The Characters of Hamlet and Holden Essay -- compare, contrast, compari

To some, this argument may seem the most blatant form of mistruth, horrendous, even, in its lack of taste, a kind of literary sacrilege, in fact. Surely we have reached the end, one might say, when one can considerer comparing the immortal Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, with the adolescent protagonist of Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger’s hero has been compared to many literary figures, from Huckleberry Finn to David Copperfield. So many different attitudes have been taken toward him. Let’s stop talking about him and write something else. Isn’t the subject getting boring? Perhaps so, but Holden will not go away. He continues to pester the mind, and while reading A.C. Bradley’s analysis of Hamlet’s character, it was hard to resist the idea that much of what Bradley was saying about Hamlet applied to Holden as well. Perhaps the comparison is not as absurd as it first appears. Of course, there is no similarity between the events of the play and those of the novel. The fascinating thing while reading Bradley was how perfectly his analysis of Hamlet’s character applied to Holden’s, how deeply, in fact, he was going into Holden’s character as well, revealing, among other things, its potentially tragic nature. After demolishing the theories of other critics, Bradley concluded that the essence of Hamlet’s character is contained in a three-fold analysis of it. First, that rather than being melancholy by temperament, in the usual sense of â€Å"profoundly sad,† he is a person of unusual nervous instability, one liable to extreme and profound alterations of mood, a potential manic-depressive type. Romantic, we might say. Second, this Hamlet is also a person of â€Å"exquisite moral sensibility, â€Å" hypersensitive to goodness, a m... ...dy view holden as symbolizing the plight of the idealist in the modern world. Most importantly, however, it suggests why Holden Caulfied will not go away, he continues to remain so potent an influence on the now aging younger generation that he first spoke to, and why he continues to brand himself anew on the young. In fact, in this age of atrophy, in this thought-tormented, thought-tormenting time in which we live, perhaps it is not going too far to say that, for many of us, at least, our Hamlet is Holden.  Works Cited Bradley, A.C. â€Å"Hamlet.† Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981. 89-174. Sanders, Wlibur, and Howard Jacobson. â€Å"Hamlet’s Sanity.† Shakespeare’s Magnanimity: Four Tragic Heroes, Their Friends and Families. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. 22-56. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992.

Tragedy and the Common Man - Miller Redefines the Tragic Hero :: Tragedy and the Common Man Essays

Tragedy and the Common Man - Arthur Miller redefines the Tragic Hero Arthur Miller states in his essay, "Tragedy and the Common Man," " . . . we are often held to be below tragedy--or tragedy below us . . . (tragedy is) fit only for the highly placed . . . and where this admission is not made in so many words it is most often implied." However, Miller believes " . . . the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were" (1021). It is this belief that causes Miller to use a common man, Willie Loman, as the subject of his tragedy, Death of a Salesman. Miller redefines the tragic hero to fit a more modern age, and the product of this redefinition is Willie. Miller states, " . . . the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life . . . to secure one thing, his sense of personal dignity" (1021). Willie is no exception. Willie's sense of personal dignity is primarily found in his family, most notably his son Biff. Willie transfers his dreams of being great onto Biff and, when Biff is a failure in the world, these dreams affect Willie's self-image and sense of personal dignity. To regain this personal dignity, Willie must make Biff great. In the end, it is the love for his son and the belief that his insurance money will make Biff "magnificent" that give him the needed excuse and cause him to end his life. "Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly" (1021). It is the nature of man to make evaluations of himself based upon his peers. Willie's peer with whom he evaluates himself is Charley. Willie and Charley are about the same age, their children grew up together, and have been friends for many years. Charley has achieved what Willie has dreamed of for so long. Charley's son is a successful lawyer, whereas Biff is a loafer. Charley is successful in business, whereas Willie has "washed out." As mentioned before, for Willie to be great, Biff must be great. Willie has failed his job in making Biff better than Charley's son, therefore he fails his evaluations of himself. "The flaw Tragedy and the Common Man - Miller Redefines the Tragic Hero :: Tragedy and the Common Man Essays Tragedy and the Common Man - Arthur Miller redefines the Tragic Hero Arthur Miller states in his essay, "Tragedy and the Common Man," " . . . we are often held to be below tragedy--or tragedy below us . . . (tragedy is) fit only for the highly placed . . . and where this admission is not made in so many words it is most often implied." However, Miller believes " . . . the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were" (1021). It is this belief that causes Miller to use a common man, Willie Loman, as the subject of his tragedy, Death of a Salesman. Miller redefines the tragic hero to fit a more modern age, and the product of this redefinition is Willie. Miller states, " . . . the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life . . . to secure one thing, his sense of personal dignity" (1021). Willie is no exception. Willie's sense of personal dignity is primarily found in his family, most notably his son Biff. Willie transfers his dreams of being great onto Biff and, when Biff is a failure in the world, these dreams affect Willie's self-image and sense of personal dignity. To regain this personal dignity, Willie must make Biff great. In the end, it is the love for his son and the belief that his insurance money will make Biff "magnificent" that give him the needed excuse and cause him to end his life. "Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly" (1021). It is the nature of man to make evaluations of himself based upon his peers. Willie's peer with whom he evaluates himself is Charley. Willie and Charley are about the same age, their children grew up together, and have been friends for many years. Charley has achieved what Willie has dreamed of for so long. Charley's son is a successful lawyer, whereas Biff is a loafer. Charley is successful in business, whereas Willie has "washed out." As mentioned before, for Willie to be great, Biff must be great. Willie has failed his job in making Biff better than Charley's son, therefore he fails his evaluations of himself. "The flaw

HR Practices of United Services Automobile Association Essay

The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) is a Fortune 100 company as of the year 2009 that primarily sells life and property insurance to its 7. 7 million members, which consists of active and retired military personnel and their family members (www. biz. yahoo. com). They also offer such services as banking and investment management, focused on helping military persons to manage their money wisely and offer them services at reasonable costs with low interest rates. As of 2009, the company employees 21,500 people and competes in the industry of property and casualty insurance against other companies such as MetLife, State Farm, and Government Employees Insurance Company (www. biz. yahoo. com). USAA is headquartered out of San Antonio, Texas, where twenty-five Army officers founded the company in 1922 and set out to insure each other’s cars while standing firm in the values of honesty, integrity, loyalty and great service (USAA. om). â€Å"USAA’s mission is to facilitate the financial security of its members, associates, and their families through provision of a full range of highly competitive financial products and services; in so doing, USAA seeks to be the provider of choice for the military community,† (usaa. com). This mission statement from USAA’s website shows that the company has established its target market, segmenting it into the realm of military personnel and their families. Their main business strategy in attracting customers and beating out the competition for those customers is not only offering a wide array of financial and insurance services, but also by doing so at reasonable costs, rates, and carrying operations out with superior customer service. As a USAA customer having dealt with their top competitors also, I know firsthand that they initially attract customers by internet and television advertising mostly, and achieve customer loyalty by offering a great product at a great price with superior customer satisfaction relationships; this gives the company a high sustainable advantage in their industry and creates a high customer value in the market. This major corporation can afford to be such a customer-focused one because they are not a publicly traded company; in other words, they answer not to stockholders, but rather to the members of the association to cater to their desires. This is how they are able to beat out the competition and gain the edge on acquiring and sustaining more customers than other companies in their industry. Human Resource Practices The USAA corporate website’s careers section pitches employment with the company to interested potential employees as not simply taking orders from customers, but rather truly making a difference in a military family’s life with each and every call. One thing they do that is effective is putting a section titled, â€Å"What’s in it for you? † under which they share that the company pays competitively against the competition within the labor market and offer benefits such as a great 401(k) plan, fitness programs, and other beneficial incentives (usaa. com). From an employee’s perspective, USAA is a great company to work for because the pay is competitive, the benefits increase the value of the job above the pay rate, and there is tremendous job stability once you become a part of their team. This website shows that the company’s human resource practices focus chiefly on pay and benefits to attract potential employees; furthermore the job qualifications insinuate that they are looking for people that have some sort of military service completed, with a moderate college education but skills that are focused on customer satisfaction and interacting well with other people. Often times, customer service positions have a high turnover rate due to the nature of the position in dealing with disgruntled customers, however, USAA does a great job of attracting and retaining the type of individuals they are seeking by offering great pay and benefits that make the job tough to quit. Ethical Philosophy The USAA company website states that their core values are, â€Å"service, loyalty, honesty, and integrity; the same as the military community we serve,† (usaa. om); this portrays the corporate philosophy and ethical positioning quite clearly. They believe in working hard and faithfully to deliver the best service possible while doing what is best for the â€Å"greater good† of the society in which they operate. When compared with the Kantian Rights discussed in chapter one of our textbook, Fundamentals of Human Resource Management (Noe, page 15), USAA’s company ethics parallel with them quite well. The four traits of service, loyalty, honesty, and integrity would completely support the Kantian Rights of free consent, privacy, freedom of conscience, speech, and due process because these are the very things the military fights to defend, and the military is the market which USAA seeks to serve. Foreign Operations The extent of USAA’s foreign operations is not too great considering they serve the people of the American military forces. However, they do handle customer accounts while they are in foreign lands serving in the military; for instance, USAA offers great financial management support for military personnel who are about to be deployed so that they can use their combat and active duty pay wisely to support themselves and their family. HR Practices and Business Strategy One trait that makes a large difference between successful corporations and lesser successful corporations is the company’s ability to implement its ideals into everyday business operations and sync its human resource practices with the overall business strategy. Seeing as USAA is rated in the top one hundred best companies to work for, they must be lucratively creating an environment in which their human resource practices are complimenting the overall business strategy. This creates loyal and satisfied employees that will, in turn, carry out their tasks with diligence and create the superior customer service that so greatly defines USAA. If the customer service employees at USAA were not satisfied, whether it be for compensation reasons or any reason for that matter, they would not be in a position or attitude to maintain the core values of the company, thus the HR practices would no longer be in harmony with the overall business strategy. It is in this situation that we see the utmost importance of the human resource department and its ability to compliment the company’s business strategy. Due to the company’s competitive pay and long list of great benefits that increase the value of having a career with USAA, it is fair to say that their employees should be satisfied and adequately motivated to carry out the overall business strategy.

Nike ERP Implementation

What are the failure factors for the first NIKE-12 ERP-SCM implementation? All ERP implementations have risks associated that can lead to failure situations. The complexity of ERP systems together with demanding business environment, represent big challenges for companies when implementing an ERP. In the case of Nike, the situation is even more challenging because of the worldwide ERP deployment, and the large and complex scope of the project.Inevitably, and like all ERP implementations, Nike-i2's project faced complications at the different stages of he implementation cycle but those complications could have been minimized if the so called â€Å"Critical Success Factors† (CSF)I had been planned and managed properly. Using the 5 stages structure proposed in the report â€Å"Drawing Competitive Advantage through Successful ERP Implementation Projects†2, the failure factors are analyzed in detail in the following sections.First stage of implementation (project preparation ): One of the failures in the Nike-i2 ERP implementation was the lack of Formalized project plan/schedule. Feeling the market pressures, Nike did not commit to a isciplined plan and rushed up ERRS implementation, by â€Å"began to input data for its forthcoming Spring 2001 line when the system was still to stabilize†3 , giving reason to the opinions that projects cannot be driven by external deadlines4.Industry experts also warned about the boomerang effect (tight and unrealistic deadlines would come back in low quality results in the future) but Nike felt â€Å"12 technology was smaller and therefore easier to implement†. The result was the project failure and a financial storm (reduced profits) in the following financial periods. The executive eam as the responsibility to define the mission and scope of the project by analyzing the project business benefits and goals, and aligning them with strategic business goals.It is clear that in this case, Nike's executives wer e too ambitious by trusting blindly in a forecast system that was not completely adequate to Nike's business model (model was order based and not demand forecast oriented). As stated in Cnet â€Å"12 had past success projects with big clients such as Boeing, Nortel Networks, Raytheon and WalMart.. proving that 12 software is not perfect, but if implementation s done correctly, with proper planning, investment and scheduling, it will work well. â€Å"5 Implementing software is not a goal by it itself, remaking the business with the help of software is.Nike business goal was to create an efficient global supply chain by reducing inventory and manufacturing cycle, and this was a large and complex goal, thus, the software implementation could not be taken as simple and easy as Nike's executives toke it, failing to give Sustained management support to the project. In the second stage of implementation (Business Blueprint) the failures were: Nike elied too much in the (supposed) power o f the forecasting technology and underestimated its impact on the business processes changes such as orders processing, raw materials purchasing, fabric production, and demand management.That impact also affected the way employees and partners used to work. Anytime companies changes employee's working habits, it can get difficult to them to adapt to the new reality, thus, an Effective organizational change management is critical. Nike tailed ensuring that this complex change got the right results by not integrating properly people, process and technology. Nike's business context was very complex (120000 SKUs, operations in all continents, four seasons product turn over and product life cycle very short), thus, a deep knowledge of this industry was critical when implementing new business processes and ERP systems.Despite previous supply chain applications were troublesome Nike hired 12 that was inexperienced in the footwear industry. This situation could have been avoided if Nike had appropriately used consultants by integrating third-party specialists with industry experience in the project's team. By not managing this factor, Nike took a big risk and ncreased the probabilities of failure. Nike's business requirements were too complex and over detailed (like footwear's forecasting for styles, colors, sizes).If Nike had appropriately used consultants and also had promoted User involvement and participation, those experts could had shared their know-how in the definition of business requirements more realistic and aligned with the real organizational needs. The failures in the third stage of implementation (Realization) were: â€Å"i2's software did not offer all the required functionalities†6. Usually, ERP systems do not provide all the functional requirements nd 12 system is not an exception. That's why, ERP vendors offer interfaces to communicate with third-party products.The problem with Nike implementation was that there was not an Critical Success F actors is a concept presented in the report â€Å"Drawing Competitive Advantage through Successful ERP Implementation Projects†, by Jos © Esteves – Instituto de Empresa (Spain) and Joan Pastor Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona (Spain) 2 ibid 3 SCM and ERP Software Implementation at Nike – From failure to success 4 http://www. cio. com/article/32335/Five_Lessons_Learned_from_Nike_s_i2_Debacle 5 ttp://news. cnet. om/i2-Nike-fallout-a-cautionary-tale/2100-1017_3-253829. html 6 SCM and ERP Software Implementation at Nike – From failure to success 1 adequate infrastructure and interfaces prepared in advance and tested before going live. The result was that the â€Å"Demand application and its planner did not integrate easily†¦ â€Å"7. Nike's demand for high customization was one of the main failures in this project. To Avoid ERP customization, Nike could have appropriately used consultants to reduce the need of very detail level forec asting (style, color, size).Consultants ould have brought also an experienced business vision, focus on ERP processes really needed to run Nike's business, alignment between Nike's requirements and ERP functionalities, and ERP best practices (including ‘2's recommendations and methodology) Forth stage (final preparation) is critically important to ensure the quality of the results, Nike's tailures were: To ensure that the ERP accomplishes the business requirements defined at the beginning of the project a Formalized testing plan is mandatory.In theory, this test plan should cover functional tests, data flow between ystems, user testing and performance tests. Nike did not perform any of those tests activities and the catastrophic results were: â€Å"System could not process large amounts of info. It was very slow and crashed†, â€Å"System could not handle thousands of variables to generate forecasts†, â€Å"Demand application and its planner did not integrate ea sily because different data formats. , â€Å"System sent inaccurate orders to manufactures and errors were not detected†8 In this phase, User involvement and participation, Adequate training program and Preventive troubleshooting are critical to guarantee that: the technical staff and end- sers know how to use the system; to prepare users to perform tests; and to prevent unexpected situations.These activities were not performed and under-evaluated by Nike as confirmed in the case: â€Å"it would work with requiring a pilot test†; â€Å"12 application was smaller†9; No communication between forecasting and inputs from sales and marketing; and no super users used in training. Data migration and data testing are crucial activities before system go-live because data is what really gives competitive advantage to a company and data is the core foundation for all business decisions, thus, an Adequate data migration process s essential. Analysts raised questions about a dequacy of information that Nike input into the system. â€Å"10, this means that Nike did not planned in advance the data activities (migration, conversion, cleaning, etc. ) and in the end the result was â€Å"Input data was estimated and didn't reflect the business reality, thus, forecasts could never be accurate†ll For the final stage (go live) Nike failed in: 0 Not giving sustained management support since â€Å"Executives did not hold review meetings, neither analyzed forecasting results†12.This transmitted a sense of no wnership and no own involvement to employees, resulting in no encouragement of system usage. From other point view, Nike also failed on the study of vendor's evaluation criteria: 0 According to the â€Å"six-stage model of the buying process for ERP software†13, one evaluation criteria is â€Å"Association with or the availability of third party vendor/ partners† and other criteria is â€Å"Qualifications, experience, and success i n delivering solutions to organizations of a similar size, complexity, and geographic scope†.It was clear that 12 did not had experience on the footwear industry and was not prepared or Nike's business complexity, so Nike should had decided for another vendor with industry knowledge or as an alternative to integrate 12 with a specialized third-party. 0 Nike seemed to desire the best-of-breed for each application area, ex: SAP for ERP, 12 for planning SCM, Siebel for CRM, etc. , which is not always the best option.As for 12, Nike knew that there were many disadvantages to choose this vendor, such as: 12 technology could not met all business requirements; data models were different between i2's demand and planner application raising integration problems with egacy systems; high effort was necessary to customization; there were 2 development and delivery cycles at the same time (one for 12 and other for SAP); and 12 had no experience in industry. A better option would have been t o integrate planning SCM with SAP from the very beginning, which turned out be what exactly happened atter the 12 Conclusion M project tailure.Nike-i2's ERP implementation failed in all stages of implementation on several CSF and also on the evaluation of the vendor. The failures were related mainly to project management and organizational factors proving that success is much related to eople and process and not Just technology. 7 SCM and ERP Software Implementation at Nike 10 11 12 13 – From failure to success ibid â€Å"A six-stage model of the buying process for ERP software† by Jacques Verville and Alannah Halingten 8 9 2.How do you evaluate the role of 12 in this process? Many factors which Nike failed to manage can also be applied for 12, resulting in a shared responsibility for the project failure. 0 12 did actually recommended Nike to â€Å"minimize customization to 10-15% of the software†14 but at the same â€Å"Nike and 12 worked together to incorpora te the desired hanges†. 1 5 This means, 12 agreed to do the changes when Nike insisted on high level of customization, thus, 12 also has responsibilities on the high customization failure.Responsibility could be different if the level of customization was written in the contract to be limited by 10%, and above that, 12 would not offer product guarantee. 0 The project did not have formal plan and no realistic deadlines. 12 as company, cannot be Just a software vendor, it must participate on the plan definition and monitoring. By accepting Nike's deadlines, 12 was also responsible for the delays nd for the low quality of the delivered software. 0 Nike began to input data while the system was not yet stable but 12 did not force Nike to stop this.A vendor must deliver his product when it is ready and according to negotiated deadlines. 0 12 did not have footwear industry knowledge but accepted to be part of the project, taking a big risk and being too ambitious like Nike was. The r esult was that 12 became overwhelmed with the business complexity and in the end the forecasts did not worked out as expected. 12 should had analyzed better Nike's business and industry, nd sub-contracted a third-party specialist in that industry. Nike did not use ‘2's implementation methodology; executives did not hold review meetings, neither analyzed forecasting results; there was no pilot test and no training. A vendor must also be part of the project management team to: define and negotiate formal deadlines, implementation phases, methodologies, tasks, roles, test plans, risk management plans, performance goals, etc. A vendor must assure that the contract is clear about: who owns the project; who is responsible for what; what resources will e available during the project; what are the expected benefits and results. 3.Describe the main problems associated with ERP software modification (short-term and long-term) Short-term 0 More time to implement a modified ERP compared w ith the time to implement an original ERP. 0 Higher costs during project's implementation to pay analysts to define customized business processes and to pay programmers to customize the new functionalities on the system. 0 Higher costs to run additional tests to guarantee customized functionalities work as expected and do not affect the original system apabilities. 0 Additional costs to train end-users on the customized functionalities.

Banking: an Ethical Dilemma? Essay

Introduction In this report, I plan to discuss the question Banking: An Ethical Dilemma? Within this is I will discuss ethical dilemmas in association with banking. I will firstly start by giving definitions of what is meant by the terms: Banking, Ethics, and Dilemma. From here, I will go on to identify what banks are and what the roles and importance are for the economy. Next, I will go on to explain banking operations and with this identification, I plan to then discuss the ethical dilemmas and show my opinion on the question ‘Banking: An Ethical Dilemma?’ I will then discuss any other issues unrelated to ethical dilemmas within the banking sector and with this; I plan to use references and facts to support my argument on the subject. Finally, I will identify my finding regarding the dilemma and try to conclude on whether banking is ethical. Main Body Firstly, ‘Banking’ can be defined as one of the key drivers of the economy. Banking provides a safe place to save excess cash, known as deposits. It also supplies liquidity to the economy by loaning this money out to help businesses grow and to allow consumers to purchase homes, cars and consumer products. Banks primarily make money by charging higher interest rates on their loans than they pay for deposits. (http://useconomy.about.com/od/glossary/g/Banking.htm) ‘Ethics’ comes in many forms but can primarily be defined as the code or rules of moral principles that are set standards of good or bad, or right or wrong decisions, in personal conduct and therefore is a guide to the behaviour that is morally acceptable from a person or within a group or an organisation. Ethics effect moral decision made by people, and its main concern is what is good and though to be best for society. Siddiqui (2010) With this definition of ethics, ethical behaviour is very much a s it seems. The behaviour is used surrounding ethics. It is behaviour, which is seen to be accepted as good or bad, or right or wrong, within organisation rules and obligations and government laws. It is about being responsibly and acting in an honest and fair way taking into consideration whether the actions taken are affecting people in a way that would not be seen as ethical. ‘Business Ethics’ is the same aspects and contains the same issues of ethics and ethical behaviour but is put into a business context. This is deal with on a daily bases throughout every organisation in the world. Within this subject, business ethics is not just based on the organisation or employees but also to any customer that they may have. Many organisations have had their reputation tarnished with bad publicity due to the business ethics. This can be down to employment or how the organisation is ran, this can include poor working conditions, exploiting people or even down to low wages. Organisations that do not follow in business ethics can result in breaking the law that can lead to them being sued; the problem with this is that multi-million businesses can often afford to take a hit but never the less that is no excuse to disregard their ethical behaviour. Finally, the term ‘Dilemma’ can be defined as: a situation that requires a choice between options that are or seem equally unfavourable or mutually exclusive. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dilemma) Banks are seen in many forms, they primarily come in the following forms, which are Retail, Central, Investment, and Building Societies. The main purpose of a bank is to provide a safe place where people have confidence to deposit money. It is seen that banks are produced and ran by honest people. As well as storage of money, there are many other purposes to bank, but they are separated into individual banks and depends are on what form of bank they represent. Retail banks are otherwise known has commercial/high street banks, which customers use every day for goods and service links with their everyday tasks. They main roles are to provide a service to corporate, personal, and private banking to customers. This can include bank accounts for money storage, loans, credit car ds, mortgages, and saving as well as many more. Examples of these banks would be; HSBC, Lloyds TSB & NatWest. Central banks are the main bank within a national, and have many roles, which are vital in the economy. Central banks such as The Bank of England unlike retails banks are need to keep the economy financial stable. The Bank of England’s roles are to; set interest rates, create money supply, lender of last resort, they are the bankers bank and the place of settlement and they have to regulate these to provide paramount service for the economy. Investment banks are otherwise known as merchant banks. The main purposes of these banks are raising capital for customers, businesses or for the government. This can be achieved by providing services for mergers and acquisitions as well as propriety trading, foreign exchange. Unlike retail banks, investment banks do not take deposits, these banks run from taking equity. Building Societies are financial institutions, which mainly provide saving accounts and mortgages. Unlike other banks, building societies are mutual which means that their customer are members and can therefore receive information and attending meeting regarding the progress or alterations in operations and have a right to vote on the actions taken. Building societies are run by shareholders and have directors whose decision it is on the strategies taken. Banks have great importance within the economy, and without them, we would see a different world from the one we see today. â€Å"Although banks create no new wealth but their borrowing, lending and related activities facilitate the process of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of wealth. In this way they become very effective partners in the process of economic development.† (http://www.blurtit.com/q197532.html) What do banks do? This is a question, which many people may be confused by. People deposit their money into a bank for feeling that it will be kept safe for them to collect at any time, when in reality when someone’s deposits money is to their account, the banks promptly lend the money out to another customer and in result creates a cycle. In fact, when a customer makes a deposit at a bank only an initial 8% is kept in banking funds, 90% of the deposit and lent out to another customer creating more profit for the bank. As well as accepting deposits banks also repay against written order, create account, lend money, render account, reasonable notice closer, maintain secrecy (Tourniers exception), interest and fees, set off, return cheques and pay against monies held. Although these are the main roles this is not an indication of the products and service which are provided by individual banks and may differ between them. Therefore, when looking into banking, where can we draw the line to say whether a bank is being ethical or not? I think the first factor, which needs to be pointed out, is that banks are businesses and therefore are out to make a profit, but how far will they go in succeeding this main objective and with this jeopardise their ethical values? So as previously stated the main purpose of the bank is to make a profit and to do this they have to provide service and sell products as such. The bank is required to make a profit to provide to the shareholders, and with this will increase the business and allow the business to grow and progress. Banks as businesses are not charities and therefore need to make a profit without making a profit banks would fail without input into finance and would therefore have to relate on government funding, which in turn would change banks from private businesses into national banks. With doing this then the government would have to get the funding from somew here to provide to the bank so this would most likely required an increase in taxes which would then cost people more money in do this. The problem with this is that without the private funding from customers then it would be possible for banks to fail which would create havoc with the economy. This would put more of the public’s money at risk, and could affect the circulation of money and without circulation the money, as we know it will lose value and will basically die out. If it were put into place that banks were made national this, this would mean that they would have to be more cautious and would take no risks in the services, which they provide. This would mean that people would not get the high interest returns on their account and saving which they believe that they should be entitled to but do not want any of the risk which is associated with this. For a bank to make a profit, they are required to use customer’s deposits and lend the money out to other investments. The percentage of the deposit, which is loaned out, can be seen to be risky and if customers were to find out this then they may be less inclined to deposit their monies. Is it unethical that a) Customers are not informed of this? Alternatively b) the percentage that is loaned out? This could be altered by giving the customer more information. Is 8% of a deposit a reasonable amount to keep or should it be higher. I think that if banks start reducing the percentage, which in turn would allow them to make more profit that this would be unethical and it is creating more risk to customer’s money and without guarantee that there is going to be 100% return rate. I think that if banks did lower the percentage, and did increase the money that could lend then this would influence banker’s decision on the ethical values if it were allowing them to make more profit for the bank and in turn increase any bonuses, which they would receive because of the extra profit. With this extra money, going back into circulation then this would create an increase in interest growth. Although this may be seen to be unethical, I think the main problem is the education of the public on this subject. Banker bonus is always high-level news in media, as people hear about these v ast bonuses and cannot understand where these amounts are coming from. It is my perception that why people hear about theses bonus that they believe that it is their money that is being used to fund the bonus that that everyone within the bank or the average banker is going to receive these bonuses when in reality it is actually very few who do. I believe that banker should be allow bonuses as without the work that they put into the banks then this would result is a fall within the economy, so in result I do not believe that these bonuses to be unethical. The Financial Services Authority otherwise known as the FSA is the regulatory of the UK’s financial services industry. This was set up by the government with the purpose to regulate the activities of financial services markets, exchanges, and businesses. All financial service must follow the standards, which have been put in place by the FSA; this has consequences if not followed. This can be used to show that a bank is being ethical as the FSA would be able to notice any unethical activities wi thin a bank and would then take action to correct this. The make act of unethical behaviour is using customers money to achieve personal ambition. This is using the money in a scene of greed and in result to boost ego. A good example of this would be Fred Goodwin. Fred Goodwin was the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). His personal ambition was to build RBS to become one of the world largest banks. With the authority in his post, he created a bank that was more focused on selling the products and service than the fundamental service of banking and with the temptation to create more profit was building then this was just the beginning of the unethical behaviour. As a result of this RBS grew and quickly became one of the largest banks but within this growth it was not long before questions were raised regarding the ethical values of the banks. Following investigation, which was launched after whistle blowing if, was seen how unethical Fred Goodwin had been in running operations within the bank and promptly resigned from his post after RBS lost approximately  £25 Billion, which would be able to fund the NHS for two years. To date this is the biggest ever commercial lose in history. This is a key example of when the temptation of personal gain overrides ethical value. So is it ethical for a bank to fail? Banks are formed on trust, if it is seen that a bank has failed and has lost its money and funding would create mass panic. This was seen in previous years with Northern Rock. When as many banks in the past, Northern Rock went to the central Bank of England to ask for lender of last resort, but made public awareness and suddenly people started to panic that they money was not safe and wanted to withdraw the funds from the account. This soon resulted in the banks running out of money as the 8% per cent of deposits that was kept in storage soon ran out. Banks are now introducing ethic policies, this would allow the customer to gain a greater knowledge and insight into the bank on how they run ethical, and from here, and customers can evaluate them and from here make a decision on which bank to choose. The first bank to introduce they ethical policy was the co-operative bank back in 1992. From these policies, it allows a more transparent view into the bank and how it is ran. This can show information such as where customers deposits are loaded onto for example this money could be loaned onto a business that has poor environmental records, which you may feel strongly about and would rather not create funding for them. Is it possible for any bank to act ethically, as a principle they may all try to portray a positive image of the ethical values but with the key goal to make profit, how far is too far for ethicality before they can be criticised. There are banks with exception in which they actions may be seen to be unethical but in retrospect the are somewhat ethical. Rationalisation for unethical behaviour comes in four common forms; these are seen to be used to justify misconduct and other ethical dilemmas. They are: * Convincing yourself that the behaviour is not really illegal. * Convincing yourself that the behaviour is in everyone’s best interests. * Convincing yourself that nobody will ever find out what you’ve done. * Convincing yourself that the organisation will â€Å"protect† you. Schermerhon (2005) Ethical investment is another problem, which is often brought to the public eye. It has been said that investment bank should invest into smaller companies instead of mass-market organisation to create more business with the economy. As much as this can be seen to be ethical, the problem with this is that there is higher risk investing in smaller companies as there are not necessarily going to be successful and as a result create more risk of no return on initial investment. This could then result in the bank having to act more unethically to compensate for their actions. Conclusion Overall, within this assignment I have given definitions of banking, ethics, and what is a dilemma. From here, I went on to explain what is a bank, and the different types of banks and what they roles where and how they differed from each other. I then discussed banking operation and when onto discuss the ethical dilemmas within banking sector. After doing research I believe that in banking, it is very difficult to constantly stay ethical and it is so easy to fall for temptation to act unethically in either time of need or for personal gain. This can be done with minimal effort and sometimes without even notice. Ethics is incorporated in everyday life and is going to be constantly changing therefore I believe what is seen to be ethical could at some point be seen as unethical depending on the state of law. I have discovered that within all organisations there are constant uses of ethical behaviour both good and bad. Therefore, I believe that each organisation at some point will encounter a combination of the alternative ethical views. From analysing the ethical actions, I have concluded that even though some decisions and behaviours are seen to be unethical this does not necessarily mean that they are illegal. It is dependant of organisational procedures and government laws. Bibliography * About.com (2010) Banking. [online] Available at http://useconomy.about.com/od/glossary/g/Banking.htm [Accessed 1st April 2011] * Siddiqui, K. (2010) Lecture Hand-outs 6 – 8. * The Free Dictionary (2010) Dilemma. [online] Available at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dilemma [Accessed 17th March 2011] * Blurtit (2010) What is the importance of the banks. [online] Available at http://www.blurtit.com/q197532.html [Accessed 18th March 2011] * Schermerhon, J.R. (2005) Management 8th ed. New York. John Wiley and Sons Inc. * Boatright, J.R (2008) Ethics in Finance. 2nd ed. Oxford. Blackwell Publishing. * Boartright. J.R (2000) Ethics and the conduct of business. 3rd ed. New Jersey. Prentice Hall, Inc. * Parkin, M., Powell, M., & Matthews, K. (2005) Economics 6th ed. London. Pearson Education Limited. * Co-operative (2011) Why we have ethical polices [online] Available at http://www.goodwithmoney.co.uk/why-do-we-need-ethical-policies/ [Accessed 6th April 2011} * Bank of England (2011) About the Bank [online] Available at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/about/index.htm [Accessed 23rd March 2011]

In the file Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

In the file - Essay Example The problem facing this training sometimes is that a person joining that training may only be interested in earning more salaries that are being provided at that level. High salaries in many occasions indicate a greater value of employer, but empirically it is not well known whether it is true or not. Apart from the growth in business schools, there has been an increase on emphasis of personal development, mentoring, and executive training. Another significant development is increasing focus on development and training of entrepreneurs. New form of learning such as E-learning has increased since they are cheap and flexible. Due to globalization and flexible trade rules across the world, global leadership has become more evident currently. Right now it is not effective being a manager in one country, a good manager in the current world should be able to carry out management in different countries and cultures. A balance between theory and practice is one of the issues in training and development. Another issue is where management and development is based, whether it is a western business model provided by western institutions or eastern business models. The MBA courses taught in Asia by western teachers from western states may boost western business models that are not suitable to the locals because the teaching methods will require the students to adopt learning styles that are not in line with their culture. The information contained in this article can be applied in business organization and when doing global business. Businesses will learn that having people who have extensive training in business courses such as MBA are important in the management of the organization. The article also explains important issues about management training and development. One of the important issues is a broad issue of executive learning and development, this include formal and

English as Global Langauge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

English as Global Langauge - Essay Example Before examining these pros and cons, it might be useful to examine how English came to be one of the most commonly used languages in the world. Historically, this language came into Britain from northern Europe during the fifth century and moved to the Asian, African and American continents with the expeditions and colonizations that followed in the last three centuries. English was left behind as a legacy in the colonized countries as they became independent nations, and was often made the official language of communication. With the rise of technology, especially the media in the form of the radio, television and the internet, the dissemination of English became reinforced. Not only the media but trade became truly globalized with the rise of off-shoring and outsourcing made possible with better technology . The rise of multinational companies and corporations and international organizations like UNESCO enhanced the need of a global language. English was there to readily fill in the gap, with its already existing spread and flexibility. Since English was already present in various places like India and Africa as a result of former colonization, it was easier for the language to spread further. English has been touted time and again as a language that could successfully eliminate the need for translation during communication in business, political, and cultural contexts. It has a huge vocabulary of more than 80,000 words which makes it very expressive, and the written script is similar to that of many European languages because of a common origin in Latin. But the increasing use of English in countries with different native languages has an effect of diminishing the status of these indigenous languages. This is even more significant given the history of the English language which was earlier seen as a symbol of colonial oppression in many countries, and is seen today in many countries as a demonstration of the superiority of the West. In some quarters it is felt that the use of English as an official language instead of a native tongue is detrimental to a country's national and cultural identity. Due to its global nature in an increasingly shrinking world, English is fast becoming the language of commercial and formal communications . This makes it an economically viable language to learn in many developing countries where knowing fluent English can actually lead to increased earning opportunities. This strong economic incentive behind learning English could lead to the relinquishment of native tongues, leading to entire languages dying out. Another factor that could cause a language to decline is a decline in its literature. There is a growing trend of non-native authors writing in English: Indian or African writers writing in English are becoming quite common. It is a well-documented fact that all authors with very few exceptions have their best literary output in one language alone. If most literature begins to be produced in English, even by authors who have a different mother tongue, it would be a great loss to their original languages. When languages decline, they take with them rare and precious cultural traditions. This raises fears of loss of cultural diversity which is so vital to the evolution of mankind. Experts think that a uniform world where all cultures and literatures would be similar could become a future scenario