The media advertising for Conrack Essay Example for Free

The media advertising for Conrack Essay The appropriate media advertising for Conrack is most likely to be the advertisements of a local scale rather than a national scale. I believe that a good place to start is the local newspaper, yellow pages, leaflet and local radio. On the other hand, a business like Eco-Store is most likely to be advertising on an internet website, national newspaper and a specialist magazine or even television. The local newspaper is good for Conrack because many people of the surrounding community are likely to read it and it will therefore reach a vast majority of the target market. One disadvantage of the local newspaper is that the advertisement would be fairly small and will cost in the region of i 51. It could also mean that the advertisement is hidden behind the bigger advertisements of bigger companies. The Local newspaper could also be a disadvantage in that not many people will be interested. Eco-Store on may choose to advertise in the national newspaper rather than local because of its vast stores located throughout the UK. It is an advantage because it means that there is national coverage, readers can refer back to the advertisement and its relatively cheap at i 20,000 for 3 months for a company who turnover i 200 million. There can be also be much detail provided. In contrast to this, there is no movement or sound; the advertisement is usually boring as its limited to only black and white. The yellow pages are a good place to advertise for Conrack as there are different yellow pages for each region of the country. It is also an advantage as many people look at the yellow pages when they want to buy something auspicious such as timber. It is only a one off payment of i 367 for a 4. 5cm box for the whole year. This is well within the budget of Conrack. The marketing strategy for eco-store is to improve the Homely nature. The best way to do this is in the form of pictures. I think this might mean that eco-store could opt for television advertising. Television advertising is an expensive choice but it could prove to show results very quickly. On advantage of Television advertising is the creative advertising can have a big impact on the business. They can demonstrate Eco-Friendly being homely and can reach a vast audience. In contrast to this, its expensive, the message is short lived and many consumers switch channels when there are advertisements as there is now a vast amount of other program choices with the newly digital television. The other option for Conrack could be to advertise on the local radio; in recent years this has been proven to be very effective. It could be advantageous in that it: enables the use of sound, thought provoking messages could be used, produced relatively cheaply. On the other hand, it isnt visual, no copy of material, consumers may forget as there is nothing to refer back to. Eco-friendly may choose the internet as an advertising medium as it has wide coverage, cheap to set up, global, number of hits can be measured. Both companies could incorporate the use of specialist magazines. This will mean there are more effective consumers that are willing to buy the timber. It also means that many people may be interested and could attract local businesses to buy products in bulk. Both businesses could use many types of advertising that could enhance the image of there businesses and no business is limited in using each type of advertising medium. The best type of advertising is one which results are quickly seen. There are many other forms of advertising a business could use depending on the type of people they want to target and number.

Essential Aspects of Pantomime

Essential Aspects of Pantomime What were the essential aspects of pantomime and how have they come down to us in the present day? Although it is currently most commonly seen as a peculiarly British pastime, pantomime in fact has its origins in the medieval period of European history (Lathan, 2004). Specifically in terms of tradition and heritage, pantomime as it is known today emanates from Italy and the Commedia ‘dell Arte. This Italian street festival was akin to a carnival and it managed to combine elements of parody, drama and the aesthetically grotesque in order to create a unique fusion of art and farce. The characters tended to improvise their way through a set of well‑known plots, which involved a great deal of song and dance being integrated into the Commedia ‘dell Arte routine. These medieval festivals travelled through the towns and cities of Italy and then France in the Middle Ages, which helped to create an air of familiarity between the performers and the audience who would take part in the show. This is without a doubt the most significant tradition that has survived through to the modern era whereby the audiences of contemporary pantomime are expected to know the plot and the main characters and to take part in the proceedings at designated intervals within the script. As the quotation below suggests, this marriage between the performers and the audience has been an essential part of the longevity of the pantomime because of the way in which it managed to transcend historical divisions between classes. â€Å"All were considered equal during carnival. Here, in the town square, a special form of free and familiar contact reigned among people who were usually divided by the barriers of caste, property, profession, and age.† (Bakhtin, 1993:10) The existence of a stock set of characters and plots is likewise a historical tradition of European festivals that have managed to survive in the guise of the pantomime. There are only a handful of productions that are classed as pantomime in the modern era and these productions are almost always played exclusively during the festive Christmas period, which is another connection to its carnival past. ‘Snow White’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Aladdin’, ‘Dick Whittington’ and ‘Babes in the Wood’ are high profile examples of the pantomime titles that are produced each and every year in the UK. This deep-seated sense of repetition is an important part of the pantomime tradition as it continues the dominant theme of the medieval period, which was to breed familiarity in order to secure the participation of the audience in the plot of the play. â€Å"Magic, romance, suspense and comedy are the lifeblood of most theatre performance, but there is one factor of our pantomime tradition that exists in no other theatre production. The audience has learnt its lines and rehearsing its roles every Christmas since early childhood. Every English speaking person knows that ‘Oh No, its not!’ should be answered with ‘Oh Yes, it is!’ And that villains must be booed and hissed as they lay their evil plots.† (Bicat et al, 2004:9) Furthermore, these well‑know stories that constitute the foundations of the pantomime tradition all have their roots in fairy tales, which helps to further simplify the plot and aid audience participation. Traditionally, pantomimes require a battle between good and evil. The villain has historically always been the first actor to appear on stage and always to the left, which was used to donate hell in the Middle Ages. Conversely, the hero is supposed to appear on stage from the right – the manifestation of heaven in the past. Although the remainder of the pantomime production tends to descend into farce and improvisation, these central precepts remain an integral part of the festival in the modern era with plays overseeing a duel of good versus evil before inexorably concluding with the ultimate triumph of the hero over the villain. As time passed, pantomime was inevitably influenced by the evolution of mainstream theatre and it gradually took its place as an annual spectacle to operate alongside regular theatre productions. The two (theatre and pantomime) were especially closely linked during the Restoration period (1660‑1700) when the farce of pantomime was facsimiled in the most popular plays of the age. In the process, pantomime has had to move away from the notion of an almost entirely ad hoc, ad lib production into a more formal, organised play that is able to be divided into visible scenes and segments with a running time that is in line with the lifestyles of the contemporary audience. Thus, while it is correct to underscore the inherent differences between the festive, annual element of pantomime and the intrinsically more philosophical components of mainstream and high‑brow drama, there is no longer a sense that two completely different sets of rules apply. This is an important point and one that is all too often overlooked in the analysis of modern day incarnations of the pantomime. The most pronounced change prevalent in contemporary versions of traditional pantomime resides is the way in which productions are increasingly linked with young children. Whereas the adult section of the local townspeople would have constituted the overwhelming majority of the audience in previous centuries, there is today an association between the infantile and pantomime that is a central reason as to why pantomimes have been able to survive for so long in such a commercially aggressive contemporary economic climate. Without the active participation of children it is doubtful whether pantomimes would be able to entice the requisite audiences necessary to make a profit for the impresarios. Of much greater importance, without the festive childhood memories that pantomime bequeaths, much of the interest that remains in its tradition would more than likely begin to disappear. One thing is, however, for sure. Though pantomimes remain rooted in their medieval past, they will never lose their relevance to the contemporary audience as the list of modern‑day celebrities who have taken part in productions in recent years underscores. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bakhtin, M. (Translated by Helene Iswolsky) (1993) Rabelais and His World Bloomington: Indiana University Press Bicat, T., Staines, R. and Winslow, C. (2004) Pantomime: A Practical Guide Marlborough: The Crowood Press Frow, G. (1985) Oh Yes it is! : A History of Pantomime London: BBC Books Lathan, P. (2004) It’s Behind You! The Story of Panto London: New Holland Wilson, A.E. (1974) The Story of Pantomime London: Rowman Littlefield

History of the Roman Baths

History of the Roman Baths Hala Ahmed Albinali Ms. Jessica Lund The Roman Baths The Roman baths are immense and outstanding complex structures designed for bathing, relaxing, and socializing. The Romans believed the baths were essential to the Roman civilization and that they were an example of their superiority and power. The Roman baths were an important part of daily life in ancient Rome’s architectural and social role, since it fulfilled Romans’ concerns about health and cleanliness, as well as allowed all social classes to mix freely, relax, communicate, and bathe while being drivers of the evolution of architecture. The Roman baths were centers of leisure, socialization, business, and gossip. They were originally built as a somewhat private gym in the households of wealthy Romans. The baths also existed in early Egyptian palaces. The Romans took the idea of a hipbath from the Greeks and expanded it into a high degree of sophistication. The baths were usually located near the forum, which is a marketplace or Public Square of an ancient Roman city, the center of legal and business affairs and a place of assembly for the people. At an excavation site in Pompeii, where the first and earliest entry fee box was discovered, that the cost of entry at the Roman baths was simple one â€Å"quadrans† − the smallest coin currency in Rome, thus the Roman baths became a daily regime for people of all classes. On holidays, the entrance fee was free, and during Diocletian’s reign the fee cost two denarii, which was more expensive than usual. The wealthy Romans had balnae in their villas, whic h were smaller, private bathhouses. The Roman baths, which are called thermae, were immensely large bathhouses built for a state and it typically took several blocks. Mixed bathing was unacceptable by most citizens, so there were times for both men and women at the Roman baths. Roman men would work around the afternoon and finish by 2PM or 3PM. At 2PM, the baths were open for mainly men to sport, bathe, and communicate until the baths close. On the other hand, Women had less time, they went in the morning while the men were at work to bathe, gossip, exercise if they were athletes, and meet friends until 2PM. Republican bathhouses had separate bathing facilities for men and women instead of having times for both men and women. As the Roman baths’ popularity grew, men began to use the baths daily, even the Emperor Commodus− who ruled from 180 BC to 192 BC as well as ruling as co-emperor with his father, Marcus Aurelius, from 177 BC− liked bathing so much he says he visited as much as eight times a day. From the beginning of 2nd Century BC, the Roman Baths grew in popularity and size since each Emperor tried to outshine the last Emperor by building more improved bathhouses for the citizens of Rome. By 5th Century AD, the Roman baths became a fundamental part of ancient Roman culture and could be found all over the Roman Empire − there were over nine hundred in Rome alone. Some amazing examples of the Roman baths are the baths of Caracalla, which covered more than thirty-two acres and could hold sixteen hundred bathers at once. It is among the most magnificent bathhouses of the entire Imperial era, but Diocletian’s baths outdid that since they have held up to three thousand people. Some Roman bathhouses were built on natural hot springs, which were known for their healing properties. According to writings and the ritual offerings found in excavations that the water, usually as hot as forty-six degrees Centigrade, that the healing was thought to be the work of the gods. Some ancient Roman bathhouses had temples built either on the site or very close to it, thus they became sacred places. For example, Sulis was the Celtic goddess of the spring, and when the Romans arrived, they worshipped her too. They recognized her with their own goddess of healing, Minerva. On the hot spring, the baths were built, and next to it, a temple to Sulis-Minerva in a walled enclosure. There were no services in the temple, but priests sacrificed animals, and after that, people went in for private prayers. They prayed standing in front of the statue with their hands out, palms up, and when they finished they kissed the statue’s feet. Most ancient Roman baths were places of enter tainment rather than worship. The bathhouses were built to provide a regular ritual that Romans repeated every time they visited the Roman baths. When entering the baths, they would first go to the dressing room, or apodyterium, where there werecabinets to store their clothes and shoes which were guarded by slaves for a fee. The slave(s) would also escort the bathers while carrying the bather’s gear. Sometimes the dressing room had multiple purposes, for example, in the Stabian Baths in Pompeii, thewomens dressing roomwas also a frigidarium, a room with a small cold-water pool. There is no clear evidence that shows what the Romans wore when bathing, but they may also have worn some light covering in the baths. Within the baths, they may have worn special sandals with thick soles to protect their feet from the heated floors. In the baths, there was a large central courtyard, whichwas the exercise ground, or palaestra. A shadyporticothat led into the bathing rooms surrounded it. The palaestra has a natationà ¢Ë†â€™a large outdoor pool such asone in the Stabian Baths. Since the Romans had no soap, they would use oil instead. After changing clothes and oiling their bodies, male bathers would usually begin their routine with exercise, by doing exercises such as wrestling, mild weight lifting, numerous types ofball playing, running, and swimming. After exercise, the bathers would have the dirt and oil scraped from their bodies with a curved metal tool called astrigil. A slave carried their towels,oil flasks,and strigils, while the bathers would start bathing through rooms of various temperatures. They may start in the warm room or tepidarium, which had heated walls and floors, but sometimes no pool, and then proceed to the hot bath, or caldarium, which wasclosest to the furnace. The caldarium had a large or small pool with very hot water and awaist-high fountainor labrum with cool water to splash on their face and neck. After this, the bather could spend some time in thetepidariumagain befo re finishing in thecold roomor frigidarium, a room with acold pool. They would sometimes repeat the same progression of rooms but backwards. Other rooms provided moist steam such as sudataria, dry heat like a sauna or laconicum, as well as massages with perfumed oils. After their baths, they could stroll in the other places the Roman baths offered. The bathers could watch performances of jugglers or acrobats, stroll in the gardens, visit the library, buy a snack from food vendors, or listen to a literary recital. The baths seem to be a quiet, leisurely place, but the baths were noisy, as one philosopher−Seneca−complained when he lived near a bathhouse in Rome: The sturdy man does his exercise with lead weights. When he is straining hard (or pretending to) I can hear him grunt; when he breathes out I hear him panting and his hoarse gasps. Or I might hear the blows of the massagers hands slapping his shoulders. To all this, add the man who dives in with a lot of noise and splashing. And if a ball player comes along and begins to count his score out loud, I am definitely finished. The baths were made to be very attractive and striking places. Although most of the decorations have not survived, many writers commented on the luxury of the bathhouses, describing them with words such as, â€Å"well-lighted, lovely mosaics, airy rooms with high vaulted ceilings, silver faucets and fittings, and paintings and colored marble panels.† There was also a large entrance or meeting area, where people could walk, talk, or sit on seats around two large fountains. Roman engineers invented a system of heating the baths called thehypocaust. Pillars and spaces were left inside the walls so that hot air from the furnace, or praefurnium, could circulate and flow through the space in the walls. Rooms that required the most heat were placed closest to the furnace and the heat could be increased by adding more wood to the furnace. Many heated rooms and pools were positioned to make the most of the heat of the sun. At the Baths of Caracalla, the hot room was an enormous hall th at was one hundred and fifteen feet wide with a pool three feet deep.In order to heat it, approximately fifty large furnaces were needed as well as millions of fireproof terracotta bricks or special bricks called tegulae mammatae. Bathhouses also had largepublic latrines, usually with marble seats over channels whose continuous flow of water that established the first â€Å"flush toilets.† These toilets were a vital part of the plumbing system as well as another common area in which to sit and talk. There was a continuous water flow underneath the seats. A shallowwater channelin front of the seats providedsponges attached to sticksfor people to wipe themselves. The Roman baths were among the most splendid and luxurious of all the outstanding works, and it allowed all, no matter what their social role was, to enjoy the magnificent baths. With their exquisite furnishings, high vaulted ceilings, paintings, brightly colored mosaics, marble panels, and silver faucets and fittings. As well as its organization and planning. The Roman baths were an important part of Rome’s superiority, social role, and advancements in architecture and more. Ancient Roman Baths: Ancient Roman Architecture in Action.Web. 18 February 2015. Camelot International: Britains Heritage and History.† Web. 18 Feb. 2015. James. Roman Baths: Facts and Information.† 25 Mar. 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2016. McManus, Barbara F. Roman Baths.† June 2011. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. Cartwright, Mark. Roman Baths.† 2 May 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2015. McGuire, Lela. Baths in Ancient Rome.† Web. 18 February 2015 ROMAN BATHS.† Web. 18 Feb. 2015. Carr, Karen. Roman Baths.†. 10 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. Baths. PBS. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. The Romans The Bath House.† 8 Mar. 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. Roman Baths.† Web. 18 Feb. 2015. The Scribe. Ancient History Blog.† 14 Jan. 2011. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.

Graduation 2001 :: essays research papers

First of all I would like to thank everyone for coming out tonight for the 2001 Palo Verde graduation. I am honored to be speaking in front of the class of 2001. I congratulate all the graduates on a job well done. Sitting here shows a great deal of work and dedication. Graduation is a time to remember the last four years at Palo Verde. Some of us have great memories that we will hold close to us and others may think about the struggles and hardships that we went through. But the point is that it’s over now right. Not really cause now we are going on our own. Their is not going to be that teacher that reminds that the paper is do tomorrow and that grades are coming out pretty soon so we need to get our grades up. We now need to look at what the future has in store for us. Its a serious time, a time to look at what path our lives are going to take once the caps and gowns are taken off. High school was an important step in our lives but it was only a step. So we must strive to educate ourselves and work to our best abilities to become strong individuals. But these struggles that we wen through will help us to be able to handle things in the real world. We all went through struggles and hardships but we all got to remember that someone went thro ugh more struggles than we did. I remember this friend that walked to school at 6:45 in the morning so that he could make it to Yearbook O period; while it was still dark outside. Then his junior year he got a job and to be able to make to work on time he would have to run from school to the mile away bus stop so that he would be able to get a car. And after saving his paychecks for four months he was able to get a car. I was proud of him for going through hardships and his family was proud too. On graduation night we all must remember the friendships that we had through the times. Even if they were bad or good we all can learn something from them. We can remember those friends that we’ve had since freshmen year and those friends that we just met but have become our best of friends. Graduation 2001 :: essays research papers First of all I would like to thank everyone for coming out tonight for the 2001 Palo Verde graduation. I am honored to be speaking in front of the class of 2001. I congratulate all the graduates on a job well done. Sitting here shows a great deal of work and dedication. Graduation is a time to remember the last four years at Palo Verde. Some of us have great memories that we will hold close to us and others may think about the struggles and hardships that we went through. But the point is that it’s over now right. Not really cause now we are going on our own. Their is not going to be that teacher that reminds that the paper is do tomorrow and that grades are coming out pretty soon so we need to get our grades up. We now need to look at what the future has in store for us. Its a serious time, a time to look at what path our lives are going to take once the caps and gowns are taken off. High school was an important step in our lives but it was only a step. So we must strive to educate ourselves and work to our best abilities to become strong individuals. But these struggles that we wen through will help us to be able to handle things in the real world. We all went through struggles and hardships but we all got to remember that someone went thro ugh more struggles than we did. I remember this friend that walked to school at 6:45 in the morning so that he could make it to Yearbook O period; while it was still dark outside. Then his junior year he got a job and to be able to make to work on time he would have to run from school to the mile away bus stop so that he would be able to get a car. And after saving his paychecks for four months he was able to get a car. I was proud of him for going through hardships and his family was proud too. On graduation night we all must remember the friendships that we had through the times. Even if they were bad or good we all can learn something from them. We can remember those friends that we’ve had since freshmen year and those friends that we just met but have become our best of friends.

The Economic Impact Of The Olympic Games Essay -- Olympics Economy

The Economic Impact of the Olympic Games Missing Graphs With the Olympic games being held in Sydney this year, I wondered if perhaps the performance of the economy was being affected in part by the fiscal stimulus provided by Olympic construction in Sydney and other parts of the country. Australia’s economy has been performing well recently, suggesting that there might be some effect. Over the last five years, growth in Australia’s gross domestic product has averaged 4.35%, almost a full point above it’s thirty year annual average of 3.5%, and the unemployment rate is near a ten year low. According to one estimate, the Olympics will tack on an additional six and a half billion dollars, about 1.6% of the GDP, to Australia’s GDP over the 1994-2000 period. A natural question to ask is if this growth is due primarily to the Olympic preparation, or if, instead, it is a result of some other change in policy, or perhaps just plain old luck. One way to address this question is to see if other host countries have experienced increases in GDP around Olympic years. Below is a graph of one measure of the boost to GDP that countries receive from hosting the Olympics. Each point represents the average, over all of the host countries since 1952, rate of growth of GDP. What this graph suggests is that prior to the Olympics and during the Olympic year GDP growth is higher than average - maxing out at nearly 1.5% above average GDP in the 3rd year before the Olympics. This number seems consistent with the estimates for Sydney - at least prior to the Olympic year. However, the graph also suggests that growth rates are lower in the years after the Olympics, than in the years prior to the games. The economic benefits of the 2000 Olympics can be classified as direct and indirect. Direct benefits include the impact of the Olympics on exports, investment and employment. In terms of exports, the main impact will be inbound tourism, sponsorship fees, media broadcast rights, and ticket sales. The staging of the Olympics will encourage more international tourists to visit Australia. Sponsorship fees received from international sources were strong leading up to the Olympics and according to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), broadcast rights, approximately one billion dollars in value, were recorded as exports in September quarter 2000. Ticket sale sold to overseas visitors,... ...tself. Importantly, the benefits will continue well into the new millennium as Australia gets more international exposure for its exports and gains from the transfer of technology and knowledge from the world’s best. Opportunity beckons for the athletes, for exporters, for artists, for scientists and for the whole Australian community. Bibliography Arthur Anderson / CREA (1999) â€Å"Economic Impact Study of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games†. January 1999. Arthur Anderson and the Centre for Regional Economic Analysis, University of Tasmania. Dabkowski, S and Ketchell, M (1999) â€Å"Olympic Dream May Not Deliver Riches.† The Melbourne Age. Gittins R (1999) â€Å"Swifter! Higher! Richer? Sadly Not With Our Games.† May 8 1999, Sydney Morning Herald. Mules,T â€Å"The Economic Impact of Special Events .† Griffith University, Gold Coast Queensland. Olympic Co-ordination Authortiy (OCA) (1999) â€Å"State of Play: A Report to the People of New South Wales† June 1999, OCA, Sydney. Reserve Bank of Australia (1999) â€Å"The Economic Effects of Staging the Olympic Games† Semi-Annual Statement of Monetary Policy, May 1999, Reserve Bank, Sydney.

Enron

The Enron scandal has far-reaching political and financial implications. In just 15 years, Enron grew from nowhere to be America's seventh largest company, employing 21,000 staff in more than 40 countries. But the firm's success turned out to have involved an elaborate scam. Enron lied about its profits and stands accused of a range of shady dealings, including concealing debts so they didn't show up in the company's accounts. As the depth of the deception unfolded, investors and creditors retreated, forcing the firm into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December. More than six months after a criminal inquiry was announced, the guilty parties have still not been brought to justice. Leaders Leadership is critical to the creation and maintenance of culture; there is a constant interplay between culture and leadership. Leaders create the mechanisms for cultural embedding and reinforcement. Cultural norms arise and change because of what leaders tend to focus their attention on, their reactions to crises, their role modeling, and their recruitment strategies. Referring to Enron, the major mistake made by leaders are as follows: Compensation Programs As in most other U. S. companies, Enron’s management was heavily compensated using stock options. Heavy use of stock option awards linked to short-term stock price may explain the focus of Enron’s management on creating expectations of rapid growth and its efforts to puff up reported earnings to meet Wall Street’s expectations. The stated intent of stock options is to align the interests of management with shareholders. But most programs award sizable option grants based on short-term accounting performance, and there are typically few requirements for managers to hold stock purchased through option programs for the long term. The experience of Enron, along with many other firms in the last few years, raises the possibility that stock compensation programs as currently designed can motivate managers to make decisions that pump up short-term stock performance, but fail to create medium- or long-term value (Hall and Knox, 2002). Dishonestly concealed debt and overstated earnings. Management t Enron Corp. admitted it overstated earnings for nearly five years. In an SEC filing, Enron said financial statements from 1997 through the third quarter of 2001 â€Å"should not be relied upon, and that outside businesses run by Enron officials during that period should have been included in the company's earnings reports. As a result, Enron is reducing earnings for those years by $586 million, from $2. 89 billion to $2. 31 billion. The company also acknowledged that part of earnings came from deals with partnerships controlled by recently sacked CFO Andrew Fastow. These transactions are already being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Enron said these deals enabled Fastow to earn more than $30 million. Enron also conceded that three entities run by company officials should have been included in its financial statements, based on generally accepted accounting principles. In addition, the company revised its debt upward in each year from 1997 to 2000. As a result, Enron's debt at the end of 2000 was $10. 86 billion, $628 million more than previously reported. Enron’s Performance Review System. PRC featured two basic motivational forces – fear and greed. Skilling wanted to keep only â€Å"the very best,† meaning those who produced their profit and volume target– so every six months one or two out of every ten employees were dismissed. In pitting employees against each other, the rank-and rank System acted to stress the imagined weaknesses of individuals and to obfuscate organizational problems. In sum, this led to an erosion of employee confidence in their own perceptions and, most crucially, to further compliance with the organization’s leaders in a way that strengthened conformist behavior. In practice, the PRC system worked to encourage â€Å"entourages† or â€Å"fiefdoms† (Dallas 2003) of loyal employees who gravitated towards powerful players for protection. The PRC was a powerful mechanism for preventing the emergence of subcultures running counter to the organizational tone set by Enron’s hierarchy. Members of the Risk Management and Assessment Group who reviewed the terms and conditions of deals (and who were largely inexperienced recent MBA graduates) as well as internal auditors, were fearful of retaliation in the PRC from persons whose deals they were reviewing (Chaffin and Fidler 2002; Dallas 2003). At best, control was compliance-based, seldom encouraging employees to follow either the letter or the intent of laws (Dallas 2003). This punitive environment brought the consequences of dissent sharply into focus. Enron’s culture has been characterized as â€Å"ruthless and reckless †¦ lavish rewards on those who played the game, while persecuting those who raised objections† (Chaffin and Fidler 2002, 4-5). Led by Skilling’s cavalier attitude to rules, top management conveyed the impression that all that mattered was for employees to book profits. In sum, this led to an erosion of employees’ confidence in their own perceptions and, most crucially, to further compliance with the organization’s leaders in a way that strengthened conformist behavior. Former employees have noted how â€Å"loyalty required a sort of group think† (Chaffin and Fidler 2002, 2) and â€Å"that you had to ‘keep drinking the Enron water’† (Stephens and Behr 2002, 2). A myth of smooth, flawless operations was perpetuated with problems â€Å"papered over† (McLean 2001, 58). The net effect of the rank-and-yank system was to decrease the likelihood that employees would raise objections to any illegal or unethical behavior of powerful players. The competitiveness the PRC created was exacerbated by Enron’s bonus regime. As one insider put it, â€Å"sure, the culture at Enron was treacherous, but that was the point† (Swartz and Watkins 2003, 56). Ultimately, the overestimation of profits and underestimation of costs was endemic to the organization. The cheat on debt and financial report lead to character erosion which destroys the image of this company and loss of business and social standing. The harsh policy alliance the relationship between managers and ordinary workers, make well-intentioned employees were inhibited from doing the right thing. Board Board of Directors in Enron’s collapse concluded that the firm had developed a pervasive culture of deception (Senate Subcommittee 2002). As such it was designed and operating at the level of connivance. CEO Lay used direct force to fire any possible successor with whom he disagreed and either he or other top Enron managers used indirect force to deceive and manipulate employees and other stakeholders for top executive advantage. Whatever standard operating procedures were developed at the level of conformance were honored only to the extent that they did not infringe upon executive perks or interfere with top executives exercising a type of feudal control over internal subjects. When external compliance threatened to restrict Enron corporate prerogatives, aggressive tactics to reduce or liminate regulatory standards were routinely employed. The extent and degree to which illegal non-compliance was the cultural norm at Enron will be determined in the courts. Enron did not reach the commitment level; it never democratized its power structures so that employee and community input could shape strategic direction or restrain executive perks. For all intents and purposes, the work culture of Enron was that of a moral jungle where abuse of power dominated principled economic democratic norms; it was a moral powder keg ready to explode. (1) Fiduciary Failure.  The Enron Board of Directors failed to safeguard Enron shareholders and contributed to the collapse of the seventh largest public company in the United States, by allowing Enron to engage in high risk accounting, inappropriate conflict of interest transactions, extensive undisclosed off-the-books activities, and excessive executive compensation. The Board witnessed numerous indications of questionable practices by Enron management over several years, but chose to ignore them to the detriment of Enron shareholders, employees and business associates. 2) High Risk Accounting. The Enron Board of Directors knowingly allowed Enron to engage in high risk accounting practices. (3) Inappropriate Conflicts of Interest. Despite clear conflicts of interest, the Enron Board of Directors approved an unprecedented arrangement allowing Enron’s Chief Financial Officer to establish and operate the LJM private equity funds which transacted business with Enron and profited at Enron’s expense.  The Board exercised inadequate oversight of LJM transaction and compensation controls and failed to protect Enron shareholders from unfair dealing. (4) Extensive Undisclosed Off-The-Books Activity. The Enron Board of Directors knowingly allowed Enron to conduct billions of dollars in off-the-books activity to make its financial condition appear better than it was and failed to ensure adequate public disclosure of material off-the-books liabilities that contributed to Enron’s collapse. (5) Excessive Compensation.  The Enron Board of Directors approved excessive compensation for company executives, failed to monitor the cumulative cash drain caused by Enron’s 2000 annual bonus and performance unit plans, and failed to monitor or halt abuse by Board Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lay of a company-financed, multi-million dollar, personal credit line. (6) Lack of Independence. The independence of the Enron Board of Directors was compromised by financial ties between the company and certain Board members. The Board also failed to ensure the independence of the company’s auditor, allowing Andersen to provide internal audit and consulting services while serving as Enron’s Outside Accountants/Auditors Andersen's auditors were pressured by Enron's management to defer recognizing the charges from the special purpose entities as their credit risks became clear. Since the entities would never return a profit, accounting guidelines required that Enron should take a write-off, where the value of the entity was removed from the balance sheet at a loss. To pressure Andersen into meeting Enron's earnings expectations, Enron would occasionally allow accounting firms Ernst & Young or PricewaterhouseCoopers to complete accounting tasks to create the illusion of hiring a new firm to replace Andersen. Although Andersen was equipped with internal controls to protect against conflicted incentives of local partners, they failed to prevent conflict of interest. Revelations concerning Andersen's overall performance led to the break-up of the firm, and to the following assessment by the Powers Committee (appointed by Enron's board to look into the firm's accounting in October 2001): â€Å"The evidence available to us suggests that Andersen did not fulfill its professional responsibilities in connection with its audits of Enron's financial statements, or its obligation to bring to the attention of Enron's Board (or the Audit and Compliance Committee) concerns about Enron's internal contracts over the related-party transactions†. Ethical Code/Process Enron senior management gets a failing grade on truth and disclosure. The purpose of ethics is to enable recognition of how a particular situation will be perceived. At a certain level, it hardly matters what the courts decide. Enron is bankrupt—which is what happened to the company and its officers before a single day in court. But no company engaging in similar practices can derive encouragement for any suits that might be terminated in Enron’s favor. The damage to company reputation through a negative perception of corporate ethics has already been done. Enron’s top managers chose stakeholder deception and short-term financial gains for themselves, which destroyed their personal, and business reputations and their social standing. They all risk criminal and civil prosecution that could lead to imprisonment and/or bankruptcy. Board members were similarly negligent by failing to provide sufficient oversight and restraint to top management excesses, thereby further harming investor and public interests (Senate Subcommittee 2002). Individual and institutional investors lost millions of dollars because they were misinformed about the firm’s financial performance reality through questionable accounting practices (Lorenzetti 2002). Employees were deceived about the firm’s actual financial condition and deprived of the freedom to diversify their retirement portfolios; they had to stand by helplessly while their retirement savings evaporated at the same time that top managers cashed in on their lucrative stock options (Jacobius and Anand 2001). The government was also harmed because America’s political tradition of chartering only corporations that serve the public good was violated by an utter lack of economic democratic protections from the massive public stakeholder harms caused by aristocratic abuses of power that benefited select wealthy elite.

American Writers Essay

List of American Novels for Research Project English 11H Historical/War Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane Killer Angels, Michael Shaara A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier My Brother Sam is Dead, JL Collier African-American Beloved, Toni Morrison (mature themes) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou Native Son, James Baldwin The Color Purple, Alice Walker (mature themes) Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston Malcom X (autobiography- lengthy) A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ernest Gaines Go Tell it on the Mountain, James Baldwin Black Boy, Richard Wright (memoir) Dystopian/Futuristic/Science Fiction Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut Catch-22, Joseph Heller The Giver, Lois Lowry Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury Realism/Naturalism/Regionalism The Call of the Wild, Jack London White Fang, Jack London O’Pioneers, Willa Cather My Antonia, Willa Cather Maggie, Girl of the Streets, Stephen Crane The Jungle, Upton Sinclair Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain Miscellaneous Modern/Contemporary novels The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd. The Natural, Bernard Malamud (baseball; Jewish myth) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey (set in a mental asylum) House on Mango Street, Sandy Cisneros Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (Chinese-American culture) The Help, Kathryn Stockett (set in 1960s; about African-American maids in the South) Shoeless Joe, WP Kinsella (baseball) Franny and Zooey, by JD Salinger (from 1950’s; If you have an interest in world philosophy or eastern religion, you’d probably like this. ) The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (mature themes) Research Novel Lottery Preparation. Native American Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Sherman Alexie Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko Quest/Journey On the Road, Jack Kerouac The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway The Road, Cormac McCarthy Dark Romanticism The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne (set in Puritan New England; challenging) ark Roma nticis m he Scarlet Letter For our project, you will read one of the books on this list and (later) research the reasons this has become a significant member of the American literary canon. (What literary elements make it unique or powerful? What impact has this work had on our history or way of thinking? ) During our next class, we will conduct a lottery so that each student has a different title. To help insure that you end up with a title that you will enjoy, please spend 20-30 minutes choosing 4 titles from the list that you will be pleased to read and research. You ARE NOT allowed to read any book that you have previously read. I strongly suggest you do some Internet searches on various titles to examine what those books are all about, and to determine if their content might appeal to you. You also need to make sure ahead of time that your choices are okay with your parents. Remember, we will draw names and choose titles, so it’s highly likely you won’t get your first choice. You may, in fact, want to come up with more than four choices! Four top choices: 1_________________________________________________________________________ 2_________________________________________________________________________ 3_________________________________________________________________________ 4_________________________________________________________________________ Please see side two for list of titles—————————————————————————–?