The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst

The Scarlet Ibis is a short story by James Hurst weaving the tragic tale of Doodle, a disabled child and his brother, the narrator. Doodle's life has been a series of close calls; the only reason he is alive is the love and persistence – and occasional cruelty – of his brother. Brother's only motivation is to make Doodle like other kids in order to avoid the embarrassment of having a six-year-old brother who cannot even walk, amounting to what is, in essence, a battle with his own ego.As the story continues, Brother tries to fix the irreparable hole in his heart caused by his shame and selfishness toward Doodle. Brother is constantly reminding Doodle of his own debility, bringing to light Doodle's unwillingness to participate in his brother's cold-blooded attempts to point out Doodle's mortality. When Brother makes Doodle touch the casket, he knows what to expect from Doodle. â€Å"Doodle was paralyzed, so I put him on my shoulder and carried him down the ladder, and e ven when we were outside in the sunlight, he clung to me, crying, ‘Don't leave me.Don't leave me. ‘†(486). Doodle is utterly terrified of the casket, and his brother is aware of it. By making Doodle touch the casket, he is imprinting upon Doodle that he can never be normal, that he will always be teetering on the brink of life and death, never to be able to live up to his full potential. However cruel Brother's actions may be, he still takes an interest in Doodle, purely for his self-satisfaction. â€Å"When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk, so I set out to teach him. (488) Brother teaches Doodle how to walk, but it is purely for his own conscience. Embarrassed by Doodle's condition, he tries to fix Doodle's many abnormalities, without considering Doodle's own views and feelings. The only thing that Brother wanted was a sibling with which he could play with, and the arrival of Doodle shattered his hopes . As a result, he makes Doodle pay for it on many occasions, the last of which took the life of his younger brother. â€Å"For a long, long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of the rain. (493). In the end, Brother finally realizes the effects his actions have on young Doodle. The emotional trauma of his brother abandoning him in the rain combined with his preexisting physical conditions came together in a perfect storm, bringing to light the final effects of Brother's ambition-driven actions, a simple childhood act of spite with devastating results. Throughout the story, Brother tries to show both sides of the double-edged sword that is pride. I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death. †(488) Brother's pride pushes him to give Doodle an existence away from his bed, and it is this obsession that leads to Doodle's tragic demise. Brother's pride did creat e a facsimile of real life for Doodle, but in the end, it crumbled, brought to its knees by pride and selfishness. Brother did love Doodle, but his ego overshadowed the fact the he was just trying to protect Doodle from a world that doesn't tolerate those that are different.Doodle dies sad and broken, abandoned by the one person he looked up to. Brother proves himself no better than Doodle, showing himself to be as morally destitute as Doodle is physically incapable. In the end, however, Brother realizes that Doodle could not have led the life he left without his big brother leading the way for him. Brother may have acted cruelly toward his brother, but in the end, he realizes that some things cannot be changed, no matter the amount of love and persistence.

Organizational Commitment and Communication

The American Red Cross is an organization that helps prevent human suffering during events that leads the human society while in emergency crisis. The American Red Cross has the ability to mobilize the power of volunteers as well as the generosity of donors. The reader will be given a brief description on how different leadership styles affects the group communication within the American Red Cross. The reader will also be given an analysis of the different sources of power found in the organization and how will these affect the organization communication. It is imperative that the reader also understands how the American Red Cross identifies the motivational theories that will be most effective in different cultures. Finally, a description of the commitment of the workforce to the organization and their relationship to the organizations communication will be provided. Leadership Styles and Effects At the American Red Cross there are several leadership styles that are being used. â€Å"Leader's establish direction by developing a vision of the future; then they align people by communicating this vision and inspiring them to overcome hurdles† (Robbins & Judge, 2011. Some of the main leadership styles that affects the American Red Cross are the transactional, charismatic, and transformational. The transformational leadership is the most common style for The American Red Cross. â€Å"Transformational leaders inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organization and are capable of having a profoun d and extraordinary effect on their followers† (Robbins & Judge, 2011. ) Transformational leaders tend to have more passion in everything that they do. The first step as a leader is to have a mission and a vision. Transformational leaders motivate the performance of the followers as well as understanding their strengths and weaknesses so that the leader may align the followers with tasks that will boost their performance. It is important to be a role model to the followers as this action will inspire them and make them more interested while challenging them to take a greater ownership for their work. A charismatic leader will ensure to pay attention to every person making that person feel important. At this time they are scanning the individuals to pick up their moods and their concerns. At this time the charismatic leader will be able to improve their actions and words to suit the situation. Finally, the transactional leadership plays the role in The American Red Cross as the supervisor of the organization. Every organization has to have a chain of command as well as motivation through rewards and punishments. The transactional leader is the leader that holds the followers to rules, procedures, and standards. Sources of Power There are different types of power within The American Red Cross organization. Power is seen as the ability to implementing control over an individual or a group. While everyone has power, each individual possess and utilize power in a way that it will benefit their organization’s needs. Coercive power is the power that is able to punish those who do not follow orders as requested by the leader. On the other hand using coercive power may also be used to influence the decision of that is being made by taking something away as a punishment if he or she does not follow a request that has been made. The American Red Cross uses the coercive power to ensure that their followers follow their rules and guidelines that they have in place. Expert power is the power that shows the person’s knowledge or specialized skills. Individuals will gain more power by showing a greater knowledge of the task that will be performed. The expertise power is a power that should be taken care of to make sure that the leader maintains its credibility. Also it is important to avoid any threatening of the self-esteem of subordinates to ensure any dislikes from team members against the leader creating unhappy team members. Legitimate power is the power that the leader will have when the employees believe that any orders coming from the leader is because of the leader’s position within the organization and they should be followed as requested. This power is developed through time. Communication in Relation to Motivational Theory At the American Red Cross, there are two types of motivational theories which are applied to the organization. The motivational theories are the expectancy theory and the cognitive evaluation theory. The expectancy is the proposal to a person to behave in a certain way by persuading them to select a specific behavior over others to ensure the expected results. On the other hand cognitive evaluation theory is a theory that is designed to clarify the effects of consequences. These are ways that are used to persuade individuals through awards to control desirable behavior. Workforce Commitment The American Red Cross and commitment goes hand in hand. As commitment to the individuals that they help is one of the most powerful ways that they can use to motivate the volunteer helpers to accomplish their tasks and reach the designated goal. It is imperative to at least give a pat on the back to let the individuals know that they are doing a good job and motivating them to continue to work. Being positive and providing the employees or volunteers with positive feedback can help the organization go along ways? As the mission statement of the American Red Cross states, â€Å"The American Red Cross empowers ordinary people to perform extraordinary acts of service. † (American National Red Cross, 2013) The American Red Cross has been a successful organization that will use the power of volunteers to help those that are in need. The transactional, charismatic, and transformational leadership’s styles have an effect on the group communication of the American Red Cross. The leadership styles and the sources of power work hand in hand to ensure that the organization is meeting all of their goals as well as ensuring that the volunteers are on tasks and in a good working environment. The motivational theories are just a way to ensure that the volunteers and employees are committed to the workforce. The American Red Cross is a well-established organization and as long as they follow all of the above this organization will continue to be very successful in anything that they set their minds to do.

QVC Vision Statement

External forces of competition affect all companies and the television shopping industry is no different. There are many forces than can be grouped into a few categories: economic, socio-cultural, technological, and political-legal. These forces have had a major impact on the television shopping industry. QVC’s ability to understand their environment and adapt have helped them achieve success. Under economic forces, competition is a major component. The barrier for entry is low, so there is always the threat of new businesses.Substitute products also directly compete with QVC’s products and customer dollars. Other potent forces are changes in the supply chain. QVC must constantly be on the lookout for new products, while maintaining good relations and contracts with existing suppliers. The rate of growth of the economy will affect consumer spending which directly relates to QVC’s goods sold. Inflation is always relevant and can cut into a company’s bottom line. Socio-cultural forces are extremely important to QVC and the television shopping industry.Consumer preference and trends are vital to a company trying to meet the needs of its customers. QVC has adapted to recent trends by promoting its cosmetics, apparel, food, and toys heavily. QVC also has to consider what will attract customers to their channel. They incorporated the reality T. V. craze into their programming and it helped attract viewers and customers. QVC’s in-show appearance of designers has capitalized on designer’s current popularity.Other forces like growing health consciousness, and changing household composition, will be important factors for QVC as they try to understand their customers and improve their shopping experience. Technological forces are important to the television shopping industry for many reasons. In the internal environment, new technology can help improve infrastructure, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. The consumer’s con venience of purchase is crucial to people who shop off of their couches. Harnessing new technology will also help QVC stay in touch with the customer.With the evolution of mobile browsing, social media, and other media outlets, these forces represent a large opportunity to communicate with customers. Technological forces are also important to the shopping industry because firms will look to stay up-to-date on the latest products. If QVC can identify the next iPod-like product then they will reap the benefits of a massive consumer response. Finally, political-legal forces represent laws and regulations to the television shopping industry.There will always be laws and regulations in place that affect the manner in which a company does business. From QVC’s standpoint, they might need to follow certain protocol when describing payment options, or product specifications. Industry regulations are generally in position to protect the customer, which aligns well with QVC’s no hidden fees policy. QVC’s honesty with their customers will bolster their reputation and help them operate well within the guidelines set by the government.

Case study - The Virgin- The global enterpreneur Essay

Case study - The Virgin- The global enterpreneur - Essay Example Virgin Galactic could essentially pursue investment and growth under the Directional Policy Matrix. This implies a high business strength and high industry attractiveness. The ultimate goal and objective Virgin Galactic is highly creative and innovative. Suborbital space business is yet to realize the start of its exploitation. The company has identified the underlying business opportunity, and can move swiftly to exploit the market before numerous entries are made. To do this, Virgin Galactic has to make substantial investments in the project as it continues to pursue its growth strategies. The investment and growth factor would require that Virgin Galactic rank high and strong in long-term market attractiveness and SBU strength respectively. In this respect, market size and market share are critical factors to consider. The passenger service line that Virgin Galactic is persistently pursuing is an extremely expensive investment. In order to maintain a favourable business portfolio, investment returns from the project would also be expected to be high (Shahi & Greco, 2008, p.81). As a result, the target market becomes the high and mighty. The implication here is that the market size and market share could be relatively small, but the returns could be substantially high. The Virgin SBU, Virgin Galactic, bases its operations in a business line that is substantially risky to invest in (Otto, 2010, p.58). On the same note, the costs involved, operational technicalities, and the underlying technological factors further limits the number of players in this business. Consequently, the market share only accounts for those consumers who can afford the passenger services once launched. Notably, the company and market potential strengthens the SBU’s operations now and in future. Moreover, the corporate parent enjoys a substantial financial resource base and competent management. As earlier noted, the market size in the spaceflights industry is relatively small.

Career Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Career Management - Essay Example According to Kossek & Roberts, self-set managing activities mainly includes acquiring knowledge about one's personality, set of connections and appreciation on successfully completion of the assignments in the course of career development within an institution. (ELLEN ERNST KOSSEK, KAREN ROBERTS, 1998) On the other hand, "organizational career management" expresses the course of action adapted by the organizations to manage the careers of its workers. As per the theories of Stump, the Organizational career management is "actions and prospects that organizations support to help guarantee they will congregate or surpass their expected human resource necessities." (ELLEN ERNST KOSSEK, KAREN ROBERTS, 1998) Stumpf also reveals in his theory that the career corridors, worker education & development, employment postings, vocation therapies, outplacement psychotherapies and mentoring are merely few measures that are usually implemented in organizational career management agendas. (STUMPF, S.A., 1988) Loads of scholars have cited the work of Arnold (1997) who in his theories had explained career management as an endeavor to influence the career development of others. ... (ARNOLD, John, 1997) There has been occurrence of elementary shifts in the management of careers however, while previously careers were managed by the organizations by way of conventional and secure progress upwards on organizationally-defined ladders on the other hand the present-day arrangement of career management focuses on attaining knowledge and proficiencies as an alternative of making headway through a preset sequence of positions. (THITE, Mohan, 2001) Acquirement of novel acquaintance and talents increase the chances of "employability," i.e. the capability for the member of staff to achieve and sustain employment, facilitating the worker to budge around what Thite had referred to as a "jungle gym" of designations. (CLARKE, Marilyn, 2007) This novel conceptual framework of career management constitutes diverse meaning for mutually, the individual and the organization, getting forward to a dual way approach towards "career management, individual career management and organizational career manageme nt." (BARUCH, Y., 2006) This paper hereby evaluates the significance of career Management as an essential component of Human Resource activities from the joint perception of the organization as well as individual employees. This paper also highlights the obstructions that are usually encountered by HR professionals in implementing the career management program in an organization in addition with the measures that could be implemented to evade these barricades. This paper provides brief opinions of a number of researchers and authors on the topic. 2. Significance of Career Management The incorporation of the career management practice in HRM permits the shifting from a scheme of administration

Construction Financial managemnt - Contracting managment Essay

Construction Financial managemnt - Contracting managment - Essay Example There are complex legal implications involved for both parties when entering a contract. There are a lot of foreign investors currently investing in Macau, as they belong to different nationalities, they do not hold adequate information about local laws of Macau. Therefore they have difficulties in entering into contacts with local businesses. The implications of entering into contracts with foreign nationals are a dilemma for local businesses as well. Adequate study into different contract practices can lead to a better understanding of business processes and difficulties faced in finalizing contracts. According to Davenport & Euher (2002), effective contract management can lead to improvements in both productivity and efficiency. Many business deals go sour because of ineffective contract management. Similarly foreign business is lost by local companies because they have slow processes of drawing out contracts. Therefore study of contract management practices can help us understand better ways of drawing out contracts that safeguard rights of local businessmen and do not drive away valuable business opportunities. Purely from the perspective of a foreign businessman research on contract management practices in Macau is invaluable. This can give them clues into what can be expected and legal implications of their actions. Effective knowledge of contract management can also give foreign businessmen a head start against competitors. The report will also recommend practices that should be adopted in the future to promote effective contract management. The aim of the research is to explore and identify the factors which are responsible for the rapid development of the contracting management in the Macau construction industry. A thoroughly review of literature and findings on the factors of the rapid development will be presented with recommendations on how to improve the implement of

How newspaper work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

How newspaper work - Essay Example The article by Michael D. Shear and Peter Baker talks of the political hullabaloo around the increase in restrictions revolving the use of firearms in America. While doing so, it also takes into account several of the problems that affect legislation in this regard. This includes the lobbying that is done by many people who are a part of the firearms industry. This article explores the legal aspects of the problem that affects many parts of the United States of America (2013). Another aspect that the article explores is that of the immediate provocation for the government to initiate these proceedings. This is the shooting that took place in Connecticut recently. This took the lives of many young people as a result of the lax laws related to the possession of firearms within America (Aarthun and Candiotti, 2012). These laws have then to be looked into in a more serious and critical way and new methods have to be found out so as to deal with these problems. The article also talks abou t the problems that the government is likely to run into with the companies that manufacture firearms. Such companies would be hit hard due to the problems associated with that of the reduction of the use of firearms (Holland, 2013). This would then lead to problems where lobbying has to be dealt with in a firm manner since lax laws have led to high rates of violence within America. (Warning shot: Gun violence lands US lowest life expectancy among rich nations, 2013). One of the most important