Manu Soccer - Case Study Essay Example for Free

Manu Soccer Case Study Essay Situational Problem Tom Owen is working towards increasing his business and profit by the means of changing his current services and products or offering new ones to meet his customers needs, or by keeping his current products and services the same, but offering them to new markets. S.W.O.T. Analysis Strengths: †¢Tom Owen himself is an asset in his knowledge of soccer and his ability to get along with the kids hes teaching. †¢Hiring instructors with similar qualities to create a good workforce. †¢MANUs market penetration of the Fort Collins area ensures that all soccer players age 11 to 14 are aware of his soccer program. Weaknesses: †¢MANUs dependence on Tom Owen in all of its functions offers little opportunity for him to expand to other locations. Opportunities: †¢The close proximity to three large cities that offer limited soccer training camps. Threats: †¢Some parents may consider soccer as a luxury that can be eliminated in face of economic downturn and growing unemployment. †¢The emergence of new soccer training programs in direct competition with MANU. Market Situation Approximately 90 percent of MANU’s customers live in Fort Collins which has a population of 110,000. Greeley and Longmont are about 25 miles away by interstate highway and have a population of approximately 80,000 each. Loveland is a city that is also about 25 miles from Fort Collins and has a population of approximately 60,000. Competitive Situation There is almost no direct competition for MANU in Fort Collins. The surrounding cities of Loveland, Greeley, and Longmont offer even less developed soccer programs. Target Customer The target customer for the MANUs services would be competitive soccer players from the ages of 11 to 14. However, the ultimate purchaser of these services would be the mother or father of the soccer player. This would necessitate the need of a market strategy that caters to both the parent and the soccer player. Potential Solutions †¢Develop programs that are aimed at kids over the age of 14 since the majority of the kids move on to other sports upon reaching that age. oPro These kids are already familiar with Tom and are the most likely to sign up for programs in this age group. oCon Most kids in this age group do not find soccer as appealing as other sports and are unlikely to pursue soccer. †¢Develop a marketing strategy to encourage more product purchases from his existing customer base. oPro Availability of good and recommended equipment would make soccer more appealing. oCon Extra costs can be a deterrent when the economy is bad. †¢Develop new programs to cater to the 6 to 9 age group market of Fort Collins that is still low. oPro Having more children from this age group would ensure a larger, future enlistment from the 11 to 14 age group which has shown to already be considerably large. oCon Children from the 6 to 9 age group are very different from the 11 to 14 age group and have to be treated and taught differently. Tom and his instructors have proven to be more effective with the latter age group and would have to work up a way to be appealing with the younger age group. †¢Develop programs to attract the kids of Loveland, Longmont, and Greeley. oPro These three cities have a combined population that is twice that of Fort Collins. Which in turn, offers the potential of Tom being able to triple his current enrollment. Also, these cities have little to no soccer programs in place that would be of major competition to Tom. oCon The 25 mile distance would be a large deterrent for many parents to desire driving to. Tom cannot be at all of these places at once to supervise the programs. Recommended Solution The best solution for Tom would be the fourth option of expanding into the nearby cities of Loveland, Longmont, and Greeley. Considering his current good market penetration of Fort Collins, it would be unwise to spend his resources on trying to acquire more customers from this existing market rather than entering new markets. This course of action would also not require Tom to change or recreate his products, but to continue using what he is already familiar with. Potential Marketing Strategies Tom could offer his current instructors the chance to head up the MANU soccer programs in each of the new markets. Tom had already hired them based on their qualifications and personalities being similar to his own. This course of action would not require Tom to be in four places at once, but the close proximity would allow for him to stay involved. Tom could reach out to any of the existing soccer programs in these towns and offer them the opportunity to sign on with him if he found their instructors to have a compatible program to his own. This would allow an easier entrance into these new markets as the current soccer programs already have a customer base to work with and build on. This would also decrease any potential competition he may have had to contend with upon entering these new markets.

Pestle Analysis Of The Car Industry

Pestle Analysis Of The Car Industry This report is a PESTLE analysis of the Car Industry. We have looked at Political, Environmental, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental issues that affect the car industry based on innovations that have and are taking place. It is political factors which are creating market pulls on innovation in the automobile industry and having the greatest affect on the innovations which are produced. This is because the governments of many countries are concerned about global warming and lowering their emissions. And one way to lower its affects is for the automobile industry to create innovations which have less of an impact on the environment. The main ways through which governments are intervening are, Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, FreedomCAR, emission standards and the Kyoto Protocol. Â  The number of accidents and alcohol related accidents, which are social factors, are starting to increase. This has caused the automotive to innovate to help reverse this increase and lower the number of accidents on the road. 2. INTRODUCTION The aim of this report is to have an insight of the automobile industry, how it has been affected by innovation and what actions the car companies have taken in terms of innovation. We will analyse the external factors of the industry through a PESTLE analysis. The word PESTLE is an abbreviation of Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental. A PESTLE analysis is an audit of an organisations environmental influences (CIPD, 2009) that are having an effect on the organisation/industry. The analysis can lead to seeing possible opportunities that lie within the industry and where the major influences on the industry come from. An innovation is the generation of a new idea and its implementation into a product, process or service (Urabe et al, 1986, p.3). An innovation can fall under one of the following categories: Product Changes in the things (products/services) which an organisation offers. Process Changes in the ways they are created and delivered. Position Changes in the context the product/services are introduced Paradigm Changes in the underlying mental models which frame what the organisation does. (Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt, 2005, p.10) We will refer to this classification of different types of innovations throughout this report. The Henderson and Clark model of innovation will also be used, and according to it there are 4 types of innovation: Incremental innovation is the enhancement of existing products or services. (Gaynor, 2002, p. 25) Modular innovation is when new knowledge is required on a product as one part of a product is significantly improved but the overall the architecture of the product remains the same. (Innovation Zen, 2006) Architectural innovation reconfigures a system of components that constitute a product, process or service (Gaynor, 2002, p.26). Radical innovation is the introduction of new products or services that develop into major new businesses or spawn new industries, or that cause significant change in a whole industry (Gaynor, 2002, p.27). 3. THE PARTNERSHIP FOR A NEW GENERATION OF VEHICLES The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) was a program that started in 1993 by U.S president Bill Clinton and vice president Al Gore (PNGV, 2009). The partnership was between many government agencies including the United States Council for Automotive Research. (USCAR) This consisted of the big three American automotive manufacturers (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler), over 300 suppliers of automotive parts, small businesses, Universities and federal Labs (see appendix 1) (Turner et al, 2000). In this partnership the U.S government would match the amount of capital the big 3 manufacturers invested into the research of technologies that would help achieve the partnerships objectives and the big 3 manufacturers, small businesses, universities and laboratories would carry out the research (Jewett, 1997). When this program first started, it had 3 objectives: To increase the competitiveness of the U.S automotive industry. Create a mid -sized vehicle that has the fuel efficiency of 80 miles to the gallon whilst keeping the performance and cost similar to those of vehicles that were available in 1993. This vehicle would need to apply to the emissions standards of 2004. Employ the innovations that were created in the program to conventional vehicles once the innovations became commercially viable. (Fosgard, 1995) The government created this partnership for two main reasons: The first is that they wanted to lower Americas need on foreign oil (an economic factor) through the fact that more efficient vehicles would use less oil and this would increase Americas national security (a social factor) (PNGV, 2009) because the country would be less reliant on other nations for fuel. Secondly, the U.S government wanted to lower the amount of harmful greenhouse emissions that the United States emitted as a whole and lowering the level of emissions that the cars in the U.S was one way to fulfil this reason (PNGV, 2009). This was an environmental factor causing the creation of PNGV. There was a requirement of the vehicles that were to be created in 2004, which was that they should be able to travel a certain distance on a full tank of fuel. Also there were short deadlines within the program an example was that by 1997 production prototypes of the vehicles that were most likely to meet the objectives were to be created. These two factors meant that architectural innovations over the regular internal combustion engine like a fuel cell or pure electric vehicle couldnt be pursued because they could not meet the range requirement and required much longer to research than the deadline allowed (Sperling, 1996). These are architectural innovations as they reconfigure the power source of the vehicle and no longer use an internal combustion engine. Such innovations would have been better at meeting objectives as they required little or no oil and emitted far less greenhouse gases. The only option available to the automobile manufacturers was a hybrid electric vehicle. A product and modular innovation over internal combustion engines as they use a regular internal combustion engine in partnership with one or more electric motors (Toyota, 2009). The hybrid electric vehicle was originally created in 1899 by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche (Truett, 2006), which makes the hybrid the big three manufacturers created was an incremental innovation on Porsches hybrid vehicle as their version was an enhancement of an existing technology. In the end no vehicles were produced which could meet all the requirements (Washington Times, 2009) so it could be seen as a failure. However many incremental innovations were created because of this partnership. Examples are, all of todays hybrid vehicles use some battery technology that was created in PNGV (Business Week, 2006), and DaimlerChrysler made large strides in technology which makes vehicles lighter, up to 46% lighter than conventional vehicles which they use in their latest models (Vasilash, 2000). Overall PNGV was a political factor affecting innovation because it was initiated by the government. This caused market pull on innovation in the automotive sector as the innovation was being carried out to meet a specific need. A marketing pull is when a stimulus of innovation comes from the needs of the society or from a particular sector of the market (Open University, ND).This political factor was caused by environmental, social and economical elements. Even though the government wanted to free themselves from the need on foreign oil the conflicting objectives of the partnership did not allow pursuit of architectural innovations which would have allowed this but many useful incremental innovations did come out of the partnership. 4. FREEDOM CAR PROGRAM Due to the failure of PNGV the U.S government created the FreedomCAR program (FreedomCAR, 2002). This program is a partnership between the U.S government, USCAR and five major energy companies (Green Car Congress, 2008). The program is based on the following principles: Freedom from dependence on imported oil. Freedom from pollutant emissions Freedom for Americans to choose the kind of vehicle they want to drive, to drive where they want and when they want. Freedom to obtain fuel affordably and conveniently. (U.S Department of Energy, 2009) The program is based on similar economic, social and environmental issues as PNGV however the latter 2 principles are further social factors that caused the creation of FreedomCAR. The long term focus of the program is to see whether hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can become the norm in the U.S by 2015 (Green Car Congress, 2005), this is because as previously explained the vehicles are an architectural innovation that do not require oil and produces no harmful emissions. The short term focus is to make internal combustion vehicles and electric hybrid vehicles as efficient and environmentally friendly as possible (Green Car Congress, 2005). In terms of innovation in the automotive industry, the partnership is exploring research in a wide range of areas from creating lithium ion batteries for use in vehicles to making carbon fibre much cheaper to produce (Business Week, 2006). These are incremental innovations as they are improvement on existing technology and so it may seem that they are not pursuing the long term focus of the partnership but these incremental innovations are required to make the architectural innovation possible (Business week, 2006). Just like PNGV, FreedomCAR is a political element that is having an effect on innovation in the automotive industry as it was created by the government because of several economic, social and environmental issues. The difference between the two programs is that FreedomCAR lacks restrictive deadlines and its main focus is architectural innovation which will hopefully meet the principles set. 5. CAR EMMISSIONS Car emissions have become an increasingly important issue for car owners and reducing individuals carbon footprints. Buying smaller cars have been encouraged to car owners by the media and many politicians. (Quirk, 2008) The European Union is trying to reduce the CO2 emissions from cars and also improve their fuel efficiency which led to the creation of the ACEA agreement. The agreement is between the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), and the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA). The table below shows how these targets can change into fuel efficiency standards for petrol and diesel cars according to the ACEA agreement. Relationships between CO2 targets and fuel consumption Year Target Petrol (Litres of fuel consumed per 100 km) Diesel (Litres of fuel consumed per 100 km) 2012 120 gCO2/km 5.1 4.6 2008 140 gCO2/km 5.9 5.4 A failure for the car industry to meet the 2008/9 targets could lead to mandatory regulation in the future (Rajagopalan Saini 2007). For example BMW has built the Mini Cooper Diesel which meets the targets set above as they are below the criteria, making it an efficient car of its time. 64mpg is the cars combined fuel consumption and 104g/km of carbon dioxide is emitted. The 5-series saloon is also achieving these quality emissions where the 2.0 litre diesel version emits just 136g/km about the same as a hatchback. (Quirk, 2008) The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Trades chief executive said that average emissions have fallen every year during the last decade. Through technological innovation and consumer education, manufacturers have made genuine progress towards meeting tough environmental targets, (Young, 2009) Several manufacturers including Saab think the solution to reducing vehicle emissions is through the use of Flex-fuel cars or bio powered cars. These types of vehicles can run on emissions free E85 ethanol or petrol or a combination of the two (Quirk, 2008) Flexible fuel vehicles have been in production since the 1980s and have been made available to many customers who might not even know they have this type of engine in their car. (U.S Department of Energy, 2009). Flexible fuel vehicles do not experience any loss of performance when using E85 ethanol. However, since a gallon of ethanol contains less energy than a gallon of gasoline, flexible fuel vehicles typically get about 20-30% fewer miles per gallon when fuelled with E85. U.S Department of Energy (2009). Flexible fuel vehicles are an incremental innovation on regular internal combustion engine vehicles as most of the technology is the same. The only difference is that they can run on a different type of fuel. Flexible fuel vehicles produce no harmful emissions so they will help meet emissions targets but first consumers need to switch to using e85 ethanol and this will only happen if the price of e85 is not high as it has lower fuel efficiency than petrol. E85 ethanol is still some way off from being readily made available to the public because there is a lack in the number of refineries to create the fuel and pumping stations to provide it. (Quirk, 2008). Flexible fuel cars are in the fluid phase of the Abernathy and Utterback model (see Appendix 3 for full definition) as a core component (the e85 ethanol fuel) is not widely available. This lack of availability of the fuel is also slowing the innovation of flexible fuel vehicles as the fuel is not there to run flexible fuel vehicles so the vehicle manufacturers are not going to put their full effort into improving the technology. 6. CONVENIENCE AND SAFETY CAR INNOVATIONS There have been many road accidents and the main contributors to these are alcohol and careless driving. To discourage drink-driving there have been many campaigns to reduce the number of casualties from road accidents. (National Statistics, 2009). In recent years there has been an increase in accidents involving alcohol compared to a sharp fall in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. In 1986, 560 people were killed compared to 1000 people in 2000. (See Appendix 2 for full statistics) (National Statistics, 2009). Also according to Volvo, driver sleepiness is responsible for more road deaths than alcohol. In Germany, it is thought to account for a quarter of all fatal accidents and in the US about 1,500 deaths a year. (Automotive Engineer, 2006).This has therefore meant that car manufacturers have created innovations to help prevent these from happening again such as: Volvo has created the collision warning system to help prevent accidents from occurring. This system uses a wide angle sensor to scan around the car for any objects that may be near much like radar technology. A signal alerts the driver to react, if for example the car is approaching a pedestrian which will give the driver enough time to divert the vehicle away from the pedestrian (Quirk, 2008). To help lower alcohol related accidents Saab has created the Alco-Key. Saab has begun fitting this device as standard in their cars; it is a fully integrated system that requests the driver to blow into a wireless hand-held unit before driving the car. Their breath is then analysed and if the blood-alcohol limit is exceeded, a red LED will appear and the engine will not start (Quirk, 2008). Volvo has introduced the Sleep Detection system which includes Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Driver Alert Control (DAC). LDW uses cameras located between the windscreen and the rear view mirror and monitors the cars position between the road markings. Only after a certain speed is reached does the system become active, if the car then wanders across any lane markings without using an indicator, the driver is audibly alerted (Quirk, 2008). These creations are product innovations as they are new innovations that car manufacturers have created and offer with their vehicles. The fact they have been produced as a response to help prevent alcohol related accidents, which is a social factor, makes them a response to a market pull. The fact that the Alco-key is the first system that prevents drinking driving could lead to Saab gaining the first mover advantage, if such technology was to become mandatory. This advantage would be kept through the fact Saab has a patent on the technology (Free Patents Online, 2009) and a patent prevents other companies from using the technology without Saabs permission. 7. THE KYOTO PROTOCOL The Kyoto Protocol was an international agreement originally created in 1997 but in 2005 it was made legally binding, and is linked to the United Nations Framework of Climate Control. The agreement set targets for industrialised countries to cut their emission of harmful greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, plus several others) which are partially the cause of the increase of global warming. The countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol agreed to set their own targets e.g. Japan agreed to meet a 5% cut in emissions by 2008-2012 and most EU countries agreed to an 8% cut (BBC, 2005). Carbon dioxide is created by internal combustion engine vehicles and given off from their exhaust; therefore its a cause of global warming. To meet the targets agreed, governments and automobile manufacturers need to work together. In 2007, the Japanese government agreed to spend 200 billion yen on the improvement of hybrid vehicles to lower their emissions (Reuters, 2007) as HEVs emit less harmful gases than a petrol engine (What Green Car, 2009). Also in Japan, Toyota has achieved its target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, from 2.12 million to 1.78 million tons. It did this through decreasing their energy usage by 40% and replacing multiple production lines with single lines capable of producing different vehicles (I. Rowley, 2005). The change in their use of production lines which increased efficiency is a process innovation as it is a change in the way the vehicles were created. Both of the above examples are market pulls on innovation for the fact the change is a response to a market/government requirement. The Kyoto Protocol is a political factor based on an environmental factor (global warming), having an effect on innovation as the governments in many countries are trying to adhere to it and to adhere to it requires the government to intervene change the vehicles that the automobile industry produces and the way they are produced. 8. CONCLUSION It is clear that out of the PESTLE factors, the main one which is having the greatest effect on innovation in the automobile industry is political. Many governments are concerned about global warming and it is the automotive industry which is adding to worsening of the effects of global warming through the emissions of their vehicles and their manufacturing plants. This has led to governments to intervene in the automotive industry to make vehicle manufacturers improve their own vehicles and facilities, through innovations which have mostly been incremental. However FreedomCAR looks promising for the environment as it is hoping to create an architectural innovation, the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that have little impact on the environment, and help meet the governments reason for creating these market pulls on innovation. It also lacks the restrictive deadlines and conflicting objectives that PNGV had which will help increase the programs chance of success. So it may be political fa ctors that are having a direct affect on innovation but these political influences are mainly based environmental factors. Social aspects are also having an affect on innovation through the improvement of safety of the vehicles that are produced. The increase in the number of accidents and alcohol related accidents has led to a market pull on innovation for vehicle manufacturers, as they have created these improvements in safety due to this increase. As it is the political factors that are directly influencing the innovations that manufacturers create, means they are not doing it in response to the environmental factors themselves. This means the automotive industry are not wanting to help lower their affect on the environment even though it is them adding to global warming. 9. RECOMMENDATIONS This report shows that the vehicle manufacturers have only begun being environmentally concerned because of political factors their having on the industry. We would recommend that the manufacturers start thinking in a more environmentally friendly manner e.g. by investing in new machinery and production facilities similar to those of Toyota which emit lower carbon emissions. Another recommendation is the manufacturers start to create more flexible fuel vehicles and promote their availability which will increase the likeliness that consumers will switch to them. But also for consumers to switch will require that more refineries which can produce the e85 ethanol needed for the vehicles to be created. Also the price of the fuel will need to regulate as to prevent it from being too high as consumers may decide not to use e85 for the fact it has a lower fuel efficiency than petrol. 10. APPENDIX Appendix 1 Diagram showing the structure of PNGV. APPENDIX 2 Casualties from road accidents involving illegal alcohol levels, 1986-2000 United Kingdom Thousands Source: Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions; Royal Ulster Constabulary Casualties from road accidents involving illegal alcohol levels, 1986-2000 ThousandsSeriousSlightAllFatalinjuriesinjuriescasualties 1986United Kingdom 1.03 6.57 19.60 27.20 1987 0.93 6.01 17.99 24.93 1988 0.81 5.18 17.25 23.24 1989 0.84 4.92 17.05 22.81 1990 0.80 4.23 16.01 21.04 1991 0.69 3.72 14.00 18.41 1992 0.69 3.40 13.28 17.37 1993 0.57 2.82 12.25 15.63 1994 0.54 2.95 12.26 15.75 1995 0.56 3.10 12.89 16.56 1996 0.60 3.13 13.93 17.67 1997 0.57 3.07 13.90 17.55 1998 0.49 2.68 13.25 16.42 1999 0.48 2.60 14.64 17.72 2000 0.56 2.71 15.75 19.02 Source: Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions; Royal Ulster Constabulary National Statistics (2009) Appendix 3 The Abernathy and Utterback model says that technology can be in 3 different phases, fluid, transitional or specific. Fluid Many uncertainties with the technology and in the market prevail. Large amounts of experimentation going on with the technology and core components are not fully available/developed. Very few competitors. Transitional Firms are learning more about the technology and a dominant design has been accepted by many of the competing firms. Specific Companies are creating incremental innovation on the dominant design and are targeting specific market segments (Innovation Zen, 2006)

Employee Resistance to Change: Dissertation

Employee Resistance to Change: Dissertation Chapter 1- Introduction Change comes from anywhere, and is the only constant. Propelled by the driving force of technology and globalization, the economic landscape continuously transform in a way that has come to undermine the relevance of received wisdom on how a firm should be managed and what underlies its success (Gregory Prastacos, et al., 2002). In this new millennium, it is more challenging for an organization to sustain its competency or even survive in the diversity market. When an organization is threatened by environmental changes such as crisis or competition, it results in the increasing needs for communication as technology develops rapidly and higher customer demands will be foreseen. Organizational change is not an option; it constitutes a fundamental necessity for success within the new competitive landscape (Hamel and Prahalad, 1996). An organization need to evaluate its performance and review its business strategies, corporate structure, operational process and HR policies to identify th e areas that need transformation. To maintain its competitive advantages,ÂÂ  an organization must make effort to implement changes accordingly. Usually changes to be made in an organization is for the seeking of extending the ability of the organization to achieve the strategic goals but sometime changes do not necessarily contribute to the improvement of the organization (Stroh, 2001). The expected result of the change might vary due to other unexpected factors, such as resistance to change. Resistance is a phenomenon that affects the change process, delaying or slowing down its beginning, obstructing or hindering its implementation, and increasing its costs (Ansoff, 1990). Effect of resistance of changes in organization will cause distorted perception, interpretation barriers and vague strategic priorities, low motivation among the people and lack of creative response (Val, 2003). It is crucial for change initiators to deal with resistance for a successful change. Forasmuch as employees are the one who get the job done, and they the one who possess the knowledge, skills, tools and experiences, it is clear that organizational changes cannot be achieved without employees support and involvement. Employee acceptance and commitment are the key factors for successful changes. Effective change management should recognize the importance of its employees and the way to minimize the resistant from employees. Therefore, understand why it is caused, the forms of resistance and the factors determine employees reactions to change is significant. 1.1 Research Objective This research will study on the factors of resistance to change from employees prospective. The aim of this research is to review the factor and find out the correlates among the factors. By better understanding these which a shift in perception could occur, the paper hope to develop a framework to change initiators of how certain group of employees is the likely to react and behave to change that being unleashed by the value and perception, this knowledge will enable change initiators to design change plan and training programs which recognize the values of employees, and to interact with diverse others in order to optimize the expected change affect. The research attempt to explore the followings areas as a systematic way to rationalize the value of this project study: To identify the natural of employee resistance to change. To identify the symptoms of employee resistance to change. To identify the reasons of employee resistance to change To determine the various factors to effect employees resistance to changes. To evaluate the effect of these factors on organizations future development. 1.2 Chapter Summary Chapter 1 of Introduction has provided a background of the circumstances that force organization to change, and examined the inevitable resistance can undermined organizational change. By identifying the importance of employee in the organizational change, research objectives were generated to study on the resistance of change from employees perspectives and listed done the areas of the study to be explored on. The research was planned in a systematic way to rationalize the value of this project. Next chapter of this project will touch on a review of current literatures on the natural, symptoms and the reasons of employee resistance to change and factors affect employee resistance, followed by the research methodology, samples and limitation of the research. The subsequent chapter will be the questionnaire data analysis presentation and lastly the paper will conclude the findings and its implications for change initiators. The aim of this research is to review the factors that affect employee resistance and evaluate it thought the target samples. Chapter 2- Literature Review 2.1 Employee Resistance to Change 2.1.1 The nature Organizations can be confronted with incremental changes that focus on doing things better through a process of continuous tinkering, adaptation and modification or transformational changes that are regarded as revolutionary and break with the past.(John Hayes, 2010) Although the incremental changes rarely presented any abrupt challenges to the assumptions people make about how they related to the world (John Hayes, 2010), this is not always that case. People are not duplicate, the values, beliefs, assumption and knowledge of that person will be developed over the time, formed as a set of personal opinion, perceptions, views of the world to guide their behaviors (Hallie Preskill and Rosalie Torres, 1999). It is concerned with whether employees regards view change can bring present or future personal benefit and opportunities or change is a threat to their job, skills or any other interests. The implementation of changes inevitably involves the vital interests of various shareholders, and especially employees.Resistance occurs since most employees desire to be successful in their work environments due to they have basic needs which must be satisfied. To begin with, employees want to know their role and their responsibilities within the organization. In additional, employees want to be able to predict what they will face in the future (Appelbaum, S.H. et al, 1998). Even though old procedures that were initially regarded as cumbersome, costly or ineffective, after a prolonged recursive execution, employees become comfortable and are used to the ways things were done. Employee might fear in a changing organization, therefore change are frequently be seen as a threat to ones existence within an organization if upgrading or acquiring new skills are a problem because of time constraints , or the inability of the person to learn these new techniques. Change within an organizational setting usually poses several problems and challenged by the pressure in aspect of money , ego, and power for those who resist it. Employees resist change because they have learned to associate it negative feelings since their basic needs may now be threatened (Mealiea, 1978). Thus it is human nature that employees look at Change negatively, resistance thereby coming into play. 2.1.2 The symptoms Resistance, described by Kilian M. Bennebroek Gravenhorst (2003) is commonly considered to be standard or even natural in reaction to organizational change. It is described as an most inevitable psychological and organizational response that seems to apply to any kind of change, ranging from rather modest improvement to far-reaching change and organizational transformation. Symptoms are the specific behaviors exhibited when employee resistance to change (Albert F. Bolognese, 2002) According to Bhutan (1995), it is important to distinguish between the symptoms of resistance to change and the causes behind them. Symptoms can be reflected in varies of forms, which Marc Maltz (2008) categorized it into the two varieties: overt and covert. Overt resistance is concern with obvious opposition, disagreement, arguing, debating, etc., to any change effort. While, covert resistance comes in two forms: one is conscious covert which employees are concerned about the consequences of their actions that they apparently agreed but actually not following though or withhold information and avoid implementation. Secondly is the unconscious covert resistance, which is the most difficult to see symptoms among employees as employees are unaware their resistance. 2.1.3 The Reasons There are many causes attribute to employees resistance to change, such as Coch French (1948), studied the workers of a clothing manufacturer and find that lower employee participitation causing the mistrust of management and increase their resistance to change. Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) identify four common reasons why people resist organizational change: people focus on their own interest and fear of losing something of value, it can be power and status, autonomy and control, or specific skills; Misunderstanding the change will cost them more than they will gain and lack of trust to the person who initiating change; Different assessment of the necessity and benefit of change situations; Low tolerance for change, sometimes people just resist to change emotionally even they understand the need for change. Several studies have acknowledged what Kotter and Schlesingers publication and enhance these categories with further researches, according to Prosci- A business process reengin eering directory and resource companys study (2003) in past six years in 288 organizations from 51 countries, result shows the top reasons employee resist to change is because of corporate history and culture, which the organizations past performance of change project failed or did not make much sense, employees are less interested to take initiatives to support the current change, they are not in the flavor the month , thus employee expected it go away like what happened in the past. Lorenzo (2000) also acknowledge that one attribute to employees resistance is that past failures leaves negative image for future changes. Another reason added on in Prosci (2003)s research is that employee often opposes to change because of the added job responsibilities, new processes or technologies. Changes with lower motivation to get employees involved and less consideration of employees interest and their emotional and perceptual perspectives thereby eliminate their initiatives and level of comm itment. Pardo Del Val, Manuela and Martinez Fuentes, Clara (2005) conclude above sources to employees resistance are most likely happen in change formulation stage, they further identify some reason rise resistance that consist of: (a) organizational values in relation to change values that cause a strong implementation climate to determine whether employee to accept or oppose to change; (b) departmental politics that form employees resistance. 2.2 Factors affect employees resistance to change Literatures have identified variety of factors affect employee resistance to change, the most cited views of the factors fall on the organizational level, for instance the communication process, employee participation, change facilitation procedures in change process (Ricky Griffin ,2008) to improve organizational effectiveness. Moreover, employee motivation (David Clarence and McClelland, 1987) and quality of leadership (Ken W. Parry, 1999) have been widely acknowledged to have influence on employees work initiatives, involvement and commitment, so that it can argues to be a significant factor to affect employees willingness to change. Above factors virtually are the ways to deal with the subtext of organizational humanity on the stage of change process. However, one must understand the root factors played to affect employees perception towards organizational change. Fail to understand the intrinsic factors govern employees values and beliefs guided behavior in the context of the way they were doing and expected in the future, and all the necessities organization attempt or should to do to implement and facilitate change is crucial. Therefore, the research will mainly explore on the personal factors played to affect employee resistance to change including age, gender, personality traits (Locus of control) and employee educational level as follows: 2.2.1Age Baby Boomers refer to people who are born between 1945-1964. This generation grew up in an era of unprecedented economic growth and stability, so as to be regarded as a generation that finds comfort with long term employment with one organization. This has provided them with a false sense of stability (Loomis, 2000).Their perceived working values emphasize on chain of command, teamwork, technically challenged, team work and loyal to employer As they born after War II, which they entered the economic boom era, Money and job security such as life time employment are definitely extremely important for them to sustain their living. In this regard, it is argued that Baby Boomers are easier to accept organizational change as their working value of chain of command which they tend to commit to the hierarchical order. Moreover, the inception of organization loyalty also attributes them to be more committed rather than resistant or any other negative reactions. (Hui-Chun, Yu and Peter Miller, 2003) Another neuropsychological research held by (Stanford University professor Laura L. Carstensen et al. 2000) on the relationship between age and emotional experiences found that the periods of highly positive emotional experience were more likely to endure among older people and periods of highly negative emotional experience were less stable. With age, older adults report relatively low levels of worrying (Sandra Hunt, Patricia Wisocki and Julianne Yanko, 2003), experience less anger (Schieman,1999), and have lower levels of emotional distress after natural disasters (Bolin Klenow, 1982-1983). The implication of these findings are older employees have better capability to regulate their negative emotions with organizational change and adjust themselves to adapt the environment.Employees adaptability has been seen a key attribute to a successful organizational change (Heslin , 2005). Compared with Baby Boomers, Generation X refers to those people who were born between 1965 to 1980. This generation of employee tend to more independent, self-motivated and self-sufficient (Loomis, 2000). This is because most X generations did not have enough of their family attention as children because their parent may have been single or working parents. X generations therefore became adaptive at handling things on their own and in their own ways. Their work value is perceived more on personal satisfaction, and their attitudes towards work are focus on flexibility empowerment, loyal to skills. (Hui-Chun, Yu and Peter Miller, 2003). Hence, when the change conflict with their own interest such as against what they used to do , their skills, or leave less empowerment to them, they will feel unmotivated towards to commit to the change. However, David J. OConnell, Eileen McNeely and Douglas (2004) argue that since Xers entered the workforce under the employment of deal, in which career planning and development are largely individual responsibilities and where the average worker can expect to make several changes during their working lives. In this regards, it seems like Xers are more adaptive to change. However, there are also many scholars debate the relationship between the age and the personal adaptability to change, such as Mirvis and Hall, 1996. Recent research held by OConell, McNeely and Hall, 2008 also support this assertion, reporting that age is limited measured as a categorical variable namely the characteristics about an individual . 2.2.2 Gender Although many literatures have acknowledged the impact of gender difference on the management practice, there had been little systematic attention focus on identifying the gender roles on effective change management relatively. Feminist perspectives have tended to highlight not only the impact of organizational change on womens relatively marginalized position but also the role of women in the change management (Melissa Tyler, 2005). Jamie L, Michael G and Homer Tolson (2005) research findings suggest that there is a difference between male and female executive of their emotional expressiveness, and women are regarded to process better skill at encoding and decoding emotions (Laura K. Guerrero and Kory Floyd, 2008). Emotions are intensive feelings that are directed at someone or something (Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, 2010). Goleman-the founder of emotional intelligence theory also mentioned that women are good at reading others feelings than men averagely in his book pub lished in 1995. The skills to encode and decode emotions generally have advantage to develop and maintain relationships (Laura K. Guerrero and Kory Floyd, 2008), because skilled encoders have ability to express their internal emotional state so that other people can decode their emotions more easily and accurately (Burgoon and Bacue, 2003). In this regard, the chances such as misunderstanding and conflict due to implicit or unclear message delivered or received prone to be decreased, the communication becomes more easily and effective. In many literatures, communication has been widely acknowledged as a useful approach to eliminate resistance to change. Therefore, women are deems to be more successfully engaged in change circumstances. Maddock (1999) added that Women focus on relational aspect of how to do things, while men tend to be expected to think what to do. It appears that women are emotionally discreet on how they are going to process the information, express and interpret their view points to react to change before making any decision. Combined with womens secondary position in labor market due to gender discrimination, especially in Confucian countries, in addition to their greater responsibilities in family and child care than men, which cause women are relatively powerless to challenge the situation (Melissa Tyler, 2005). Hence Melissa argues that women in change management appear to be positioned as performing an interpersonal function associated with safety; providing security in times of unexpected turbulence and anticipating. On the basis of these arguments, it seems that women tend to avoid conflict in working in this regard and to accept the change accordingly. 2.2.3 Personality Traits Some people are quiet and reserved, while others are aggressive and outgoing. Some people are trustworthy, some are not. People differ with each other in various dimensions as a result of different behavior and attitude towards things in personal life and working. The individuals differences are shaped by personalities (Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, 2010) Personality refers to the traits and characteristics that make individuals unique (Greenberg and Baron, 2002). The most frequent used definition of personality was produced by Gordon Allport nearly 70 years ago which he commented that personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment. Personality thus becomes an important reason mangers need to know to generate a view of employees likely behaviors and examine their coping reaction. Meselaar and Cozijnsen (1997) further highlighted the personality is a determinate of individ ual reaction to organizational change. Locus of control refers to the degree people believe their own behaviours determine what happens to them. People believes they have more control over their destiny are referred as internal, and people who believe they have less control over their life and the results are attributing to the will of God, or to the fortune of being born in the right social class or family are referred as external. At this point, it is suggested that people behave differently towards change. Wilson (1992) developed an approach referred as determinism to study change management portrays the manager and other organizational members as pawns affected by change rather than as agents who can initiate and secure change. Their ability to influence is limited because of the main determinates lie outside the organization. John Hayes (2010) argues that those who are overcommitted deterministic view of change may be inclined to believe that the locus of control is external to themselves and the organization and may therefore develop view that there is little they can do to influence events. Hence, people who think this way is less likely to attempt to adopt a proactive approach to the management of change than those who have more internal view about locus of control. 2.2.4 Educational Level Although there were not many literatures specifically emphasize the employees educational level to their resistance to organizational change, it is widely acknowledged (e.g.: George H. McCall, Karl E. Ristow and Daniel J. Cimini, 2004) that higher education improves employees personal management, time management, communication skills and problem solving skills. Higher education defined by Roberg (1987) refers to the instruction that was obtained at university or colleague. According to Thomas Kent Gaylor (2001)s research on 286 police officer from two North Texas Police department in 2001, result shows no significance relationship between the educational level and employees openness to change. However the limitation of his research was lack of variation in respondents education level. Nevertheless, the author believe that higher education of employees will be more likely to support and commit organization change with more positive thinking of why the change is needed, hence the resea rch intend to do further evaluation with different samples on the relationship of educational level to employee resistance to change since it is a logic factor that higher education equipped with employees more knowledge and broader thinking and believe, which reduce the tendency to be dogmatic and to be more creative. 2.3 Chapter Summary Chapter 2 of Literature Review has explored on the current literatures on employee resistance to change in terms of the natural, symptoms and reasons. The inevitable resistances from employee impulse the research to further find out the factors that affect employee resistance to change. The research noted many factors including communication process, employee participations, change facilitation process, employee motivation and quality of leadership, and lastly mainly reviewed the personal factors played consist of age, gender, personality traits (locus of control) and employee educational level influence various aspects from values and beliefs and emotions as a result of different behavior and levels of adaptability reacted to change After exposit the literature review of factors affect employees resistance to change, the paper will tackle the main objectives of this research. Starting with the description of research methodology, samples and limitation of the research, then paper will touch on the analysis part of the questionnaire, to examine the reflected results against with the literatures reviewed earlier on, so as to evaluate its universality of the factors in the sampling organization. Chapter 3- Research Methodology 3.1 Secondary Research The research was carried out at the beginning though a secondary research to review the current literatures on the areas of the study, which contains of the nature, symptoms and the reasons of employee resistance to change and the factors affect employee resistance to change from a more intrinsic view by looking at employee personal factors. The factors focus on the employees adaptability to change determined by age and gender, one dimension of personality traits -locus of control, and employee educational level. The information is collected from textbooks, journals and articles from reliable and creditable online Journal Publications, National Library and Campus Library. 3.2 Primary Research In order to evaluate the factors been presented in literature review, the research will primarily employ questionnaires as the main methodologies for information gathering. The questionnaire will be carried out with various employees working in a large organization. The methods allow directly and original information to be gathered from participants. Questionnaire results are to be consolidated, and will be analyzed using various questionnaire analyze techniques, to interpret the data. The main reason of using questionnaire and interview is because data is collected directly from specific target respondents. Interviewers have the ability to ask extra intensive questions of the respondent concerning survey responses. 3.2.1 Research Samples The research was conducted using data collected from a large size agribusiness organization located in Singapore, mainly doing palm oil plantation and trading. The reason of choosing this organization is because it is currently undergoing turbulence and change on merger with one small size palm oil trading company and one ship chartering company. And it also has experienced many merger and change in the past. Therefore the target samples of the questionnaire participants in the organization must have many varies views on organizational change to enable the research generate more practical reflections from employees perspective on organizational change and change effect on them, aims to evaluate the universality application of all those factors on employee resistance to change presented in literature on the target sampling. The questionnaire attempt to invite 150 employees in this organization from four departments who are affected by the merger plan, respectively 25 employee from IT department, 35 employees from logistic department, 25 employee from finance department and 65 employees from operation department. 3.2.2 Limitation of This Research During the research, data collected could be deviated due to limitation in the research methodology as follows: Data may not represent the entire population due to the limitation of sampling size As the four department employees may experience different kinds of minor changes in their department respectively, whether the change offend their interest or not might bring subjective bias towards their response to the questionnaire, hence the accuracy of data collected will be deviated. Respondent who experience the past organizational change may bring different perceptions towards new change. The choice of the question may limited respondents response. 3.3 Chapter Summary Chapter 3 presented the methodology of this research which employed on secondary research to review the current literatures on the area of the study, and also the primary research using questionnaires to collect data. Research Samples chosen was a large agribusiness organization who is experiencing turbulence and undergoing merger and work structural change. The limitations of the research were also discussed including the sample size, respondents bias, past organizational change experience as well as the choice of questions may also affect the accuracy of the survey result. Next chapter will touch on the research result analysis and discussion. Chapter 4- Result Analysis and Discussion The questionnaires were distributed to 150 employees in IT, Logistic, Finance and Operation department respectively as planned in Chapter 3, the responding rate is about 76%, namely 114 employees attend the questionnaire. Following are the result of each factors being tested. 4.1 Age The research finding on age factors shows that respondents in different age group perceived change differently and appears with different level of resistance. In contrary with literatures presented earlier on demonstrating age have negative relationship with organizational change where people are more emotional stable and adaptable to organizational change as they age. Instead, the result shows that in the age group of 20 to 65+, employees are more resistant to change as they age; an interesting finding is that for employees aged below 20, whom were surprisingly scored higher marks on resistance. Figure 4.1.2 shows details of scores on resistance in each age group. Figure 4.1.2- Age group vs Resist to change score The possible causes lead to this result might because when younger people firstly enter the workforce with no experience and lower educational background, they are uncertain about their skills and abilities. They may behave self-concerned and less flexible dealing with working matters, and not mature enough to regulate their emotions as they are undergoing a transition from childhood to adult, school life to working life with increased responsibilities, time is needed to help them accept such big changes and adapt themselves in the new environment. As they age and become more mature, they seek for competence, career movement and relationship, they are more flexible and motivated to change themselves in the organization to achieve their objectives. As time goes on, they feel tired and queried about what supposed to be. They are loyalty to their skills and fear losing it in the future. Stability, job security and sense of seniority may become the main values after they age 46. Hence th ey might act more resisting to change as demonstrated in below figure. Super (1980)s Life Stage Theory displayed some common characteristics against to the above analysis and assumptions, which the author would like to research further. 4.2 Gender Out of total 114 respondents, 78 are women, and 36 are men, most of men respond strongly agree that organizational change is necessary and beneficial, and express their willingness to take challenges. Although there is no strong evidence to show that women are more resistance to change, most of women strongly agreed with the statement that when things are not going as plan, they tend to feel stress and if there is significant change regarding the way things are done, they would probably feel stressed. At this point, the research result suggested that women tend to be trapped in stress situation more easily than men. Hellriegel, D. Slocom, J. W., and Woodman, R.W.(2001) has pointed out that organizational change can be viewed as greatest source of stress on job and perhaps employees life. Stress cause low morale, high desertion rate and consequently reduce in job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The women research samples in this study reflect lower ability to regulate stre ss in working and life that affect their job performance. When organizational changes go against their interest, plan or principles, family life, it easily get women feel stress emotionally and potentially raise their resistance level which can be described as unconscious covert resistance (Marc Maltz, 2008) whereby employees are unaware of their resistance to change. Such symptom as mentioned in Chapter 2 is difficult to recognize and manage. The result urges the management to recognize gender-related problems in the organizational process. The implication of the result underlines the importance of evaluating and managing performance between women and men employees in implementing change. 4.3 Locus of Control Figure 4.3.1 shows the relationship between Locus of Control versus Resist to Change scale. The extent of Locus of Control are divided into 5 category based on the score respondents received on answering 10 specially designed question (Q7-Q16) catered to identify the individual level of locus of Control. For each correct answer that suggested Internal Locus of Control, the participant are give 1 point, the end results are totaled up with a formula (N/10)x100. The result are categ

Siddhartha - The Three Stages Essay -- Hesse Siddhartha Essays

Siddhartha - The Three Stages "On the great journey of life, if a man cannot find one who is better or at least as good as himself, let him journey joyfully alone." The story of Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse makes this point true. The main character Siddhartha dealt with the Samanas and Gotama Buddha, the second with Kamala and then the ferryman. The three parts correspond to the three stages though which Siddhartha passes on his journey to enlightenment: The stage of the mind; the stage of the flesh; the stage of transcendence. During this period-the realm of the mind, Siddhartha actively sets about letting the self die, escaping his Self. This attempt reaches its most concentrated form during his stay with the ascetic Samanas, during which he discards all material possessions and tries further to flee his own body and control his other needs. This is shown when he says, "He killed his senses, he killed his memory, he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms." S... Siddhartha - The Three Stages Essay -- Hesse Siddhartha Essays Siddhartha - The Three Stages "On the great journey of life, if a man cannot find one who is better or at least as good as himself, let him journey joyfully alone." The story of Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse makes this point true. The main character Siddhartha dealt with the Samanas and Gotama Buddha, the second with Kamala and then the ferryman. The three parts correspond to the three stages though which Siddhartha passes on his journey to enlightenment: The stage of the mind; the stage of the flesh; the stage of transcendence. During this period-the realm of the mind, Siddhartha actively sets about letting the self die, escaping his Self. This attempt reaches its most concentrated form during his stay with the ascetic Samanas, during which he discards all material possessions and tries further to flee his own body and control his other needs. This is shown when he says, "He killed his senses, he killed his memory, he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms." S...

Too Bare Hamlet :: essays research papers

A son’s tragedy, a brother’s betrayal. A story of responsibility and revenge is that of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. The theme in the play Hamlet is one that is great in age and remains present even in today’s entertainment. A modern story which shares this theme is Disney’s The Lion King. The characters Simba and Hamlet are the main characters in both stories and both share many similarities. Treachery from within the family was the cause of both character’s losses, and the initial conflict of the entire story. Along with major characters, the stories also share similar secondary characters. The characters Rosencranz and Guildenstern can be compared to the Disney characters Timon and Pumbaa. The Lion King and Hamlet share a common theme and reflect one another. The Prince of Denmark, the Prince of the Pride Lands, Hamlet and Simba are the main characters of both stories and share similar situations and traits. Both characters think highly of their fathers and share a close bond of love with them. "With all my love I do commend me to you"( II I 184 ), proving that Hamlet not only loves his father but also respects and obeys his wishes. "I was just trying to be brave like you." Simba says this to his father showing how much he looks up to him. Hamlet and Simba delay their action of revenge over their father’s death. The loss of the fatherly figure leaves Hamlet extremely depressed, and Simba with feelings of guilt and without a teacher. Each character runs from their responsibility, although they both know what must be done inside. It is remarkable that such similarities exist in the conflicts and actions of both characters. Hamlet and Simba are betrayed by their uncles whom murder their fathers in order to fulfill their own ambitions. Scar and Claudius were both the brother of the proclaimed King. They both lived in their older brother’s shadow and were envious of their success. Claudius and Scar’s envy led them to kill their brothers which allowed them to seize the throne. "The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/Now wears his crown. ( I V 38,39 )" "Here’s my little secret, I killed Mufasa." To keep their newly claimed throne Scar and Claudius had to guarantee that there would be no interference from their nephews. Both Hamlet and Simba were led astray from their home by their uncle, therefore guaranteeing no interference. "The associates tend, and every thing is bent/For England."( IV III 45,46) "Run away! Run away and never return!" In Hamlet and The Lion King the main characters were betrayed by their uncle by the murdering of their father and

“Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolff Essay

In many walks of life, people believe that humanity is one with nature ranging from plants to animals, and when the outer shell dies, the spirits that were within them become abstract images of individual creatures. We have the same instinct as animal just a few adaptation and the ability to reason. In the short story â€Å"Hunters in the Snow† by Tobias Wolff, the use of symbolism and imagery to show contradistinction between humanity and the natural world. Wolff brings such a correlation between being human and also being a beast that it’s difficult to differentiate which one is who. Tobias is consistently showing the true nature of Tub, Kenny and Frank by relating them to hunting deer, but hunting the secrets that they concealed within themselves. Tobias makes claims to the sensitive nature of man by trepidation that fills a void in the three characters. â€Å"In Hunter’s in the snow,† Wolff is indirectly elucidating the symbolism between Tub, Kenny, an d Frank with their snowy environment, showing how tyrannical they have become and the symbolism of the deer. The first brush of snow is sweeping the landscape. The deep dark clouds and brisk winds stabbing Tub coat. The ground painted with the circles of footsteps as cars pass by like a shooting star. â€Å"Tub had been waiting for an hour in the falling snow.† Tobias Wolff (page) Tub, the first character, is the most soft-spoken of the trio. He was much heavier than Kenny and Frank but kinder at heart. In retrospect to Tub, the first line of the story gives evidence to his demeanor, showing an explicit representation of Tub’s personality; like the falling of the snow, he is very soft, and fluffy in appearance. Wolff also gives the illusion of the hunters as they try and hunt for deer, but the deer symbolizing the truth that’s within themselves. â€Å"He paced the sidewalk to keep warm and stuck his head out over the curb whenever he saw lights approaching.† (page) Wolff drew a connection with Tub as a deer pacing the snowy covered ground poking his head out like a deer in a sniper scoop. â€Å"The snow was light but the drifts were deep and hard to move through.† (page) Tub noticed the smooth, undisturbed snow to bring the deception of himself and the struggle  he goes through with his weight. Kenny helps create these deep drifts by targeting Tub, which hindered him from overcoming his low s elf-esteem, but Tub mentally has to push through. Wolff then makes the exact nature of the guilt inside of Tub transparent. Wolff shows how effortlessly Kenny and Frank were walking upon the snow while Tub strenuously tried to keep up but kept sinking in the soft snow. Tub surrendered to the snow, sits down and began to forego on the things that’s eating him inside. The snow is changing in size. The sky is getting darker by the minute. The wind is increasing in intensity. The footprint of deer disappears as their animal instinct begins to make way. Kenny is the leader of the pack and is the bitter cold winter himself with a frozen heart and a crystal core. As they hiked deeper into the woods, Kenny attitude progressively became as thick as the snowy landscape. Kenny first taunted an old dog, shot a post, then a tree and then the old dog dead center in the eye. Like a hurricane, peace lies in the center of the eye. â€Å"The clouds were low and heavy-looking and the wind blew in shrill gusts. There was a screen loose on the house, and it banged slowly and then quickly as the wind rose again.† Kenny then turned to Tub. â€Å"I hate you† (page) Tub with no hesitation shoots Kenny from the waist throwing him against the fence. The events of the snow picking up showed the growing tension in the story, the clouds low and heavy-looking described Tub and the position of the rifle. The banging of the screen door simulated the gunshot that hit Kenny in the stomach. The pellucid event had turned the tables around. The snow starts to breaks; the wind started to whisper, and the lifeless snow became white. Kenney the cold harden anarchy began to subdue slowly to his frozen soul as the freezing winds covered his body spilling not red but a bluish blood on the crimson ice. Wolff, prudently shows that the deer and Kenny, at the tavern, they stopped to warm up with the other group of deerstalkers. Kenny tied to a post, covered with the warmth of his blood waiting to be nailed to the wall like the brothers that are there. Tub and Frank pay little care to the severity of his situation. An iceberg, floating peacefully only showing the outer nature of his stability. The water is slowly breaking down the composites leaving way to the truth inside. Frank representing an iceberg, through all the shooting he stood still, as if in shock of what he sees. He gives the outward app earance of an ordinary guy tagging along to whomever more favored or had the  authority. Like an iceberg, his actual intention lies beneath the skin; flaky like the snow on their clothes. â€Å"The snowfall lightened, and the clouds began to roll back off the fields, but it was no warmer and after a time both Frank and Tub were bitten through and shaking.†(page) The tension between the friends died down like the wind, but the coldness was still prevalent because they were aloof to Kenny situation. Frank who has a wife and kids seem to have a good family but holds a dark secret. The story goes deep into the imagery of the snowy environment, and the deer only to reveal the deepest secret frank is in love with his fifteen-year-old babysitter. In this incredible piece that show claim to the true nature of the humanity and how uncaring and ruthless society can become. Within this short story, â€Å"Hunters in the Snow,† the relationship of the men corresponds with the snow and as tensions builds, so does the weather. Wolff creates this magical illusion tying us to a winter storm and how certain winter objects we can be related to. The symbol of a deer that re present life and death but also shows the hunters Tub, Kenny and Frank what’s is hunting them inside. Word Cited â€Å"Hunters in the Snow–Tobias Wolff – Classic Short S.† Insert Name of Site in Italics. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2014 .

New Media Marketing Campaign Success Story Essay

Dove was one of the biggest global brands introduced and owned by Unilever since 1957. Dove started its life as a beauty soap bar that was clinically proven to be milder for dry, sensitive skin than other leading soaps: half of women have dry skin. Dove provides a wide range of cleansing and personal care products that make a genuine difference to the condition and feel of consumer’s skin and hair. Some products of Dove include; antiperspirants, deodorants, body washes, beauty bars, lotions and moisturizers, hair care and facial care products. During the 1990s, the group began to extend the brand across the complete personal care spectrum, and Dove now encompasses a wide range of products from bar soap to shower gel, and from deodorants to shampoo-conditioners. Dove has attracted widespread media attention since 2004 for its marketing. A new line of Dove for Men products was launched in 2010. Over the last few years, Dove has focused on delivering products that inspire women to enjoy their own beauty and individuality. As part of our Campaign for Real Beauty, the Dove Self-Esteem Fund (DSEF) demonstrates our commitment to the brand’s mission ‘to make more women feel beautiful every day, by widening today’s view of beauty and by inspiring women to take great care of themselves.’ The DSEF aims to educate and inspire young girls through a series of tools and workshops which ultimately protects and nurtures their body-related self-esteem and enables them to become fully realized adults. Campaign Introduction Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is campaign that focused not on the product, but on a way to make women feel beautiful regardless of their age and size. The point behind the campaign is to celebrate the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire them to have confidence to be comfortable with themselves. The launched campaign featured normal women of different shapes and sizes viewed in a number of ways’ one was approaches in the street another answered an ad which was placed in a local newspaper. The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a global effort that is intended to serve as a starting point for societal change and act as a catalyst for widening the definition and discussion of beauty. The campaign supports the Dove mission: to make women feel more beautiful every day by challenging today’s stereotypical view of beauty and inspiring women to take great care of themselves.† In addition to changing women’s view of their bodies, Dove also aimed to change the beauty market. In an industry where the standard of beauty is often a size two blonde supermodel, Dove distinguished itself by using models that ranged from size six to fourteen. CRFB abandoned the conventional cynical method of portraying â€Å"perfect† women as beauty role models. Main goals of the online campaign were to bring awareness to the new product line, generate debate about the definition of beauty, receive media attention, gain market coverage allow consumer interaction with the brand, and call to join the self-esteem program partnership. . Type of New Media Used Website Through Dove’s website, the public is able to gain more insights about the campaigns. The Dove Self-Esteem Fund was developed as part of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty to help free the next generation from self-limiting beauty stereotypes. We have already helped over 5 million girls and we invite you to play a role in supporting and promoting a wider definition of beauty. Dove Self-Esteem Fund – Girls Only Interactive Self-Esteem Zone (Appendix 1.3) allows the public to do everything from take interactive quizzes, creating their own online magazine to get a reality check in art of image manipulation. Furthermore, they created a viral video (Appendix 1.4) – Evolution, showing the transformation of a normal looking girl into a stunning model and posted it on the website. Visitors can access new self-esteem building tools, take part in interactive self-esteem activities and join self-esteem discussion boards. Facebook As consumers nowadays are getting more IT savvy, the Dove Facebook page (Appendix 1.1) generally attracted 3,688,330 people liking it. From the page, Dove not only educates the campaign to the public, it also engages the public and users of Facebook to communicate with them. Dove has done so through the interactive panels (Appendix 1.1), where they asked â€Å"What does real beauty mean to you?† From there, the public will post their response or view up the wall of the page. The Dove Facebook page is able to reach mass audience of different languages and culture as they allow visitors to pick their current country and language choices. Thus, even if the visitor is not English speaking, they will still be able to understand the information stated on the page. YouTube YouTube is a social media platform that allows feedback from its viewers. By using YouTube, Dove has stimulated its customers to get involved by telling their own opinions about beauty concept. That helps the campaign more and more successful and well-known. With YouTube, Dove can also measure the effect of their campaign via the number of viewers. They created viral video and placed it on the CFRB website, the video – Evolution, shows the transformation of a normal=looking girl into a stunning model and it became a hot throughout YouTube by the name; Dove Evolution Video, 2006. Dove’s â€Å"Evolution† video (Appendix 1.2), which won both a Film Grand Prix and Cyber Lion (A Grand Prix for cyber-marketing) at the 2007 Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival, takes a different approach. By highlighting the extent to which pictures of models are often modified and retouched in advertisements, this video point out the unrealistic nature of many models’ appearances. Showing how much a model’s appearance can change from its natural state at the beginning of a photo shoot, thanks to make-up, stylists and computers, â€Å"Evolution† is intended to challenge women not to accept a type of beauty that is unrealistic and attainable only through the use of editing and retouching Conclusion Result of the Campaign Through the campaign, results stated that the campaign has been shown on over 25 major TV channels and in more than 800 articles in opinion leading newspapers as well as in popular women’s magazines. In the first six months of the campaign, sales of Dove’s firming products increased 700% in Europe and in the United States, sales for the products in the advertisements increased 600 percent in the first two months of the campaign. In 2004, the first year of the campaign, global sales surpassed $1 billion, exceeding company expectations. Dove’s public relations company built in news coverage for Asia with the Dove â€Å"models† appearing in 618 different newspaper clippings with a circulation of 139 million. By the end of 2005, sales in the Asian-Pacific market increased from 19 percent to 26 percent. In the United States, the campaign got free advertising space from media coverage on national television shows reaching 30 million daytime television viewers. These shows included The Oprah Winfrey Show, which included the campaign everyday for a week, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show, The View and CNN. â€Å"Evolution† the viral video and the most famous execution of the campaign to date had global impact. The viral has been viewed more than 15 million times online and seen by more than 300 million people globally in various channels of distribution, including news coverage, by the estimation of Ogilvy Chairman-CEO Shelly Lazarus. Dove and Ogilvy have won awards for this campaign. These include the two Grand Prix Cannes Advertising Awards in 2007. This is an unprecedented number of awards to win. â€Å"Evolution† the viral won Film Grand Prix and a Cyber Grand Prix. Dove won a silver IPA for effectiveness with the campaign. In 2006 it was awarded a Grand EFFIE, which honors the most significant achievement in marketing communications effectiveness. Individual Opinion The success of the Dove campaign has been its agility in bypassing traditional mainstream media and entering popular culture through new media. Dove used YouTube to ask their consumers to help create the Self-Esteem Campaign. To get things started, Dove posted a fast-motion, one-minute film entitled, â€Å"Dove Evolution,† which races through the cosmetic artistry and Photoshop â€Å"plastic surgery† that ultimately transforms a model’s features into an ethereal face that then appears on a billboard. The film ends with the tag line: â€Å"No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.† The YouTube Dove film has been viewed over three million times and has brought more attention to the Campaign for Real Beauty. Dove’s message and story then migrated to the entertainment media. The spot played on TV shows such as â€Å"Ellen,† â€Å"Entertainment Tonight† and â€Å"The View.† Dove, the brand with a point of view, now had customers with a point of view. The Dove Campaign opened marketer’s eyes to the importance of global consistency. The internet makes it easier for people to connect the dots and to share information. With the internet giving the consumer a voice and allowing user-generated media to have a real impact on our culture, marketers should be able to recognize this and realize how much power the consumer now holds.