Strategic Communication MIT Sloan Management

Question: Discuss about the Strategic Communication MIT Sloan Management. Answer: Introduction: The importance of strategic communication in the day-to-day operation of business activities cannot be overemphasized. It should be remembered that it is strategic communication alone that helps the employees comprehend the goals and strategies of the organization, and work towards accomplishing the same. However, in order to assess and critically analyze the importance of strategic communication in business, a number of peer-reviewed journal articles have been considered and evaluated here (Thomas Stephens, 2015). Importance of Strategic Communication from the Perspective of the Organization: In the article named, The Strategic Communication Imperative, the authors point out the importance of strategic communication by claiming it as the most effective method of ensuring organizational success (Argenti et al., 2015). While a change in organizational structure or a new target is to be introduced, the CEO or other senior managers must introduce the change by communicating the long-term goals of the company and aligning the short-term benefits of the employees with the same. Thus, if a company wants to increase its share of profitability in the next six months, through strategic communication, it will communicate the goal of the company while also announce financial incentives, like bonuses and salary hike for employees achieving the same. The author states: Strategic communication means functional integration, and this clearly suggests how strategic communication helps an organization achieve its goals in an effective way, while as it largely helps in aligning the goals of the company with the personal benefits and interests of each individual employee. This in turn ensures greater chances of success. Importance of Strategic Communication from the Perspective of the Employees: Unlike the first article, the article named Towards Responsible Dialogue: Searching for the Missing Piece of Strategic Employee Communication, the authors claim that strategic communication is needed not only to ensure that the business message is being communicated from the top layer of management to the grassroots level, but it also helps in motivating the employees (Juholin et al., 2015). As and when an organization communicates its strategies to the employees, the employees start feeling motivated and empowered. It gives them the freedom to question the managerial decision or even offer personal recommendation that in turn facilitates the constructive criticism. The author states: It allows raising questions, to challenge and to disagree but also disallows not to share information and observations, nor to keep quiet when issues should be brought up. It allows to constructive criticism, i.e., suggesting solutions which not only benefits the organization but also motivates the empl oyees. As a result of strategic communication, the employees feel motivated as it enables them to be actively involved in managerial decisions, and this helps in developing employee-employer relation as well. Importance of Strategic Communication during Organizational Crisis: In the article The Value of Communication during a Crisis: Insights from Strategic Communication Research, the authors claim that strategic communication also plays a highly important role during times of crisis. In case of financial or legal crisis, the strategic communication helps an organization communicate with its external and internal stakeholders, and this helps in loyalty and trust of the employees or shareholders towards the company- Adjusting information includes efforts to help stakeholders cope psychologically with a crisis (Coombs, 2015). Conclusion: As it is evident from the above discussion, strategic communication does help a company achieve organizational goals by improving relationship with the shareholders, empowering the employees and allowing a free flow of communication. However, a systematically organized method of communication should be followed at regular periodical intervals, so as to ensure organizational success of the respective company. Reference List: Argenti, P. A., Howell, R. A., Beck, K. A. (2005). The strategic communication imperative.MIT Sloan management review,46(3), 83. Coombs, W. T. (2015). The value of communication during a crisis: Insights from strategic communication research.Business Horizons,58(2), 141-148. Juholin, E., berg, L., Aula, P. (2015). Towards responsible dialogue: Searching for the missing piece of strategic employee communication.Communication ethics in a connected world. Brussels: Peter Lang. Thomas, G. F., Stephens, K. J. (2015). An introduction to strategic communication.

Term Culture an Example of the Topic Arts Essays by

Term Culture Culture is part of a set of ideas that defines society. The current state of affairs puts premium on what is visual. The popularity of television, internet, and billboards utilizes the appeal of images to transmit messages. In studying visual culture, it would be difficult to separate it from the dilemma of what is real and what is not, especially in this period, which scholars and even ordinary observers refer to as postmodernity. Need essay sample on "Term "Culture"" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed What is postmodernity, and what does it have to do with culture? Postmodernity poses the assumption that a view is not more or less valid than another view. Characterized by exhaustion, pessimism and irrationality (Ward, 2003, p. 9), a postmodern society defies the existence of any universal truth, and to some extent, seeks to establish the extinction of 'what is real'. Let me first discuss the three prevalent ways of using the term 'culture' according to Downing (2003). The first way associates culture with arts, thus using the term 'high culture'. A 'cultured person' is someone who is well aware of specific arts of ballet, opera, theatre, sculpture, or paintings among others, that they enjoy themselves with these. The second way by social scientists offers a broader concept of culture. They perceive culture as everything we do in our lives from what we eat for breakfast to how we perceive death, or from why we surf the net, to where we invest our money. Lastly, national and ethnic definitions of culture tend to generalize the qualities of a nation or people, as in American culture, Asian culture, or French-Canadian culture. The first and second way, narrow and broad, respectively, share a common feature of focusing on products such as arts, and activities. The third way by contrast, refers to ways of understanding the world, or perspectives on the meaning of life. For example, conservative Asian nations value female virginity as a gift of complete faithfulness towards a husband, while most Western nations value individual control of one's sexual actions. Until now, there is no single, agreed-upon definition of what culture is. The reason lies on the interconnectedness of societal aspects. Culture is an effect and affects the underlying set of ideas prevailing in a society. One way of understanding culture as an interactive, changing process, is through the study of signs, known as semiology or semiotics. Originally, Semiotics examined patterns of communication rather than specific content or messages, much in the same way a specialist in linguistics might study the grammar and structure of languages without focusing on the meaning of a given sentence or word. For example, Russian writer Vladimir Propp argues that thousands of folktales and fairy tales can be reduced to a few basic storylines. Apart from being intriguing, Propp work is important because it suggests that what is communicated in a folktaleand currently in soap operais not just the specific details of the content. Then, the form and the underlying structure cultural prod ucts also appeals to the audience. The founders of semiology thought they were mapping the inherent structures of the human mind, and unearthing human fundamentals of what are good and bad. Nowadays, however, today, it is only used as a tool of analysis that must be supplemented by historical and political researches. Most analysts now agree that signs should be properly put into context. For example, the identification of American Negroes as villains in old movies rests upon a particular value system, namely white racism. But is the value of semiotics overestimated, or the times simply have changed? This question leads us back to postmodernism. Some of our postmodern forerunners spoke about society entering a new phase. They claimed that we were in a historical period with unique features that distinguished it from any other time in history. The word 'postmodernism' itself suggests that it comes after 'modern' times, or what they tagged as Modern Age. The exact character of this age, as well as the precise dates of its beginning and end, has been described in different ways by historians, but it is of ten associated with faith in progress, optimism, rationality, the search for absolute knowledge in science, technology, society, and politics, and the idea that gaining knowledge of the 'true self' was the only foundation for all other knowledge (Ward, 2003, p. 9). Modernity is also known as the Age of Reason (or Enlightenment). As modernity intensifies, overlapping developments created new perspectives to the point of diversification of ideals. In this time of globalization, the characteristics of modernity had declined, but it could also be said that postmodernism is the latest point of progress. Postmodernism celebrates the erosion of conventional distinctions between high and low culture; fascination with how our lives seem increasingly dominated by visual media; a questioning of ideas about meaning and communication, and about how signs refer to the world; a sense that definitions of human identity are changing, or ought to change; and skepticism about the stories we tell to explain 'the human race', and about the idea of progress. Let me illustrate how postmodernism came to be an erosion of conventional distinctions between high and low culture, and a fascination of visual media. During the early stages of modernity, the rapid spread of industrialization was pushing and pulling farmers off the land into factories in bigger cities, and in the process uprooting many traditional ways of life. Conservative-minded observers feared that the old order was in terminal decay, an order they often viewed through very rosy spectacles, where (as they saw it) the well-bred aristocrats ran everything for everyone else's benefit and the poorest pig herdsman was humbly grateful, along with his wife and children. In its place they saw the rise of a new class of factory worker, disconnected from the land and these traditional ties. They lamented the disappearance of the old culture, under threat of being trodden under foot by the new, truculent working class. They believed the arts would be destroyed by the extension of democracy to these lower ordersand thus was developed the notion of high culture in the arts. Social life gradually became faster and more complex than it was in modernity. More and more demands and roles are placed on each individual, not just familial relation. In opposition to high culture emerged a collection of identities to signify the cultural preferences of a more general public known as pop culture. Examples from the United States include musical forms such as jazz, soul, gospel, and blues, which represent the crucibles of American Negro experiences. Downing (2003) differentiates pop culture from mass culture. The latter consists of cultural expressions generated by big businesses simply and solely to advance the bottom line. The intimate connection between culture and power is never far beneath the surface. Take, for instance, the question of personal appearance and dress. During centuries of the Chinese Ming dynasty, the Manchu conquerors who created the dynasty forced all Chinese men to wear their hair in a pigtail as a cultural symbol of their conquered status. Or consider the demand of Muslim fundamentalists in some countries that women should wear veils, although the veil is found nowhere in the Koran, the holy book of Islam, and is not worn by Muslim women in a number of other countries. This seems a case of traditional masculine power over everyday culture and communication, controlling women and signifying their subordinate status. The effects of consumerism and technological innovations have implied that there are a variety of identities to choose and frame our lives with. In place of the earnest modernist search for the deep, authentic self, we have recognition, and sometimes a celebration, of disintegration, fragmented desires, superficiality, and identity as something to shop for. As a result, there is a struggle for cultural capital, a term coined by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1984). Upper-middle class professionals, use certain kinds of cultural awareness, and information both to maintain their socioeconomic status, and to pass it to their children. Parents endow through museum and cathedral visits, materials of literature and music, exposure to adult discussions of art and politics, and use of the latest gadgets. They hope that these investments will give their children the ability to land on executive careers through versatility and networking. These valued skills take a long time to develop, a nd possession of such cultures is an edge. Lower middle class and working classes may want to achieve cultural capital as well, but they will find it harder to achieve. They don't have the time and the resources. Some will blame themselves; others will simply dismiss these cultures as pretentious. Nevertheless, this is the essence of postmodernism. As Jean Baudrillard (1994) suggests, all representations has saturated reality to such an extent that we experience the world only through a filter of preconceptions and expectations fabricated in advance by a culture swamped by images. BIBLIOGRAPHY Downing, J. Mohammadi A. and Screberny-Mohammadi A, eds. (1995) Questioning the Media: A Critical Introduction. 2nd ed. CA, Sage. Ward, G. (2003) Teach Yourself Postmodernism. 2nd ed. London, Hodder and Stoughton. Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: a Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Baudrillard, J. (1994) Simulacra and Simulations. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press.

Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong free essay sample

Close your eyes and imagine a backdrop of densely packed trees in shades of olive and emerald green, a military supply helicopter on the helipad, blades swooshing around stirring up dust, and out steps a beautiful, young, blonde girl. Right in the middle of war-torn Vietnam, at the Tra Bong outpost, Mary Anne Bell arrives at the request of her boyfriend. When first reading â€Å"Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,† by Tim O’Brien, one might believe it is a love story turned sour, but on closer inspection, it is apparent that this story is about much more than that. This story is about the loss of innocence, personal evolution, and the attempt to define one’s self. A bit tired and out-of-place, a young Mary Anne steps off a helicopter and into Nam. A war is raging beyond the concertina wire, and she is oblivious to the enormous magnitude of the situation. We will write a custom essay sample on Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Mary Anne is a naive, barely 17 year old girl. She is cheerful, wide-eyed, and inquisitive all rolled up into one bundle. She is fresh out of high school with no life experience and no idea of how the world works; how it can tilt and sour one’s perspective. In the beginning, Mary Anne is very fascinated by the country, the culture, and the people. She sees Nam through untainted curious eyes, wanting to experience the customs and feel the culture. She probes the soldiers at the outpost with many questions and listens intently to their answers, consuming all the information given. She learns about claymore mines, trip wires, how to assemble and disassemble an M-16 machine gun, as well as how to cook over a can of Sterno. Like a sponge, she soaks up all the knowledge. She even learns the language; her thought is to take advantage of her situation and learn as much as possible while in Nam. Believing that the locals are safe, ordinary people, Mary Ann wants to venture to a close-by village to interact with them. This shows just how wet behind the ears she is; Mary Anne does not see the threat or danger in heractions, â€Å"It did not impress her that the VC owned the place† (OBrien 214). Some of the other soldiers were impressed with her courage, but not so much with her intelligence. The NCO of the outpost, Eddie Diamond described her best as â€Å"D-cup guts, trainer bra brains† (OBrien 215). However, Eddie knew that eventually she would learn the cold, hard truth like everyone else, and it would change her forever. Rat Riley, one of the medics at the outpost and new friend of Mary Anne’s, makes a direct comparison between her, him, and others, â€Å"†¦like you and me. A girl that’s the only difference† he declared, â€Å"†¦when we first got here all of us we were real young and innocent, full of romantic bullshit, but we learned pretty damn quick† (OBrien 215). Mary Anne would learn as well, she would lose the innocence that came with ignorance of the truth. The change was slow and murky to the untrained eye, but there it was, the progression from a pure untainted soul to one that had fallen into a dark abyss. It started with small things, the lack of emotion when dealing with injured soldiers, all the blood and guts. Not being the least bit frightened or put off by what she was seeing, Mary Anne would jump right into the middle of all the gore. â€Å"In times of action her face took on a sudden new composure, almost serene†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (OBrien 217). A new and different person was immerging; the young, innocent, bubbly, wideeyed girl was disappearing. There were other subtle changes showing how Mary Anne was becoming one of the guys. Just like the men, she cut her beautiful blonde hair short and wrapped her head in an army issue green bandanna to blend in. Gone were the small things that made her Mary Anne-her make-up, taking care of her fingernails, jewelry, and â€Å"hygiene became a matter of small consequence† (OBrien 216). It was, by pure design of nature, she had to adapt to the environment to survive. The softness as well as her exuberance were gone and replaced by rigidity and indifference. She no longer engages in activates with the others, instead; she stares intently into the dark jungle with a look of contentment on her face. Nam was claiming her, sucking her into the abyss. Mary Anne starts going out on patrol in the jungle with the â€Å"Greenies†, the Green Beret soldiers. Eventually, she becomes so comfortable with her surroundings that she ventures out on her own. Mary Anne makes the final transition; the innocent girl disappears within the new person she has become. She is now a war-born soldier. Now, there is no trace of the young girl who stepped out of the helicopter and into Nam for the first time. The girl joined the zoo† Mary Anne became just another animal in the vast Nam jungle (OBrien 221). The naive, innocent girl was gone; she vanished into the shadows. Mary Anne found her true self and was perfectly at peace. The wilderness succeeded in drawing her in, changing her, and making her part of the earth. Mary Anne wants â€Å"†¦to eat this place. Vietnam. I want to swallow the whole country-the dirt, the death-I just want to eat it and have it there inside me† she adds â€Å"I get scared sometimes-lots of times-but it’s not bad. You know? I feel close to myself† (OBrien 223). Perhaps for Mary Anne, she found something that was lurking deep inside her prior to arriving in Nam. Maybe Nam just expedited digging that part of her out. Mary Anne was alive, full of electricity, â€Å"perfectly at peace with herself† she explains â€Å"because I know exactly who I am† (OBrien 223). â€Å"Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,† shows us all that no one can survive a war and walk away unscathed by it. One can never return the same person that went over to another country on a mission that involved killing. Rat Riley describes it best, â€Å"you come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it’s never the same† (OBrien 225). This story is not about Mary Anne Bell, but about what she embodies. She personifies all the young, inexperienced boys that went to Vietnam and their stories. Mary Anne represents the loss of purity in the many young men that went by choice or by force to a foreign land. Nam devoured their souls transforming them forever, as if the very country cried out for a piece of them as payment for damages rendered. Nam claimed its price of those that trampled on her soil. Some young men may have found their inner killer and like Mary Anne did in the end, they became content. But on the other hand, many others were forced to become something alien just to endure the war. These are the souls that returned tortured. Oh my soul that I should weep for I no longer close my eyes and find innocent sleep. These haunted souls look in a mirror and ask, â€Å"Who am I? † Perhaps on some days, they see a glimmer of the person they once were when they were young and innocent. Works Cited OBrien, Tim. Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. World Views Classic and Contemporary Readings. Ed. Macy, et al Felty. 6th. Boston: Pearson, 2010. 210-226.

The Last Stand

In his book, The Last Stand, David Harris vividly documents the events leading up to, and directly following, the hostile takeover of Pacific Lumber. Harris presents the heartrending story of a logging company whose noble ideals were corrupted by the sudden influx of greed. Prior to Charles Hurwitzs company Maxxam gaining control, Pacific Lumber viewed the principles of selective cut and sustainable yield as practically sacred. Afterwards the company reversed these policies that had become almost synonymous with its name, solely for the purpose of maximizing profit. While some might argue that the reversal of these policies, and the transition to modern forestry was inevitable, this viewpoint is extremely fallible. The basic principles of selective cut and sustainable yield are in utter opposition to everything that the logging industry has come to represent over the course of the last century. PL was a different kind of logging company. Selective cutting, a policy first set forth by Albert Stanwood Murphy, meant PL cut a maximum of 70 percent of the mature trees in a stand (Harris, page 16). PLs practice was such a drastic change from the industry standard of leaving hillsides completely barren that, it was often difficult for the untrained observer to realize... that the companys selectively cut acreage had even been touched (pages, 16-17). Sustainable yield, another Albert Murphy implementation, also represented a striking difference between how PL and the rest of the industry did business. While many companies would routinely cut all of their timber and promptly go out of business, PLs annual cut would always be limited and never exceed its timberlands new growth (page ! 17). This way, year after year PLs gross amount of board feet would never decline. PL could continue this mode of production indefinitely....

Can social media act as a platform for counter hegemony Research Paper

Can social media act as a platform for counter hegemony - Research Paper Example Social media channels did not cause uprising but played a significant role in sharing information. This paper seeks to discuss the primary role performed by social media during the 2011 Egyptian revolution (Attia, Assaf, El, Kaldas, Mo, & El-Shazly, 2011). It will explore the question whether the social media acted as a platform for counter hegemony. Finally, it will analyze theories discussing the linkage between social media and power, and how social media challenged the authority of Mubarak. Discussion Social media acts as the XXI century pamphlet, a way that individuals who are frustrated and unsatisfied with the status quo can plan and organize themselves and stage or coordinate protest. There are various theories that discuss the relationship between social media and power, for example, Antonio Gramsci and Marxism theory. Hegemony is a term that emanated from Karl Marx writing. It was intellectualized by a Marxist social philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, who lived in Italy. Gramsci subscribed to Marxist idea of the historical dialectic. This implies that based on the classic Marxist theories, communities or societies must change over time from oppressive systems of the economy to highly liberating ones till the society finally attains the Utopian communism state (Sowers & Toensing, 2012). Marx asserted that capitalism was a subordinate system of economy because of the unequal wealth and power distribution among the few powerful individuals. Moreover, he argued that ultimately, the capitalism would be overthrown by the masses and shift to the system that is less oppressive. Gramsci employs â€Å"hegemony† to theorize the fundamental condition for effective overthrow of both the powerful (bourgeoisie) by the proletariat (ruled) and its allies (for instance, the peasantry), and the bourgeois power structures in the Western European states during XIX and XX century. Gramsci’s â€Å"hegemony† is the process of intellectual and moral leadership in which subordinate or dominated classes of post 1870 Western European industrial nations consent to their own suppression by the powerful classes, rather than being coerced or forced into accepting inferior ranks. According to Gramsci, hegemony is a form of control practiced by a dominant or powerful group. In the Marxist idea of a group dominating production means; Gramsci uses â€Å"essential group† to represent the â€Å"ruling class† (Terryn, 2011). For him, the Western European nations dominant class represented the bourgeoisie, who according to the Communist Manifesto are â€Å"the class or group of modern Capitalists, wage labour employers and the owners social production means, whereas, the vital subordinate class represented the proletariat, â€Å"the group of modern wage-laborers, without means personal production means, and thus, must sell their labour power to survive. Gramsci’s hegemony use can only be realized in the light of some of the conce pts he established and those of the Civil Society and the state. Gramsci argues that media promotes powerful or dominant powers structures in his broadly used hegemony theory. In media studies, the term hegemony is defined as ways in which media motivates individuals to consent to the status quo structures of power. In the case of the Egyptian revolution, Gramsci and Marxism theory reveals that the authoritarian leadership did their best to block and cut Internet access by the mass. Unfortunately, despite their efforts,

Business law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Business law - Essay Example In public law, the government may either be implicated openly or not. Law is referred to as a private law when the government is not implicated in any way. This paper describes the differences and comparison between private law and public law. Differences between public law and private law There are a lot of differences between private law and public law. It is important to posit that all the descriptions established to define private law leaves out the government. The government is only involved in private law as an intermediary, negotiator, or the judge. The role of the government in public law differs from that of private law. In public law, the government is involved in a case as both the judge and the either complainant or the accused (Kelsen, 2009). There are other significant dissimilarities. Private law is essentially and fundamentally centralized rules and regulations. In contrast, public law is created and implemented by the government. Whereas private law may be similar in many regions, public law only has jurisdiction within the country it was created. However, there are some few private laws that do not fall under centralized rules and regulations on the basis of business. The statutes under public laws and regulations obligatory and compulsory hence are ought to be obeyed by individuals of the particular country they were created. They are also under the prudence of institutions in leadership in a country. According to Kelsen (2009, p. 202), â€Å"As a rule private law provisions are at the disposal of parties and can be derogated from, amended or waived by mutual contractual agreements†. In private law, conformity and obedience of the law is imposed by the acts of the judiciary against an individual or institution. The government and top government officials are mandated by the law of the land to subject directives or ruling as well as give executive directives and instantaneously certify or warrant conformity. These executive directions a re mostly implemented by the law enforcers (Kleinmann, 2005). Conformity of executive directives can also be warranted through fines devoid of the acquisition of an order from the judiciary. In elucidating the differences between private and public law, it is important to differentiate between the conventional parts of private law and those of public law. In public law, conventional parts of the rules and regulations include rules and regulations of the constitution, executive rules, rules and regulations governing levies and tariffs, institutional rules, and rules on delinquency, and social security. Rules and regulations on social security comprise those governing indemnity systems. Executive rules and regulations comprise of rules on law enforcement and business operations. Other additional conventional parts on public law include rewards, environmental regulations, and regulations on biotechnology. Conventional parts on private law on the other hand include national or public ru les and regulations, and rules governing import and export of goods and services, liquidation, employment, unjust competition, personal indemnity, organizations, and manufacturing. Additional categories of private law include consumer protection, involvement of employees in the workplace, and legal responsibility on manufactured goods (Miller, 2011). Studies conducted in the past have however posited that it is very difficult to outline the difference between private a

Human Resource Learning Team Weekly Reflection Essay

Human Resource Learning Team Weekly Reflection - Essay Example The job analysis is done to identify the minimum requirements in terms of qualifications tat a worker needs to possess. This is done by a panel of experts meeting to set a required standard for the job. The experts meet and decide that a specific job requires a minimum set of requirements. The experts then set the job specifications before calling for applications for the job at hand. After the experts have set the specifications, they then analyze the job to distinguish between the required and desirable specifications for the job. The required job specifications refer to the characteristics of the job that are inflexible, meaning that the applicants must possess these characteristics. Conversely, the desirable job specifications refer to the characteristics of the applicant that put them a step above the rest, which are not mandatory but preferred. Once the job analysis is completed, they are then summarized in form of a job description, which provides the type of job to be done, t he qualifications needed from the applicant and the tasks that the worker is required to accomplish. As already stated, a job description is a description of the major job functions that an employee is supposed to undertake when working for a firm. A job description is used by management for several functions, the first function being to outline the tasks that an employee is supposed to perform (Managing Human Resources). This function is important since it informs an employee of the work expected to be done, which indicates whether an employee is qualified for the work. The second function of a job description is to describe the knowledge and critical skills that an employee is supposed to have in order to qualify for the job. As already stated, the requirements for a job are divided into two parts, the desirable and required job skills (Managing Human Resources). The job description