Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Qwest International Communications Research Proposal

Qwest International Communications - Research Proposal Example Qwest International Company is a public telecommunications company that provides services such as wireless services, video and internet services as well as short and long distance communications to both individual and wholesale consumers. It has achieved its objective in conjunction with other players such as Verizon wireless and Direct Television. The company is also involved in sub letting of properties such as warehouses and offices. Its headquarter are located in Denver, Colorado but operations are well spread out to over fourteen states in the United States some of which are South Dakota, Oregon, Wyoming, Minnesota, Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, New Mexico, Nebraska, Utatah and Montana. The company is headed by a Chief Executive Officer by name Edward Mueller who also serves as the chairman to the Board of Directors of the company, and under him are over 38,000 employees. These employees are involved in provision of services that are world class in nature. Qwest International Company has been listed in the stock exchange and with a symbol of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE): Q and revenue of over $13.8 billion in the financial year 2007 (Handley 264). Qwest Communications International specializes in ... Chapter 2 Qwest International Company. Vision To be the company of choice that provides telecommunication services that include teleconferencing facilities, both post and pre-paid calling cards, provision of fiber optic networks and long distance telecommunication facilities to their customers. Mission The company's mission has been to ensure that employees' strengths are utilized as a means of ensuring future success of the company's business activities. Background Qwest International Company is a public telecommunications company that provides services such as wireless services, video and internet services as well as short and long distance communications to both individual and wholesale consumers. It has achieved its objective in conjunction with other players such as Verizon wireless and Direct Television. The company is also involved in sub letting of properties such as warehouses and offices. Its headquarter are located in Denver, Colorado but operations are well spread out to over fourteen states in the United States some of which are South Dakota, Oregon, Wyoming, Minnesota, Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, New Mexico, Nebraska, Utatah and Montana. The company is headed by a Chief Executive Officer by name Edward Mueller who also serves as the chairman to the Board of Directors of the company, and under him are over 38,000 employees. These employees are involved in provision of services that are world class in nature. Qwest International Company has been listed in the stock exchange and with a symbol of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE): Q and revenue of over $13.8 billion in the financial year 2007 (Handley 264). Literature review Products & services Qwest Communications International specializes in three major areas of service provision the

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Entrepreneurial Competencies And Business Performance Commerce Essay

Entrepreneurial Competencies And Business Performance Commerce Essay Entrepreneurship is an independent activity carried out at ones own risk, aimed at gaining regular profit from the use of property, sale of goods, performing works or services by persons registered in the manner prescribed by law (Peters, 2006). Entrepreneurship is an essential attribute of a market economy, penetrating all its institutions. Establishment (starting) of a business entity a legal entity, as well as corporate rights ownership are not business activities, except cases provided by law. An English professor Alan Hosking states that an individual entrepreneur is a person, who runs a business at his own expense, personally manages the business, is personally responsible for providing the necessary means, and makes decisions independently. His reward is a profit received as a result of business activity, and satisfaction he feels from running a free business (Rowley, 2010). But along with this, he also has to take the risk of losses in case of bankruptcy of his company. There is no generally accepted economic theory of entrepreneurship, although the need for such a theory has long been very urgent. The development of scientific understanding of the practice of entrepreneurship could be roughly called the three waves of development of the theory of business function. The first wave, which dates back to the 18th century, was associated with concentrating on the risks of an entrepreneur. The second wave in the scientific understanding of the entrepreneurship is associated with determination of innovation as its main feature. The third wave is specific for the focus on the particular personal qualities of the entrepreneur (the ability to react to changes in economic and social situation, independence in choosing and decision-making, management skills) and the role of entrepreneurship as a regulating principle in the balancing of eco system (Peters, 2006). The current stage of development of the theory of business function can be attributed to the fourth wave, the emergence of which is associated with the focus on the management aspect in the analysis of actions of the entrepreneur, and therefore on the interdisciplinary level of analysis of business problems. Currently, theoretical studies pay attention not only to entrepreneurship as a way of running business on the independent basis, but also to internal entrepreneurship, or intrapreneurship (Pinchot, 2000). The emergence of intrapreneurship is associated with the factor that many large industrial structures overtake the entrepreneurial form of organization of production. Since entrepreneurship implies the compulsory right for creative freedom, the units of integrated production structures get the right for the freedom of action, which implies the existence of intracapital the capital necessary for the implementation of the ideas lying in the base of the intra-company entrepreneurship (Pinchot, 2000; Teece, 2009). Entrepreneurship is a specific kind of economic activity (by which we mean a purposeful activity aimed at profit-making), which is based on self-initiative, responsibility and innovative entrepreneurial idea. Entrepreneurship is characterized by the presence of innovative moment whether it be manufacturing of a new product, change of the profile of activity or establishment of a new enterprise. The new system of production and quality management, introducing new methods of organizing production or new technologies are also innovative moments (Jones, 2003). Entrepreneurship represents a specific type of economic activity, since its initial stage is connected, as a rule, only with the idea the result of intellectual activity consequently gaining the materialized form. 1.2. Small and Medium Sized Enterprise The classification of small and medium-sized enterprises is usually based on the recommendations of the EU Commission of 3 April 1996, which suggests the following parameters (Jeppesen, 2005): Small and medium enterprises are the enterprises having less than 250 employees; or having an annual turnover of no more than ECU 40 million; or have a total annual balance sheet not exceeding ECU 27 million; satisfy the criterion of independence. A small business is defined as an enterprise which has less than 50 employees; or has an annual turnover not exceeding ECU 7 million; or has a total annual balance sheet not exceeding ECU 5 million; satisfies the criterion of independence. If a company initially operating as a small (medium) business within two years exceeds the criterion for the number of employees or capital structure, it loses its status as a small (medium) enterprise (Jeppesen, 2005). Modern socio-economic situation in the world is characterized by (Jones, 2003): Globalization of production and markets, high rates of technological development and modernization, increasing share of high-tech products in the market; Short life cycles, high degree of diversification of products and services, sharp fluctuations of demand for different types of products; Increasing value of intangible production, creative capital and knowledge economy in the global economy; Limited material resources and increasing requirements for environmental friendliness and safety of products; Increased demands for quality of goods and services, introduction of unified international quality standards. In these circumstances, SMEs are more flexible in responding to constantly changing market conditions, providing high efficiency of investment. As the engine of innovation, small firms provide a rapid generation of new jobs and self-employment of population when employment in traditional fields falls, thus weakening the social tension in depressed regions. Increase of the number of economically active citizens helps establish civic awareness of the population, increases creativity and willingness of society to social partnership, reduces the budget social loading, increasing opportunities to invest in development (Bhat, 2004; Jeppesen, 2005; Jones, 2003, Pinchot, 2000). Small Medium Entrepreneurship is the basis of a stable civil society. SMEs not only play a huge social role in supporting the economic activity of most of the population, but also provide significant tax revenue. In the current difficult situation, it is the SMEs that can act as a stabilizer, and therefore are worth the appropriate attention of society and government (Peters, 2006). World experience shows that if the state wants to develop dynamically and steadily, its socio-economic programs should always include measures to encourage small and medium businesses. Today, in developed countries, SMEs provide 40% to 90% of the gross domestic product (GDP) (Jeppesen, 2005). And so, it is natural that the governments of these states give priority to support the sector, providing high guarantees of private property preservation, broad economic independence and freedom of action, support of fair competition and anti-monopolistic activities, preferential loans and financing, substantial assistance in investment. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are recognized as an important part of the world economy and its economic structure, increasing flexibility, adaptability, enhancing stability at the expense of attracting new workers. The growing importance of small and medium-sized enterprises in industrial development, exports and employment is proved by the data of the labor force participation rates of non-agricultural SMEs (China 84.3%, Hong Kong 63.0% Indonesia 79.2%, Republic of Korea -78.5% Mexico 58.5%, Philippines 32,0%, Taiwan 68,6%, Thailand 73.8%) (Jeppesen, 2005). In the 90s, it was typical for TNCs to use the form of small business to expand their production and marketing networks. Such involvement of small enterprises is determined, above all, by the extent of their distribution. Small business is a kind of an antipode to orientation on a standardized large-scale production, which certainly played a role in the 50s and 70s creating in developed countries the basis for their welfare (Peters, 2006). The decisive role in the reassessment of SMEs was played by shifts in the socio-economic structure of developed countries, the change of orientation in consumer attitudes, motivation of labor. A differentiated point demand started to form. Individualization of consumption has changed the paradigms of service provision, stipulated the emergence of small flexible units able to rapidly respond to consumer demand (Bhat, 2004). Partial modernization that helped SMEs to fix in the world economic structure, and most importantly, rapidly changing consumer demand have created a new principle of production and sales, named customization. Its meaning is the orientation of manufacturer to the universal satisfaction of buyers requests, constant appeasing of consumer, and his binding to manufacturer. So the increase in the number of SMEs and their forms are directly dependent on industrial policy in general: small businesses are closely related to large ones, which updates the SMEs. Governments of the newly industrialized countries have managed to create competitive conditions in the economy, despite the strong position of major national conglomerates. Achieving a critical mass of SMEs in the national economy may be a factor of self-sustaining growth. 2. Entrepreneurial Competencies and SME Performance In the study The competitiveness of small and medium enterprises. A conceptualization with focus on entrepreneurial competencies, Man, Lau and Chan (2002) developed and analyzed a conceptual model describing the relationship between the specific characteristics of SMEs owners and their companies effectiveness. The presented pattern is built out of four concepts competitive scope, organizational capabilities, entrepreneurial competencies and firm performance, which will be analyzed in further subsections. Fig.4. A multi-dimensional construct of SME competitiveness Source: Model of (Man et al, 2002), The competitiveness of small and medium enterprises: A conceptualization with focus on entrepreneurial competences. 2.1. Competitive scope The competitiveness of the enterprise is a relative feature that expresses the difference between the development of the company from the development of competitive firms in the degree of satisfaction of peoples needs and in the efficiency of production. The competitiveness describes the capabilities and dynamics of the companys adaptation to the conditions of market competition. The competitiveness of the enterprise depends on several factors: the competitiveness of goods in a domestic and foreign markets, type of goods produced, market capacity (number of annual sales), simplicity of market access, homogeneity of market, competitive position of companies already operating in the market, competitiveness of the industry, ability of technological innovation in the industry, competitiveness of the region and country (Man 2002; Jeppesen, 2005; Jones 2003). As the world practice of market relations shows, the general principles that provide a competitive advantage to producers are (Jeppesen, 2005; Jones 2003): -Aim of each employee to act, to continue the job once it started. -Closeness to the customer. -Establishment of autonomy and creative atmosphere at the company. -Increased productivity through the use of peoples abilities and their desire to work. -Demonstrating the importance of common values. -Ability to hold ones ground. -Simple organization, minimum of management levels and personnel. -Ability to be both soft and hard. Keep the most important issues tightly controlled and pass less important ones to subordinates. The competitiveness of product and competitiveness of manufacturer relate to each other as part and whole. Companys ability to compete on a certain commodity market is directly dependent on the competitiveness of goods and the range of economic methods of the enterprise, impacting the results of competition. In the entrepreneur-consumer relations, the consumer acts as an indicator of the business process. The entrepreneur, in planning and organizing his activities cannot ignore consumers interests, expectations, and estimates. However, this situation does not mean that the entrepreneur is obliged to act only in strict accordance with the identified interests of consumers. He himself can form consumer demand and create new shopping needs. Thus, the entrepreneurs aim is the necessity to win consumers, to create his own range of consumers. The main means of entrepreneurs influence on consumer are the following factors (Jones, 2003): à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ novelty of the product and its compliance with consumer interests; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ quality; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ price, availability of goods; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ degree of universality of goods; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ presentation and packaging; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ positive characteristics differing the goods from other producers; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ access to after-sales services; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ conformity with generally accepted or government standards; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ prestige and attractiveness of advertisement, etc. Competition is an adversary activity between producers for the most profitable markets. The competition serves as a motivational force that compels manufacturers to improve product quality, reduce production costs, and increase productivity. Market competition and competition of countries they are located in have a mutual influence. At the heart of these main aspects of competitiveness is something that can be called soft components of competition, which cannot be evaluated in monetary terms and are difficult to quantify. In the industrialized countries, these components are usually more important than in developing countries. At the same time, soft components cannot be politically manipulated, and changing them requires more time than, for example, increasing productivity or building infrastructure. Despite the lack of developed methods of study, this group of factors of competition cannot be ignored. They include the following (Pinchot, 2000; Man 2002; Steenkamp 2010): work ethics, flexibility and willingness to self-improvement, willingness to work in the service sector, level of claims, openness to the outside world, labour mobility, spirit of competition. 2.2. Organizational capabilities Obviously, the stock market is ready to appreciate the value of some businesses higher, while the value of these estimates exceed than the indicators that reflect the real results of their activities. The gap between market and balance value of equity can be explained by the influence of those resources that are not included in the balance. These resources can justify the high market valuation only in the future when they start to work effectively, providing the company a substantial increase in profits. Such expectations are largely associated with intangible organizational capabilities (Man, 2002). Considering organizational capabilities as dynamic units, D. Teece (2009) defines them as the possibility of firms to integrate, build and reconfigure internal and external competencies in response to rapid environmental change. In fact, we are talking about controlling processes, which occur at all organizational levels of the enterprise. These processes in turn can be regarded as taking place in the time sequence of actions to meet the challenges. Each process can be controlled good or bad. Quality of control depends on the organizational capabilities of the enterprise. Dynamic capabilities of an enterprise can be narrowed to controlling three types of processes integration, reconfiguration, and training (Teece, 2009). The purpose of the integration process is to ensure efficient and effective coordination of resources. Moreover, these processes are the re-treatment of the already known tasks. Therefore, organizational capabilities, associated with the control over the integration processes, can be characterized as the replication capacity. Numerous case studies indicate the presence of a positive relationship between replication capability of the enterprise and the growth of business. The ability to control reconfiguration processes can be described as the ability to recognize the need of reconfiguring the structure of corporate assets and carry out the necessary internal and external transformation. This requires continuous monitoring of markets and technologies and the willingness to use the best practical experience. Reconfiguration processes lead to broad changes in the resource equipment of the enterprise (Bhat, 2004). The organizational capability to control the learning process includes the processes which through repetition and experimentation are helping to solve problems better and faster. It also allows the entrepreneur to identify new industrial opportunities. These organizational capabilities are seen as an important part of the replication and reconfiguration ability of the enterprise and are effectively expressed in them (Pinchot, 2000; Teece, 2009). D. Teece (2009) also distinguishes two types of training analytic (learning before doing) and experimental (doing before learning). Consolidation of organizational capabilities in the enterprise is the important factor in the calculations on the extended growth of the company, which requires the right balance between exploitation of existing and new capabilities. The essence of exploitation is to improve and expand existing skills and experiment with new alternatives (Steenkamp, 2010). Thus, the excess of market value of the enterprise over the balance value is due to the influence of its intangible resources, particularly organizational skills. Following the approach described by Man and Lau (2002), the potential organizational capabilities include innovative ability, ability to maintain or achieve high quality; cost effectiveness; and organicity as the ability to create organic organizational structures. The better the company codifies and transfers the knowledge of the staff, the higher is its efficiency, and thus the market value of the company. Generally, the market value of the enterprise grows, if it is well controlled processes of abstraction and absorption of knowledge and skills. 2.3. Entrepreneurial competencies The main economic goals of the SMEs in the market conditions are improving production efficiency, profit maximization, conquest of new markets and meeting the needs of the team. However, with the growing of influence of economic risk factors, there appear the advantages of free pricing, the possibilities of self-selection of suppliers and consumers. Entrepreneurship as a process is a complex chain of targeted actions of entrepreneurs, possessing certain entrepreneurial competencies (Table 1), since the inception of entrepreneurial ideas and ending with their embodiment in specific business projects. Table 1 showing Entrepreneurial competencies, their behavioral focus and preliminary elements. Adapted from (Thi, 2009) This process requires large expenditures of all factors of production, it is often doomed to a temporary setback, but eventually the entrepreneur is satisfied with the income. Consequently, entrepreneurship as a process involves the search for new creative ideas, their analysis and evaluation from the perspective of market needs and economic benefits, the formation of goals to implement the ideas, turning ideas into a new enterprise, the development of new products, improvement of the production organization, i.e. in implementing and translating ideas into concrete results (product, technology, services, etc.), bringing the entrepreneur the profit (Rowley, 2010; Steenkamp, 2010). Development and implementation of enterprise strategy consists in managing the economy at the micro level (Steenkamp, 2010), which requires the construction of an appropriate system that performs the following functions: directing (justification of goals and choice of ways of achieve them); coordinating (balancing of the major resource constraints and coordination of conflicting interests of all participants of production process); stimulating (activation of the driving forces of development). Experience shows that with the complexity of implementation of all tasks, one of the most difficult to implement is the last of these functions. It aims to motivate the employee to the success of the common business and the realization of his abilities and opportunities. Typically, traditional methods help to solve such a problem in practice only partially. According to experts (Jones, 2003; Bhat, 2004; Man, 2002; Rowley, 2010), most national economies now use less than a half of the creative potential of its employees (and this is obviously one of the root causes of the current crisis situation). Therefore, the way out of the deadlock should be sought in the motivation of people, in the first place, that is, in the sphere of interaction of their interests and benefits. But this requires a clear understanding of the composition and structure of economic interests in a managed team, it requires knowing and taking into account the interests not only common to the whole enterprise, but also the specific ones those of teams units (primary, ancillary, administrative, etc.), as well as of different categories of workers (by gender, age, skill level, etc.). The internal mechanism of economic management, the mechanism of stimulation and motivation cannot operate without such knowledge (Bhat, 2004). However, the external outline is equally important the mechanism of interaction between enterprises with different agents and contractors, partners and competitors in the region, country and abroad. This mechanism is even more complicated because of its novelty and the set of largely unfamiliar requirements introduced today by the market. The development of the models of behavior of enterprises with entities of external outline of relationship requires continuous analysis monitoring tracking the status of the external outline and timely identifying the emerging problems. First and foremost, it is the problem of marketing. Thus, the tasks mentioned above can be divided into two levels: macroeconomic (development of rules of the game by public authorities) and microeconomic (direct adaptation of concrete businesses to the new conditions of production and consumption of goods). According to the conceptualized model of the authors (Man, 2002), Strategic and commitment competencies, competitive scope, and organizational capabilities will positively influence the performance of an SME through their interactive effect. 2.4. Firm performance Firm performance or efficiency is the most important qualitative characteristics of management at all levels. It is a measure of production activity on the distribution and processing of various resources (tangible and intangible) (Man, 2002; Peters, 2006; Phusavat, 2007). Performance can be measured through the coefficient the ratio of results at the output of the resources and at their entrance. The problem of performance is in general is not new; it exists in varying interpretation from the period of appearance of material production and reflects the relationship of production relations of a particular type of production. Under the conditions of market relations, when the results of one market actors depend on the clarity and coherence of other actors, the problem of efficiency is a decisive one. The system of performance indicators should provide a comprehensive assessment of the usage of all enterprise resources and contain all the general economic indicators. General indicators primarily reflect the final results of production and implementation of strategic tasks. Functional indicators are used to analyze and identify the effectiveness of reserves, eliminate bottlenecks in production. As a multidimensional phenomenon, performance can be measured by the following 4 groups of indicators (Phusavat, 2007): 1. General indicators of economic efficiency (the rate of output growth, overall profitability and its growth, etc.); 2. Labor efficiency indicators (growth rate of labor productivity, share of growth in output as a result of productivity growth, etc.); 3. Indicators of fixed assets, operating assets and capital investments (capital productivity ratio, growth of operating assets to the growth of commodity output, the relative savings of production capital funds, working capital turnover, payback period of capital investment, etc.); 4. Performance indicators of material resources (relative savings of material costs, decrease of specific consumption of materials, etc.). Table 2 showing mostly used financial performance measures Source: taken from the research of (Thi, 2009) Table 3 showing financial and nonfinancial measures The provided indicators reflect the combined result of entrepreneurial activity. They are aggregated by many factors and may, in fact, be called generalizing. However, entrepreneurship includes a number of relatively independent activities: industrial, financial, commercial, communication, each of which has a direct impact on the results and thus, largely determines the performance of the entire business system. Each activity creates its own results, calculated in the indicators, reflecting the performance of individual business subsystems. If for evaluating the performance of the financial subsystem it is possible to use a set of indicators and parameters such as income from operations, cost of sales, net income excluding share of profit of associated companies, net tax before taxation and others, for a subsystem like the manufacturing one it is appropriate to suggest the following additional indicators (Peters, 2006; Phusavat, 2007): à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ production efficiency calculated by the type of resource output; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ labor productivity; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ profitability; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ measure of the effectiveness of industrial relations; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ system of indicators reflecting the efficiency of production management; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ indicator of the efficiency of HR management; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ system of indicators characterizing the efficiency of use of production and marketing information and others. The effectiveness of commercial subsystems can be assessed using ratios that make up the volume of product sales and expenses for the organization of its marketing and promotion, as well as indicators expressing coherence, interdependence and complementarity of the various elements of supply chain: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ indicator of the effectiveness of various sales channels, marketing systems, and intermediaries; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ system of indicators reflecting the effectiveness of sales network; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ index of reliability of intermediaries selection; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ system of indicators reflecting the effectiveness of sales and marketing information; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ indicators of the extent to which supply chain goals comply with objectives of marketing; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ duration of the implementation period (in relation to the cost of the marketing); à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ indicator of the relative value of the profit in the total turnover. Speaking separately on the effectiveness of communication subsystem, it must be emphasized that it is, in this case, not the whole system of market communication (effectiveness of various communication links is evaluated in different subsystems), but the communication between producer and consumer. This subsystem can use the following additional performance indicators (Steenkamp, 2010): à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ effectiveness of advertising (economic and socio-psychological); à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ effectiveness of sales promotion; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ system of indicators of exhibitions; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ effectiveness of use of various means of advertising influence à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ effectiveness of motivation study; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ system of indicators that reflect the information components; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ effective use of tools for creating public opinion about the company and its products. The index image of the enterprise deserves special attention. It can be used as an indicator of the result not only in the communicative subsystems, but in some cases and in relation to the entire system of entrepreneurship. For example, if a business entity is guided by the concept of socio-economic marketing and suggests operating in the long run, it can build target settings based on the need to strengthen consumers trust, to acquire the necessary social status and public recognition. In this case, the assessment of its performance can be performed through the characteristics that reflect its image (Steenkamp, 2010; Bhat, 2004; Man, 2002). The disadvantage of such assessment is unavoidable conventionality of the resulting indicators obtained with the help of the expert method. It can be reduced by the full use of norms and rules pertaining to expert modeling. In general, business performance can be evaluated not only by the size of the profit, but also by changes of the market value of the enterprise. The economic efficiency of production refers to the degree of utilization of productive capacities, which is indicated by the relation of the results and costs of social production. The higher result at the same cost, the faster it grows in the calculation per unit of socially necessary labor cost, or the less the cost per unit of useful effect, the higher is the production efficiency. The generalized criterion of economic efficiency of social production is the level of labor productivity.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Free Essays - A Difference in Values in The Good Earth :: Earth

A Difference in Values   The House of Wang Lung rose in one generation from a family of poor farmers to a wealthy respected house in the novel The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. The dramatic change in social status causes the sons of Wang Lung to have different views and values from their father. His different treatment of each son also shapes each character. Although part of the same family the charachters demonstrate a difference in values. The father values the land, the youngest son values regognition, the middle son values wealth, and the eldest son values respect.   As a result of his impoverished upbringing, Wang Lung values the land more than anything else. His obsession with the land causes him to neglect his family. The youngest son receives no attention and Wang Lung's plan to have him work the land disturbs him and makes him feel like a peasant. He feels that he has to prove that he is as great as his brothers and leaves the family to join the army. The middle son watches as his inheritance passes from his father's hand into the hand of his eldest son, and complains that his share is always too small. He wants to save the families money. The eldest son receives more attention and is given more than the other two sons and wants to be respected as a great family.      The eldest son receives more attention and is given more than the other two sons and wants to be respected as a great family. Wang Lung is proud of his first born son, Nung En, and gives him more than his other two sons. One example is when Wang Lung becomes distressed because he cannot read the contracts he is signing and does not want to sign a bad deal. He hopes that sending the elder son to school to learn how to read will solve this problem. The elder son is no longer needed in the fields, because Wang Lung can now afford men to work the land. However, he ignores sending his other children to school until later.   The eldest son's greatest desire is to have his family viewed as a great house. His wife, the daughter of the grain merchant Lui, Boggs 2 grew up in a rich house, she is accustomed to wealth and respect from others, and contributes to her husband's desire. He takes Wang Lung's silver bit by bit to mend up the old House of Hwang.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Point of View Essay

The speaker of the story, who speaks as a first-person narrator, is not named. We may conclude that he has had a good deal of experience with small boats, and with the language of sailors. His concentration shifts in the course of the story. At first, he seems to be aware of all four men on the boat, collectively, and he makes observations that permit us to understand the ideas and responses of the men, who are linked in a virtual â€Å"brotherhood† because of their having been stranded on a tiny boat amid the high waves that are menacing their existence (paragraph 9). At about paragraph 49, however, the speaker shifts his concentration primarily to the correspondent, while he describes the other men more dramatically. Might we assume that at this point, Crane is merging the speaker of the story with his own voice, as nearly as we can determine it? Throughout, the speaker introduces some of his own ideas, and also, at times, speaks ironically. This accounts for some of the more humorous expressions in the story. Thus, the speaker comments wryly that the men, while rushing from the sinking ship to save themselves, â€Å"had forgotten to eat heartily† and therefore were now being weakened with hunger (paragraph 49). The speaker is in control of the tone of his descriptions, as when he points out that the human back, to a rower, is subject to innumerable and painful kinks and knots (paragraph 82). The speaker is also observant and philosophical, as when he comments that the four men at sea need to turn their heads to contemplate the â€Å"lonely and indifferent shore† (paragraph 206). The story’s final sentence, about the fact that the three surviving men can be â€Å"interpreters,† is suggestive of a good deal of thought and observation that could lead beyond the content of the story. Though the point of view is third-person limited-omniscient, Crane’s merging of his thoughts with the narrator’s would not be as effective, not as dramatic, or objective, for it is this third-person distance that Crane feels would be most suitable for his idea that men are insignificant compared to the forces of nature, or nature itself. The point is driven home well with his particular point of view: another or different point of view would cloud his message and obscure his central theme: a different point of view would be too emotional, too fraught with survivability. The white heron is told from a third-person omniscient point-of-view, one that is aware of both Sylvia’s hopes and aspirations, and the hardships that she will encounter as she strives to achieve them. The constancy of the tree is noted from the very beginning with Sylvia’s recognition that â€Å"[in the] dark boughs [of the tree]†¦ he wind always, stirred, no matter how hot and still the air might be below†¦ † It is from this stillness that Sylvia begins her journey â€Å"with tingling eager blood† and apprehension of the point at which she must make â€Å"the dangerous pass from one tree to the other, [when] the great enterprise would really begin. † This image of making the transition from a smaller tree to a larger more dangerous one is a symbol of Sylvia leaving the realm of her early childhood to begin facing the challenges of becoming an adult. At first, â€Å"Sylvia felt her way uneasily,† but as she crosses trees and feels the support of the old pine, she becomes â€Å"his new dependent. † The pine is likened to â€Å"a great main mast to voyaging earth,† a simile which is followed by the author’s personification of the way in which it â€Å"h [olds] away the winds† to protect the â€Å"solitary gray-eyed child† just as a father would do. The narrative pace of the passage varies from being restrained and held back as Sylvia prepares for her adventure, to increasing in speed slightly once she changes trees, to finally reaching a climax once she reaches the top. It is this fast progression from her climbing and feelings of support from the tree to this climactic awakening that aids in communicating the true extent of Sylvia’s growth. The â€Å"spark of human spirit† that the tree’s â€Å"ponderous frame† helps to lift to the top quickly easily becomes â€Å"a pale star,† trembling and tired, but wholly triumphant. † Bierce tells â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge† in three parts. Part I is in objective third-person point of view except for the last three paragraphs. In objective third-person narration, the storyteller observes events but cannot enter the mind of any character and disclose his or her thoughts. In the last three paragraphs of the Part I, the narration shifts to omniscient (all-knowing) third-person point of view in relation to Peyton Farquhar. This shift enables Bierce to take the reader inside Farquhar’s mind to demonstrate how emotional upheaval alters not only the way the mind interprets reality but also the way it perceives the passage of time. First, Farquhar mistakes the ticking of his watch for the tolling of a bell or the ring of an anvil struck by a hammer. Then, after Farquhar drops from the bridge at the moment of execution, he perceives a single second as lasting hours.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Ode to Autumn

ODE TO AUTUMN John Keats This poem, an ode, is the last of Keats’ odes. In it, the poet exhibits a rich mood of serenity by describing autumn as a season of mellow fruitfulness – a season of ripeness and fulfillment. This ode is known for its remarkable sensuous beauty that is crafted by employment of several visual, tactile and auditory imageries together with the personification of autumn as a woman engaged in various autumnal activities. In the first stanza, the poet has described the bounty of autumn. It is the season of mists and the ripening of fruit. Autumn and the sun work together for the ripening of all kinds of fruits.The vines running round the edges of the thatch and apple trees growing in the cottage garden are weighed down with fruits. Their fruits are ripening during autumn. Besides the gourds are becoming larger and the hazel nuts are being filled with sweet kernels. For the bees, it appears as if there is no end to their happy days – summer â₠¬â€œ as there are some later flowers still blooming in autumn, providing honey to them, even if their sticky combs are over-brimmed. The beautiful word pictures and various visual and tactile imageries make the stanza a well-crafted one.In the second stanza, the poet moves from the country cottage to the outside field and describes various activities associated with autumn. He does it by employing personification that one almost visualizes these activities. It is the season of harvest and since most of the harvest works are performed by women, autumn is described as a woman. First, it is seen as a woman doing the work of winnowing. Secondly, one may see it as a reaper, asleep in the half-finished furrow of crops. Thirdly, it may be seen as a gleaner, keeping her corn-burdened head steady as she crosses a brook.Finally, autumn may be seen as a woman standing patiently beside a cider-press for the last drops of apple juice. Unlike the first stanza where autumn was bustling with activi ties, Autumn is found static in suspended activity or arrested motion in the second stanza and the readers are invited to move from one scene to another in search of Autumn. In the final stanza, the poet appears to be overwhelmed by a pessimistic idea and asks about the sweet music of spring which is absent in autumn. However, he immediately rectifies himself and says there is nothing to worry about the songs of spring as autumn too has its own music.He then lists the various sounds of autumn which are generally heard in the evening time. The mourning of the gnats, the loud bleating of the full-grown lambs, the singing of the hedge-crickets, the whistling of the red-breast and the twittering of the swallows are the prominent sounds that the poem deals with. Thus, the third stanza is about the music of autumn and the imagery is auditory. If in the first stanza, the positive side of autumn as the handmaid of summer is stressed, here the season is hailed as the prelude to winter.The th eme of the poem is a delighted, sensuous enjoyment of the rich and mature beauty of autumn season. The poet’s imaginative response to the beauty of autumn appears in a series of pictorial personifications of the season. The course of autumn traced in the poem is not restricted to autumn. The movement of the poem from fruition to harvest, from satisfaction to ending epitomizes the very process of life. Even sadness is seen in its true perspective as inseparable from and part and parcel of the complete process. The poem is an acceptance of the beauty and the pain in life, and an affirmation of its dignity. Thou hast thy music too’, is a relevant reminder that each one has his own talent and should attain contentment in life. Extracts: a) Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun Conspiring with him how to load and bless. i) Why does the poet address ‘autumn’ as the ‘season of mists and mellow fruit-fullness? Ans. T he poet addresses ‘autumn’ as the season of mists as during this season, we can see mists on the open fields and on the other wet places in the mornings and evenings. He calls it a season of mellow fruitfulness because it’s during autumn that the fruits are in the process of ripening. i) How is ‘autumn’ a close bosom-friend of the maturing sun? Ans. Autumn is a close friend of the maturing sun as both of them together help the fruits to ripen to the core. iii) What do the close friends conspire? Ans. The two close friends, autumn and the sun conspire to load and bless the vines and apple trees with fruits, to swell the gourds, to plump the hazel shells with sweet kernels and to help bloom some more flowers. b) And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease. i) What does the poet mean by the ‘later flowers’? Ans.By the ‘later flowers’, the poet means to convey that flowering does not s top immediately after summer; in fact it continues though the number gets reduced. These are known as later flowers. ii) What makes the bees feel that warm days will never cease? Ans. The presence of later flowers and availability of honey for the bees makes them feel that the warm days shall never cease. iii) Describe the bee hives. Ans. The bees have collected a lot of honey during summer, yet the presence of the later flowers makes them collect more and add it to their collection which is now over-filled in their sticky cells. ) Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; i) Who or what is being talked of here? Ans. ‘Autumn’ is being talked of here. ii) What is the poetic device employed here and what is its effect? Ans. The poetic device employed here is personification as ‘autumn’ is being described as a woman engaged in various harvest related activities. iii) Why is she seen sitting carelessly on the granary floor? What activity was she involved in? Ans. She can be seen sitting carelessly on the granary floor as she was engaged in winnowing work, i. e. eparating the chaff from the corn and she is sitting carelessly because she is not worried as the harvest has been very good. It is picture of fulfillment or contentment. iv) Mention at least two more places she can be seen. Also mention in what condition she can be seen at these places. Ans. She can be seen in a sleeping posture, as she had been induced to sleep by the intoxicating smell of the poppies growing in the field along with the corn, in a half-reaped furrow while her sickle spares the next swath. She can also be seen as a gleaner, crossing a brook and keeping her head steady.She can be seen sitting patiently at a cider-press and watching for the last drops of apple juice trickling down from the press. d) Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, — i) Who is being addressed here? Ans. Autumn is being addressed here. ii) This line is the answer to a question asked by the poet. What is the question? Ans. The question is: ‘Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they? iii) What is being referred to as ‘them’ here and why should the addressee not think of them? Ans. ‘The songs of spring’ is being referred to as ‘them’ here and the addressee, i. . autumn should not think of them as it is useless to think of the past. It’s rather wise to live in the present. Besides, autumn has its own music too. iv) Name a few sources of music associated with the addressee. Ans. The mourning of the gnats, the loud bleats of the full-grown lambs, the songs of the hedge-crickets, the whistles of the red-breast and the twittering of the swallows are the prominent sounds associated with the addressee, autumn. e) ‘Where are the songs of the Spring! Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue†¦ ’ i) Name the poet and the poem. Ans. The poet is ‘John Keats’ and the poem is ‘Ode to Autumn’. ii) Who is being referred to as ‘thou’? Ans. Autumn is being referred to as ‘thou’. iii) What does the poet mean when he says ‘songs of spring’? Ans. By the songs of spring the poet refers to the joy and exuberance of spring season. iv) What image is conjured up with ‘stubble plains’? Ans. The grain has been harvested and only the short, dry stalks remain like the stubble of hair on the face.