociology of radical change provides explanation of society based on the assumption of its cultural conflict modes of domination and structural contradiction. Figure 1: The Four Paradigms (Source: Macionis Gerber, 2014, p.45) Out of the above mentioned paradigms the researcher will choose the Paradigm of Functionalist. According to McLennan (2013), it is chosen by the researcher because it has been the primary paradigm for organisational stud and this paradigm assumes national human action and believes one can understand organisational behaviour through hypothesis testing. This paradigm is taken by the researcher as it will help to know the adaption to the natural, physical and material world. It also helps in goal attainment deciding on the key issues and it will help in maintaining a balance of social control. Company background Creative Technology LTD is a Singapore based global company. It was founded in the year 1981 and belongs to the consumer electronics industry. Its journey from a simple computer repair shop to one of the popular electronic manufacturer is very inspiring. They have successfully expanded their business in UK and US. Their main products are Sound Blaster, Portable Media Devices, Video Cameras, Live Cam Series Web Cameras and other products. Their Live camera operations have got huge response from the world and they have various other sub ends under their umbrella. Sim Wong Hoo who is the current CEO of the company has played a major role in creating the company and taking it to the level in where it is right now. They have around 1200 employees they successfully generate revenue of 280 million dollars every year (Creative.com, 2015). Their main products are Sound blaster, Gaming Headsets, speakers and Headphones. Their customer service is also excellent. With all these factors the compa ny has successfully created its own mark in the electronic consumer industry. According to McLennan (2013), they are responsible for taking the PC sound level to the next level. Their innovative strategies have made them one of the coolest companies in the gadget industry. Methodology of the analysis The researcher has taken the functionalist paradigm used by the researcher. The purpose of selecting this approach is because it emphasizes comparability among individuals but sees people as unique in their combination of traits (Mitka, 2013). It will help to see traits as having the same psychological meaning to everyone (Green, 2015). Hypothesis testing and scientific methods are the only two factors on which this methodology relies. Literature Review of the report As per the functionalist paradigm the literature review will discuss various theories related to the organisation culture. As opined by Mohanty Rath (2013), organisational culture is the totality of beliefs, customs, traditions and values shared by the members of the organisations. It is very important to consider value while managing change in the organisation. It can be both as input and output. There are some specific characteristics of each organisations culture. According to Paolo (2012), some of those key characteristics are Innovation and risk taking, Attention to detail, outcome orientation, people orientation, Team orientation, aggressiveness and stability. Functions of Cultures: According to Seo (2011), it has a boundary defining role which creates distinctions between one organisation and others. It conveys a sense of identity for organisation members. As stated by Prowse, Mueller Soper (2011), culture also facilitates the generation of commitment to something larger than ones individual self-interest. An organisational culture also enhances the stability of the social system by providing appropriate standards for what employees should say and do and culture also serves as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behaviours of employees (Mitka, 2013). According to McLennan (2013), every organisation has a unique culture and all the culture is effected by various external environment like Legislation, Politics, Technology, education, society, marketplace, competitors, consumers and economy. Creating a sustainable organisational culture is not so easy. As opined by Paolo (2012), culture creation occurs in three ways and those are, hiring and keeping employees who have a same thinking, the organisation has to indoctrinate and socialize the employees with the organisations thinking and the founders behaviour also plays an effective role in creating a successful organisation culture as their behaviour acts as a role model for the employees. If the organisation becomes successful then the personality of the founder is embedded in the organisational culture. Sustaining organisational culture is also not easy. There are three forces the plays an important role in sustaining a culture. The three forces are selection of proper practices tha t can help the organisation to gain competitive advantage in the market; the top management has to play a very important role because it depends completely on them which actions they will take and the socialization methods. According to Mohanty Rath (2013), selection practices also have some points like identifying and hiring individuals who have relevant knowledge about the industry in which they will operate. The selected individuals must have proper skills and ability to perform successfully the job given to him, it should be also seen that the selected individual must work according to the goals and objective of the company. As opined by Paulin (2015), individuals having values consistent with those of the organisation are selected as per the decision makers judgements. Selection becomes a two way street as it provides information about the organisation to the applicants. According to Macionis Gerber (2014), the actions of top management establishes the norms for the organisation as to whether risk taking is desirable, how much freedom managers should give to their subordinates and what actions will pay off in terms of pay rises, promotions and other rewards. As stated by McLennan (2013), the process through which the employees are proselytized about the customs and traditions of the organisation is known as socialization. It is assumed that the employees selected in an organisations if dont associates with the culture of the organisation then there is a chance that employee will disturb other employees. So there are basically three stages of socialization. These are pre-arrival where the employees are given a proper description about the work that he is going to do while working in the organisation, Encounter where the employee actually gets to see the organisation and sometimes by seeing the organisations their thinking gets diverted as somewhere the customer might have through of something else which is different from the reality. The third stage of socialization is metamorphosis where the generally the long lasting changes takes place, here the employee actually gets acquired with the different skills that are required to execute the given jobs successfully. Now the study will deal with the organisational structure. According to Dugdale Lyne (2010), a way to organise employees into some kind of structure to meet goals, minimizes confusion, coordinates activities by clearly identifying which individuals are responsible for which tasks. Without an appropriate organisational structure a business will never succeed. There are basically four types of structures Line Structure, Line and Staff structure, Matrix Structure and Team Structure (Paolo, 2012). According to Alavi et al. (2014), authority originates at the top and moves downwards. In the top it includes the CEO of the company, then in the next step comes the senior managers comes the mid level managers and in the end comes the non-management employees. This structure is common to almost all small companies. According to McLennan (2013), this structure contributes directly to company profits. Then comes the matrix structure where employees from different departments get opportunity to work together in a particular project. As stated by Anthopoulos Sirakoulis (2015), this structure has become very important as structure in the current marketing scenario because the company having this structure determines that how flexible they are as they have the capability to respond to the customer needs as quickly as possible. Another important structure is the team structure according to which different people with different skills in order to meet a particular objective. According to Alavi et al. (2014), it is believed that the company will meet customer needs more effectively than traditional structures. This structure has one special facility and that is teams have the power to make final decisions and employees preferred due to its focus on completing a project rather than a task (A, 2013). As stated by Paolo (2012), there are two types of structures Flat structure and Tall structure. The advantages of Flat structure are that the employee gets great job satisfaction and as the number of levels is small so the communication between each level of managements becomes easy. On the other hand Tall structure has many level of management and the power is centralised on the top levels and the management has greater control over the employees. The advantage of this structure is that as it has greater control over the employees so the managers are able to keep an account of each employees performance as a result of which there is always a better performance of the employees (A, 2013). According to Mohanty Rath (2013), an organisation becomes effective when they successfully know their customers and accordingly give proper response to the needs of the customers. To become successful in any business companies must change to keep up with customer needs. As stated by Mohanty Rath ( 2013), there are various factors that affect the organisational structure. The size of the business and the kind of products and services it produces are two of the most important factors that effects a companys business. According to Macionis Gerber (2014), as a company grows its organisational structure must change with it. Now a company can grow through different stages like growth through creativity, growth through direction and growth through delegation, coordination and collaboration. Like this way both company culture and structure helps a company to grow. All the managers of a company need to understand the nature and role of the structure and culture of a company. Company culture and structure also impacts day to day decision making of the organisation. Analysis of the organisation Creative Technology As per the given topic creative technology is a Singapore based consumer electronic company established in the year 1981 and currently it has expanded to UK and US and doing outstanding business. The organisational structure of the company Creative technology can be a biggest example of the effectiveness of the organisational structure. The changing nature of organisational structure of the company can be divided into three stages. Stage 1: As stated by Dutton (2013), when creative was young it depended heavily on technical geniuses who had a brilliant idea of user friendly digital entertainment products. That time they had a vision that multimedia has a huge future scope as the rate of using computers was increasing in a huge number. Then they turned this idea into a multimillion dollar company by introducing Sound Blaster sound cards which is said to be the pioneer of multimedia revolution. Stage 2: According to Dugdale Lyne (2010) when creative grew more it hired managers with excellent managerial skill. He then took the creative journey to the next level by introducing PC box and walkman. The idea was so innovative that it revolutionised the digital media and since then Creative has become a strong brand name and has a user base of 400 million and has a created a market of their own of PDE or Personal Digital Entertainment. Stage 3: Now creative has expanded its business worldwide and are considered as the worldwide leader in the digital entertainment products. They successfully launched their new set of headsets for play station 3, Mac and PC that makes the entire digital entertainment experience quite different. Figure 2: Organisational Structure of Creative Technology LTD (Source: Mohanty Rath, 2013, p.33) According to Green (2015), the company has a flat structure. It has less departments and this is the reason they have only 1000 employees. There are 4 main department Marketing department who has an Advertising manager under which some hugely creative people work, then there is a strong technical department which has one head of the department under which some experienced and skill full engineers works. Then there is one Account department and one production department. Their structure is flat and that is the reason there is always a communication between every department and the employees working there also gets huge job satisfaction. This structure also throws light on the culture of the company. As stated by Green (2015), the company has a strong digital culture. It can be seen that the company dont have large number of employees but still it is successful in generating huge revenue. The reason is that they select only those employees who has huge knowledge about the digital entertainment and who himself is technologically advanced. Creative Technology relentlessly focuses on customer experience that they gather while using their creative products. In creative everyone is technically sound even the marketing manager who has no background of engineering understands the aims and objectives very clearly. They have a strong PR team as well who is responsible for the public relations with their customers. They have expanded their business into live performances or live feedback also. Their special webcam can cover huge concerts easily. They themselves have a strong group of employees who does this live recording (Creative.com, 2015). Conclusion The study begins with a brief introduction of organisation structure and culture. Then the study chooses a paradigm which the paradigm of functionalist. As functionalist is the most suitable paradigm of sociology in analysing an organisation. Then the company overview is given for the selected company Creative Technology which is followed by a strong and detailed literature review that throws light on the organisation culture and organisation structure. In the literature review it has been seen that organisational culture have different types so as the organisation structure and it varies from company to company and from industry to industry. The culture and structure depends on the industry it belongs to and the product it sells. Then the report throws light on the organisational analysis of the case study company Creative Technology and there it the actual company structure and culture is shown which is very digital culture. Recommendations After dealing with the entire report there are some recommendations which can be useful for the case study company as well as other companies if they want to have one effective organisational culture. As we already know that a company is not formed with one person it takes more than one head to run a business. So the first job of the top management is to select only those people who have actual idea of the job. The person who is going to be recruited must belong to the background which is the relevant background of the company itself. Company structure should be made as per the vision and mission of the company. If the company is small then Line structure can be effective. Still it will be better that within that structure only there should be a scope for learning or communication between all the departments and employees. In the modern era it is better to have matrix structures which promote team work. The culture of an organisation should be knowledge sharing culture. So that if an y employee struggles to understand anything then other members must come and help that employee out by doing this there will be always an healthy environment in the company and as it will definitely increase the profitability of the company. Reference List Books A, M. (2013). Organisational Behaviour. London: Global Professional Publishing Ltd. Bardhan, N., Weaver, C. (2011). Public relations in global cultural contexts. New York: Routledge. Dugdale, D., Lyne, S. (2010). Budgeting practice and organisational structure. Oxford: CIMA Pub. Macionis, J., Gerber, L. (2014). Sociology. Toronto: Pearson Canada. McLennan, R. (2013). Cases in organisational behaviour. 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International Journal Of Business Performance Management, 14(3), 245. doi:10.1504/ijbpm.2013.054914 Paolo, S. (2012). The Digital Glocalization of Entertainment. Dordrecht: Springer. Paulin, A. (2015). Twenty Years After the Hype:. International Journal Of Public Administration In The Digital Age, 2(2), 1-21. doi:10.4018/ijpada.2015040101 Seo, M. (2011). Critical Reflection on Teaching in Modern Paradigm. Jeri, 13(2), 271. doi:10.15564/jeri.2011.11.13.2.271 Websites Creative.com,. (2015). About Creative. Retrieved 21 January 2015, from https://www.creative.com/corporate/about/