Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Media - Essay Example the formation of social media and the Internet. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship of Media and Middle East and how it has transformed in the past decades. Furthermore, the paper will discuss the emergence of social media as a major forum that has built people’s perspectives during and after the Arab Spring. In order to understand Middle East (the Arab specifically and comprehensively), the relationship of the media and the state’s culture and its politics should be understood. For more than forty years, mass media authority has built the region. Utilizing the numerous communications models, the centralized government of the region has perfectly ruled the mass media. It is evidenced through history that the Middle East had had rough relationships with its media. The Emirs of different Arab states due to Sharia Laws and other reasons shut down numerous media agencies. Despite the freedom given to the media, different media organizations including BBC were closed down in the Middle East as it was against the laws and Islam (Al-Obaidi). However, over the past few years, it has been noticed that the trend is transforming and the acceptance towards media across the Middle East is increasing. The shift has been observed since the beginning of the Arab Spring (Carrington). The events that took place in various countries of the Middle East from 2010 has transformed the way people think and believe. The role of social media in the Arab spring is dominating and its importance can not be denied as various scholars and researchers have shown that many revolutions started through social media i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. (Gelvanovska, Rogy and Rossotto). Despite the fact that these social media forums were banned in many countries of the Middle East for this particular reason, the Arab Spring continued and many governments were brought down

Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness Research Paper - 6

Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness - Research Paper Example In the last few decades, globalization has become a crucial factor in business, as it affects business in different ways. In the case of Kmart, globalization has led to increased competition in the market. For instance, Target and Wal-Mart are new entrants in the market, having come after Kmart. These later replaced Kmart as the leading retailer. In addition, consumers today have a wide range of options to choose from. With increased technology that comes with globalization, consumers in America can now shop from other international companies, out of America. Being operational only in Guam, the United States, and Puerto Rica, Kmart has not stabilized and diversified enough to adapt to the competition that is globalization presents. In addition, the company has not adopted technology to the required global standards, therefore, cannot fully exploit new business opportunities globally (Turner, 2003). Technology is an important factor in companies today, considering the benefits it presents. In Kmart, the factor of technology made it lag behind and lose it to Wal-Mart. This is because Kmart took a long period to adopt technology to the standards of its competitors. Wal-Mart, which is Kmart’s main competitor, used technology since the early 1970,s as the key to its success. During these years, the company used computers in its stores, electronic cash registers, and used scanners to read UPC bar codes. Later, Wal-Mart started using virtual documents in placing orders and receiving shipping notices. Since Kmart did not take the initiative of integrating technology in its business, this made Wal-Mart have all the competitive advantage, as advanced technology brought effectiveness in the business. However, during the end of 1980s Kmart started to adopt advanced technology in its business process gradually. Nonetheless, the sluggish adoption of technology due to lack of

Importance Of Cross Cultural Leadership

Importance Of Cross Cultural Leadership In the 21st century, many companies operate in international markets and leadership has to deal with the cross-cultural differences. Most researchers and practitioners are saying that the leader of tomorrow is someone who can jump across boundaries and disciplines and analyze cultural differences in global (Shinn, 2011).The leaders have to learn how to get along with the employees and leading a good team of different cultural backgrounds. And some researchers have been predicting that globalization, increased technology and changing demographics would create new challenges for leaders who must manage in a diverse workforce. All of those factors have increased the possibly that workers are from various nationalities, different culture backgrounds and a variety of religions will be required to work together. The problem of Leadership seems to be particularly important in international and cross-cultural market where they run business. The leaders of these companies need to consider not only the countrys economic, political and environment, but also the cultural differences between their country and the international country. So the controversy is the leaders can successfully lead the team in the cross-cultural background or not. Different people hold different views. In my opinion, I think cross-cultural leadership will be success. The purpose of this paper is to briefly introduce the importance of cross-cultural leadership in the international business. Then it will discuss the challenges and problems of the cross-cultural leadership and also will analyze the situation and applications with appropriate theories. Finally, the essay will end with a synthesized conclusion. Importance of cross-cultural leadership There are two kinds of understanding of cross-cultural leadership. One is from the point of view of the organization to understand the cross-cultural leadership, cross-cultural leadership is the leader in the implementation of an organization constituted by the staff of different nationalities, different values and different cultural backgrounds to guide and coordinate the behavior. From this perspective, cross-cultural leadership is present in among the multinational and transnational organizations. In addition, an understanding from the perspective of cultural exchange and cultural changes, the cross-cultural leadership as to adapt to a new wave of globalization and services worldwide wave of cultural leadership activities. From this perspective, cross-cultural leadership is a unique phenomenon to test the ability of leaders is able to lead and adapt the cultural challenges. Because the cultural variances are knowledge so important for the multinational companies leadership activities, it is significant for the leaders to develop good understanding about the key of different cultural variances (Rupp, 2011). Furthermore, nations specific cultural attributes play an important role in determining the selection of leadership style. Challenge and application Based on the previous studies, most of the suggestions for global leaders are relatively brief and generalized, such as understanding and respecting other cultures or fulfilling the cultural gaps. They fail to guide leaders in detail on how to behave and achieve these responsibilities. With the acceleration of business globalization, more and more academics have growing concerns about the way cultural differences impact on leadership behaviours (Littrell, 2002). Grow up of cross-cultural leadership cause of the business internationalization and globalization, on the one hand, it led to the spread of the advanced leadership concepts, but on the other hand, has also led to some of the countrys leadership values began to decline. For example, in the process of internationalization of Japanese companies, Japans traditional values in life is difficult to tune with the wave of global leadership; In India, Nigeria and other developing countries, the concept of leadership has become increasingly complex, the evaluation also shows the diversity of leadership performance and leadership structure; even understanding of the leader is different in different countries. Global Leadership and Robert House (2004) argue that as the globalization of business continues to increase in the 21st century, organizations must consider the cultural differences. He also states that as economic borders come down, cultural barriers go up, thus presenting new challenges a nd opportunities for culture-cultural leadership. The challenge of cross-cultural leadership is difficult in the world because of its diverse work force. Different national cultures play a critical role in success effective leadership in international businesses. The organizations are thus challenged by the cross-cultural leadership and needs to address the increasing culture diversity. One of the major barriers in any cross-cultural leadership situation is for the members of each cultural group to develop a full understanding of what leadership means to the other group. Some people thought that the cross-cultural leadership would destroy their original leadership style and rules. Hofstede (2003) has conducted a great number of empirical researches on the cultural differences and summarized his six cultural dimension theory, which systematically examines the cultural variances. Hofstedes theories give an important guideline to the leaders let them to know the different cultures and decide how to lead in the cross-cultural country in order to avoid the culture conflict in the international leadership and success leading the teams. The other challenge is in the different nations culture, the way of communication between leaders and employees is also different. An example is the leader of the United States is usually directly, they will point out the errors facing you directly, but the Japanese leaders tend to convey to indicate through pass the notes. If there are any negative reviews, the leader just through colleagues to pass that. Sometimes, if the leader doesnt know the culture and leadership style in that country, it will engender the culture conflict and problem. Todays multinational corporations requires leaders who have good ability to adapt the cross-culture environments rapidly, and can effective work with partners and leading employees of other cultures (Service and White, 2012). As a result, the company changed the system of rationalization proposals to the collective recommendation system, bonuses to the team, and it achieved good result. Visible, cross-cultural leadership is a high reward demanding activities. According to Morrison (2000), the leaders should share the information and knowledge about their own culture, and also need to know how to adapt to the other cultures. Moreover, the leaders need to identify the gaps between different cultures and need to learn how to bridge them to avoid the conflict. To improve leadership performance, cross-cultural leader must be able to get all kinds of information in a timely and smooth flow of feedback in order to adjust their behavior. GLOBE is a large research effort offering useful tools for understanding cultural effects and developing the sensitivity to achieve leadership effectiveness in a global context. It was designed to investigate the intricate effects of culture on business leadership and effectiveness, and the human impacts of societies studied (House Javidan, 2004). It aims to fulfill the substantial gap on cross-cultural factors affecting organizational and leadership practices, by examining the roles of societal and organizational values. The strengths of GLOBE research are giving leaders a good starting point to explore the knowledge of cross-cultural leadership. More importantly, it also helps leaders to know effective behaviours in leadership implementation and how to behave properly across cultural contexts. QQà ¦Ã‹â€ Ã‚ ªÃƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃ‚ ¾20130420125751.png Source: House Javidan (2004). Conclusion According to Service (2012) indicated that, the global venture problems occur because lack of leadership skills and knowledge in relating with the people in different culture backgrounds. Integration of technologies, nations, cultures, relationships, and interests continues to characterize the twenty-first century workplace (Potoker, 2011). Leading across cultures requires specific skills, and organizations should provide formal training along with expatriate assignments to develop leaders who can achieve results in this demanding environment (Mathis and Jackson, 2013). From the above analysis, in the 21st century, cause the globalization, the demand of cross-cultural leaders will be more and more, and for leaders of todays and tomorrows businesses, the ability to connect people and leading successful teams in a cross-cultural environment is an important competency. The organizations need to become more effective when they are able to identify and foster the appropriate leader behaviors for the relevant cultural situation. The leader should know well about the difference of the culture background in order to avoid the culture conflict and leading more effectively.

Instilling A Childs Values :: essays research papers

Instilling a Child's Values   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some people think that a child learns only by what his or her parents teach them, while others believe that a child is born with a set of values. In actuality, a child's values are mostly determined by the things they are taught by their parents. As parents, couples have many responsibilities toward their child; the most important responsibility is teaching them good values and judgement. A parent should behave as though they would want their child to behave, give them justifiable discipline, and, at the same time, let the child be their own person.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As a child is growing up, he spends a very large part of his life with his parents. A child learns by seeing what his parents do and mimicking it, so a parent's job is very crucial to a child's acquisition of good morals. A parent must show the child the virtues of good judgement by using good judgement in their own life. If a child witnesses an unethical act performed by his parents, he will think that it is okay. The fact is that children who didn't have good parents, generally, don't grow up into very respectable adults. The old saying goes: â€Å"Monkey see, monkey do.† It may sound like a cheap cliche, but there is a lot of truth to it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While raising a child, a parent might find that sometimes the child is not learning the morals that the parent is trying to instill in their child. In that case, a parent should discipline him. Discipline shows the importance of values in a whole different way. When a child is punished for something he or she did that was wrong, he or she learns not to do it in fear of being punished, but after a while the child accepts the given value for what it is. Punishment can be done several ways. Some deny their child of something such as: food, fun, attention, or television shows with gigantic, purple dinosaurs. Other parents discipline in a more physical way: spanking. Some believe spanking a child is wrong, but as long as it doesn't get out of hand, it is last resort to getting a point across. Good discipline can turn a animal-like child into a respectable, ethical person.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kids always yearn for freedom, and that is why a parent must be careful with how he teaches values. If a child is pushed too far and too hard, he may rebel the values entirely or may lose his identity. Though the parents have the obligation of instilling their child's morals, they must trust their child at

Steinberg Analysis

The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the private toll of Global Competition (83-92) The model family is only a myth, nothing more. There is no such thing as a perfect family where there is no problem, no disputes and fights. As I read through â€Å"The Accordion Family', I actually feel as if the model family can only break family down and cause more disappointment in reality. In the accordion family, the kids come back to live, usually temporarily, with their parents because of financial problems or they are trying to pursue an interest that requires he help of their family.Well then, society might view the kid who is trying to pursue his own interest with the help of his family as a slob and that he/she is ruining his family by staying around doing nothing. But the only reason society would even be thinking that is because they are comparing it to a model set forth 5 decades ago. They are still basing that today's â€Å"perfect† family will still be ex actly the same as it was back then. I think that as the social, political, and economic situation of a culture and society change, the standard for a â€Å"perfect† family also change.I also put the word perfect in quotation mark, as I want to show that the word perfect has high amount of flexibility. There is no one defining perfection. The model family was a model that was set forth in the 1950 where economy was booming; optimism is high in the air. This is not the case for the 21st century, we have only recover from the great recession and maybe due to the circumstances that is provided, a family where everyone stick together, pit their effort and wealth together is actually the best solution right now.Also the model family is created for the American Culture, but hat about the Chinese culture, the Indian Culture, and the Middle Eastern Culture. Some of these cultures have the parents and the children and the children's spouse and the children's children all living togethe r. This is their definition of a perfect family. Maybe the accordion family, the boomerang kid is Just another model of the perfect family that is used by another culture. Chapter 1 â€Å"Quality Time Redefined† (93-99) I think the hidden implication of the model family is that the family supposes to spend time together.Such as playing board games after dinner, attending church on Sunday, and simply interact with each other Just that much more. The only problem with this is that these all seem to be forced. Playing board games after dinner would kind of be like playing video game together after dinner speaking on today's term. Well the model family is suppose to be the perfect happy family, but how can a family be happy if one or more member of the family is force to do stuff they do not want to be doing.Let's say I want to play Madden 08 but my mom wanted to play Dance Dance Revolution, then whatever game we play, one of us will be stuck playing a game that we did not wanted to play. I believe that a family usually knows each other well enough to know what each other's interests are. Then when there is an activity that comes up where every single-family member's interest is met, they can all Just go and enjoy the event together. I don't agree that the advancement in technology is lowering the quality of family time. If anything I think it is improving the quality of family time in a different way.Usually when my family spends family time together, it always ends in an argument or dispute because there is always someone in the group that do not want to be doing whatever we are doing. So as a matter of fact for my family, the traditional way of spending family time is actually decreasing the quality of family time. When my family Just all gathered together in a big room and do our own stuff, we all tend to go to bed happier and with out an argument. We were able to do what we wanted to do and we are still able to be around each other.On the other hand we would have been around each other but we would not have been able to do what we wanted to do. Also I think that the title of this article is completely correct on what quality time should be. I honestly believe that quality mime should be redefined. We are a nation that is constantly changing socially, politically, and technologically. The reason that families spend time playing board game 5 decades ago were because they do not have the technology we have to do other stuff together. The model of the perfect family is a model that needs to be updated for the people of the current era.Chapter 2†³Learning Power: The Myth of Education and Empowerment†(103-109) Education is a powerful tool. With it we can change those around us, modify the culture of others and push our self further than those around us. Also the education hat we have give us a sense of authority over other there we are defined by what we learn and where we go for school. Because education is highly value, th e demands for education has rise which in turn raise the price for an education with it. Since Education can be used to change the way a culture think, it can be used to control the way that a population will be.The myth of empowerment is that with education it can shaped us to be more educated and more qualified to make decisions. But the other side of the story is that with education will are only focus on a single point, the acts and the material that we have learned is so embedded in our mind that we are not flexible to changes and new ideas. In this 21st century, there has been a new rise to what determines our identity and that is education, but the myth dispute whether what we know and learn in school defines the kind of people we are.The myth of education and empowerment also say that it is a chance to provide people with a chance for equality and a decent life. The motto is that you will get rewarded for the hard work you do. This is the American dream that everyone is afte r; if you have the education, you have the empowerment to do what is beyond what you are currently doing. Chapter 2 â€Å"Idiot Nation† (121-136) To answer the chapter's first question, â€Å"NO, I do not feel like I live in a nation of idiots. † Maybe the reason I feel this way is because I'm on a campus surrounded by some of the most educated and informed people I will meet in my life. DRP.Moor's repeated used of sarcasm shows that he is angry and irritated with how uninformed the American public is. I think he is Justify in how quickly people believe what they hear especially from someone with authority. The myth said that those with higher education usually feel more empowerment to make opinion and other also perceived them with more empowerment to make opinion. This is true with a terrible side effect as DRP. Moore show here. DRP. Moore demonstrates that the public will blindly follow those with higher education even though those with higher education may not be e ducated in the field they are making an opinion about.Also those with higher education want to maintain their status of empowerment therefore they are not willing to admit when their position are in the dark. Even when they do not know what is going on they will try their best to BBS their way out of it. The myth of the education is a caving effect. The uneducated blindly follow the educated that makes uneducated opinion for the uneducated to follow. Then when the next generation come up the uneducated are making opinion that is not correct. DRP. Moore in his example demonstrated someone with prestigious education that is leading the nation, George W. Bush. George W.Bush went to Harvard and Yale therefore he must be educated, right? Well according to the myth, George W. Bush is one of the most educated and empowered to make decision, but DRP. Moore showed that even though George W. Bush had an upper education, his education might have only been Seibel because of his families influen ce. This shows that Just because someone has education does not necessarily empower him or her to make decisions. Just because someone has education does not necessarily make his or her opinion more valid. America believes that education is power, yet they do nothing to fix up the condition that their future is studying in.The myth said that America believe that a proper education is one of the most important aspect of a good future, but it is ironic how they are not even willing to turn their attention to fix up the most important tool to a DOD future. This in a way goes to show how educated the â€Å"educated† leader we have leading us is really are. The educated leader that we have in our society does not solve the problems, instead they let the problem pile up and then point finger at the one that is actually trying to make a difference. Maybe this sense of empowerment is just severely overrated.Chapter 2 â€Å"l Just Want Be Average† (151-162) The myth of educatio n and empowerment is that if we work hard, we will have a fair chance at the life that we are working hard for. If we work hard, our hard work will be repaid back to us. Well in Mike Rose's situation that is not the case, his education did not even start out by being fair. He was given an identity base on how he scored on a test and it was not even his test ironically. The myth of education and empowerment is false as not everyone get a fair chance at life despite how hard they work.The myth of empowerment is what leads to the abuse of the power of education. Education can be use to empower people with the ability to make decision or it can be a formula that is entrench into people's mind so that they are following a guideline that they are taught when they are young. This was happening in Mike Rose's vocational school. The education system did not give the kids a chance to do well in life and school. The kids are taught life skill so that when they come out they will be better to s erve society.And when it comes time to teach what really matter, it seems as if education has Just abandon them and left them behind. The myth of education and empowerment is the belief that everyone has an equal chance to empower himself or herself and further their ability to go beyond what they are currently capable of doing. Yet this is not true as the education system is the exact opposite of that. The education system tries to create ridges so that there will be those to work the lower end Jobs and those to work the managerial position. It seems as if the idea that education is fair is only a myth.Education is also the idea that it empowers us to make educated decision. Well that is Just simply Just a myth, as in Mike Rose's case, our educated leader would hire â€Å"empowered† teachers to teach the vocational class; the teachers usually would Just not care. ON the other hand McFarland, someone who is â€Å"unqualified† to teach is actually making an attempt to e ducate the kids. This really shakes the foundation that education empowered us the ability to do stuff. I think that instead of education empowering us to make decision and do stuff, it should be our action and our intent that be our empowerment.Chapter 2 â€Å"Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work† (163-179) The myth of education is that it should provide a fair chance for everyone to be accomplish in life. The idea is that if we simply work hard, we will be rewarded with for our hard work. This is not true in the American system and I can speak from personal experience. As Anyone demonstrated all of these school are separated into class by their possessed wealth, not by their capability and potential. As soon as the child of a poor family steps into school, his education will be to teach him to serve and obey order.This is not a fair chance for the child to be accomplish in life. It ironic how education is supposable to be the only way for those who are at the bott om to become those who are at the top, but in reality education is a way to push them further down and entrench a guideline so deep in their minds they will never come out of their pit. Education also empowers people to make the best decision. The teachers in the lower end school are empowered to make decision. But it seems as if their decision re harmful to those who the decision are being made for.This bring into question, are those who are educated really empower to make decision. Education is a powerful tool, but I believe that it's entanglement with empowerment corrupt the pure intent that education should truly be. When people see education as a way to power themselves with authority, then education is not use in the way it should be. This can be prove the opposite too. People with education want to maintain their authority so they use education to squash those who they believe should stay at the low end to serve them.

Classification

Bryce Langdon Professor Joliffe English 1301 17 October 2010 Smokers Smoking tobacco has been around for many thousands of years and cigarettes specifically have been around for a few thousand as well. Smoking can be split up into several classifications with three of the primary ones being those people who smoke to reduce tension, people who socially smoke and habit smokers. Regardless of the type of smoker a person is, smoking is an addiction and harmful not only to the smoker but to family members, coworkers and any other person who comes into contact with the second-hand smoke.Social Smokers. Casual smokers are those who typically do not inhale the cigarette smoke. They are not addicted to the nicotine. Some may think they are safe from the harm of a cigarette by â€Å"pretending† to smoke, but do not let this kind of smoking fool you. A person is still getting some of the affects of the smoke on top of other environmental toxins and second-hand smoke. Many times the casua l smoker is only compensating for something being in their hands and often times will turn into a regular smoker. Casual smokers often times smoke a lot more than he or she will publicly admit.Many regular smokers envy the casual smoker because they believe that they have better control over their addiction and can stop on a dime but the fact of the matter is that most casual smokers end up smoking for false pleasures, trying to feel like they did when they were non-smokers (QuitSmokinGuide. com, 2009). Smokes to Reduce Tension. A person who smokes to reduce tension uses the cigarette to manage negative effects, stressful situations and feelings of anger, fear, and anxiety. These type of smokers are often considered â€Å"light smokers† because life is full of stressful situations , hence the tension.Light smokers typically smoke between half a pack to one pack a day. Casual smokers easily slip into this smokes to reduce tension classification and often have been smokers, qui t, and taken up smoking once again, several times. Many light smokers could still benefit from products aimed at reducing nicotine addiction, like nicotine gum or counseling, however changing priorities and lifestyle often help these type of smokers kick their habit (Painter, 2009). Habit Smokers. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 1. 3 billion people are smokers worldwide and smokers die an average fifteen years sooner than nonsmokers (Hawkins).For most habit smokers, smoking is not even enjoyable any more. People often have developed a behavioral pattern that causes them to light up as a response to a cue, for example a cup of coffee or getting into the car. Habit smokers can fall into the category of heavy to chain smokers who consume anywhere from two to more than three packs a day. When the habit smoker takes the steps necessary to quit smoking the possible withdrawal symptoms can be ugly but one must remember these are results from the person smoking not because they decided to stop.Such symptoms could include tingling or numbness in the arms and legs, severe headaches, diarrhea or constipation, and a overall uncomfortable feeling. CONCLUSION With several classifications of smokers, they are have similar characteristics for example they are cause lung damage. However, depending on the degree of smoker that a person is depends on how difficult it is going to be for the person to quit once they actually put their mind to it. No matter the classification, any person who quits smoking will be making a difference right away.A person’s taste and smell will get better, along with breathe smelling better, decrease in nasty cough, and more importantly add years onto the end of their life.Works Cited â€Å"Casual Smokers. † QuitSmokingGuide. com. 2009. Web. 19 Oct 2010. . Painter, K. â€Å"Your Health: Light smokers could need help quitting, too. † USA Today 16 November 2009: n. pag. Web. 19 Oct 2010. . â€Å"Smoking Cla ssification. † Projects for Students by Students. Oracle ThinkQuest, n. d.. Web. 19 Oct 2010. . â€Å"Types of Smokers (by Cigarette Consumption). † Nursing Research (n. d. ): n. pag. Web. 19 Oct 2010. .