Organizational Theory Essay

1. Develop your understanding of the nature of the key organisation perspectives and their related theories; 2. Demonstrate an understanding of the key perspectives and the meta-theoretical assumptions that underpin each; 3. Demonstrate an appreciation of the relationship between perspectives and their respective theories; 4. Develop research skills and the ability to assess the strengths and weaknesses of various debates and arguments; 5. Gain skills in the written presentation of an argument, including the ways in which scholars incorporate and acknowledge the ideas of other writers. Criteria for assessment For this assignment your essay will be assessed on the extent to which it demonstrates: 1. Your ability to present a clear, compelling, well-presented and properly referenced argument. 2. Your ability to respond directly to the key issues raised by the question. 3. Your ability to engage with the work of other authors and extract relevant detail and explanation. 4. Your ability to assess the arguments and debates of and between other authors and incorporate them into your response. QUESTION: What are the advantages and disadvantages of a multi-perspective approach to understanding organisations? In answering the question you will need to engage with the nature of the various perspectives and how they enable and limit our understanding of organisations. In answering the essay question you must focus explicitly on the key issues identified in the question. A failure to follow this and the following instructions will result in a significant loss of marks. Presenting your answer: Please use headings with care. It is better to avoid using them in an essay but if you must, please keep them to a minimum and ensure that they enhance rather than undermine your argument. In order to construct a logical response to the question the following structure is suggested. You do not need to use the provided headings (see above comment regarding ‘headings’) and the structure itself is not mandatory. But, if you are going to use an alternative structure please ensure that it enables you to present a clear and direct response to the question asked. In answering the essay question you must focus explicitly on the key issues identified in the question. Introduction: In this section you must provide an overview of your answer to the question; provide answers to the key what and why questions of your argument/answer. These should take the form of direct responses to the key issues raised by the question. Your argument should be informed by a critical analysis of the content of the key readings. Please keep in mind that in all sections of your response you must move past description to analysis, this means providing answers to the why questions that emerge from your key statements. Exploration of your argument: In this section of the essay you need to accomplish two tasks. First, you must explore the key perspectives showing how each is underpinned by different assumptions that determine the way organisations are interpreted and understood. You must also address the theoretical implications of these various ways of seeing and how they enable and limit our understanding of organisations. Second, having demonstrated an understanding of the perspectives and their theoretical implications you need to evaluate the different arguments for and against a multi-perspective approach to understanding organisations. This evaluation must draw on and relate to your discussion about the individual perspectives and how they enable and limit our understanding of organisations. The whole response must be informed by an engagement with relevant sources, especially the textbook and the readings provided on the Blackboard. You must draw upon and evaluate academic debates and arguments. This is not to be viewed as an exercise in which you make up a response off-the-top-of-your-head. Conclusion: You must conclude with your general answer to the question. It should reiterate the key argument and answer to the question provided in the introduction and indicate to what extent it has been supported or challenged by your analysis of the debates and arguments of other authors. ADDITIONAL GUIDENCE: – This essay question has been designed to encourage you to prepare your own individual essay. There is no single ‘right’ answer. Markers will be looking for evidence that you have read broadly, including the provided material, and have synthesised the material to develop your own answer/ argument. The markers will also expect you to answer the question in your own words. The following points are to help you to understand and complete your assignment: 1. The question asks you to compare and contrast perspectives with regards to how they enable and constrain our understanding of organisations. The focus for this comparison is on the perspectives’ meta-theoretical assumptions and how these shape their respective theories. This part of the essay allows you to demonstrate your understanding of the course material covered in weeks 1-4. 2. Do not try to cover every single detail; you only have 2000 words so concentrate on the major points rather than fine details. 3. The focus in this essay is on analysis rather than description. Any description of your chosen perspectives must form part of your analysis and must contribute to the argument that you are making in your essay. This means answering why questions and providing supporting evidence. 4. This is not an essay asking you to consider management practices or styles of management. It is asking you to focus on ‘ways of seeing’ and thinking about organisations (different perspectives) and ways of understanding and theorising about organisations. Think of yourself as a researcher (rather than manager) of an organisation and you have a range of devices you can use to study organisations. Each device provides you with the ability to learn something different about the organisation. Your job is to explain how each of the devices provides you with different ways of understanding organisations. Do not use actual organisations as examples because it is the theory that you are seeking to demonstrate an understanding of. 5. You must use the sources provided to develop your answer. They have been selected because they provide the essential material required to answer the question. You will lose marks if you fail to use them. 6. Before you begin to look for additional reading you should first acquire a good understanding of the basics from the textbook and the required readings. Once you acquire this understanding you can then look for other material. 7. You can make use of the Web sources but they need to be reliable sources- Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information. We encourage you to make use of journal articles which can be found via a range of library databases. I suggest you use Expanded Academic ASAP (Gale) database which is located through the Databases section of the library website because it allows you to search a range of journals using keywords. Some of the keywords you should consider are: organisational culture, power in organisations, organisational change, organisations and modernism, organisations and symbolic interpretivism, organisations and postmodernism, etc. You will find an enormous amount of relevant literature. You can also do author searches which can be helpful to locate recent articles by scholars mentioned in the textbook. We also encourage you to make use of the references and further reading suggested by the textbook at the end of each chapter. ‘Citation Linker’ found through the library website is a useful tool to locate some of the journal articles mentioned in the textbook. There is a lot of information out there regarding the topic. 8. Students are NOT allowed to use lecture notes as reference materials. 9. You should look at the assessment sheet found in the course guide. It will give you a feel for the sorts of things we will be assessing. 10. You should also look at the other part of the course guide which outlines the differences between the grades -i.e. what separates a ‘P’ from a ‘C’. A key point to remember in answering the questions is not to be overly descriptive. In answering the question you will need to develop an argument. An argument requires ‘expressing a point of view on a subject and supporting it with evidence’ (see http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/argument.html) The basic components of an argument include: * Making a claim (informed by relevant organisational theories) * Supporting your claim with evidence

Comparison between Amazon.com and Borders Books Essay

Comparison between Amazon.com and Borders Books - Essay Example Another concern of the present study is the Borders Books that represents a bookstore publicly held spreading its business through a large number of stores and encountering different stages of business. Thus the current study focuses on the two different companies- Amazon.com and Borders Books- and conducts a learning on their histories, business approaches, management and marketing and how they have gone through their successes and failures and thus try to recommend some policies that might enable the companies to have better marketing conditions. History of Amazon.com and Borders Books: The Amazon.com Company was started in the year 1994 by Jeff Bezos. The origin of the company was in Washington. Bezos’ idea regarding the business was appreciated and investments were supported by Nick Hanauer who was a businessman by profession. Then the company had plans to go online and spread its business. Initially the business was not as shining as it is known to be in the present times . In the early times of its initiation, the website was not very attractively designed and hence lacked the attention of the customers. By the year 1995, a person named Tom Alburg helped the company through further investments and thus the website was designed newly which then started attracting customers. Gradually the company introduced several products and within a short span of time, the company gained huge success as well as profits (The History of Amazon.com, 2011). The history of Borders Books reflects the contribution of several stores of books that include the Borders, Waldenbooks and Brentano's. The Borders Bookstores were started by two brothers, Tom Borders and Louis Borders, in the year 1971. Initially the store was opened in Ann Arbor. Later stores were also opened in Michigan, Atlanta and Indianapolis. Their books were also sold through other booksellers. The first superstore of the company was established in the year 1985. By the year 1988, the Borders bookstores, wh ich later went online, proved to be huge success and delivered efficiently (Peterson, 2012). Business Approach, Management and Marketing of Amazon.com and Borders Books: As far as the business approaches of the two companies are concerned, it has been observed that the Amazon.com and Borders Books both had its focus on the increasing sales and the satisfaction of the customers. While Amazon.com has been found to initially struggle and later on efficiently managed success till the present times, the Borders Books have been found to initially achieve success but later the company failed to maintain its position in the market and lost to bankruptcy. It has been found that the concept of internet marketing was much more effectively understood and utilized by Amazon.com rather than by Borders Books (Volcanic, 2009). Amazon.com had its focus on the customers’ preferences and the manner in which there website could be more attractive to them. Thus initially when the company had rece ived financial assistance it focused on the design of the website that resultantly gained more customers for the company. The company was so concerned with the customers’ satisfaction that they even introduced systems to receive feedback from the customers, thus giving the customers the feeling of being significant. When the company encountered severe losses in 2001, it initiated

Cover and Thank You letter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cover and Thank You letter - Essay Example In this case, I am able to think out through problems clearly and in a systematic manner while maintaining flexibility in challenging situations which will enable me bring energy and commitment to excellence that is indispensable to succeed in Marathon Oil Corporation’s innovative environment. Despite my lack of hands-on experience in a work environment, I have developed technical skills and the ability to present details to a large environment required in the business environment. In order to attain the objective of working in a challenging and interesting environment, I am requesting for consideration in the aforementioned position in your company. I became interested in an intern’s position at Marathon Oil after researching different companies that could offer me a challenge. As a leader in the industry, there is no any other place that can help me meet my objectives other than your company. I know this position will enable me identify my strengths and address any weaknesses in order to equip me with expertise for the job market. Thank you for the opportunity to interview with you on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at your company headquarters. The position of intern in your information technology department is an outstanding opportunity I feel exceptionally qualified. I am beholden by the information and time you shared with me during the interview. Indeed, the time spent with you makes me yearn for this position more than when I was applying for the position. As we discussed, my financial and information technology background will give me a foothold to meet my objectives and those of the company while working with my workmates. Not only am I able to discuss the requirements in your workplace, but I also do understand the expectations of this position in the competitive global business

Robert Altman ; The Director, and a close analysis of The GingerBread Essay

Robert Altman ; The Director, and a close analysis of The GingerBread Man - Essay Example Serving as a B-24 copilot in the United States Air Force, Altman took the next baby steps toward his future career when he began writing short stories and screenplay drafts at the age of 20 (â€Å"Robert Altman†, 2005). As soon as he was discharged from the military at the end of the World War II, Altman made a bid for his Hollywood dreams by following the path of many who had gone before him and trying to become an actor. He even landed a spot as an extra in â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,† then wrote an unaccredited screenplay for United Artists’ â€Å"Christmas Eve† and sold a script he co-wrote with Richard Fleischer to RKO for the 1948 version of â€Å"The Bodyguard† (â€Å"Robert Altman†, 2005). Despite this early promise, Altman eventually went bankrupt in Hollywood and was forced to return home to Kansas City, but he hadn’t given up on his dreams. He began working for the Calvin Company and was given the opportunity to direct his first film, although it was a short one and meant for industrial purposes. Through the Calvin Company, Altman learned valuable filmmaking lessons such as how to shoot rapidly, stay on schedule, work within the confines of both big and low budgets, how to use the camera, the boom mike, the lights, and more technical aspects of the art (â€Å"Robert Altman†, 2005). His first feature film came in the form of a teenage gang drama entitled â€Å"The Delinquents† filmed in Kansas City, edited in Hollywood and sold to United Artists. With this film, Altman was able to catch the eye of Alfred Hitchcock, for whom he began directing a series of television shows. Altman worked in the television arena until 1964, working on shows such as â€Å"Bonanza,† â€Å"The Millionaire† and the â€Å"Kraft Suspense Theatre.† One of the shows he directed for the latter was expanded into a feature length movie and helped pave the way for Altman to break into that genre.

Green Technology Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Green Technology - Research Paper Example With the rapidly decreasing natural resources replete, people are concerned if one Earth would be sufficient to meet the needs of humans in the near future. There is obviously no choice as this Earth is all we have to manage our resources in. Therefore, people all over the world are being encouraged to live green. Living green means adopting all ways and means in everyday life that would make minimum use of the natural resources and would be environment friendly. In order to facilitate people, the contemporary research and development is largely directed at developing green technology. â€Å"The field of "green technology" encompasses a continuously evolving group of methods and materials, from techniques for generating energy to non-toxic cleaning products† (Green Technology, 2010). This paper aims at discussing some of the most significant elements of green technology. Renewable energy sources Renewable energy is a kind of energy which is retrieved from such natural sources as geothermal heat, sunlight, wind, rain, and tides. Most of the times, projects of renewable energy are executed on a grand scale but renewable energy is equally usable in rural and backward areas. Kenya, a small country that has the largest rate of solar ownership for residential communities in the whole world sells as many as 30,000 units of solar power that have a capacity between 20 and 100 watts per annum (Renewable Solar Energy, 2011). Although some technologies that produce renewable energy are deemed unreliable, yet the growth in the market of renewable energy is steady. There are several forms of renewable energy that include but are not limited to wind power. Wind has been employed as a source of energy for a long period of time. Chinese have been making use of wind for watering their crops almost for over 4000 years. Sailors have also used wind to make journeys. Wind energy can be captured w ith the help of a tower that has a big propeller top that stands at considerable height from the sea level. The propeller’s circular motion because of wind generates electricity. Magnitude of electricity produced can be increased manifolds by building several towers and using them simultaneously. Open fields, coastal regions, hill tops and any areas with frequent and large air currents are the most appropriate areas for the construction of wind turbines. Electric vehicles Electric vehicles or electric cars do not use gasoline engines unlike the regular cars. A controller provides the electric motor with the energy for regulating the power according to the way driver manipulates the accelerator pedal. The batteries of electric vehicles are rechargeable. Common domestic electricity available in the houses can be used to charge these batteries. Electric motors are employed to drive electric vehicles. Rechargeable battery packs are used to run the electric motors. Electric motors offer considerable benefits in comparison to the internal combustion engines (ICEs). To power the wheels, as much as 75 per cent of the chemical energy stored in the batteries is converted by the electric motors. This percentage of conversion of chemical energy into gasoline is reduced to 20 when internal combustion engines (ICEs) are employed as converters instead of electric motors. Electric vehicles are friendly to the environment in that they do not emit any pollutants from the tailpipe, though some pollutants may be emitted from the power plant that generates the electricity. No air pollution whatsoever is produced by the electricity generated from the wind powered plants, hydro powered plants, solar powered plants and nuclear powered plants. The operation of

Analysis of the song LONELY by NANA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis of the song LONELY by NANA - Essay Example However, notwithstanding the fact that there is a greater correlation between science and the precursors of loneliness, much can be said about loneliness being relative to how one person views of life according to certain situations normally occurring to a particular stage in life. This is common in the show business industry, where we hear stories about people feeling lonely and being hooked to drugs as a means to overcome or forget about their personal issues. They become dependent to the means that makes them forget about the reasons why they become lonely. Whether this is by means of constructive measures which in effect keep them from thinking about how lonely they are through busy schedules and several projects or through destructive means, like drug addiction, in a way does not actually address the main issue but rather avoid it. This paper will illustrate the means of how artist sometimes resort to incongruent means to address their dilemmas. The artifact that is chosen for a pentadic criticism is entitled lonely, a song written by Nana. In this song, it describes the drama of human emotions which according to Kenneth Burke, the critical technique called dramatism is founded by motives of human action whether in fiction or real life experience (Burke. 1969). He furthered that we may be able to find out the motives of the actors by for the "particular type of motivation in action and discourse" (Ibid). Thus under this artifact, the act is the loneliness which defines the vulnerability to drug addiction in the music industry, the scene is the life and career of an artist that is so vulnerable to such dilemma, the agency is the resort of drug addiction and dependence in order for the person to avoid loneliness which in turn causes the agent to give in to the vulnerability making him do deterrent things that he will regret in the end, the agent is the actors/singer in the show business industry who becomes the victim of vuln erability, and the finally the purpose is to depict the negative consequence of allowing vulnerability to rule above logic, it is also a cry for help, understanding and desperation that is conveyed through the art of music. It is also a warning for others to avoid. There have been many others in the music business who dies because of drug overdose, to name a few is quiet unfair, what is important to point is the fact that these many others have been at one point in their life become vulnerable to loneliness and have found the incongruent notion of the ease and comfort that drugs can give. Little did they realize that the more they resort to such as an aid, the more it will become difficult for them to detach from their addiction. Drugs can be another precursor of loneliness, even if the agent does not employ the use of such for personal consumption, like for instance in the case of peddling, pushing or trafficking drugs that when the authorities bust them for such an illegal act would cost them their freedom which will take away at least 5 years of their life in exchange for imprisonment. During which time the offender will serve the five years inside the cold and dark jail facility, away from their loved one and

Water Transfer In Poor Countries Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Water Transfer In Poor Countries - Assignment Example Not only a management that is expert in the level is required but along with it there is a need to use alternatives water resources for the future water use that is affordable and even if it is not, then external funding for the transfer of the water is required. It tells us that sea water can be used in the developing countries for the different water use requirements. Although the water treatment for the sea water is not an easy task, but still it can be used as an alternative water source. Still the transferring of sea water to different parts of the developing countries could be costly, and extensive water supply engineering is required and a need to manage these water storage and transport facilities is a matter of cost and debate. National geographic society states that if water source is not within one kilometer range then per capita consumption drops to 5 liters/person (National Geographic News, 2003). The sea water hence could be used as a water resource in the developing co untries, but along with this intervention, the need to recycle the sea water must also be taken into consideration. Specially for domestic purposes it could be used as a