The Different Scopic Orders Of The Modern Era Film Essay

The Different Scopic Orders Of The Modern Era Film Essay The modern era has allegedly been dominated by the sense of sight, in a way that has seen it set apart from the premodern era and the postmodern era. In his text Scopic Regimes of Modernity Martin Jay draws our attention to scopic order in the modern era, which is an area with many conflicting views that are not often in alignment with each other. Jay argues the point that there may not be one unified scopic regime, a term used by french film theorist Christian Metz, and that there is room for argument with the idea that there are a number of competing regimes associated with the modern era. Jay looks at the mirror of nature, a metaphor in philosophy by Richard Forty, the emphasis of surveillance that was put forward by Michel Foucault, and the society of the spectacle argued by Guy Debord. Jay also goes on to look at the arguably dominant scopic regime known as Cartesian Perspectivalism, what is normally claimed to be the dominant, even totally hegemonic, visual model of the modern era. Also discussed are the major competitors to Cartesian Perspectivalism, which includes mapping, which is, a visual culture very different from what we associate with Renaissance perspective, one which Svetlana Alpers has recently called The Art of Describing. and the third model of vision, which is best identified with the baroque. Wà ¶lfflin later called it, the classical style, the baroque was painterly, recessional, soft-focused, multiple, and open in his study, Renaissance and Baroque. Jacqueline Roses quote used by Jay to back up his opinion that there are many views which come into play when discussing the subject of scopic regimes, our previous history is not the petrified block of a single visual space since, looked at obliquely, it can always be seen to contain its moment of unease. (Rose, 1986, p.232-233.) Jays argument continues with him writing about the idea that this subject is not one of solidity. Bringing in the notion that the topic of, scopic regimes of modern ity, is best discussed on what he describes as, contested terrain, rather then harmoniously integrated complex of visual theories and practices. Modernity has often been considered resolutely ocular-centric, which is the act of basing all experience on the perception of the eyes, with sight being very direct and centered. The invention of printing reinforced the advantage of visual aids such as the telescope, which with its con-vexed lens helped expand the apparent angular size of distant objects. Along with the microscope, which aids the eye to see objects that are too small visually for the naked eye. These inventions helped put more emphasis on sight and vision. It is difficult to deny that the visual sense has been dominant in modern western culture in a wide variety of different ways, with Martin Jay calling visionthe master sense of the modern era. Scopic Regime, a term first coined by French film theorist Christian Metz in his book The Imaginary Signifier a study on cinema and psychoanalysis. It was used to distinguish the differences from the cinema to the theatre. What defines the specifically cinematic scopic regime is not so much the distance kept, the keeping itself (first figure of the lack, common to all voyeurism), as the absence of the object seen. (Metz, 1982, p.61.) The cinema is profoundly different from the theatre as also from more intimate voyeuristic activities with a specifically erotic aim. METZ It is the last recess that is attacked by the cinema signifier, it is in its precise emplacement that it installs a new figure of the lack, the physical absence of the object seen. In the theatre, actors and spectators are present at the same time and in the same location, hence present one to another, as the two protagonists of an authentic perverse couple. But in the cinema, the actor was present when the spectator was not (shooting), and the spectator is present when the actor is no longer. (Projection). A failure to meet of the voyeur and the exhibitionist whose approaches no longer coincide. (they have missed one another) The cinemas voyeurism must do without any very clear mark of consent on the part of the object. There is no equivalent here of the theater actors final bow. And then the latter could see their voyeurs, the game was less unilateral, slightly better distributed. In the darkened hall, the voyeur is really left alone.(P.63) In this text, Metz develops an analysis between film spectatorship and voyeurism. According to him, enhancing the essential property of the voyeuristic gaze that of keeping the desired, seen object at a safe distance from the viewing subject cinema locates its own data in the for- ever inaccessible, in a realm which is incessantly desirable but that can never be possessed, in the scene of absence. Cinema, in other words, shows us the world, and at the same time it takes it away from us. As Metz writes,  «what defines the properly cinematographic scopic regime is not the maintained distance, nor the care exerted in maintaining it, but the sheer absence of the seen object. Cinema is therefore a form of absolute voyeurism: it is founded on an unbridgeable distance, on a total inaccessibility. 3) Emphasize the prevalence of surveillance with Michael Foucault Our society is not one of spectacle, but of surveillanceWe are neither in the amphitheater, nor on the stage, but in the panoptic machine, invested by its effects of power, which we bring to ourselves since we are part of its mechanism. (Foucault, 1979, p.127.) Among French intellectuals in the 1960s and 1970s it was Michel Foucault who most explicitly interrogated the gaze of surveillance and Guy Debord and his situationist international collaborators who explored the vision of the spectacle. Together they provided an array of different arguments looking from different perspectives against the hegemony of the eye. With their work, the ocular-centrism of those who praised the nobility of sight was not so much rejected, as reversed in value. Vision was still the privileged sense, but what that privilege produced in the modern world was damned as almost entirely corrupting. Foucault called it the unimpeded empire of the gaze. (Foucault, 1973, p.39.) and Guy Debord called it society of the spectacle. (Debord, 1981, p.25.) Gilles Deleuze characterized Foucaults work as a duel investigation of articulable statements and fields of visibilities. Deleuze stated that Foucault continued to be fascinated by what he saw as much as by what he heard or read, and the archaeology he conceived of is an audiovisual archive Foucault never stopped being a voyant at the same time as he marked philosophy with a new style of statement. (Deleuze, 1988, p.50.) Allan Megill, a philosophical writer, has claimed that in his earlier more structuralist moments, Foucault was himself intent on portraying a lucent Apollonian world (Megill, 1983, p.218) within which ocular-centrism was neutrally accepted. The vision that should be incorporated into psychoanalysis Foucault insisted, had to be understood phenomenologically, taking into account the livid spatial experience that emerged from the bodys intertwining with the world. Authentic versions of that experience were undermined, he claimed if vision was reduced to its traditional Cartesian spectral role based on the dualism of subject and object. Foucault was drawn to Belgian Surrealist painter Renà © Magritte, Magrittes work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. The representational use of objects as other than what they seem is typified in his painting, The Treachery of Images, which depicts a pipe that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advert. Magritte painted below the pipe ceci nest pas une pipe translated it means This is not a pipe, Which would appear to be a contradiction, but in reality it is a true statement. The painting is no t a pipe, just an image of a pipe. When Magritte was once asked about his painting, he replied that of course it was not a pipe, just try and fill it with tobacco. Magritte used the same approach in a painting of an apple, he painted the fruit realistically and then used an internal caption to deny that the item was an apple. In these works Magritte points out that no matter how closely through art we come to depicting an item accurately we never actually catch the item itself. Foucault explored a more visibly explicit version of interaction within Magrittes work, he described Magrittes canvases as the opposite of trompe loeil which is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions because of their understanding of the mimetic conventions of realistic painting. Foucault also referred to them as unraveled calligrams as they refused to close the gap between the image and the world. Resemblance serves representation which rules over it; similitude serves repetition, which ranges across it. Resemblance predicates itself upon a model it must return to and reveal; similitude circulates the simulacrum as an indefinite and reversible relation of the similar to the similar. (Levy, 1990, p.44) The Panopticon (all-seeing) functioned as a round-the-clock surveillance machine. Its design ensured that no prisoner could ever see the inspector who conducted surveillance from the privileged central location within the radial configuration. The prisoner could never know when he was being surveilled mental uncertainty that in itself would prove to be a crucial instrument of discipline. French philosopher Michel Foucault described the implications of Panopticism in his 1975 work Discipline Punish: The Birth of the Prison Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. So to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action; that the perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary; that this architectural apparatus should be a machine for creating and sustaining a power relation independent of the person who exercises it; in short, that the inmates should be caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers. To achieve this, it is at once too much and too little that the prisoner should be constantly observed by an inspector: too little, for what matters is that he knows himself to be observed; too much, because he has no need in fact of being so. In view of this, Bentham laid down the principle that power should be visible and unverifiable. Visible: the inmate will constantly have befo re his eyes the tall outline of the central tower from which he is spied upon. Unverifiable: the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so. In order to make the presence or absence of the inspector unverifiable, so that the prisoners, in their cells, cannot even see a shadow, Bentham envisaged not only venetian blinds on the windows of the central observation hall, but, on the inside, partitions that intersected the hall at right angles and, in order to pass from one quarter to the other, not doors but zig-zag openings; for the slightest noise, a gleam of light, a brightness in a half-opened door would betray the presence of the guardian. The Panopticon is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing; in the central tower, one sees everything without ever being seen. Foucault also compares modern society with Jeremy Benthams Panopticon design for prisons (which was unrealized in its original form, but nonetheless influential): in the Panopticon, a single guard can watch over many prisoners while the guard remains unseen. Ancient prisons have been replaced by clear and visible ones, but Foucault cautions that visibility is a trap. It is through this visibility, Foucault writes, that modern society exercises its controlling systems of power and knowledge (terms Foucault believed to be so fundamentally connected that he often combined them in a single hyphenated concept, power-knowledge). Increasing visibility leads to power located on an increasingly individualized level, shown by the possibility for institutions to track individuals throughout their lives. Foucault suggests that a carceral continuum runs through modern society, from the maximum security prison, through secure accommodation, probation, social workers, police, and teachers, to our e veryday working and domestic lives. All are connected by the (witting or unwitting) supervision (surveillance, application of norms of acceptable behaviour) of some humans by others. Or look into the society of the spectacle with Guy Debord The entire life of societies in which modern conditions of production reign announces itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into representation. (Debord, 1977, par.1.) With the term spectacle, Debord defines the system that is a confluence of advanced capitalism, the mass media, and the types of governments who favor those phenomena. The spectacle is the inverted image of society in which relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people in which passive identification with the spectacle supplants genuine activity. The spectacle is not a collection of images, writes Debord rather, it is a social relationship between people that is meditated by images. In his analysis of the spectacular society, Debord notes that quality of life is impoverished, with such lack of authenticity human perceptions are affected, and theres also a degradation of knowledge with the hindering of critical thought. 4) Cartesian Perspectivalism, is normally considered the dominant hegemonic scopic regime of the modern era. It is a way of seeing both then and now, a method of perception that represents space and the subjects and objects in that space according to the rules of Euclidean geometry. Renaissance painters, such as Brunelleschi, and Alberti, who was known as a draftsman rather than a painter, developed a geometric space complimentary to the mathematical space of Descartess philosophy. Perspective in painting projects a plane onto its object of study and creates a one-to-one correspondence between points on the plane and points on the canvas. Brunelleschi, who is traditionally accorded to the honor of being the practical inventor of perspective, he begun by using architectural figures such as buildings, ceilings, and tiled floors which easily match the grid structure of the projective plane.   Later, other objects were fitted and shaped within the geometrical patterning of linear perspect ive. Alberti is acknowledged, almost universally, as being the first theoretical interpreter of perspective. He regarded mathematics as the common ground for art and sciences. I will take first from the mathematicians those things which my subject is concerned. (Alberti DELLA PITTURA) The scopic regime that was interpreted Descartes philosophy is usually identified with Renaissance notions of perspective in the visual arts and the Cartesian ideas of subjective rationality in philosophy. Art historian William Ivins, Jr., in his Art and Geometry of 1946 said that the history of art during the five hundred years that have elapsed since Alberti wrote has been little more than the story of slow diffusion of his ideas through the artists and peoples of Europe. Richard Rorty discussed Descartes ideas in his writing Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, published in 1979. He claimed, in the cartesian model the intellect inspects entities modeled on retinal images In Descartes conception the one that become the basis for modern epistemology it is representations which are in the mind. These two prominent social commentators, have illustrated their view which is considered to be be equivalent to our view of the modern scopic regime. The aforementioned quotes assume that Ca rtesian perspectivalism is the main visual model of modernity, these authors believe it best expresses a natural experience of sight validated by the scientific world view. (maybe say it in a simplified form too.) In his famous essay Perspective as Symbolic Form, Panofsky, a German art historian, highlights the break made through linear perspective by contrasting Renaissance painting with that of Greek and Medieval works.  Ã‚   Prior to the Renaissance, painting concerned itself with individual objects, but the space which they inhabited failed to embrace or dissolve the opposition between bodies.   Space acted as a simple superposition, a still unsystematic overlapping.  Ã‚   With linear perspective comes an abstract spatial system capable of ordering objects: As various as antique theories of space were, none of them succeeded in defining space as a system of simple relationships between height, width and depth.   In that case, in the guise of a coordinate system, the difference between front and back, here and there, body and nonbody would have resolved into the higher and more abstract concept of three-dimensional extensions, or even, as Arnold Geulincx puts it, the concept of a corpus generaliter sumptum (body taken in a general sense). (Panofsky, 1991, p.43-44.) Jay says This new concept of space was geometrically isotropic, rectilinear, abstract, and uniform. The three-dimensional, rationalized space of perspectival vision could be rendered on a two-dimensional surface by following all of the transformational rules spelled out in Albertis De Pittura, and later agreements by Viator and Dà ¼rer. A basic painting device occurred from these findings with the use of symmetrical visual pyramids, or cones, with one of their apexes receding towards the vanishing point in the painting, the other into the eye of the painter. Significantly the eye was singular, and not the normal two eyes of binocular vision. The device was made in the manner that just one eye would be looking through a peep-hole (Kemp Science in art pg 13) at a scene in front of it. Brunelleschi used a peep-hole and mirror system for viewing this perspective demonstration of the Florentine Baptistery. Brunelleschi had drilled a small hole in a panel of wood at a point equivalent to that at which his line of sight had struck the Baptistery along a perpendicular axis. The spectator was required to look through this drilled hole from the back of the panel at a mirror held in such a way, so that it would reflect the image. The eye of the viewer would be fixated and unblinking rather than dynamic. In Norman Brysons terms it followed the logic of the Gaze rather than the Glance, which produced one single point of view. Bryson, who is an art theorist, calls this the Founding Perception of the Cartesian perspectivalist tradition. the gaze of the painter arrests the flux of phenomena, contemplates the visual field from a vantage-point outside the mobility of duration, in an eternal moment of disclosed presence; while in the moment of viewing, the viewing subject unites his gaze with the Founding Perception, in a moment of perfect recreation of that first epiphany. With this visual order arose many implications, with the abstract coldness of the perspectival gaze, which meant the painters emotional connection with the objects they depicted in geometricalized space was lost. The gap between spectacle and spectator widened. Cartesian perspectivalism has, in fact, been the target of a widespread philosophical critique, which has denounced its privileging of an ahistorical, disinterested, disembodied subject entirely outside of the world it claims to know only from afar. (Jay Cartesian perspectivalism itself that it suggest it was not quite as uniformly coercive as is sometimes assumed. Although artificial perspective was the dominant model, its competitor was never entirely forgotten. John White, an artist, distinguishes between what he terms artificial perspective, in which the mirror held up to nature is flat, and synthetic perspective, in which that mirror is presumed to be concave, thus producing a curved rather than planar space on the canvas. The Cartesian perspectivalist tradition contained a potential for internal contestation in the possible uncoupling of the painters view of the scene from that of the presumed beholder. Norman Bryson identifies this development with Johannes Vermeer , who represents for him a second state perspectivalism even more discarnated that that of Alberti. The bond with the viewers physique is broken and the viewing subjectis now proposed and assumed as a notional point, a non-empirical Gaze. This observation opens up more consideration, that there is an alternative scopic regime, that may be understood as more than a sub-variant of Cartesian perspectivalism. 5) Mapping, or as Svetlana Alpers called, The Art of Descriping. A visual culture very different from what is associated with the Renaissance perspective. According to Alpers the hegemonic role of Italian painting in art history has occluded an appreciation of a second influential tradition which flourished during the seventeenth-century Dutch art. contrast realist and naturalist fictionthat the Italian Renaissance art, for all its fascination with the techniques of perspective, still held fast to the storytelling function for which they were used. GEORGE LUKACS Summarizing the contrasts between the art of describing and Cartesian perspectivalism, Alpers points out the following oppositions: attention to many small things versus a few large ones; light reflected off objects modeled by light and shadow; the surface of objects, their colours and textures, dealt with rather than their placement in a legible space; an unframed image versus one than is clearly framed; one with no clearly situated viewer compared to one with such a viewer. The distinction follows a hierarchical model of distinguishing between phenomena commonly referred to as primary and secondary: objects and space versus the surfaces, forms versus the textures of the world. (ALPERS) The non-mathematical impulse of this tradition accords well with the indifference to hierarchy, proportion, and analogical resemblances characteristic of Cartesian perspectivalism. Instead it casts its eye on the fragmentary, detailed, and richly articulated surface of a world it is content to describe rather than explain. 6) Baroque Painting The third model of vision, best identified with the baroque. As early as 1888, and Heinrich Wà ¶fflins study, Renaissance and Baroque, art historians have been tempted to find connections between the two styles in both painting and architecture. In opposition to the lucid linear, solid, fixed, planimetric, closed form of the Renaissance, or as Wà ¶lfflin called it, the classical style, the Baroque was painterly, recessional, soft-focused, multiple and open. The Baroque style began as somewhat of a continuation of the Renaissance. Later, however, scholars of the time began to see the drastic differences between the two styles as the Renaissance style gave way to Baroque art. Baroque architecture, sculpture, and painting of a dramatic nature were powerful tools in the hands of religious and secular absolutism, and flourished in the service of the Catholic Church and of Catholic monarchies. The Baroque artists were particularly focused on natural forms, spaces, colors, lights, and the relationship between the observer and the literary or portrait subject in order to produce a strong, if muted, emotional experience. The Council of Trent (1545-63), in which the Roman Catholic Church answered many questions of internal reform raised by both Protestants and by those who had remained inside the Catholic Church, addressed the representational arts by demanding that paintings and sculptures in church contexts should speak to the illiterate rather than to the well-informed. Due to this Baroque art tends to focus on Saints, the Virgin Mary, and other well known Bible stories. Religious painting, history painting, allegories, and portraits were still considered the most noble subjects, but landscapes, still life, and genre scenes rapidly gained notoriety. Nativity by Josefa de Óbidos, 1669, National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon Rorty, Richard, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979) Rose, Jacqueline, Sexuality in the Field of Vision (London: Verso, 1986) p.232-233. Metz, Christian, The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982), p.61. Foucault, Michael, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans, Alan Sheridan (New York, 1979), p.217. Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception, trans. A.M. Sheridan (London, 1973), p.39. Debord, Society of the Spectacle. trans. Ken Knabb (Berkeley, 1981), p.25. Deleuze, Gilles, Foucault, trans. and ed. Sean Hand (Minneapolis, 1988), p.50. Megill, Allan, Prophets of Extremity: Nietzche, Heidegger, Foucault and Derrida (Berkeley, 1985), p.218. Levy, Silvano, Foucault on Magritte and Resemblance, The Modern Language Review, 85,1 (January 1990), p.44. Debord, Guy, Society of the Spectacle (Detroit 1977), par.1. Panofsky, Erwin.   Perspective as Symbolic Form. New York: Zone Books, 1991. 41-43.

Of MIce and Men: Curley’s Wife Essay

Names have been an important facet of society for as long as Homo sapiens have existed. A name is defined as â€Å"a word or symbol used in logic to designate an entity. † In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck teaches a lesson about the nature of human existence and shows how grim and isolated people become without hope. Steinbeck neglects to address Curley’s wife’s character by name in order to emphasize her position as a literary element and provide commentary on society in the time period during which he lived. Curley’s wife is never named because Steinbeck wished to emphasize the ubiquitous dislike of her throughout the farm. Whilst reading the novella, it is implied that no one on the farm likes Curley’s wife. However, there isn’t necessarily a flaw in her personality from which this aversion to her stems. The characters avoid interaction with her because they fear retribution from her possessive, short-tempered husband. The men on the farm begin to foster hatred toward her because her constant need for attention puts their livelihoods in danger. The men can’t ever get too familiar with her because they are distanced by the fact that she is Curley’s wife. Steinbeck constantly reminds the readers and the characters in the book of this fact by denying her a proper name. Second in the litany of reasons why Curley’s wife remains unnamed throughout the entire novella is that Steinbeck wishes to superimpose over the entire story the idea that she was a possession of Curley’s and not an independent entity. During the course of the novella, we run across multiple instances in which Curley is angered by even the idea of his wife consorting with other men, even in a platonic manner. As previously stated, Curley would even resort to firing men if he was unpleased with the way the interacted with his wife. The reader is able to draw a parallel between the way Curley treats and acts toward his wife and the way someone would act when dealing with an object of theirs. It is very clear that she is expected (by Curley and the other men, save Lennie) to obey Curley at all times. At the period in time in which the novella is set, women are expected to submit to their husband wordlessly and this is thoroughly explored in Of Mice and Men through Curley and his wife’s relationship. The zeitgeist of 1937(the year in which the book was published) and its subsequent influence on literature written around that time period is another reason Curley’s wife remains nameless. In that time, women were considered inferior to men and weren’t nearly as important in the public eye. One must remember when reading Of Mice and Men that the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote only became an addendum in 1920. The novella was set during The Great Depression a time during which women did not have the amount of authority in society as they do today. Curley’s wife was used to depict women as troublemakers that disrupt the flow of life for men. Steinbeck failed to assign Curley’s wife a name because it was acceptable at the time for women to be undermined and overlooked. By constantly referring to her as â€Å"Curley’s wife† Steinbeck undermines her character as an independent person because she is forced to always be associated to Curley. With this â€Å"minor oversight† Steinbeck was able to use her character in idiomatic ways to enhance his writing. As indicated previously, Steinbeck writes Curley’s wife as a literary element to enhance the story as opposed to a character in the story. Almost humorously, one of the outcomes of refusing her a proper name (which I suspect was intentional) is that it caused the reader to direct more attention to her than anyone else in the story. Steinbeck is commonly known as an author who utilizes descriptions as a way to portray his characters. Curley is often mentioned as â€Å"the boss’s son. † Slim is introduced as the â€Å"jerkline skinner. † Crooks is solely referred to as â€Å"the stable buck† or simply ‘nigger’ until chapter 4. Despite the fact that all these characters have names, they are relatively miniscule parts of the story when push comes to shove, the nameless wife is the one who causes things to happen and mandates attention from every angle, be it real or fictitious (by which I mean from both readers and characters within the story). The most convincing reason yet as to why Curley’s wife remains unnamed lays in something Steinbeck once said in an interview. Steinbeck described her character as a symbol. He was recorded to have said â€Å"She has no function, except to be a foil – and a danger to Lennie. † She was the antagonist who provided the main characters something to be anxious about; she was the force that put up massive hurdles for the protagonists to overcome. A villain is defined as â€Å"The person or thing responsible for specified trouble, harm, or damage. † Inadvertently, such was the purpose of Curley’s wife. It wasn’t her plan to end Lennie’s life. She simply pursued what she felt she deserved: male attention. Her need to fill this desire for attention became so intense that it ultimately caused tragedy. In conclusion, Curley’s wife not being assigned a name was not just a mere oversight at the hands of John Steinbeck. She was an instrument used to undermine the position of women in society. Steinbeck purposefully left out her name in order to enhance his writing, and address issues during the time period in which he lived. Curley’s wife was used to depict women as the ones who threatened the happiness and well-being of men. Denying Curley’s wife a name was an integral part in the writing of Of Mice and Men. (c) Raquel Bracey, December 2012

Exchange Rate Movements Economic Integration And Globalization Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1922 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? Variability in foreign exchange (FX) rate has been one of the major economic and financial factors affecting cash flows and common stocks value. After the collapse of post-war Bretton Woods fixed exchange rates in the 1970s, the relative prices of currencies began to fluctuate. The rapid expansion in international trade and adoption of floating exchange rate regimes by many countries led to increase exchange rate volatility. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Exchange Rate Movements Economic Integration And Globalization Finance Essay" essay for you Create order As economic integration and globalization have been increasing year by year, exchange rate movements have become very important source of risk for financial firms as well as non-financial firms. In this context, it is very important to mention that virtually all existing empirical studies estimate currency exchange rate exposures on the basis of share prices. However, the assessment of cash flow and stock price exposures which will be studied in this research will represent a rational alternative to the analysis of stock price exposures. In fact, it is the impact of exchange rate risk on corporate cash flows rather than equity prices per se, that is emphasized in the theoretical literature on corporate risk management, either for tax reasons, managerial performance, bankruptcy, investment decisions or compensation purposes. Jacque (1996) points out that change in a companys earnings due to unexpected foreign currency exchange rate changes relatively to their domestic currency i s considered as foreign exchange rate risks. Changes in exchange rates may affect firms profitability and value. Exchange rate changes can also impact on the level of competitiveness of the firms which are exposed to exchange rate risk, or affect the value of their net assets denominated in foreign currencies. Adler and Dumas (1984) show that even firms whose entire operations are domestic may have affects of exchange rates of foreign currencies, if their output and input prices are influenced by currency movements. Moreover, Eiteman et al. (2006) says that in general, firms are exposed to three types of foreign exchange risk: translation exposure, transaction exposure and economic exposure. In practice, economic exposure is computed as the net sensitivity of some aggregate measure of firm value to currency fluctuations. Economic exposure contains of the direct and indirect effects of currency fluctuations by focusing on the net sensitivity. In practice, there is little genera l agreement on the use of appropriate choice of aggregate measure. In this research project it is focused on the impact of economic exposure of Malaysian non-financial firms (from consumer products industry) on their values. Corporate managers will also be interested in the exposures of corporate cash flow measures such as sales, operating cash flow and earnings for reasons of corporate planning and risk management. Problem statement As economic integration and globalization have been increasing year by year, exchange rate movements have become very important source of risk for financial firms as well as non-financial firms. Also, the internationalization of capital markets has resulted in inflow of vast sums of funds between countries and in the cross listing of equities. This has therefore made investors and firms more interested in the volatility of exchange rate and its effect on stock price and stock market volatility. According to Yucel and Kurt (2003), floating exchange rate appreciation reduces the competitiveness of export markets; and has a negative effect on share prices as well as the domestic stock market. On the other hand, for import dominated country, it may have positive effect on the stock market by lowering input costs. Malaysia presents an example of an open economy which engages in international trade with several countries and hence susceptible to foreign exchange rate volatility. However, empirical evidence on the influence of foreign exchange market volatility on stock market is largely inconsistent. These have been in the contest of developed economies. Mishra (2004) found no theoretical consensus on the interaction between stock prices and exchange rate. However, Solnik (2000) argues that there is a negative correlation between stock market and local currency. The openness of a countrys economy is recognized as a cause of volatility of its market. Malaysia presents a classic example of an open economy which engages in international trade transaction. Moreover, with advert of globalization, developing economies are becoming more integrated into developed economies as the results of increasing flow of imports and exports. Malaysia is not an exception. A cursory examination of foreign exchange rate history in Malaysia shows some considerable level of volatility. Therefore, it would be interesting to explore the effect of its foreign exchange volatility o n cash flows as well as stock prices of its non-financial companies. Again, much work on the effect of the exchange rate volatility in the developing country like Malaysia has not been done. Thus, for that reason the study intended look at the effect of foreign exchange exposure on non-financial companies cash flows and stock prices in Malaysia. Research objectives Objective of the current research is to determine whether cash flows and stock prices of companies from consumer products industry are affected by exchange rate exposure. This research project attempts to assess the economic exposures of the firms chosen from the Bursa Malaysia Main market. The issues are important for investors as well as corporate risk management. Literature review It is also noticeable whether the firms cash flows are sensitive to exchange rate movements. Perhaps we should also point out the fact that Grambovas and McLeay (2006) are convinced that empirical analysis confirm that currency fluctuations may affect firm values, especially with consideration to the influence of foreign exchange rate movements on the firms cash flows and their accounting earnings, and on their stock prices. Martin and Mauer suggest that economic exposure, which typically has a longer-term time dimension, encompasses the competitive and indirect effects of exchange rate risk. Many academics such as Hodder (1982), Marston (2001) Pringle (1995), Shapiro (1975) and von Ungern-Sternberg von Weizsacker (1990) argue that unlike transaction exposure, economic exposure can affect even domestic firms. Economic exposure arises from changes in the sales prices and volumes, and the cost of inputs of the firm and its competitors as a result of exchange rate changes. Miller Reuer (1998) and Sundaram Black (1992) argued that geographically positioning production, sales, sourcing, and financing operations is effective for reducing economic exposure. The study by SÃ ¶hnke M. Bartram (2007) found that that several firms are significantly exposed to at least one of the foreign exchange rates, and significant exposures are more frequent at longer horizons. He also argues that the impact of exchange rate risk on stock prices and cash flows is similar and determined by a related set of economic factors. Moreover, Dominguez and Tesar (2006) found that exchange rate movements do matter for a significant fraction of firms, though which firms are affected and the direction of exposure depends on the specific exchange rate and varies over time, suggesting that firms dynamically adjust their behavior in response to exchange rate risk. Exposure is correlated with firm size, multinational status, foreign sales, international assets, and competitiveness and tr ade at the industry level. Martin and Mauer (2003) pointed out that cash flow effects are greater for long-term lags than for short-term lags in exchange rate movements. This result may occur because transaction exposure is easier to assess and hedge, whereas economic exposure is more difficult to recognize and hedge. While Bartram (2007) suggests that several firms are significantly exposed to at least one of the foreign exchange rates such as CAD, JPY and EUR, and significant exposures are more frequent at longer horizons. The percentage of firms for which stock price and earnings exposures are significantly different is relatively low, though it increases with time horizon. Overall, he is convinced that the impact of exchange rate risk on stock prices and cash flows is similar and determined by a related set of economic factors. Batram and Karolyi (2006) took a new look at the exposure puzzle by studying the potential impact of the introduction of the Euro on stock returns of 3,220 non-financial firms from 20 countries. Their findings suggest that the introduction of the Euro decreased foreign exchange rate exposure, but these changes are statistically and economically small. According to Tesar and Dominguez (2006), factors such as firm size, multinational status, foreign sales, international assets, and competitiveness and trade at the industry level may influence economic exposure of the companies. These factors may either increase the companies economic exposure or decrease. These factors influence on the companies economic exposure will depend on how significantly these factors are correlated with the companies cash flows and operations, and if there are significant correlation between them, we should also point out whether these significant correlations are positive or negative. Empirical analysis by Grambovas and McLeay (2006) confirms that exchange rate fluctuations will affect firm values, especially with regard to the influence of excha nge rate movements on the cash flows and accounting earnings of companies with international exposure, and on their stock prices. Griffin and Stulz (2001) found weak evidence of statistically significant exchange rate exposures, and the economic significance of the estimated exposures was low. A first main study of the foreign exchange exposure fact done by Jorion (1990) found a significant impact of foreign exchange rate risk on share prices for 5.2 percent of the analyzed 287 U.S. MNCs at the 5 percent level. In their study, Choi and Prasad (1995) found that 14.9 percent of the individual firms in the U.S. and 10 percent of the industry portfolios showed a significant exchange rate exposure at the 10 percent level, corroborating earlier findings. Comparable results were found outside the United States by He and Ng (1998). For instance only some multinational companies in Japan (26.3% and 53.8% for different time periods) showed a significant exchange rate exposure with regar d to a multilateral exchange rate index. Some studies look into the exposure of industry portfolios in several countries, there were found percentage yields of companies with significant exposure of 15% (United States), 4% (Japan) and 6% (United Kingdom) by Prasad and Rajan (1995), or 23% (United States), 21% (Canada) and 25% (Japan) by Bodnar and Gentry (1993) at the 5% level. Study by Bartram and Karolyi (2006) suggests that the FX rate exposure of non-financial firms is systematically linked to firm characteristics such as sales, the percentage of foreign sales in general and in Europe in particular, regional factors like geography, strength of currency and industry characteristics like competition, traded goods. Study examined by Allayannis and Ihrig (2001) speak about stock price exposure to international trade activities of U.S. industries, and Bodnar et al. (2002) mention the significance of pass-through for exposure. Moreover, Starks and Wei (2004) found that the scale of ex change rate exposure is linked to proxies for probabilities of financial distress, product uniqueness and growth opportunities. However, the evidence of corporate foreign exchange rate exposures on a cash flow basis is very thin and inadequate to individual case studies. Garner and Shapiro (1984) investigated the foreign exchange rate exposure of Vulcan Materials Company by regressing changes of its quarterly operating cash flows on changes in the exchange rate of USD against GBP, and showed only small and statistically irrelevant foreign exchange rate exposures. Moreover, Oxelheim and Wihlborg (1995) use quarterly changes of total cash flow, commercial cash flow and sales revenue as dependent variables in the exposure analysis of Volvo Cars. Results by Oxelheim and Wihlborg (1995) indicate that the financial situation of the company reduces exposures with regard to changes in the DEM/SEK exchange rate only to a modest degree. One more study by Bartram (2005) investigated the exp osure of a large nonfinancial company based on proprietary internal as well as external capital markets data. Analysis by Bartram (2005) illustrated that the irrelevance of foreign exchange rate exposures of wide-ranging performance measures such as total cash flow and/or share price can be explained by hedging at the company level.

Adolescent Bullying and School Shootings - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1244 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2019/02/15 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Bullying Essay School Bullying Essay School Shooting Essay Did you like this example? Abstract School shootings are not only direct violence, but also a form of symbolic violence; their intention is to send a message to a broad audience. Victims from bullying suffered from what we call chronic stress and a feeling of absolute helplessness and depression. Without intervention they developed a sense that no one is going to help them manage this, and when you are in that position you have few options like redraw completely, commit suicide or try to kill somebody whose been bothering them. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Adolescent Bullying and School Shootings" essay for you Create order The chronic stress became so high and so internalized they possibly absolutely see no way out. Most mass shooters are male teens that are emotionally unstable and want to exact revenge on society for some harm that they have suffered (real or imaginary). Introduction Adolescents who committed school shootings mostly are severely bullied in school and felt very alienated and very angry and they had hit list of the kids who had bullied them. I personally do not think it is an excuse for victim of bullying to commit such act of violence but it makes me wonder more about the motives of these shooters. People who engage in these attacks took serious of actions as in selecting a particular weapon or practicing with weapon. They thought that they are desperate and they accept the idea that violence might be an accept-full way to solve their problem. Nursing in school need to be part of the team to recognize the bullied teen and intervene before there are serious life-threatening consequences. The perpetrators in these school violence incidents targeted other students who have called them names or rejected them; or they have retaliated for the perceived injustices related to discipline or academic assessments done to them. ‘‘bullying’’ is one of the most significant concerns among children today, and ultimately a predictor in school shootings. By my count, they have been 166 shootings in schools in the last three decades these cases are persistently viewed as Aberrations Each new incident provokes Surprise and shock. These mass shootings took place in predominately white, middle-class or upper class Suburbans what small towns. Expects tend to Fix blame on factors external to school, Severe mental illness, access to guns, or media violence, especially video games. While these issues shortly play a role in high incidence of such events, we need to ask you more fundamental question. What occurs in school themselves, the sites, after all of the shootings that causes so many students to become unhappy, anxious, depressed, motivated by rage? Methods Some of the shooters Who survived Who didn’t kill themselves or get killed in the Mayhem express these feelings explicitly. They are proud of themselves after the shootings. Most schools shootings perpetrators are male Most of those who committed the massacres, struggle for Rick no nation and status among their peers. The majority of them languished at the bottom of the social hierarchy. They tended not to be athletic, they we also described in the media are skinny, scrawny, Short, lanky. They were diseased for looking feminine or gay. They didn’t need to be academically oriented. Do you where do you only on successful with girls. Many of them were also significantly less wealthy then the popular teens and their schools. As a result of these perceived failures, They were mercilessly teased and abused. Leaving as they do within such a strict punitive social hierarchy, Boys are told in one way or another to prove their manhood And in some cases, to prove that they exist at all. Mini boys think that the most go to great lengths to differentiate themselves from perceived perceived as gay , Feminine, poor, intellectual, or weak. So they harass, bully, demean, Humiliate, and I generally try to crush this social value of anyone who doesn’t feet him. All in and effort to secure their own social standing by calling in another student gay. A boy demonstrates to others that he is successfully heterosexual, While a boy who beats up another student proves how powerful he is Compared with the injured party. These boys repeatedly choose to prove their masculinity overwhelming violence. Many of them targeted more popular kids who have harassed them In the girls who had rejected them. They believe their violent response, a powerful demonstration of masculine prowess, Would win them the recognition they desperately craved. Whether they were dead or alive, free or behind bars, one after another, the perpetrators spoke about their yearning for notoriety. They could no longer imagine Achieving recognition is there present reality, so they dreamed of receiving it in some form of afterlife obtained through silence and infamy. These youth turned suit any means necessary to get that recognition. Bullying is Detrimental to the mind of the individual being bullied it creates that fear in the minds which paralyzes them. Fear is the most settled and destructive of all human diseases. Fear kills dreams, fear kills hope, fear put people in the hospital. Fear can hold you back from doing something that you know within your yourself that you capable of doing but it will paralyze you and it’s seems like you are put in an hypnotic spell. Fear is false evidence appearing real. That is an illusion we create in our minds, it is a state of mind that can be changed. It makes you thinking this is all we can do, this is all we deserve. Let’s look at how we can begin to take some steps to restructure that fear to begin to expand our vision of ourselves to begin To increase our self-esteem. Self esteem is confidence and satisfaction from in one self. Look at your life right now, what have you done up to this point in time in your life? What ever you have produced is game out of you as the result of the kind of person you have become,Is the result of your choices, is a result of your consciousness. Now you have to ask yourself are you satisfied with what you have produced? Is this what you want? Would you like things to be better than this. Do you believe that you deserve better than this? Are you content this is it and you don’t have to do anything else, That you already resign yourself in. Are you allowing yourself to get off the hook like that? Or do you Believe somewhere in the back of your mind, or in your heart that there other great work for you to do, That there is something else that life has for you and that’s why you here. How do we handle this fear factor cause by bullying? How do we increased our self-esteem? We had to begin to fortify your self. How do we do that? I believe that we have to begin to consciously Monitor inner conversation and talking to yourself , Start building yourself up. Sometimes the only good things you will here about you is the things you say to you. I’m saying Learn to be your own booster, start encouraging yourself, Start saying I can do this. Stop beating yourself up It’s a natural inclination to put ourselves down, We are born negative I think. And a negative consciousness, because we live a negative word, around negative people and bullying factors which makes us think we don’t deserve a better life or it can’t happen for you.

The Role of Woman in The Odyssey - 1240 Words

Although â€Å"The Odyssey† by the Greek poet Homer is very much an epic tale of a man’s heroic quest, women play an incredibly large role. Homer’s epic tale, â€Å"The Odyssey† revolves around Ulysses’ quest to return back to his wife, Penelope, so that he may be reunited with her and assume control over his palace, which has been overrun by suitors. Ulysses’ son, Telemachus attempts to regain authority in the presence of the many suitors but finds this difficult and embarks upon his own journey under the guidance of Athena and other deities. The main thrust of Homer’s â€Å"The Odyssey† centers upon the adventures of Homer as he endeavors to get back home, which he finally does. He overtakes the suitors through his cunning and the tale ends happily.†¦show more content†¦While mourning for her husband (which the reader can only assume is sincere) Penelope is also leading on these suitors in order to gain material objec ts. She promises that she will marry one of them once she finishes her sewing her wedding veil, but each night she destroys the previous night’s work so that the task will never be accomplished. Even if she is using this ruse to attain riches, the fact remains that she is still acting as a seductress. She is very much like a Siren, typical of those present in Book XI, always singing out to encourage men but not intending to fulfill any promise of love or sex. Penelope presents both sides of the two distinct divisions of women characters in the text. Although the Sirens and Circe represent the ultimate seductress, it is important to notice the way the story of Agamemnon and Clymenestra reappears in the text. This is a legend told about how the strong female character Clymenestra was, much like Penelope, dogged by suitors in her husband’s absence, the only difference being that Clymenestra gives over the temptation of one suitor in particular and she and this new lover p lot to kill Agamemnon upon his glorious return. The description of Clymenestra almost seems to echo Penelope’s situation as Ulysses is told the story. â€Å"At first she would haveShow MoreRelatedThe Odyssey : The Role Of Women In Homers Odyssey966 Words   |  4 Pagesshowed different kinds of human interactions. The Odyssey portrays what is right or wrong in relationships between god and mortal, father and son, and man and woman. In the epic poem, the role of women is a vital demonstration of Ancient Greece. The women in the epic are unique in their personality, motives, and relationships towards men. In Homers, The Odyssey, all women are different, but all of them help to represent the role of the ideal woman. Homers epic describes the world of women in AncientRead MoreThe Odyssey, by Homer Essay1150 Words   |  5 PagesHomer’s Odyssey was written around 700 BC. During this time there was major social and economic change, which brought the development of new cities, as well as new laws to govern them. Political rights and citizenship in Greek society truly defined the roles of women in this time period. All of the laws governing the population of Greece were not only written by men, but also enforced by men. Homer’s Odyssey is the product of a society in which men played the dominant role. Women were held atRead MoreHelen Of The And The Odyssey1342 Words   |  6 Pagesnarrator is constantly trying to fit her into the box created the legacy of Helen of Tory/Odyssey. However, Helen of Omeros’ strong will and personality and overall uniqueness is still able to shine through, despite the narrator’s biases, and we are able to see the individual differences b etween the two women and their connection to the evolution of Helen throughout history. We only catch a glimpse of Helen in the Odyssey, but Helen in Walcott’s Omeros is portrayed much deeper. The word/name Helen, in generalRead MoreWomen in the Odyssey1646 Words   |  7 Pagessociety, however their role and importance to its function are often times overlooked. Society is/was organized and directed by men. All of the most important positions and purposes within it`s routine were filled by males. This societal organization is often times reflected in many pieces of literature of various time periods, however there are texts in which contrary to the patriarchal society models, women are given substantial importance within the plot. Homer`s The Odyssey, Heart of Darnkness byRead MoreThe Changing Roles of Women in Literature from Late 8th Century B.C. to 4th Century A.D.683 Words   |  3 PagesThe Changing Roles of Women in Literature from Late 8th Century B.C. to 4th Century A.D. The changing role of women in literature from the late 8th century B. C. to the 4th century A. D. is evident in that women become even more subservient in later works. This is portrayed in the works The Odyssey by Homer and Sakuntala by Kalidasa. Women are treated more like slaves in Sakuntala, while they are seen more like equals in The Odyssey. However, in Sakuntala, women are given more responsibilitiesRead MoreThe Penelopiad Analysis958 Words   |  4 Pagesnovel ‘The Odyssey’ . In an interview, Atwood explained her beliefs on the gender roles surround The Odyssey thus incorporating this as well as other materials into ‘The Penelopiad’ by stating: â€Å"There is an argument that has been made quite thoroughly that The Iliad and The Odyssey were written by two different people, and that the person who wrote The Odyssey was a woman.’ Atwood then carries on to explain her argument stating how several people have made the argument of how ‘The Odyssey’ was writtenRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1599 Words   |  7 PagesIn The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer has different portrayals of the roles that women play in each epic. These differences are so striking that some readers have even argued that there is a possibility that a woman could have created The Odyssey, modeled after Homer’s Iliad. In The Iliad we see women represented as war prizes and slaves, vulnerabilities to men, and in positions of limited power. In The Odyssey however, we see women capturing men and keeping them as prizes, rising from a status ofRead More Penelope, Clytaemestra, Athena, and Helen of Homer’s Odyssey1448 Words   |  6 PagesThe Ideal Women of Homer’s Odyssey      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ancient Greek society treated women as secondary citizens. Restrictions were placed on the social and domestic actions of many aristocratic women in ancient Athens.   The women depicted in Homers Odyssey, on the other hand, are the ideal.   Penelope, Clytaemestra, Athena, and Helen are all women with exceptional liberty and power.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Before comparing the women of the Odyssey to those of Athens, it is beneficial to take a look into the livesRead MoreEssay about The Odyssey - Gender Roles893 Words   |  4 PagesThe Odyssey is the product of a society in which the dominant role was played by men. In ancient Greece, just as in the whole of the ancient world, and in America and Western Europe until the last century, women occupied a subservient position. Society was organized and directed by men, and all of the most important enterprises were those which men arranged and implemented. Women were valued, but they participated in the affairs of the world only when they had the tacit or open approval and permissionRead More The Role of Women in Ancient Greece as Depicted in Homer’s The Odyssey897 Words   |  4 PagesThe Role of Women in Ancient Greece as Depicted in Homer’s The Odyssey Women as Citizens For this informative report I will attempt to point out the roles women and how they are viewed in ancient Greece. I will then show how these views are present in Homer’s The Odyssey. How are women, goddess or mortal, conveyed in The Odyssey? The Odyssey was written around 700 BC during the Archaic period (750 – 550 BC). This was a time of great economical and social change in Greek history due

Leadership Characteristics Free Essays

string(89) " Since there is no enough room, the report will investigate the transformational theory\." Leadership Characteristics Executive summary: Since early beginning of the last century, the leadership has emerged as an important issue in the business regard of the dramatic transformation in the world economy. Thus far, the following report represents an attempt to shed the light on the leadership issue. In order to provide a hint of the leadership meaning, the report will demonstrate brief idea about some of the leadership theories which perceive the leadership skills form different view. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership Characteristics or any similar topic only for you Order Now The report then will identify certain characteristics that should be attained in the personality of the leader which ensure his successful. The requisite of the contemporary leadership skills has appeared at the latter part of twentieth century, regard of the globalisation phenomenon as well the rapid development in technology; which resulted in the increase of the competition. As the knowledge does not stop, leaders require training and development, thus, the report will also investigate the process of leadership development. 1Chapter One: Introduction: Throughout the last century and insofar the 21st century, the mankind has undergone dramatic transformation in the whole domains, and the individuals needs and requirements significantly expended, however, many people managed to maintain successfully their life and obtained the benefit of this change, while others could not cope with this change, which resulted with dissatisfaction and pessimistic view of the life. Significant amount of researches and investigations have been done in order to identify such a pattern or a process that can raise the performance of human beings, thus the concept of leadership appeared as a critical requisite for any entity, including an individuals, family, organisations or even countries. In the early part of 20th century, ‘Freud (1927) in his famous book the Civilisation and It Discontents, he approached the leadership issue when he said that groups of individuals need leaders to provide them with an identity and sense of purpose’ (Higgs, 2003) With the rapid transformation in the world, the competition has become more aggrieve, and organisations urged to deal with this rapid change and the continue development has become an urgent need for the company prosper and survive. Hence, Leadership issue was put under the limelight as an important process for the company sustainability. Although there have been momentous efforts devoted to investigate the leadership issue including theories, definitions and identification for its characteristics, till now there is no complete agreement about the notion of leadership, since these different suggestions and concepts approached the leadership from different perspectives. The following report embodies an attempt to shed the light on the leadership issues, throughout quick review of the leadership theories, and examine the leadership characterises in both the 20th and the 21st century, before dissect the reflection of the personal-experience on the leadership characteristics Chapter Two: Leadership Theories: Due to the importance of the leadership issue, many theories have been emerged throughout the time, each theory tackles with the leadership from different perspectives and aspects, and one can not determine whether this theory right and others are wrong; however the main theories of the leadership are: †¢Trait Th eory: this theory defines specific characteristics which are existed in the successful leadership such as attitudes, personality, intelligence and decisiveness, regardless of any consideration of other assisted factors such as team work and the internal and external work environment. However, there are two criticisms for this theory. â€Å"The first, it doesn’t specify what the most important leadership characteristics are, and the second, it ignores the contribution of the others. † (Dessler, 1976) †¢Behavioural Theory: it approaches the leadership from another perspectives, it dissects the achievement of leaders and the outcomes of their contributions within the organisations. The remarkable differences between the trait and behavioural theory are that the last one emphasises on oth the accomplishment of the task as the main indications for the leader success, and employees’ satisfaction, †¢Situational leadership: According to this theory, the effectiveness of the leader is significantly correlated with situational factors which restrict the performance of the leader positively or negatively. In other words, â€Å"the efficiency of leader’s skills or traits are determined by the situation in which leaders exercise leadersh ip† (Dessler,1976), These factors are: -Follower’s contributions. The availability and the utilization of the resources. However, creating the harmonisation and the collaboration between the situational factors and the leader are essential to determine leader’s effectiveness. †¢Contingency Theories: basically, the assumption of this theory, that the behaviour of the leader can not be standardised, instead, the leader should consider situational factors. The success of the leader in this theory is measured by the ability of leader to adopt such a style to achieve certain task with a consideration to the followers. This theory was the beginning of new view of leadership; based on this assumption other contingency theories were emerged such as, Fiedler’s concept of situational favourability (1967), which defined position power, task structure and leader-member relation, as the main factors that determine the effectiveness of the leader’s style. Path-goal is another theory (House and Mitchell 1974) which assumes that the leader has a significant contribution on the follower to enable them to achieve their objectives. Horner, 1997) †¢Transactional theories: it assumes that since the task and responsibilities have been identified, the leader has a full right to do whatever it requires to achieve this task. This theory depends on praise and rewards as motivation system for followers, meanwhile, punishment is used to ensure the abidance by the roles and the request of the task. However, this theory is criticised as it assumes the behaviour of a human being is predictable without an y consideration of the reflection of the environment. Transformational theories: this theory depends on the development of the vision and convinces the follower, in other words, the leader adopts the visions and does whatever it requires to encourage followers. In this case the leader will become an inspiration for followers and they create their relationship with them depending on trust. As it is clearly perceived, those theories tackle with the leadership from different perspectives. Since there is no enough room, the report will investigate the transformational theory. You read "Leadership Characteristics" in category "Essay examples" Transformational Theory: This theory was generated under assumption of people follow a person who has vision and passion. He or she will inspire them to achieve the goal. Transformational leadership is the modern view of leadership that seems to match with the style of business leader in 21st century since the business competition; turbulence, unforeseen contingencies, and rapid change in technologies create such a momentous stress. Under this stress, the need for transformational leaders who are proactive is emerged as an important requisite to help follower to cope with the dramatic change. (Bass, 1997) The characteristic of transformational leaders is mainly embodied by their charisma; they inspire followers by their innovation and ability to create change. However, the success of charismatic leader is through a belief in themselves rather than others, while transformational leaders concern with other around them such as colleagues and employees. They are not narcissistic as charismatic. This style of leader will create an important transformation to both organisation and employees. Moreover, it may impact the strategy and the structure of the organisation. The power of transformational leader is not derived by the reward system or rules and regulation, yet it is obtained from an intangible value such as their visions and the relationship among others. Draft, 2002) According to Tichy and Devanna (Lussier, 1996), there are three main activities for transformational leadership. Recognition for the need of revitalisation: leaders should understand the urgent need of the organisation for transformation, in order to create such a sustainable resource of competitive advantage to maintain the company success in such a competitive environment. Creating a new vision: by having visualise in innovation and organisation changed, leader will be able to inspire and motivate others to reach the objectives. Institutionalising change: it is essential for transformational leaders to put an effort to convince others. Leaders need to advise and create trust among employees in the organisation in order to let them understand the idea of vision and reach the goal. The style of transformational leadership tends to match with the business world today since it is flexible and innovator. In addition, there are many business articles mentioned that workforce is the most important resource for organisation. Thus, this type of leadership takes into consideration of both business activity and relationship within organisation. These two factors pave the passage of the company success. There are several distinctions between those theories; nevertheless, they agree that there are certain characteristics should be attained in the leader to ensure the efficiency of his contribution. 3Chapter Three: Leadership Characteristics: 3. 1Leadership Definition: As there are many theories approached the leadership, there are also many definitions have been suggested for the leadership, some authors identify the leadership as a process to achieve groups/ organisations goals, others see the notion of leadership as trait, transformation or even as management. However, the definition of leadership by Rost (1993) can be used to dissect this notion (8). He defines the leadership as an influence relationship among leader and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purposes. According to Rost, leadership is: †¢Influence Relationship: the influence will be in both directions top-bottom and bottom-top. †¢Intend real changes: it means leadership includes substantial development in both leaders and followers. †¢Mutual purposes: both leader and followers agree about certain purposes which can be considered as missions or statements. . 2Leadership Characteristics: There is a view argues that leaders are born and other say it is a science can be taught, both of those views did not describe leadership accurately, â€Å"leadership is an art to be studied, practised, developed and lived. † (Scott, 1996) There are certain characteristics that determine the effectiveness of leadership and shape the performance of leaders: 1. Communicative: the importance of this skill, that it provides the leader with an ability to deliver precisely the ideas, visions and objectives required to be achieved. However, it is crucial to understand that the communications include the flow of data and information in two sides, top-bottom and bottom-top. Leaders have to consider sharing the ideas and unleash the contribution of employees, since occasionally, employees come up with innovative suggestions that might enhance or develop certain objectives. 2. Rewards and recognizes achievement: express the appreciation for others efforts, has a vital role as a motivation. Leaders could achieve that by financial rewards or even by praise the follower. Sometime simple gestures such as approving nod, thumbs- up or even quick comment like ‘great job’, ‘you are doing well’ is enough to encourage followers to improve their performance and productivity. 3. Genuine interest in others: it is undeniable fact that financial rewards have a significant influence on followers; meanwhile, there are other motivations that should be attained. The leader should recognise the emotional support for followers since it creates loyalty. Genuine interest does not require a lot of efforts; it might be expressed by asking about the personal health or family. For instance, in the company that I used to work, the owner asks employees about their general life before he asked about any other thing related to the work, this simple action was enough to motivate employees to work as they own the company. 4. Team orientation: the successful leader takes into account the importance of team-work; he gathers the followers and discusses with them the task or the missions. The leader listens to their opinion, stimulates their innovation, and finally creates the harmony required to achieve the task. This gives employees more responsibility to improve their performance and productivity since they have significant role as decision- makers. 5. Visionary and idea-oriented: the long-term objectives are vital issue in the successful leadership agenda; he always seeks for new ideas and creativity. They consider the available competitive advantages and establish the stream of substantial competitive advantages. When Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (Dubai’s ruler) unveiled the growth strategy of 2015, it was unsurprising for many economists that the city had met its 2010 GDP target two years ago. Many people argue that Dubai is only a bubble and it would diminish after it consumes its oil. However, this completely untrue, nowadays, 74% of emirits GDP derives from real-estate, tourism and retail sectors (Kerr, 2007). The rapid strides of the development of Dubai is referred to the log-term successful visions of it rulers, and his ability to create new competitive advantages for the country instead of the oil. Similar to that in the business world, â€Å"Henry Ford by his long term vision as well as rational risk calculated he managed to predict the market and customer trend and made Ford on of the most successful organisation. † (Grint, 2000) 6. Decisiveness, responsibility and Integrity: although, it has been mentioned that followers should be involved in decision-making process, the leader is still the ultimate decision-maker depending on the ability to consider the right decision in the proper time. Since a decision has been made, the leader is completely responsible for the consequences of any possible risk, even if the leader is involved directly in the execution. Integrity is also very important, â€Å"leaders do not use followers as means to achieve their purpose in satisfying the shareholder; instead, they understand that their contribution should consider the whole stakeholders. † (Bowie et al, 2000) 7. Competence: the word of competence derives from innovation, training and development, accumulated experience, and the ability of the leader to learn. Since the leadership is an art, leaders have to consider the importance of shaping and the development of their skills; this should be attained by substantial willing for knowledge and self-development. Those characteristics are very important to be attained by the leaders because they have crucial impact on the effectiveness of leadership, moreover, the effective leaders manage to create synergy between their followers, and loyalty required for achieving certain objectives and tasks. 4Chapter Four: Leadership in the 21st Century: Since the latter part of twentieth century the world has witnessed dramatic change in the whole domains, â€Å"due to the rapid strides of technologies development, the spread of the globalisation phenomenon, demographic shifts, migration and the rapid degradation of social and natural capital – are creating opposing tensions. † (Connor et al, 2003, P. 59). Taking into account those challenges, the demand of leadership has been increased noticeably with an urgent requisite of organisations for framework that tates the new criteria of leadership. Some of these are an expansion for the previous characteristics of leadership and others are new, however, those could be summarised as: †¢Understanding the Culture Diversity: although the geographical barriers have been eliminated, the cultural barriers are still an enormous challenge for businesses. Leaders should be aware that doing business is different from nation to nation, and it is completely restricted by the natio nal traditions and habits. For instant: In the USA, Innovations and achievements are considered as individual effort, hence, the influence of the individual recognition will be obvious in Human Resource Management of the American firms, individual reward system, appraisal and even in the job designed. While in China the individual efforts and innovations are referred to the founder of the firm. In Chinese tradition the achievement are always referred to the collective units such as families, organisations, and the country. (Tsang, 2007) The misunderstanding in the communication is another consequence of the lack of culture appreciation. Many conflicts were occurred, contracts were rejected and negotiations failed at the last stage because of the lack of communication with other culture. Thus far, the comprehensive understanding for influence of the culture on business is vital, because the world has become more united under the umbrella of globalisation. †¢Strategic thinking: An organisation can not be considered as an individual entity, instead it is influenced by external factors, such as competitors, suppliers, customers, critical financers and fluctuation in the market demand. From this view the needs of substantial change in the corporate strategy emerges as an important requisite to enable the company to cope with change of the business environment. However, â€Å"the ways-of-thinking of the leader have continues impact on corporate reorientation. † (Hendry et al,1993). However, it is important to understand that strategic thinking is different from the strategic planning, â€Å"Mintzberg argues that strategic planning derives from strategic thinking† (Bonn, 2001, P63). The first aspect of the strategic thinking is observation and company knowledge. The leader observes the company daily life with its complexity and understands the drivers of the organisation performance and the influence of the external factors on this performance. The second aspect of the strategic thinking is creativity; it is the core of strategic thinking. The leader seeks the substantial development for his organisation; he identifies solutions for the company problems and creates vision which will determine the future of firm. Thereafter, the strategic thinking of the leader establishes the implementation required to achieve the company vision. Sharing vision with others is another significant element for the strategic thinking successful, since it generates loyalty and encourage them because they participate in decision-making process. Jeffery Bezos the founder of Amazon is considered as an important example of a successful leader, in such a high competitive business sector like the online, where other companies struggle to cope with the rapid stride of technology, Amazon imposes itself as the leader of the online industries and especially the e- retailers, there is no doubt that the strategic thinking of Bezos is an ultimate key of the Amazon success. Bezos always has one eye on the future, in order to build the company long term objectives, however, his strategic thinking embodies by creating the Amazon vision and establishing the strategy needed to achieve the company objectives. Innovation is one of most important aspect of Bezos strategic thinking, since Amazon invests huge amount of money to provide the world with amazing technologies such as Elastic Compute Cloud (ECC) to ensure that the company is still the leader of the dot-com race. Hof, 2006) Whenever the world doubts, if Amazon can fulfil its promise to revolutionise retailing, Bezos wonders the people with such an innovative idea to reinforce Amazon position as being the e-retailer leader. With his strategic thinking as well as his creative working-team, Amazon never stops building its substantial competitive advantages. Humanistic awareness: as workforce constitutes the most value asset of the firm, the leader has significant responsibility to ensure their satisfactio n; considerable motivation system, training and development, praise, empowerment, participation in decision-making process are samples to obtain employees satisfaction. Since they have impact on employees’ productivity and innovation. However, employees’ retention reflects the level of their satisfaction, and appreciation for company leader. Learning and self-awareness: the leader has to have a profound knowledge about his organisation to be able to recognise its capability in order to create the vision and framework and means needed to achieve this vision, moreover, the successful leader is knowledge seeker to cope with rapid change in the business world. Self-awareness is another issue that leaders should take into consideration; they distinguish their weaknesses and strengths, and use the last one to eliminate the weaknesses to improve the effectiveness of their leadership. Hence, leaders empower their ability to inspire and unite employees around themselves to maintain the company performance. 5Chapter Five: Leadership Development: The increase of the competition in the business world urges organisations to search more for competitive advantages in order to be able to survive and conquer their competitors in such a hostile business environment. Nowadays organisations eventually start to concern about leadership development and devote tangible efforts to improve efficiencies of its individuals. However, the leadership development program should be prepared comprehensively in order to attain its purpose. The 360 degree appraisal system is an important step to initiate this program, since it provides feedback about the employee performance from different resources which helps to determine the improvement required regard to his strengths and weaknesses. (Ladyshewsky, 2007). Thereafter, the priority of the leadership development will be for the higher level managers, regard to their expected contribution on their subordinates, yet the improvement of the subordinate should be in the leadership development agenda. The leadership development program should cover the weakness of the employees that has listed in the 360 degree appraisal; meanwhile, it should depend on modern techniques and case studies from other companies, rather than depending on the literatures and theories only. The final step in the leadership development program is the evaluation which derived from many criteria, such as the feedback of the program, the examination of the participant’s understanding, and the tangible outcomes that the company will acquire which is the decisive for the program evaluation. Leskiw et al, 2007) However, there is another view should be deemed in the issue of leadership development, individuals perseverance is ultimate criteria for development, leader should have enough credibility to admit there weaknesses and finds the appropriate strategy to mitigate the impact of this weakness, moreover, the leader should be knowledge seeker to obtain the benefit of the others experience. 6Chapter Eigh t: Conclusion: The leadership an old requisite in the human beings life, nevertheless, it has become a considerable obsession for the organisations, regard to the substantial transformation in the world business. Although the theories of the leadership are different, they agree that there are several characteristic that should be attain by a person in order to be such a successful leader. Most of the leadership theories concern about the characteristic needed to reinforce two main things, creating competitive advantages and the workforce. As the workforce is the most important asset for the firm, the leader should consider employee alignment around the company objectives throughout the leader humanistic consideration as followers need inspiration, different kind of motivation in order to enhance their performance. Meanwhile, the leader should eventually find the resource of the competitive advantages. Due to the dissemination of the globalisation phenomenon as well as the rapid development in technology, organisations require new leadership characteristic to cope with change in the business environment. However, the new leadership characteristics have emerged from the need for crossing the culture barriers, since it is an enormous obstacle for organisation. Creating the long-term planning depends on the strategic thinking of the leader to identify new vision for the company. The increase in the world competition is accomplished with raise of the leadership demand, thus far organisations should invest considerably in improving their leadership capability, since the world development will never stop. References Bass, B. M. , (1998), Stress and Transactional-Transformational Leadership, Transformational Leadership: Industrial, Military, and Educational Impact, London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Bonn, I. , (2001) Developing Strategic Thinking as a Core Competency, Management Decision, Vol. 39, No. , pp. 63-71 Bowie, N and Elmer, L. , (2000), Kantian Theory of Leadership, Leadership organisation Development Journal, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 185-193 Connor, R. and Mackenzie-Smith, P. (2003), The Leadership Jigsaw -finding the Missing Piece, Business Strategy Review, Vol. 14, Issue 1, pp 59-66 Dessler, G. , (1976) Leadership and Supervision, Organisation and Management: Contingency Approach, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Publication. Draft, R. L. , (2002), Management, 6th Ed. Mason, OH: South-Western Publication. Grint, K. (2000), Henry Ford: The Blind Business Visionary, The Arts of Leadership, Oxford: Oxford University Press Hendry, J (ed) and Johnson, G (ed) with Newton, J (1993), Strategic Thinking: Leadership and the Management of Change, England: John Wiley Publication Higgs, M. , (2003) How can we make sense of leadership in the 21st century? , Leadership organisation Development Journal, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 273-284 Hof, R. D. , (13/10/2006), Jeff Bezos’ Risky Bet, Business week magazine [Online]. Available from Business week: http://www. businessweek. com/magazine/content/06_46/b4009001. tm Accessed (20/04/2007)) Horner, M. , (1997) Leadership Theory: Past, Present and Future, Team Performance Management, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 270-287 Kerr, S. , (24/07/2007), Emirate Sets its Sights on Trebled GDP by 2015, The Financial Times. Economy, pp. 2 Ladyshewsky, K. R, () A Strategic Approach for Integrating Theory to Practice in Leadership Dev elopment, Leadership Organisation Development Journal, Vol. 28, No. 5, pp. 426-443 Leskiw, S and Singh, P. , (2007), Leadedrship Development: Learning from Best Practices, Leadership Organisation Development Journal, Vol. 8, No. 5, pp. 444-464 Lussier, R. N. , (1996), Human relations in organizations: A skill-building approach. 2nd Ed. Chicago, IL: Irwin, Inc Rost, J. C, (1993), Leadership definition, Leadership for the Twenty-First Century, London: Praeger Publication. Scott , E. D. and Kleiner, B. H, (1996), Good? Leadership, Management Development Review, Vol. 9, No. 5, pp. 30-33 Tsang, D. , (2007), Leadership, National Culture and Performance Management in The Chinese Software Industry, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 56, No. 4, pp. 270-284 How to cite Leadership Characteristics, Essay examples

Discuss the Images In Sympathy That Reveal The Pain Of Slavery free essay sample

When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass, Alliteration used twice using the letters W and S. I know why the caged bird beats his wing Till its blood is red on the cruel bars The poet is using imagery and a rather painful one by describing the bars of the cage covered with the bird’s red blood which is describe the struggle the bird is going through to be free. For he must fly back to his perch and cling When he fain would be on the bough a-swing The poet describing why he must get out the bird must fly back to where he belongs to the tree branch where he will be happy and he will start swinging on the branch. And a pain still throbs in the old , old scars And they pulse again with a keener sting I know why he beats his wing! The poet tells us that it is not the first time that he beats his wings against the bars, Because there is pain pounds in his old scares. We will write a custom essay sample on Discuss the Images In Sympathy That Reveal The Pain Of Slavery or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, When he beats his bars and he would be free The poet uses alliterations here with the letters w and b. He wants the reader to pay more attention to what the bird is going through and the fact that his wing his bruised when he beats the bars trying to be free. It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core, But a plea, that upward to heaven he flings A metaphor is used to describe the imprisoned bird which is comparing him with a human being that prays and unlike every other bird he does not sing he prays from his heart and requests for freedom and this metaphor is used to show how strongly the bird feels about wanting and needing his freedom.