Bilingualism and diglossia Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Bilingualism and diglossia - Assignment Example I will look closely at classic and extended diglossia, diglossia as a continuum, touch upon diglossia within the context of language shift and relationship between diglossia and language varieties. I will incorporate critical opinions of distinguished researchers within the framework of the discussion to provide consistency and comprehensiveness of the analysis and illustrate differences and similarities between diglossia and bilingualism with a number of examples of the way people interact within communities of such countries as Switzerland, Germany, Italy or New Zealand. Whether diglossia is really a kind of bilingualism is disputed. While a number of researchers categorize diglossia exclusively within the framework of bilingualism, others, to the contrary, treat diglossia and bilingualism as two separate linguistic phenomena in their own right, which tend to overlap each other. In this essay I will touch upon some aspects of diglossia within the context of its relation to bilingualism referring to the studies of the researchers who stress on both similarities and differences between diglossia and bilingualism. According to Charles Ferguson, who first introduced the notion of diglossia into linguistic discourse in 1959, diglossia and bilingualism are closely related notions (Ferguson, 1959). Diglossia is a widespread sociolinguistic phenomenon that applies to a situation within the framework of one speech community, when speakers use two or more language varieties depending on communicative context switching from either local dialect to the literary standard language or vice versa (Ferguson, 1959). For instance, a speaker may use a local dialect of Italian language when communicating to his/her family members at home or friends in informal atmosphere and switch to the literary standard Italian during public speech in formal atmosphere or during a conversation with compatriots from other regions of Italy. It must be noted that according to Ferguson, diglossia is

Composing Exercise Program Essay Example for Free

Composing Exercise Program Essay This is a composing exercise program. This will only work on the computer. The way this program works is very simple. All the poems from Shijing have already been stored within the application itself, and users can choose and open any poems that they want among the list. Since the Shijing has over hundreds of poems, they have been classified according to categories to facilitate the search. The categories can be further narrowed down so suit the user’s needs. The poems can be chosen according to the music that the users have in mind. Once the poem has been chosen, then the program allows you to interpose music on the poem. When you are ready to compose, simply click the â€Å"start compose† button, and you will see blank music paper on the screen. Decide where you want to put your note and simply click on the music paper, then the note will appear on the screen. If you right click on one specific note, you can choose its length or measure. After you are done composing, you can store your composed music into the program. You can re-do your work on the same poem without deleting the previous files and also you can continue working on the same music if you closed the programs before you were finished. Basically saving files in the program works just same as saving any other file in your. This program also contains a built in audio processing system so that you can listen to the music while you are composing it, making changes whenever necessary. The point of this program is to give users the chance to experience different genres of poems (lyrics). Shijing is the perfect collection because of the wide variety of poems used. The challenge is the choice of music to use on the poems. Because every poem has a different emotion, the creativity of the user is given the chance to come out and develop. Every single poem evokes different insights and emotions, thus affecting the music as well. Sometimes poems will be very personal and sometimes poems will be very political. The poems are already written and the challenge is to make it come alive with music. Target: Anyone who is interested in music and wants to give composing a try. Feasibility: There are many composing programs out in the market but none with poems or lyrics pre-stored. Moreover, most of them are targeted for expert musicians. This application will help beginners and experts alike focus on the creation of music because the lyrics have already been pre-set. Relevance: I believe that this project has some relevance to Confucian studies because it allows users to look at the Shijing poems in a different light and have unique and new perspectives about it. This provides a deeper appreciation for the poems and may inspire people to study them more.

Peformance of pizza hut as a company

Peformance of pizza hut as a company Pizza Hut was develop in 1958; there are 5000 restaurants in UK and 20000staff. The number of the staff in the specific organisation is 38 persons, the turnover is very low, 20%, and it is very active in the global market and is one huge organisation. Pizza Hut history starts in Wichita. Kansas in 1958 by two brothers (Frank and Dan Carney) who had the idea of developing a pizza restaurant, a new concept in America and very quickly the dream came true. They borrowed $600 from one of their mothers and they rented a small building on a busy road in Wichita, they also bought some second hand equipment and they became very rich with a big and successful organisation. Pizza Hut franchises were launched in 1958. Although the Pizza Hut chain was able to develop both in the United States and overseas. Today, franchisees and joint venture partnerships account for nearly half of the Pizza Huts total restaurants. (www.everything2.com). Then Pizza Hut started to be international, the first international restaurant was in Canada in 1968. Pizza Hut started branching out quickly in the entire world, in Mexico, Australia, Europe, Africa and the Far East. Also Pizza Hut was cooperate with PepsiCo, actually was acquired by PepsiCo. Pizza Hut was share its position with the products of PepsiCo. PepsiCo in cooperation with Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell were make the largest restaurant group, the Trion global restaurant, in the world, in October 1997. Background information Theory Pizza Hut is with no doubt one global successfully organisation, which belongs to public sort of organisations. However, for a successful organisation, the culture is a necessity that will eventually lead to a good environment in the organization. Culture is the values and norms of an organisation, which determine its corporate behaviour and the behaviour of people within the organisation. (Thompson, 2001, p 1124). According with Pizza Huts information website (www.pizzahut.com) the staff is very friendly to the customers and that is the reason why, the customers are always coming again and again. For example, if the employees are working into a friendly environment then automatically they are friendlier to customers and as customers love to come to the restaurants because of the friendly environment. The working environment between the employees is very friendly and they all work like one team. Teamwork is a huge and important thing. A working team is obviously important for an organisation, a working team player is a person who can manage the roll of the self to fit the needs of a team. (Belbin, 2000, p 111) The structure of Pizza Hut starts from the restaurant manager, who decides for everything, he takes all the decisions. Then there is the area manager who replaces restaurant managers, after that there is the regional manager, the human resources, the director of operations and finally the chief executive officers. For an organisation, is important to be organised prioritised lists and well-planned schedules disperse the illusion of chaos(Lindenfield, 2003, p 73). In an organisation like Pizza Hut, there should be a functional strategy, strategies like marketing or finance. The strategies for the various functions carried out by an organisation, including marketing, production, financial management, information management, research and development, and human resource management.(Thompson, 2001, p 1125) from the information provided the company do satisfy all the needs of disabled people in the organisation, they use equipment which is friendly and not harmful at all to the environment. Also Pizza Hut food is also healthy and they produce pizzas with fresh ingredients. Additionally, Pizza Hut has recently started recycling. From now and then, the food packages are recycled and are just the first step of the recycling process. Furthermore, Pizza Hut is a flexible organisation which had being advertised by radio and of course television, through all media and through their main website, thus they have new marketing opportunities for captivating m ore customers, and as they considered is a very flexible organisation because they always change things. Management style Management in an organisation is everything because they all end up to this and because the managers can achieve and had the profit they want to if they work corrected. Manager is a person who has all the responsibilities, takes all decisions but also shared some responsibilities such as financial control, planning with directors. Management, is the process by which an organisation establishes its objectives, formulates actions (strategies) designed to meet these objectives in the desired time- scale, implements the actions, and assesses progress and results (Thompson, , 2001, p 1128). The manager must be democratic and his main activities are planning/coordinating, staffing, training/developing, decision making/problem solving, handling paperwork, exchanging routine information, monitoring/controlling performance, monitoring/reinforcing, disciplining/punishing, interacting with the outsiders, managing conflict, socializing/politicking (Wright, 1996, page 18). But beside the manager, leadership plays an important role as well. In a journal is written that there are no universal leadership characteristics. What works for one will not work for another. For all those who aspire to leadership, the challenge is simple-deceptively so. To be a more effective leader, you must be yourself-more- with skills(Goffee, Jones, 2006, p 47) according by Pizza Hut leaders are the main planners of the organisation. Leaders adopting an international perspective have some advantages, however defined, and that the educator is lacking an essential breadth if practice remains bound by the values and approaches which have emerged over time in any one location(Lumby, 2006, p 7). Leader is a generic term used to describe a manager who is responsible for changes in the corporate strategy. (Thompson, 2001, p 1128). In addition to this, leaders are very friendly and they dont behave selfishly, but instead of that, they work like one and they had harmonic relationship with each other. Whats more, they are really good friends. But the personality of a leader should have the charisma to sell ideas and automatically be ready for action. Understanding of leadership in which the focus on, leader is rejected, but asserts that the so-called leadership that relies on leaders is essentially flawed.(Gallagher, 2002, p 24) Any leader should have some personal features by make him a successful leader, like being always on time, being committed and being ready for action. Staying power is one of the most important yet least recognised attributes of successful leaders.(Black, 2003, p 25) Pizza hut manage to achieve that through their website and especially with advertisements in the media and every year they give financial information and they have 70 franchised delivery units, 118 companies owned, and they have weekly sales, food costs and utility costs. The manager of the restaurant is responsible for the employment of staff and what qualifications do they look for. They ask for skills in IT, they ask for the necessary things that a cashier must be aware of and also they look for customers skills. Moreover, they need good communication skills and they want employees with interpersonal abilities. In some cases they do train staff and if they have previous employment they ask for interpersonal abilities. Pizza Hut offered any rewarded or benefits to staff for motivating them. Another constraint upon organisations is wide acceptance of the idea that people want more from the employment relationship than just money: that they want rewards and satisfactions that are often psychological in nature(Elgood, 1988, p 10). External Influences on the organisation and Management of Change External influences are the main influences that an organisation may change, for instance external influences are influences such as competitors or the global market which is closely related to organisations (Elgood, 1988). The competitors of Pizza Hut, there are many such as McDonalds, Subway, but the most important one is Frankie Benny. The company tries to compete that by constantly introduce new products every 3-4 months. Each company has positive and negative aspects so the positive aspects of this organisation was anything new they produced, and the negative was taken away and delivery, also after Christmas time there are not many customers because customers spent their money. Another negative aspect that influences Pizza Hut is the building work around, that make people avoid eating at the organisation. In addition to this, seasonal changes are also a reason that can cause negative influence to Pizza Hut, for instance there are not any clientele in summer time because obvious ly most of them are going for holiday. But success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm (Churchill, 2003, p 20). External Analysis of the Organisations Environment Technological Development: The business already used technology more than before, such as new equipment. Economic Trends: Pizza Hut in UK support a charity, the Starlight Childrens Foundation. That charity is brightening the lives of some very ill children, trying to entertainment them and makes their wishes come true. Environmental Issues: Pizza Hut has recently started to use recycle packages. Legislation: Pizza Hut fill all the laws that government applied, they have all the necessities that a business should have. Ethical Issues: In an organisation such as Pizza Hut, should use food products that are not harmful or causing any environmental problems. Sheet indicating image, marketing The new way of marketing at Pizza Hut is very interesting, they do use the psychology. Many different voices was respond to the question Whos called the Hut?. That is a smart way of advertising Pizza Hut because firstly is a nice, funny view and secondly people are trying to imitate voices. People were imitate and that happened when it sank in. Conclusion Management is a generic term and subject to many interpretations. Our concern is with management within a structured organisational setting and involving the exercise of formal authority over the work of other people. The nature of management is variable. It relates to all activities of the organisation and is undertaken at all levels. Management is essentially an integrating activity which permeates all other aspects of the organisation.(Mullins, 2002, p 195) Culture is based in the behaviour of people in the organisation. For example, the way that staff is behave shows the environment, leading to create the culture. Culture means the values and norms of an organisation, which determine its corporate behaviour and the behaviour of people within the organisation (Thompson, 2001, p 1124). The term organisation means a consciously co-ordinated social unit created by groups in society to achieve specific purposes, common aims and objectives by means of planned and coordinated activities(Mullins, 2002, p 907). Organisation in a business and they have the same goals. Belonging to an organisation means that people were working peacefully and not egoistically. Leader is close related with manager, for example, a leader is responsible for changes in an organisation. But also leadership is influenced the behaviour of other people because of any change. In that case, leader should be democratic and friendly to the staff. According with all the managerial aspects I have analyse above the Pizza Hut as a company considered to be able to achieve all the criteria that the market is asking for development and recognition. Finally Pizza Hut is a well managed company with all prospects for improvement and monopoly.

Allen Ginsberg Essay -- Biography Bio Poet

Allen Ginsberg, Covert Patriot Allen Ginsberg is, without a doubt, most famous for his poem "Howl" which he published in October of 1956 through City Lights Books in San Francisco. "Howl", like much of his other poetry, is an intensely personal and also very complex poetic expression lacking rhyme and, to many people, also lacking reason. In actuality, however, "Howl" serves as an autobiographical sketch and it acts, in some ways, as a precursor to his lesser known poem from the same publication, "America," which is his final articulation of his love for his country and his disillusionment with its current state of affairs. Together, both of these poems form a culmination (as of 1956) of the journals he had been keeping throughout his life and are the final "howl" of the simultaneous love and discontent with his situation as well as that of his country. Through "Howl" and "America" Ginsberg is expressing his disillusionment with American culture and his own life by retelling his own life experiences; however, he i s also demonstrating a love of America and American culture that he has held throughout his life and which he, finally, was able to put down in poetic verse in his compilation Howl and Other Poems. From a very early age, Ginsberg's life was chaotic, and that, in turn, produced a disenchanted view of society. His parents were both extremely politically active and were not in political agreement. As a result politics was a subject to which he became accustomed rather early because his mother, Naomi, was a member of the Communist part and his father, Louis, was a Democratic Socialist (Miles 6). Naomi and Louis fought often about politics and the situation, no doubt, left Ginsberg both passionate and confused about poli... ...sberg as a cynic, it is crucial to remember that, both as a poet and as a person, he is much more complex, as is his view of the country. Ginsberg was not anti-American, he loved a great deal about America and felt awful about its situation in the 1950s. Ginsberg was simply another man who wanted change. References Caveney, Graham. Screaming with Joy: the Life of Allen Ginsberg. New York: Broadway Books, 1999. Foster, Edward Halsey. Understanding the Beats. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1992. Ginsberg, Allen. Howl and Other Poems. 57th printing San Francisco: City Light Books, 2001. ---. Journals Mid-Fifties 1954-1958. Gordon, Ball Ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995. Merrill, Thomas F. Allen Ginsberg: Revised Edition. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1988. Miles, Barry. Ginsberg: A Biography. London: Virgin Publishing Ltd., 2000.

Organisation Behaviour

Option 3: Evaluate the statement that ‘organisational structure reflects and reinforces an unrealistic view of human rationality (Knights & Willmott, 2007)’. Introduction: Different authors have different definition toward organizational structure. Mintzberg (1979) defines the organization structure is defined as ‘The sum total of the ways in which it divides its labour into distinct task and then achieves coordination between them’ (Mintzberg, 1979, p. cited in Knights and Willmott, 2007, p. 197). In simple words, organizational structure is talking about the structure of an organization, how a company categorise their workers or management to achieve their goals. Basically, organizational structure is talking about the management system that include organic and mechanistic management system. In an organization, there will be a lot of matters happened because of the organization structure.Hence, people keep discover different management structure to assist in organizational structure like Taylor and Ford that influence the organization structure by using scientific method to classified the work of an organization and control the achievement of the organization (Fayol, 1949; Taylor, 1911cited in Singh, 2009). Lewin (1958) cited in Burnes (1996) provided that the planned model that designed for the organizational change is the best model.However, is there any the best structure for organization? When we treat one structure as the best structure for organization, we must consider the factors that will make the structure no longer applicable. Environment is the important influences that we cannot ignore about. The unstable of environment led the organization structure keep on changing. One of the changes in the structure of organizational was from mechanistic management system to organic management system.Mechanistic and organic of organizational structure are two formally form of management system that applied in organizational structure (Burns and Stalker, 1961). As what Kulmala and Uusi-Rauva (2005) claims that competition was changing from firm level to network level, which means from centralisation to decentralisation. Changing Of Environment More than 2,000 years ago the Greek philosopher Heraclitus(536-470 BC) claims that everything was continuous keep on changing and there was nothing permanent (Smith, 2011).Organizational structure is also the same, there are no the best structure for an organization since the environment is keep on changing. ‘‘There is no one best way to organize’’ and ‘‘any ways of organizing are not equally effective’’ (Galbraith, 1973 cited in Singh, 2009, p. 954). Environment and organization are interdependent, they depend on each other between an organization (pugh et al. 1963 cited in Child, n. d. ). Burns and Stalker (1961) cited in Singh (2009) proposed that appropriate organizational structure depends on environmental factors.Co ulson-Thomas (1991) cited in Strachan (1996) argues that business organizational is increasingly face unprecedented change in social, economic, political and business environment. Burn and Stalker (1961) cited in McMillan (n. d. ) claims that an organization must match and follow with the rate of change in its environment if the organization want to reach a maximum performance or achieve their goals. The performance of an organization depend on how they construct their structure to align with the environment (Mintzberg, 1979 cited in Nandakumar , Ghobadian and O’Regan, 2010).An example that shows the change of technology that led to the changes of organizational structure, the manner of hardware and software development resulted in architectures evolving over time, at the same time organization structures developed special forms to suit and fit their specific environmental and strategic requirements (Mukherji, 2002). An effective structure or strategy can promotes competitive advantage to strengthen an organization performance (Oosthuizen, 1997 cited in Nandakumar , Ghobadian and O’Regan, 2010 ) .Besides, there are a wide range of structures given to an organization to choose whether which structure is appropriate to them and can align to the environmental factors that they face, they can choose the most few effective structure mixed that fix to their different environmental problem faced since there are no one universal structure that applied by all organization (Singh, 2009). However, when environment is change again no matter due to technological or political factor, organization need to aware that whether their structure now is consists with the changing of the environment.If their structure is not the best in current environment, then they need to revise their structure again to get the most productive outcome. Otherwise, the change of environment may either lead to some benefit or harms to the organization. Thevenet (1988) cited in Soparnot (2011) believe that the change of organizational structure is always beneficial. However, Soparnot (2005) cited in Soparnot (2011) argued that the changes of structure can destabilize organization and it is risky and costly.In an organization, if they are manage according to hierarchy structure, there are different level of manager and different opinion towards the change of the organization exist, different people have their own idea, each will suggest different idea and this will wasting time and resources to test for it. Walston and Chou (2011) said that the greater the differences between hierarchical perceptions, the inefficiency of the organization change and effort.Therefore, there are no any best constant structure of organization, because the environment is keep on changing, what an organization can do is only keep on changing that align with the environmental changes. Mechanistic System Mechanistic management system is consist of hierarchic structure of control, authority , specialization , differentiation and centralized decision making (Burns and Stalker, 1961). Hierarchical structure is commonly carry out in an organizational chart form.Organizational chart show us the management structure or hierarchical structure, how the organization manage according to different department, or specialization. During the mid 20th century there was a trend for organizations to create huge corporate structures, often composed of many varied and different businesses, for instance, the Hanson Trust, Unilever, Trafalgar House, and GNK in the UK and General Electric in the USA (Mabey, Salaman and Storey, 2001 cited in McMillan, (n. . ). Hales and Rabey (2011) held that a good management is consists of specific job for specific person, clear role definitions for each job, clear job specification and so on. It is talking about mechanic system of organizational structure. In the hierarchical structure, decisions are made by top level and task are delegated to different department manager of middle level, and these managers will make sure the workers under them is kept in line with them (Hales and Rabey, 2011).Since that are not a teamwork which they do not share common interest but they need to do more than the person who make decision and thus make them do not have any motivation to do their best or produce the best idea. This may occur because everyone have different perceptions. As mentioned earlier, the greater difference between hierarchical perception, the inefficiency of the effort (Walston and Chou, 2011). When everyone have their own perception, but decision is not made by them, conflict will occur.Conflict usually occur in relation to decision and sometimes it may lead to threat (Beckhard and Dyer, 1983 cited in Frank et al. , 2011). Decision making of hierarchical structure is also a waste of time since there are different level in the organization, decision making need to go through from low to middle and the top, it take time and wast e of resources, when there are something happen between the level of authority, it need even more time than usual. Wang and Ahmed (2003) cited in Kulmala and Uusi-Rauva (2005) highlight organizational structure influence its decision making and the internal processes.Employees in an organization should not wait for manager comments or negotiations for organization sake (Kuitunen et al, 1999 cited in Kulmala and Uusi-Rauva, 2005). In order to reduce the conflict of decision making of the hierarchical structure and waste of time, the changes of this hierarchical structure is needed. Burns and Stalker (1961) highlight that in organic system, position in an organization is differentiated by the expertise, whoever have greater expertise can lead the team and he or she will have the best authority.For mechanistic system, people who control the organization is according to standardization of skill, it is control by the person who have undergone extensive training and socialization (Friedso n, 1970 cited in Abernethy and Stoelwinder, n. d. ). Burns and Stalker (1961) claims that the position of the leader is settled by consensus via voting in an organic system. When the position of the leader is agreed by voting, then it may consider fair because there are no any conflict of interest exist. However, for mechanistic system, position of the manager is the decision of the top level management.When the position of the leader is decided by the top level management people, there are inequality exists. Guy (1999) highlight that the increase of earnings inequality from the late 1970s until now is due to changes of organizational structure. When the decision is not reach the consensus of all but just solely based on the top level management, it seems like it is unfair. The top level may choose the one that is beneficial to him or her and promotes him or her to get higher position and this is not agreed by all. Organic SystemHence, Covin and Slevin(1990) cited in Altinay and Alt inay (2004) claims that organization often decentralize decision making authority, minimize the hierarchical structure and adopt free flow communication channels to make sure organization achieved higher performance. When talk about decentralization, actually it is talking about organic management system, Burns and Stalker(1961) said that organic management system is appropriate to the changing of environment, he describe organic management system as a network structure of control ,authority and communication, there are not alking about responsibilities of a person, but the responsible of the people in the network. Therefore, It is just like a team that achieve the same goals. However, the claimant that organization need to decentralize decision making was argued by Shields and Shields (1998) cited in Subramaniam and Mia (2001), said that not all managers accept the decentralization of organization structure because it will make outcomes of job unfavorable related such as low job sa tisfaction. For example, as what we have study now, we are choosing courses of education according to our interest.It is also the same as career, we will choose our job according to what we studied or what we like, if decentralize means that they are all working together without departmentalize, then we might need to do the job that we do not like and make us do not have the feeling of satisfaction when rushing for the work. Conclusion In conclusion, organizational structure is not fixed, it is not constant as all organization is using the same structure and monitor their work of organization.There will be no consensus on one particular structure of organization and thus make the organizational structure do not fixed. Actually, each structure will show their good and bad, when the structure is align with the change of environment or the structure is reach the consensus of all and thus achieve higher performance of organization, then this structure is consider as good. However, when the environment is change again , and people no longer agree on this structure, then this structure is no longer applicable , if this structure is insist in using, then it may bring harm to organization.Hence, there is no the best or the smartest structure for an organization (Mintzberg, 1979 cited in Wang and Ahmed, 2002). When the environment of the organization change, the structure of the organization also change according to the environment, this dynamism of the organization structure makes the organization do not have a fixed or constant strucuture (Martinsons & Martinsons, 1994 cited in Wang and Ahmed, 2002). No matter organic or mechanistic management system, as long as it is an effective structure that align with the environment, it will lead he organization to achieve superior performance. Organization structure do not fixed because mechanistic management system is applicable in some situation or organic management system is suitable in some situation or mixed of these two management system is necessary for some situation. In details, an organization can mixed the centralization and decentralization by apply both in their structure. Decentralization can motivate employees to enable them showing out their creative and innovative but not stop by top level manager.At the same time, some others part can be centralize to make sure employees follow the rules and regulation because some decision if freely make by employees on their own may create troublesome such as financing and investing decision. Hence, structure cannot fixed on whether it is centralization or decentralization (Buchanan and huczynski, 2010). Therefore, we cannot say that which structure is the best structure for organization because each of these structures play their own roles in different environmental changes. (2092 words) Bibliography: 1. Abernethy M. A. nd Stoelwinder, J. U. (n. d) â€Å"The relationship between organization structure and management control in hospitals: An elabora tion and test of Mintzberg’s professional bureaucracy model†, pp. 18-33. 2. Altinay, L. and Altinay, M. (2004) â€Å"The influence of organisational structure on entrepreneurial orientation and expansion performance†, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(6), pp. 334-344. 3. Burnes, B. (1996) â€Å"No such thing as †¦ a â€Å"one best way† to manage organizational change’, Management Decision, 34/10, pp. 11-18. 4. Burns, T. and Stalker, G.M. (1961) â€Å"The management of innovation†, London: Tavistock, pp. 103-108. 5. Child, J. (n. d) â€Å"Organizational strucuture, environment and performance: The role of strategic choice†, Sage Social Science Collections. 6. Frank, M. , Kessler, A. , Nose, L. , Suchy, D. (2011) â€Å"Conflicts in family firms: state of the art and perspectives for future research†, Journal of Family Business Management, 1(2), pp. 130-153. 7. Hales, S. and Rabey, G. (2011) â⠂¬Å"The frontline manager: fronting up to organisational change†, Industrial and Commercial Trainning, 43(6), pp. 368-376. 8. Knights, D. nd Willmott, H. (2007) Introducing organizational behaviour and management, South-Western Cengage Learning. 9. Kulmala, H. I. and Uusi-Rauva, E. (2005) â€Å"Network as a business environment: experiences from software industry†, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 10/3, pp. 169-178. 10. McMillan, E. (n. d. ) â€Å"Considering organization structure and design from a complexity paradigm perspective†, Open University. 11. Mukherji, A. (2002) â€Å"The evolution of information systems: their impact on organizations and structures†, Management Decision, 40/5, pp. 497-507. 12.Nandakumar, M. K. , Ghobadian, A. , O’Regan, N. (2010) â€Å"Business-level strategy and Performance: The moderating effects of environment and structure†, Management Decision, 48(6), pp. 907-939. 13. Singh, S. K. (2009) â⠂¬Å"Structuring organizations across industries in India†, Management Research News, 32(10), pp. 953-969. 14. Singh, S. K. (2009) â€Å"Structuring organizations across industries in India†, Management Research News, 32(10), pp. 953-969. 15. Smith, I. (2011) â€Å"Organisational quality and organisational change: Interconnecting paths to effectiveness†, Library Management, 32(1/2), pp. 11-128. 16. Strachan, P. A. (1996) â€Å"Managing transformational change: the learning organization and teamworking†, Team Performance Management: An International Journal, (2)2, pp. 32-40. 17. Subramaniam, N. and Mia, L. (2001) â€Å"The relation between decentralised structure, budgetary participation and organisational commitment: The moderating role of managers' value orientation towards innovation†, Accounting, Auditing ; Accountability Journal, 14(1), pp. 12-29. 18. Walston, S. and Chou, A. 2011) â€Å"CEO perceptions of organizational consensus and its impact on hospital restructuring outcomes†, Journal of Health Organization and Management, 25(2), pp. 176-194. 19. Wang, L. and Ahmed, P. K. (2002) â€Å"The Informal Structure: Hidden energies within the organization†, University of Wolverhampton, UK. 20. Guy, F. (1999) â€Å"Information technology, organization structure, and earnings inequality†, Birkbeck College, Malet St. 21. Buchanan D. A. and Huczynski, A. A. (2010) Organizational behaviour, Seventh edition, Pearson Education Limited. Organisation Behaviour Option 3: Evaluate the statement that ‘organisational structure reflects and reinforces an unrealistic view of human rationality (Knights & Willmott, 2007)’. Introduction: Different authors have different definition toward organizational structure. Mintzberg (1979) defines the organization structure is defined as ‘The sum total of the ways in which it divides its labour into distinct task and then achieves coordination between them’ (Mintzberg, 1979, p. cited in Knights and Willmott, 2007, p. 197). In simple words, organizational structure is talking about the structure of an organization, how a company categorise their workers or management to achieve their goals. Basically, organizational structure is talking about the management system that include organic and mechanistic management system. In an organization, there will be a lot of matters happened because of the organization structure.Hence, people keep discover different management structure to assist in organizational structure like Taylor and Ford that influence the organization structure by using scientific method to classified the work of an organization and control the achievement of the organization (Fayol, 1949; Taylor, 1911cited in Singh, 2009). Lewin (1958) cited in Burnes (1996) provided that the planned model that designed for the organizational change is the best model.However, is there any the best structure for organization? When we treat one structure as the best structure for organization, we must consider the factors that will make the structure no longer applicable. Environment is the important influences that we cannot ignore about. The unstable of environment led the organization structure keep on changing. One of the changes in the structure of organizational was from mechanistic management system to organic management system.Mechanistic and organic of organizational structure are two formally form of management system that applied in organizational structure (Burns and Stalker, 1961). As what Kulmala and Uusi-Rauva (2005) claims that competition was changing from firm level to network level, which means from centralisation to decentralisation. Changing Of Environment More than 2,000 years ago the Greek philosopher Heraclitus(536-470 BC) claims that everything was continuous keep on changing and there was nothing permanent (Smith, 2011).Organizational structure is also the same, there are no the best structure for an organization since the environment is keep on changing. ‘‘There is no one best way to organize’’ and ‘‘any ways of organizing are not equally effective’’ (Galbraith, 1973 cited in Singh, 2009, p. 954). Environment and organization are interdependent, they depend on each other between an organization (pugh et al. 1963 cited in Child, n. d. ). Burns and Stalker (1961) cited in Singh (2009) proposed that appropriate organizational structure depends on environmental factors.Co ulson-Thomas (1991) cited in Strachan (1996) argues that business organizational is increasingly face unprecedented change in social, economic, political and business environment. Burn and Stalker (1961) cited in McMillan (n. d. ) claims that an organization must match and follow with the rate of change in its environment if the organization want to reach a maximum performance or achieve their goals. The performance of an organization depend on how they construct their structure to align with the environment (Mintzberg, 1979 cited in Nandakumar , Ghobadian and O’Regan, 2010).An example that shows the change of technology that led to the changes of organizational structure, the manner of hardware and software development resulted in architectures evolving over time, at the same time organization structures developed special forms to suit and fit their specific environmental and strategic requirements (Mukherji, 2002). An effective structure or strategy can promotes competitive advantage to strengthen an organization performance (Oosthuizen, 1997 cited in Nandakumar , Ghobadian and O’Regan, 2010 ) .Besides, there are a wide range of structures given to an organization to choose whether which structure is appropriate to them and can align to the environmental factors that they face, they can choose the most few effective structure mixed that fix to their different environmental problem faced since there are no one universal structure that applied by all organization (Singh, 2009). However, when environment is change again no matter due to technological or political factor, organization need to aware that whether their structure now is consists with the changing of the environment.If their structure is not the best in current environment, then they need to revise their structure again to get the most productive outcome. Otherwise, the change of environment may either lead to some benefit or harms to the organization. Thevenet (1988) cited in Soparnot (2011) believe that the change of organizational structure is always beneficial. However, Soparnot (2005) cited in Soparnot (2011) argued that the changes of structure can destabilize organization and it is risky and costly.In an organization, if they are manage according to hierarchy structure, there are different level of manager and different opinion towards the change of the organization exist, different people have their own idea, each will suggest different idea and this will wasting time and resources to test for it. Walston and Chou (2011) said that the greater the differences between hierarchical perceptions, the inefficiency of the organization change and effort.Therefore, there are no any best constant structure of organization, because the environment is keep on changing, what an organization can do is only keep on changing that align with the environmental changes. Mechanistic System Mechanistic management system is consist of hierarchic structure of control, authority , specialization , differentiation and centralized decision making (Burns and Stalker, 1961). Hierarchical structure is commonly carry out in an organizational chart form.Organizational chart show us the management structure or hierarchical structure, how the organization manage according to different department, or specialization. During the mid 20th century there was a trend for organizations to create huge corporate structures, often composed of many varied and different businesses, for instance, the Hanson Trust, Unilever, Trafalgar House, and GNK in the UK and General Electric in the USA (Mabey, Salaman and Storey, 2001 cited in McMillan, (n. . ). Hales and Rabey (2011) held that a good management is consists of specific job for specific person, clear role definitions for each job, clear job specification and so on. It is talking about mechanic system of organizational structure. In the hierarchical structure, decisions are made by top level and task are delegated to different department manager of middle level, and these managers will make sure the workers under them is kept in line with them (Hales and Rabey, 2011).Since that are not a teamwork which they do not share common interest but they need to do more than the person who make decision and thus make them do not have any motivation to do their best or produce the best idea. This may occur because everyone have different perceptions. As mentioned earlier, the greater difference between hierarchical perception, the inefficiency of the effort (Walston and Chou, 2011). When everyone have their own perception, but decision is not made by them, conflict will occur.Conflict usually occur in relation to decision and sometimes it may lead to threat (Beckhard and Dyer, 1983 cited in Frank et al. , 2011). Decision making of hierarchical structure is also a waste of time since there are different level in the organization, decision making need to go through from low to middle and the top, it take time and wast e of resources, when there are something happen between the level of authority, it need even more time than usual. Wang and Ahmed (2003) cited in Kulmala and Uusi-Rauva (2005) highlight organizational structure influence its decision making and the internal processes.Employees in an organization should not wait for manager comments or negotiations for organization sake (Kuitunen et al, 1999 cited in Kulmala and Uusi-Rauva, 2005). In order to reduce the conflict of decision making of the hierarchical structure and waste of time, the changes of this hierarchical structure is needed. Burns and Stalker (1961) highlight that in organic system, position in an organization is differentiated by the expertise, whoever have greater expertise can lead the team and he or she will have the best authority.For mechanistic system, people who control the organization is according to standardization of skill, it is control by the person who have undergone extensive training and socialization (Friedso n, 1970 cited in Abernethy and Stoelwinder, n. d. ). Burns and Stalker (1961) claims that the position of the leader is settled by consensus via voting in an organic system. When the position of the leader is agreed by voting, then it may consider fair because there are no any conflict of interest exist. However, for mechanistic system, position of the manager is the decision of the top level management.When the position of the leader is decided by the top level management people, there are inequality exists. Guy (1999) highlight that the increase of earnings inequality from the late 1970s until now is due to changes of organizational structure. When the decision is not reach the consensus of all but just solely based on the top level management, it seems like it is unfair. The top level may choose the one that is beneficial to him or her and promotes him or her to get higher position and this is not agreed by all. Organic SystemHence, Covin and Slevin(1990) cited in Altinay and Alt inay (2004) claims that organization often decentralize decision making authority, minimize the hierarchical structure and adopt free flow communication channels to make sure organization achieved higher performance. When talk about decentralization, actually it is talking about organic management system, Burns and Stalker(1961) said that organic management system is appropriate to the changing of environment, he describe organic management system as a network structure of control ,authority and communication, there are not alking about responsibilities of a person, but the responsible of the people in the network. Therefore, It is just like a team that achieve the same goals. However, the claimant that organization need to decentralize decision making was argued by Shields and Shields (1998) cited in Subramaniam and Mia (2001), said that not all managers accept the decentralization of organization structure because it will make outcomes of job unfavorable related such as low job sa tisfaction. For example, as what we have study now, we are choosing courses of education according to our interest.It is also the same as career, we will choose our job according to what we studied or what we like, if decentralize means that they are all working together without departmentalize, then we might need to do the job that we do not like and make us do not have the feeling of satisfaction when rushing for the work. Conclusion In conclusion, organizational structure is not fixed, it is not constant as all organization is using the same structure and monitor their work of organization.There will be no consensus on one particular structure of organization and thus make the organizational structure do not fixed. Actually, each structure will show their good and bad, when the structure is align with the change of environment or the structure is reach the consensus of all and thus achieve higher performance of organization, then this structure is consider as good. However, when the environment is change again , and people no longer agree on this structure, then this structure is no longer applicable , if this structure is insist in using, then it may bring harm to organization.Hence, there is no the best or the smartest structure for an organization (Mintzberg, 1979 cited in Wang and Ahmed, 2002). When the environment of the organization change, the structure of the organization also change according to the environment, this dynamism of the organization structure makes the organization do not have a fixed or constant strucuture (Martinsons & Martinsons, 1994 cited in Wang and Ahmed, 2002). No matter organic or mechanistic management system, as long as it is an effective structure that align with the environment, it will lead he organization to achieve superior performance. Organization structure do not fixed because mechanistic management system is applicable in some situation or organic management system is suitable in some situation or mixed of these two management system is necessary for some situation. In details, an organization can mixed the centralization and decentralization by apply both in their structure. Decentralization can motivate employees to enable them showing out their creative and innovative but not stop by top level manager.At the same time, some others part can be centralize to make sure employees follow the rules and regulation because some decision if freely make by employees on their own may create troublesome such as financing and investing decision. Hence, structure cannot fixed on whether it is centralization or decentralization (Buchanan and huczynski, 2010). Therefore, we cannot say that which structure is the best structure for organization because each of these structures play their own roles in different environmental changes. (2092 words) Bibliography: 1. Abernethy M. A. nd Stoelwinder, J. U. (n. d) â€Å"The relationship between organization structure and management control in hospitals: An elabora tion and test of Mintzberg’s professional bureaucracy model†, pp. 18-33. 2. Altinay, L. and Altinay, M. (2004) â€Å"The influence of organisational structure on entrepreneurial orientation and expansion performance†, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(6), pp. 334-344. 3. Burnes, B. (1996) â€Å"No such thing as †¦ a â€Å"one best way† to manage organizational change’, Management Decision, 34/10, pp. 11-18. 4. Burns, T. and Stalker, G.M. (1961) â€Å"The management of innovation†, London: Tavistock, pp. 103-108. 5. Child, J. (n. d) â€Å"Organizational strucuture, environment and performance: The role of strategic choice†, Sage Social Science Collections. 6. Frank, M. , Kessler, A. , Nose, L. , Suchy, D. (2011) â€Å"Conflicts in family firms: state of the art and perspectives for future research†, Journal of Family Business Management, 1(2), pp. 130-153. 7. Hales, S. and Rabey, G. (2011) â⠂¬Å"The frontline manager: fronting up to organisational change†, Industrial and Commercial Trainning, 43(6), pp. 368-376. 8. Knights, D. nd Willmott, H. (2007) Introducing organizational behaviour and management, South-Western Cengage Learning. 9. Kulmala, H. I. and Uusi-Rauva, E. (2005) â€Å"Network as a business environment: experiences from software industry†, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 10/3, pp. 169-178. 10. McMillan, E. (n. d. ) â€Å"Considering organization structure and design from a complexity paradigm perspective†, Open University. 11. Mukherji, A. (2002) â€Å"The evolution of information systems: their impact on organizations and structures†, Management Decision, 40/5, pp. 497-507. 12.Nandakumar, M. K. , Ghobadian, A. , O’Regan, N. (2010) â€Å"Business-level strategy and Performance: The moderating effects of environment and structure†, Management Decision, 48(6), pp. 907-939. 13. Singh, S. K. (2009) â⠂¬Å"Structuring organizations across industries in India†, Management Research News, 32(10), pp. 953-969. 14. Singh, S. K. (2009) â€Å"Structuring organizations across industries in India†, Management Research News, 32(10), pp. 953-969. 15. Smith, I. (2011) â€Å"Organisational quality and organisational change: Interconnecting paths to effectiveness†, Library Management, 32(1/2), pp. 11-128. 16. Strachan, P. A. (1996) â€Å"Managing transformational change: the learning organization and teamworking†, Team Performance Management: An International Journal, (2)2, pp. 32-40. 17. Subramaniam, N. and Mia, L. (2001) â€Å"The relation between decentralised structure, budgetary participation and organisational commitment: The moderating role of managers' value orientation towards innovation†, Accounting, Auditing ; Accountability Journal, 14(1), pp. 12-29. 18. Walston, S. and Chou, A. 2011) â€Å"CEO perceptions of organizational consensus and its impact on hospital restructuring outcomes†, Journal of Health Organization and Management, 25(2), pp. 176-194. 19. Wang, L. and Ahmed, P. K. (2002) â€Å"The Informal Structure: Hidden energies within the organization†, University of Wolverhampton, UK. 20. Guy, F. (1999) â€Å"Information technology, organization structure, and earnings inequality†, Birkbeck College, Malet St. 21. Buchanan D. A. and Huczynski, A. A. (2010) Organizational behaviour, Seventh edition, Pearson Education Limited.

Dish Washing

Dish Washing I walk into the restaurant Red Robin, wait for my name to be called by the host and sit down in a booth with comfortable red seats. All of a sudden a man sits next to me wearing an apron soaking with water, wiping sweat from his face. It's my brother, Zachary Walsh. Zach states â€Å" Man, I hate Saturday nights, too damn busy! †. What was Zach doing? Zach is a dish machine operator, or in restaurant terms, a DMO. Washing dishes you say, that sounds easy! I am afraid not my friends. Washing dishes is one of the most under appreciated jobs. Just ask the manager him self, who by the way is my Uncle.My Uncle states, â€Å" If it wasn't for the DMO this place would be a **** whole. DMO's work their *** off and their the ones who keep things running behind the scenes. † With only a thirty minute break from washing dishes, I thank my brother for taking this time to answer questions because I know he would much rather be doing other things. Things like enjoying hi s food, staying hydrated and getting his mind off washing dishes. My brother is a good guy and that's a good thing for Red Robin because the DMO's do the most work for the smallest pay. Here at Red Robin, the DMO's are the bottom of totem pole.They usually get no breaks, the only time they do is if they work a double, they get paid the least and have to be stuck in the back of the kitchen where they cannot really talk to any one. â€Å" It was the worst thing I've ever done when I first started, but honestly you get use to it and after a while you start making friends. Luckily for me, Red Robin is a great environment and everyone is pretty chill. † Zach says, smiling, probably thinking back on all the days he use to come home and complain and threaten to quit. As stated before, a life of a DMO is not an easy one.For the most part of this interview, Zach was calm, but when he talked about what a DMO does, he got intense telling what they do. â€Å" I hate it, when I tell peop le I'm a DMO they usually just laugh. People do not understand that I have to wash tons of dishes and then after you put those dishes in the machine to wash, you have to go put the cleans ones away and usually you have to walk all the way across the kitchen to do this. When you have to put the dishes away, more dishes keep on coming in and this leads to a build up of plates and other things that you have to wash and it sucks!Luckily, the other staff understands Zach's job and they are usually nice about it. The key word there though.. † he pauses, and looks back to what seems to be the front of the kitchen and finishes â€Å" is usually. † Washing dishes gets Zach paid nine dollars an hour. Zach's been working at Red Robin for a year and half now and still has not gotten a raise. Zach says he is the lowest paid person there who has been working at Red Robin for over a year. The worst part about the hard working jobs at restaurants and farms is these types of jobs get pa id the least even though they are doing the most work.At the same time, the person taking these jobs know this information before they get employed. In tough times like the one we are living in today, people will take any job they can get. Zach has recently just graduated from college and obviously needs to pay off those college loans. Being a DMO is not going to pay those loans off but it is a start. â€Å" I needed a job out of college right away and this was the only one I could find. It sucks but you got to do what you got to do. Before giving you the job they tell you it's a sucky job and that you are going to hate it and I kind of took that as a challenge. As Zach goes to get a cup of water, my Uncle sits next to me and asks me what I was here for again. I explain to him the assignment and he sits there for a second to think. As Zach is coming back from getting water, my Uncle says, â€Å" Zach is the hardest working kid I have ever seen at Red Robin. He does the dirtiest jo b and never complains about it. We are sure damn lucky to have him or we most likely be screwed. † As he hits Zach in the shoulder and gets up so Zach can sit down again.Zach smiles, and even though he knows he is doing a job that does not get any credit at all, he feels proud knowing he's made someone proud and most importantly, a family member proud. Zach's break is over and my Uncle allows me to go back to the kitchen with Zach as long as I do not get in the way. The DMO area is a messy one to say the least. With dishes all over the place, stains on the wall, water all over the floor, it is no wonder why people do not want this job. Zach can tell from the expression on my face that I was shocked to see the place so messy. â€Å" I told you our Uncle wasn't lying about it being a crappy job.This is actually clean compared to most Saturday nights, you should have seen last weeks mess, the place was flooded and the water was up to my ankles. And guess who had to take care of the problem? Yeah that's right, me! † This place really did feel like the worst job ever. Along with washing dishes and putting them away, DMO's had to do other tiny messy jobs in between washing dishes. DMO's had to take out the trash when it was full, clean the bathrooms if there was a flood, clean up spills made by costumers because the waitress or waiters were to â€Å"busy† and the worst one, clean throw up.To do this and clean dishes takes a very hard working kid or man to do. And luckily for Red Robin, they had there guy. â€Å"One time this group of about ten baseball players come in and two stupid clowns tried to see who could eat the most. Needless to say one of them threw up all over the place and I had to clean it up. The most embarrassing part was they were in their late thirties, most likely in a softball league. † On a typical Saturday night at Red Robin, there would be two DMO's. So why was Zach the only one on that night? Because people are lazy. † Zach laughs at his own joke and states â€Å" actually I'm just kidding, I would probably quit if I could. Plus I couldn't give up on your Uncle. He gave me the job in the first place. † My brother shows me his hands and they are very pruny from working with the water and the soap. During the winter, when his hands would dry from being pruny, they would often crack and sometimes even bleed. This is all the norm when it comes to washing dishes, but people never see the little things that come in to play to make a restaurant run.Another terrible part about Zach's job is closing. Who ever is the DMO that night is usually the last one to leave the restaurant, along with the manager. The DMO has to clean every last dish and also help put them away. Out side there are around ten to fifteen trash bags filled with disgusting food and other restaurant supplies that have to be walked across the parking lot and into the dumpster. â€Å" Then when you are all set to go home and you get into your car, you realize you smell so bad and cannot wait to take a shower.Man, that shower feels great every night! † As I'm about to leave Red Robin, one of the waiters shouts to the back of the kitchen â€Å" Hey Zach, can you clean up table 83? A baby just knocked down a glass of beer. I would pick it up but I got so many tables tonight. † After Zach hears the question, it seems like he does not even listen to the waiters excuse. Right away he stops washing dishes and grabs the mop and heads to clean up the mess. â€Å"Yup, you got to love being a DMO† he says in a sarcastic tone and walks away, going to do his job.