John Websters The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil free essay sample

This paper is a critical analysis of Websters `The Duchess of Malfi` and `The White Devil,` focusing on the theme: `Sense of an elite womans place in the world. This paper first presents in detail Websters view on morality and social relevance in the two plays especially in his use of imagery and characterization. The author then compares the strong central female characters in both plays. The paper argues that the plays force the re-evaluation of traditional social conventions, almost presenting a case for allowing women more freedom in deciding their own futures. Perhaps the most powerful argument in favor of the presence of a social and moral comment in The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil is to disprove the view that Webster was nothing more than a tawdry showman who resorted to grisly horror to entertain and amuse his audience. One cannot deny that both The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil cause a great deal of emotional discomfort in their unabashed use of bloody murders, including the killing of innocent children in The Duchess of Malfi. We will write a custom essay sample on John Websters The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page But a counterpoint to this argument could well be that the very effectiveness of Websters plays lies in his use of baser human instincts to illustrate on the one hand, human resilience and fortitude even in the face of the greatest of horrors, and on the other the dire consequences of giving into negative emotions such as greed, lust and the desire for revenge and power.`

DSLvs. cable essays

DSLvs. cable essays Today, consumers are demanding faster services in restaurants, quicker results from products such as diet pills, and shorter waits in lines such as in the grocery store. Broadband connection is no exception; consumers want to be able to surf the Web blazingly fast. So what choices do consumers have besides the typical dial-up connection? Two popular broadband connections are DSL and Cable. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each and recommend an ultimate winner in the battle of DSL versus cable. DSL (digital subscriber line) technology uses copper phone wires to deliver data at high speeds to your home or office. DSL requires a phone line, a DSL modem provided by the server, an Ethernet card, and a company that is willing to provide you the service. This year, DSL has not been doing so well as providers have been running out of business, filing bankruptcy, or are on the verge of shutting down. Because of this, the price of DSL has gone up. Major DSL sellers such as Earthlink and Verizon raised their basic DSL rates during 2001 by $10 to $50 monthly. Cable companies use the same coaxial cable that delivers channels to your TV set. A cable connection requires a special modem and Ethernet network card. Road Runner and Excite@Home and the two major cable net connectors; they provide 80% of all cable net connections. Cable is available by signing up with local cable companies, which determines its own pricing and rules. There are many upsides to having a DSL connection, one being steady speed. During usage, DSL speed stays steady because it does not share a line with other people in the neighborhood. Party line users such as cable can have a drop in speech during peak hours. Since it does not share a line, there is no limit to your download size. This is great for people who love to download MP3s since youll be able to download many songs in a sho ...

Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Finance - Essay Example The government also gives a further indication for implementation of the recommendations. Hence, detailed explanation has been done in this paper to explain the rationale behind two of the recommendations of Vickers report. Retail Ring-Fencing One of the most controversial recommendations of the Vickers Commission is that the banks’ retail operations should be ring-fenced. Banks will be required to establish a separate legal entity within their corporate structure to provide retail and commercial banking services all over the country. The reason behind this to protect retail banking operations from risk-oriented financial activities and to ensure the continuous provision of retail banking services by ring-fenced banks, with reduced bail-out costs for taxpayers. The government agreed with Vickers Commission that banks should have relative freedom in respect of their investment. Banks will be permitted to continue copyrighted trading. The logic is that investment of UK banks sho uld operate without an implicit government guarantee and be allowed to fail in an orderly manner in case they enter into financial crisis. It is also predicted that the banks in UK will face challenges in implementing ring-fencing requirements, given their current corporate structures. ... The large exposure limits that are recommended in the report are designed to reduce the exposure a ring-fenced bank will have to other entities within its group. However, allowing secured exposure up to 45% of capital may prove unproductive in light of the write-downs of sovereign and asset-backed debts in the financial drawbacks (Kevin, 2007). Raise bank capital requirements The Vickers Commission has separately made various recommendations intended to raise the capital requirements of the banks in United Kingdom. It is also an attempt to increase the ability of banks to absorb losses or any other financial crisis. The ratio of equity to RWAs proposed by the Vickers Report for ring-fenced banks (of 10%) is higher than that proposed in Basel. The requirement for banks to have loss absorbing capacity of 17% is essentially more burdensome than under Basel III (Patrick, 2011). Therefore important banks will be required to hold capital at 11.5-13% of RWAs (Michael & Bernard, 2007). The g overnment of UK agreed that 17% is the appropriate number for large institutions, subject to further consultation. Moreover, accommodative tax regime will be required subjected to capital instruments subordinated debt for banks so that they could use these instruments to meet their enhanced capital ratios. HMRC is currently looking at ways to ensure these instruments work effectively and therefore reduce tax on interest payments. An important concession has been made by the government to UK-based multinational banks. The Vickers Report had proposed that such banks were required to have primary loss absorbing capital equal to 17% across all their operations. However, the government has stated that as long

Develop a Communications Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Develop a Communications Plan - Essay Example This details how specific information is developed and communicated to various groups and the expected actions. This plan also details how the overall results will be communicated, the time frames for communication and the appropriate groups to receive the information. Communicating results is an important issue for the project management scorecard. While it is important to communicate achieved targets to interested stakeholders once the project is complete it is also important to communicate throughout the project. This ensures that information is flowing so adjustments can be made so that all stakeholders are aware of the success and issues surrounding the project solution implementation. IRTC Manufacturing Enterprises has adopted seven components of the communication process to ensure that the project communication management solutions results are systematic, timely, and well planned. They are as follows: Audiences range from top management to past project team members, all of which have their own special communication needs. A well targeted communication may be necessary to win the approval of the specified group. They include the project team, the customer service and billing departments, the team manager, vendor and customer service agent. This involves developing written material to explain solution results. This can be a brief summary of the results to a detailed research report on the evaluation effort eg. Project report used for the different audiences. Whenever project results are communicated, the reaction of the target audience can be monitored by the project manager. This reaction may include non- verbal gestures, oral remarks, written comments or indirect actions that reveal how the communication was received. Presentations, project staff meetings and feedback questionnaire may be used for analyzing the reaction of the audience. The purpose of this is to make adjustment in the

Wal-Mart is the Low-Price Leader Research Paper - 1

Wal-Mart is the Low-Price Leader - Research Paper Example According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2011), the average unemployment rate across the United States remained steady for February and March 2011 at an estimated 8.8%. Thus, while working for a company like Wal-Mart may not be ideal, it may be one of the few forms of employment that many Americans are able to secure under the current economic circumstances facing the country today (Glasmeier, 2006). Unfortunately, the retailer is taking obvious advantage of the desperation of customers and employees. In remaining a major force in the retail industry, gaining power through the economic crisis on multiple levels, the actual costs behind its low prices are definitely not a part of the organization’s publicized marketing strategy (MSNBC, 2005). However, there has been a great deal of research presenting information suggesting the low prices come at very high costs, not only to the employees but by extension the customers, through poor customer service and an overall negative shopping experience (Glasmeier, 2006). Unless changes are made to the way employees are treated, and protections are allowed—even if they do not come in the form of unions—these employees will only continue to grow more and more disgruntled to the point where customers are turned off by the overall experience and even those who may not be able to afford it, will go elsewhere. These customers do not need to be made to feel bad about their shopping experience, Wal-Mart has an opportunity that they are failing to realize. At this point, they have a massive market share, which will most likely return to what it was prior to the 2008 economic collapse, in the next couple of years when the economy bounces back from its brief devastation; based on historical data (Microsoft, 2011). However, without implementing a training program that drives customer loyalty through employee satisfaction, Wal-Mart has the potential to lose their significant gain, to competitors like Target, when unemployment rates are down and the economy is booming once again (Microsoft, 2011).     

Implementing Effective Line Management

Implementing Effective Line Management The relevance of the Human Resource Management (HRM) has been exceptionally important and pivotal in maintaining a smooth working atmosphere of an institution. In large organisation with thousands of employees, there are hierarchy of power and work distribution. As the number of employees increase, the importance of managing them efficiently and maintaining their morale becomes more crucial to maximise the productivity. All organisations have their own work culture, rules and regulations, formal and informal approaches in dealings with situations. The Human Resource (HR) policies define the flexibility of the functioning of its personnel in each of these issues. The scope and success of these depends largely on the line manager, as he acts as an intermediary point between the HRM and the normal employees. For Mintzberg and Quinn (1998), a managers general work involves performing regular duties like ritual and ceremony, negotiations, and the processing of soft information (Mintzberg and Quinn, 1998). In the current working scenario, the role of the line manager is much more than just oversee and delegate staffs; they have to take provocative measure on coaching, team building and achieving targets both social and financial. According to Fred Luthans and his associates (1988) there is a great difference between an effective manager and successful manager. They had researched on 450 managers around the world. The managers who had a good network were considered as more effective in Australia whereas in US the managers who seek information from colleagues and employees- even if its negative and who explains their decisions are considered the most effective (F. Luthans, R. M. Hodgetts and S. A. Rosenkrantz, 1988). Formerly we will try to indentify the work pattern in the emirates organisation and the employees working atmosphere. Then we will try to analyse the pattern to find the areas of improvement, the organisation might be able to adopt. Finally we will try to analyse the effectiveness and changes that might happen by implementing the proposal. Formulation of HR Strategy How do we implement effective line management in organisation? Effective people management Who is a line manager (LM)? What is the relevance of such a position in an organisation? LM are not normally given this title in any of the organisations that employ them. In fact, depending on the business sector, they can be known by a variety of different titles. According to Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) the more common descriptions for line managers are team leader, team manager or supervisor (Business Link, 2010). In general we can say that the role of a LM is a more of a mediator in between the management and employees and helps in maintaining a proper work flow in organisations. Managing the work force of an organisation is the core essence of the smooth running of the business. As the organisation grows in strength of the employees the need for hierarchy and power distribution is vital. Supervisory training and development continues to be a major concern in organisations of all types and sizes. The changes of all kinds necessitate continuous updating of knowledge and skills, as well as changes in attitude (Donald L. Kirkpatrick, 2001). In order to assess the standards and performance of the employees the line manager plays a major role. The HR department conveys the strategic plans to the line manager to get implemented. Emirates group with an employee strength of more than 40,000 and mainly being in the field of aviation and related services have to be diversified into different departments. Each department have been further sub-divided into Managers and normal employees. The managers consist of line managers who are personally responsible for the employees under him/her. Employing more than 100 nationalities they have a huge diversity in work force like the gender, skills, and of more personal traits. Trends of devolution in recent years As per Tyson and Fell, the role of personnel management has evolved from a clerk of work in 1960, 1970s as contract manager and 1980s more like a business manager in 1980s. In the first two years the authority vested in line managers with the branch manager control through personnel and line managers moving to widespread integration. They also said that personnel managers facilitate enabling other management work to occur, whose principal skills lay in their timing of applying techniques, and their ability to sell their services to client line managers/top executives (Renwick. D, 2000) The integration of HRM activities into the Business and corporate strategy is a key element in the business, the integration being the degree to which HRM issues are considered as part of the formulation of the business strategy and development as, the degree to which HRM practices involve and give responsibility to the line manager rather than personnel specialists (Budhwar. P. S., 1998). With the growing trend it can be suggested that a more likely outcome of giving line managers more personnel responsibilities is that the role of the HR specialist will change from that of watchdog of corporate policy and procedures to one of adviser to service managers (Harris. L. et al., 2002). What HR activities get devaluated? The middle level managers are expected to know and perform in perfect co with liaison with the high level management and lower level employees. This naturally results in expecting them to do more than they might be have normally done. For example for a divisional sale manager who is handing a section in an organisation like the Emirate Group, he will be responsible to maintain the sales targets as set his superior manager and maintain the relation with the international clients. These job can be terms us the regular jobs. Apart from these regular job, they will be expected to do several work related to the workforce under him like the maintenance of workforce planning, like to arrange cover for employee who are ill or on holiday, sort the grievances in the work places like the difference in opinions, update the management or the work progress, responsible for safety of the sub-ordinates and help with recruitment process of the HR division. The work force planning includes jobs like the attendance, roaster preparation, leave management, overtime sheet preparation, and timesheet preparation. The jobs like training the sub ordinates and their exit procedures are mostly handled by the line managers. They will also be partly responsible to get the quality surveys from the employees and remind them to do it during delays. The growing demand on the performance of the managers is to do personal training at the time needed. They will have to individually monitor their subordinates on their performances and grade them on the basis of performance and productivity taking into consideration their customer relations skills, analytical skills and risk assessment skills. In finding a need for professional training, they will try to educate them during the regular work hours or send them to more specific training in the training centre offered by the organisation. In the event of an employee not successfully completing an external training, he will be expected to explain and reassign them to a re-training. The benefits and the increments of the subordinates will be assigned to them on the basis of his recommendations after the evaluations. The welfare and safety of the sub-ordinates are mostly considered as the responsibility of the immediate managers in the organisation. With the increased pressure of maintaining a low expenditure for the organisations at times, the managers are devaluated for the incredible amount of jobs they handle and recently we can say that it has become one of the industry norms to go the extra mile. Job Analysis Why devaluated? The centrally developed personnel procedures are considered to be a key means of ensuring managerial consistency in minimising litigation risk while devolving operational HR responsibilities. This system has been considered as one among the most suitable practice in audit of HR professional activity in the public sector. The LM being enforced to take decisions has to be after give adequate training to them to handle such situations. By giving the proper training and raising their awareness the managers will become more aware of legal and organisational impacts of different actions (Harris. L et al., 2002). This will prevent them from acting unethically and also help in maintain a healthy work culture. The increased pressure for line managers tends to make them devaluate some of their responsibilities to supervisors. This creates a pressure and the notion for them that they are doing more than they are supposes to do. According to Brewster and Larsen (2000) there are five main reasons for the devolution of HRM to the line managers. The elements are to reduce costs; to provide a comprehensive approach to HRM; to make the managers more accountable; to speed up the decision making process; and it is an alternative to outsourcing the HM activities. Budhwar recognises the effectiveness of the decisions by the quick implementation due to its complexities and preparing future manager as some additional features of the devolution of HRM. (Budhwar. P. S., 1998). The priorities and motives of the organisations and the approach towards these have evolved through the past decade. Maintaining a low operation cost has become a key element in the agenda. It has become one of the deciding factors of the efficiency of the organisations. The increasingly sophisticated consumers demand higher quality for both commercial and public sector organisations. The success of the long term success should focus more to operate on product and service quality rather than on cost or price alone (CIPD report, 2006). In a study Cleyman, he found that a high rate of grievances were filled in departments characterised by repetitious work, low skilled employees, work that demanded constant attention, generally unpleasant working conditions (Cleyman. K. L, et al. 1995). Implementing the disciplinary and grievance procedures provides a clearer and transparent framework to deal with difficulties which may arise as part of the working relationship from either the employers or employees perspective. It will act as a corrective measure to lead the employees in alignment with the organisational values and help in taking the corrective measures at the earliest (CIPD, 2010). Problems and issues Balance of work and personal time. The work and non-work time of the managers have been blurred creating a sense of over pressure for their profession. The line managers are expected to draw out the responsibilities and over perform more than their contract. The definite line of work timing has become vague over past couple of years. With the introduction of latest technology, like the Blackberry and laptops, having access to company information they are expected to work beyond the normal working hours. In a huge organisation like the Emirates Group, the company never sleeps and the employees work around the clock for the normal functioning of the airport. This again is an inherent nature of the business. Being equipped by the latest gadgets the managers who might be remotely controlling different regions will be contacted round-the- clock by the employees if they have any queries in operations. Thus their effective working hours are extended much more than the actual working hours. This encroaches the personal time of the employees and will cause distress. The practical solution to minimize the effect of this is by empowering the employees with decision making power. They are allowed a degree of flexibility and encouraged to make logical decisions. To support this there can be regular training, seminars and support to improve and update the technical knowledge and ethical behaviour. Todays managers needs to create an ethical healthy climate for his or her employees, where they can do their work productively and confront a minimum degree of ambiguity regarding what constitutes right and wrong behaviours (Stephen P Robbins, Timothy A Judge, 2007). Implementation The Organisational Vision It is our people that make the difference in terms of results, says the Chairman of the Emirates Group, H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum (The Emirates Group, 2010). Gary Chapman, President Group Services and Dnata, states Employees are the key to success of any organisation and we here in the Emirates Group know this well. That is why we put such great emphasis on vocational training and development to ensure our people are equipped to do the job well. The recognition of the value of employees and taking steps in insuring their welfare would be a key element in maintaining a optimum and impressive corporate culture. After-all all machines and technology bough by the organisations are brought to life by its employees. Human Resource Business Support teams ensure effective employee relations through professional compliance with policies and procedures, while the Remuneration and Planning team ensures the Group has practices that will enable us to attract and retain a high calibre workforce, across all locations (Emirates Group Careers, 2010). The company equips the staffs with latest technology and manages the recruitment process by consulting with the concerned managers over their short and long term staff requirements. The department also provides expert guidance to manager in the use of assessment tools and in the recruitment decision making process, to ensure alignment with the HR policies and practices and the values and competencies required in all those recruited globally into the group. The line managers should have a clear picture of the organisations vision. The recruitment process We achieve what we do because of our people. We choose them very carefully, and just as important they choose us very carefully (Maurice Flanagan, 2010). In the expansion of the institution, the need for more human resource becomes prominent. The recruitment process begins by finding role and function of the extra personnel. After the acceptance of the application and the primary selection process and categorising the person to the section according to their talent, the line managers of the prospective sections should be involved in selection of the candidate. By adoption of this step it would make the line manager comfortable in analysing the person for how capable he is and how well they will integrate with their team.

Comparison of Two Films About King Arthur Essay -- Film Movies Compare

Few works of literature or legend are as varied as that of King Arthur and his round table, forever retold by each generation. Without question, the defining work of Arthurian Literature is Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. Morte d'Arthur is a compilation of all the King Arthur legends that existed before Malory. Malory tried to bring all the stories together into one cohesive whole. Morte d'Arthur is a trove of stories about magical encounters and various quests that is loosely centered on the rise and fall of King Arthur. Since it was written, there have been countless interpretations and adaptations. Today, we not only have countless Arthurian books, but many movies on the subject as well. In this paper I hope to compare and contrast two such Arthurian movies, Excalibur and King Arthur, and discuss what each film adds to the treasury of Arthurian lore. It is hard to believe that two completely opposite movies are based on the same literature. The movie Excalibur is like a modern day Morte d'Arthur, while the more recent King Arthur differs greatly from all former Arthurian works by attempting to be historically plausible. Excalibur Although Excalibur is based mostly on Malory, it also contains stories from Chrà ©tien de Troyes and Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King. The film takes scenes straight from Malory, but it also changes Malory slightly by condensing some of his many details and mixing them with stories from other Arthurian writers. It smoothes over many of Malorys contradictions then manages to throw in some plot twists of its own. Excalibur The first scene of the film introduces the most important symbol of the film, Excalibur. Throughout the entire movie at every critical juncture, Exc... ..."with machines." Two of her fingers were broken. Arthur receives another shock when he realizes that these ministrations were performed by a priest. The priest believes that to torture heathens is an act of kindness that would enable them to enter heaven. The final blow that completely crushes Arthur's belief in the Church is the news he receives on Pelagius' excommunication. How can the Church excommunicate a man who believes in such lofty and glorious ideas? Conclusion While Excalibur keeps both the content and form of Malory, King Arthur tries something new by trying to translate the barely-fitting together cacophony of Morte d'Arthur into a historically plausible film. Though Excalibur is more enjoyable to real King Arthur lovers, King Arthur is strangely refreshing in its extreme adaptation of the overused story, while being still familiar in its core.