Social, Cultural and Ethical Dimensions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Social, Cultural and Ethical Dimensions - Essay Example The sum of these shared philosophies, assumptions, values, expectations, attitudes, and norms bind the organization together. Truly, organizational culture may be perceived as the manner in which an organization solves problems to achieve its specific goals and to maintain itself over time, it is holistic, historically determined, socially constructed and difficult to change (Hofstede, 1980). Organizational culture has a pivotal role in many companies as they developed new strategies in organizational management. It is a central aspect to many theories and prescriptions of management. However, despite frequent prescriptions to manage culture in diverse national contexts, little empirical evidence has been forwarded in contexts other than the UK and the US (Harris & Metallinos, 2002). Hofstede (1980) emphasized the strong impact of national culture in terms of the regional differences, and the following broad categories are suggested for European organizational models, like Germanic, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon and Latin. The members of the organization bring their own individual experiences, beliefs and values. Individuals are allowed in work-groups within the organization have their own behavioral quirks and interactions which, to an extent, affects the whole system. In addition, a In addition, a task culture can be devised; for instance, a computer technician will have expertise, language and behaviors gained independently of the organization that set them apart from their colleagues, but their mere presence can influence the culture of the organization. With all this, the senior management may determine the corporate culture that they may wish to impose corporate values and standards of behavior that specifically reflect the objectives of the organization. Hofstede identified five characteristics of culture in his study of national influences: Power distance - The degree to which a society expects there to be differences in the levels of power. A high score suggests that there is an expectation that some individuals wield larger amounts of power than others. A low score reflects the view that all people should have equal rights. Uncertainty avoidance reflects the extent to which a society accepts uncertainty and risk. individualism vs. collectivism - individualism is contrasted with collectivism, and refers to the extent to which people are expected to stand up for themselves, or alternatively act predominantly as a member of the group or organization. Masculinity vs. femininity - refers to the value placed on traditionally male or female values. Male values for example include competitiveness, assertiveness, ambition, and the accumulation of wealth and material possessions. Long vs. short term orientation On the other hand, corporate organizations in the 1980's have been adopting and installing programs of organizational restructuring and re-engineering. Most of the programs are based on the principles and practices of a widely popular management strategy often called Total Quality Management, participative management or "the learning organization," or some other vernacular title for a program of organizational structural and cultural change (Casey, 1999). These changes were then had been aptly devised in different corporate

Female Genital Mutilation Essay Example for Free

Female Genital Mutilation Essay `Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill all reject ethical relativism, i. e. , the idea that a practice or action is morally right simply because ones society or culture says that it is morally right. Explain how Aristotle, Kant, and Mill would apply their ideas to an ethical criticism of female genital mutilation. Female Genital Mutilation also known as female circumcision is a procedure which is performed on girls before puberty. In this procedure part of or the entire clitoris is removed in order to insure that the female has reduced or no sexual feelings. It is still practiced around the world mostly as a cultural custom rather than a religious one. The reasoning behind this action is that it is done in an effort to make girls into women, that it is the duty of the parents to insure they are circumcised and to ensure that they are eligible for marriage (Religioustolerance. org). In order to consider how Kant, Mills and Aristotle would perceive this procedure we must consider the different social aspects attribute to the writings of each philosopher. According to Kant every single individual possesses the ability to discern right from wrong and that moral of the action should be decided from the intentions of the individual instead of the consequences. Kant also saw the moralistic centre of an action came from duty and not self interest. He also believed that a Maxim becomes universal law only when it is accepted by all men independent of any outside influences or circumstances. He also said that the respect of individuals came from seeing them as an end to themselves which means that infringement on their freedoms is a violation of their rights as individuals. When we apply these considerations to the topic of female genital mutilation we see that this procedure cannot be considered universal law since it is not seen as a rational action in all societies. Additionally it cannot be considered universal law in terms of nature since this procedure interferes with the natural state of the woman’s body. Secondly, though the action may be considered the duty of the parents of the girls whose genitals are mutilated it does not make it morally justifiable since it infringes on the humanitarian rights of the girl. Additionally, the fact that these girls are often circumcised against their will must also be taken into account. It can also be considered that though the girls are circumcised out of duty, the action itself is not unconditional on the part of the parents who see their own self interests in seeing the girl married or being accepted by society instead of what the girl herself wishes. In the case of John Stuart Mills it is apt to apply his principle of Utilitarism in this case. The objective of this principle is that the only consequence that should decide the action to be taken is if it brings the individual the greatest happiness. In the case of female genital mutilation if we consider who the action actually affects we find that three parties are directly involved, the parents of the girl, society and the girl herself. Thus, if we apply Mills theory to this situation then it follows that the genital mutilation of this girl though may bring unhappiness to the girl she will be a source of happiness for society and her parents. In effect it would bring society joy since it has one more woman who is considered eligible for marriage and the parents would be happy since their daughter is considered a part of society. In effect the unhappiness of the girl and the pain associated with this procedure is not taken into account since the decision on a broader level brings the most happiness to the most individuals if the procedure is carried out. On an individual level however John Mills’s teachings work against it. If we consider Aristotle, it is prudent to recall one his greatest teachings, that every part of the body be it the foot or the head or even the vagina serves a particular function in the body and that the goodness of that function lays within it. In effect if we consider the fact that female genital mutilation can impair not only the sexual pleasure of women, giving those problems in excretion and also childbirth. Then it stands to reason that Aristotle sees the goodness within that organ to be lost to the body if this procedure is carried out. Aristotle also saw that the separate functions of the body like those of society served to make an individual whole, if any of those functions are disrupted then the whole individual is disrupted as well. Though indirect it can be seen that all three philosophers were against the concept of Female Genital Mutilation. In their teachings we can find the moral and logical center required to finally leave behind this ancient and unnecessary tradition. Works Cited Religioustolerance. org. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Africa, the Middle East Far East. 2008. 1 June 2009 http://www. religioustolerance. org/fem_cirm1. htm.

The Pros and Cons of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Essay example --

Electroconvulsive therapy, also known as ECT, is a medical procedure that is used in the treatment of mental illness. In ECT, a small electrical impulse is sent through the brain, resulting in an ephemeral seizure. Though the process is generally effective, modern science is unaware of the explanation behind ECT's success. Its history is filled with a large amount of stigma and the use of ECT as a therapy is still debated today. ECT has evolved to a point where its beneficial effects can be maximized and its adverse effects can be minimized through proper administration. The ancient Romans were the first to use electricity to treat disease several thousand years ago; however, â€Å"electrical medicine† has improved and has been utilized in the forms predating ECT in a relatively short amount of time. In the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, doctors began to notice that giving people camphor could â€Å"cure lunacy† (Abrams, 2002). The doctors noticed that when administering camphor orally, it caused seizures, and upon waking up, were â€Å"in a rational state† (Abrams, 2002). In fact, in 1798, a German scientist reported that 80% of manic patients that were treated with camphor and had seizures, were cured (Abrams, 2002). As medical and technological advances occurred, so did the use of inducing a seizure to cure mental illness. In 1934, a scientist was able to bring a schizophrenic patient, who had been on a hunger strike and had not moved in four years, to recovery through a seizure that had been brought on by camphor (Abrams, 2 002). And, â€Å"thus, convulsive therapy was born† (Abrams, 2002). By the end of the year, this scientist published results of the same action given to twenty-six schizophrenics, ten patients were cured, thirteen had no re... ...ll be given. Even as ECT's use fades out, the impacts of the research will lead to necessary, and important, scientific findings. Works Cited Abrams, Richard. Electroconvulsive Therapy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002. Print. Dahl, Melissa. "Shock Therapy Makes a Quiet Comeback." Msnbc.com. 6 Aug. 2008. Web. "Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Benefits & Side Effects." WebMD. 1 Mar. 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2014. Fitzgerald, Paul. "It's Time to Move on from ECT's Shocking past." The Conversation: In-depth Analysis, Research, News and Ideas from Leading Academics and Researchers. 29 Sept. 2011. Web. 8 Nov. 2014. Staff, Mayo Clinic. "Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)." Mayo Clinic. 9 July 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. "Use of Electroconvulsive Therapy During Pregnancy -- Miller 45 (5): 444 -- Hosp Community Psychiatry." Psychiatric Services. May 1991. Web. 8 Nov. 2014.

Pixar and Walt Disney Merger

NEW YORK – Mickey Mouse and Nemo are now corporate cousins. Walt Disney has announced that it is buying Pixar, the animated studio led by Apple head Steve Jobs, in a deal worth $7. 4 billion. Speculation about a deal being imminent raged on Wall Street for the past few weeks. Disney has released all of Pixar's films so far, but the companies' current distribution deal was set to expire following the release of this summer's â€Å"Cars. The merger brings together Disney's historic franchise of animated characters, such as Mickey, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck, with Pixar's stable of cartoon hits, including the two â€Å"Toy Story† films, â€Å"Finding Nemo† and â€Å"The Incredibles. † â€Å"Disney and Pixar can now collaborate without the barriers that come from two different companies with two different sets of shareholders,† said Jobs in a statement. â€Å"Now, everyone can focus on what is most important, creating innovative stories, characters and films that delight millions of people around the world. † As part of the deal, Jobs will become a board member of Disney, the companies said.And John Lasseter, the highly respected creative director at Pixar who had previously worked for Disney, will rejoin the House of Mouse as chief creative officer for the company's combined animated studios and will also help oversee the design for new attractions at Disney theme parks. â€Å"The addition of Pixar significantly enhances Disney animation, which is a critical creative engine for driving growth across our businesses,† said Disney CEO Robert Iger in a written statement. During a conference call with analysts Tuesday, Iger said that acquisition discussions had been going on for the past several months.Jobs added that after a â€Å"lot of soul searching,† he came to the conclusion that it made the most sense for Pixar to align itself with Disney permanently instead of trying to distribute films on its own or si gn with another movie studio partner. According to the terms of the deal, Disney (Research) will issue 2. 3 shares for each Pixar share. Based on Tuesday's closing prices, that values Pixar at $59. 78 a share, about a 4 percent premium to Pixar's current stock price. Shares of Pixar (Research) fell slightly in regular trading on the Nasdaq Tuesday but gained nearly 3 percent in after-hours trading.The stock has surged more than 10 percent so far this year on takeover speculation. Disney's stock gained 1. 8 percent in regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange and was flat after-hours. Prior to the deal's announcement, some Wall Street observers had speculated that Disney may be paying too much for Pixar. A source tells FORTUNE that some Disney board members also thought the price was too high. To that end, Disney chief financial officer Thomas Staggs said during the conference call that the deal would reduce Disney's earnings slightly in fiscal 2006, which ends this September, a s well as fiscal 2007.He added though that Pixar should add to earnings by fiscal 2008 and that Disney was still on track to post annual double-digit percentage gains in earnings through 2008. But one hedge fund manager said that the risk of Disney losing Pixar was too great. â€Å"The question isn't did Disney pay too much but how expensive would it have been for Disney if Pixar fell into someone else's hands,† said Barry Ritholtz, chief investment officer with Ritholtz Capital Partners, a hedge fund that focuses on media and technology stocks. Jeffrey Logsdon, an analyst with Harris Nesbitt, agreed with that assessment.He said that Pixar's â€Å"success quotient† justified the price of the deal. Pixar has yet to have a flop with its six animated movies. They have grossed more than $3. 2 billion worldwide, according to movie tracking research firm Box Office Mojo. Disney, however, has struggled in the computer-generated animated movie arena. Even though its most recen t CG-animated film, â€Å"Chicken Little† performed better than many had expected at the box office, it was not as big a hit as any of the Pixar films. â€Å"Robert Iger has made no secret of the fact that he wanted to get the animated business back to where it was.It's what Disney has known for but the movies they did in-house did not do as well as the ones they did with Pixar,† said Michael Cuggino, a fund manager who owns about 100,000 shares of Disney in the Permanent Portfolio and Permanent Portfolio Aggressive Growth funds. Pixar has yet to announce what movies it is working on after â€Å"Cars,† however. It is believed that Pixar's next film about a rat living in a fancy Parisian restaurant, tentatively titled â€Å"Ratatouille† may be released on 2007 and that a â€Å"Toy Story 3† may be in the works as well.Jobs said during the conference call that nothing has been decided about future Pixar releases yet, but added that the company feels s trongly about making sequels to some of its previous hits. And Iger said that announced plans for Disney-produced animated films, including the release of â€Å"American Dog† in 2008 and â€Å"Rapunzel Unbraided† in 2009, are still on track. It would have been unthinkable to imagine Disney and Pixar teaming up just a few years ago.The two companies broke off talks to extend their current distribution agreement in 2004 due to a strained relationship between Jobs and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. But since Iger succeeded Eisner last year, he has extended an olive branch to Jobs. Disney and Apple have already announced several online programming deals during the past few months. Disney now has agreements in place to sell hit ABC prime time shows, such as â€Å"Desperate Housewives† and â€Å"Lost†, as well as content from ABC Sports and ESPN on Apple's popular iTunes music and video store.Cuggino said the addition of Jobs, who will also become Disney's l argest individual shareholder, to Disney's board could mean that more innovative digital deals could be in the works. â€Å"Jobs is a dynamic personality who knows consumer electronics. It's an opportunity to bring some youthful energetic thinking to Disney's board. † Disney, like many other large media companies, has seen its stock price stagnate during the past year as investors have flocked to more rapidly growing digital media firms such as Apple as well as search engines Google (Research) and Yahoo! Research) But Logsdon said the acquisition of Pixar could help Disney increase revenue throughout all of its business lines. So even though some may be quibbling in the short-term about how much Disney had to spend, he thinks Disney made the right move. â€Å"It's a smart strategic deal,† Logsdon said. â€Å"The benefit in theme parks, consumer products and cable will probably make this deal look a lot smarter a year or two from now. â€Å"

Lurhmann’s Romeo Essay

The first camera-shot is the television at a medium shot; we slowly zoom in, while the television image shows the names of the families, then a news reporter. This show’s the families are important to be on headline news. The female reporter says about half the prologue, when the camera stops zooming, but as she nears the end the camera zooms again. When she finishes he reading the camera zooms through the television quite rapidly. As it passes the screen it continues to zoom down the street extremely fast this also shows the films speed. The zoom comes to a stop and freezes for a few seconds and a big religious icon. This is the first sign of irony, because in the action packed film they still have time to notice God. The music is a choir with a loud volume, quick pace, it has a sinister tone because it is high pitched and quite quick it sound threatening, choir is high male voices to get the sinister speed and change of the notes. The voiceover starts and the music get quieter and drop behind the voiceover; it is still play but a lot quieter. A sound of a helicopter can be heard, the camera zooms out. It comes to the family tree of the two families of Capulet and Montague. The shot changes to fire, this symbolize war, anger and aggression between the two families. This is linked by the voiceover’s words of â€Å"From ancient grudge†¦Ã¢â‚¬  his voice sounds aggressive, this shows his anger. As he says the words headlines from newspapers appear. This show powerful families and modern times. These newspapers have heads like â€Å"Montague Vs Capulet†, â€Å"From ancient grudge†, â€Å"New Mutiny† and â€Å"Civil Blood makes civil hands unclean† These headlines appear as the voiceover says them. It shows the modern families that spans of a period of time. With the quick change of the headlines it shows us it is continually changing. There is a straight cut to two tall buildings with one has â€Å"Montague† on the other has â€Å"Capulet† with a holy icon in the middle. This show power on both sides and religion caught in the middle. This also shows irony that God is between the two feuding families. At this point the music gets louder to build tension. As the music gains momentum, there is a long shot of another religious icon to that they all believe in God. The music gets even louder as they show the characters. They begin with two men of the families; both are big stocky and powerful looking men, they both wear suit and shirt, the shirts are worn casually without a tie, they are big to represent that they are the head of the families. The women are very different; the Montague Lady is smartly dressed with neat hair. She looks a few years younger that her husband, she looks intelligent and mature. Lady Capulet is young, a lot younger than her husband, blonde with puffed out hair this is more stylish and so young age more. This also so that she is as mature or smart or tidy as Lady Montague. Prince is smartly dressed, with an angry face, he is the authority figure. Paris is smartly dressed this shows he is a business man, his vanity is show by his neat but floppy hair and his little smile. Mercustio is lively but can get angry shown by the close-up of his eyes with a mean, aggressive stare. There is a straight cut as the music gets louder and a series of fast cut images, mainly about violence and hatred between the families. The music climaxes then blends into a more drum beat. As a medium shot of a group of men, labeled â€Å"the Boys† The men are acting immature and acting like boys, by shouting and being a nuisance. There clothes are Hawaii shirts with the buttons undone which exposes there skinny bodies. This shows they are rude and obnoxious but are wimps if they were in a fight. A low shot is taken of the yellow car to stand out. A point of view shot of Benvolio goes off. The Capulet car arrives we get a low angle shot of the car coming towards us, this is to show they are threatening. One of the boys, who has pink hair, makes a stupid action. Abra is seen, there is an extreme close-up on Abra’s teeth of a metal plate. Abra is big muscular, this is show with his clothes which are tight on his body. Abra has an aggressive face and looks threatening and mean. Benvolio comes back, a close-up on his face as he pulls out a gun. Extreme close-up on the gun so we can see the name, nervousness can be seen in Benvolio’s face. Benvolio is big but not as muscular as Abra. There is silence when the camera cuts to Tybalt drops a match, there is a low angle shot to show Tybalt’s shoes, it shows he is flash because he has silver heals, he crushes the match, grinding it with his solid heal as it was an enemy, this is a very strong action symbolizing hatred and aggression. Tybalt has small cat like teeth, he is thin but toned and nimble. He wears black clothes which represents bad. Also he has two guns which show he is a good gun handler this also implies he is bad. He has slick hair and a little well groomed goatee which is a cat like feature. He has a red waist coat with an image of Jesus on, this shows irony that they fight but still believe in God.  Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic romantic story, I will tell you about the opening scenes of this video e.g. Voiceover, camera angles, characters, clothes and soundtrack. The voiceover is slow with a calm tone and a low pitch. They have this voice because it fits with the slow pace of the beginning of the film; the tone is calm, slow but upset. The music in the scene is of slow pace as well and links well with the slow pace of the voiceover. The soundtrack is hushed smooth rhythm with a slow and drowsy pace; this has high notes and a sympathetic sound. The music sounds like it was composed during the time of Shakespeare. Because the music is slow and if flows nicely with the text which is an old style italic font, this suggests that the film is set in along time ago as well as the music. We get a high-angle camera shot at the beginning which pans across the town smoothly and calmly like the music and the voiceover. The camera angle shows us a medieval town. The shot shows a river flowing in the middle of the town and all the colours are pastel and flow. The camera turns up and zooms slowly at the sun, it stops and it the big italic writing saying â€Å"William Shakespeare† as though his is the best. Straight cut to town’s court medium height angle, in the background a horse and cart can be seen this shows the period of time. There is a straight cut to the Montague boys feet, kicking a dog, this show them acting badly and causing trouble. There is a long shot on the Capulets they are dressed smartly and also polite. They wear darker coloured clothes to stand out. The Montague boys are dressed in bright clothes and stand out as well but they are rude. There is a straight cut to the Montague biting his thumb which is a close up, then a close-up on the people talking. Straight cut to towns people noticing trouble, then back to a medium shot of the Montague boys.