The Asda Effect Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Asda Effect - Assignment Example Everything changed all of a sudden as Asda found itself with demoralized employees, slow growth in sales, and declining profits in 1991. It had been a 1 billion pounds cash surplus supermarket chain in 1987, and by 1991 it had a debt of over 1 billion pounds. That was precisely the state of affairs at Asda when Archie Norman entered into the scene as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).The main reasons of the problems that Asda and Archie Norman had to face were due to complex organizational inefficiencies that they had to solve as soon as possible, right away, in order to survive, and at the same time, Asda had to become an efficient organization once again.  Ã‚   Among the different reasons behind Asda’s failures by mid-1991 were the following:   Asda as an organization with its own culture had become a bureaucratic and hierarchical institution beginning in the 1980s.   As a direct result of this rigid functioning structure in the company, any kind of innovation was stopped from being encouraged or implemented.   Without any innovation, Asda was unable to keep its competitive advantages in the retail market in the United Kingdom.   (Weber and Beer, 1998a:   p. 6).   So Asda and Archie Norman had to face the challenge of transforming the superstore in relation to its management style of doing things as well as implementing a sense of culture based on the core values of Asda.   Management and leadership had to change significantly in order to create a new productive and efficient organization.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Peace in Eastern Religions Essay Example for Free

Peace in Eastern Religions Essay All Eastern religions have their own ideas about engendering peace within individuals and society. Jainism and Buddhism insist on the protection of all life. Confucianism permits war whenever reality would not allow for absolute peace within society. Daoism, on the contrary, rejects war by almost equating tranquility with the true nature of humanity. It is reasonable, therefore, to pose the following questions: Do all people love peace? If so, why do we have to discuss the subverting of hatred? As a matter of fact, all people cannot find peace until and unless they have come to believe in certain peace-inducing thoughts, such as ahimsa of the Buddhists. All religions propose peace with their particular sets of beliefs. Followers of the religions are required to know the thoughts of their peace-loving leaders, however, before they can find absolute peace within themselves. There is no religion without knowledge, which is why a Jain must know the basic beliefs of his or her community before peace could be practiced in the form of complete nonviolence. I believe that the â€Å"inner peace† proposed by Buddhism is the most important definition of peace. This is the kind of peace that is available to all, regardless of our levels of education. Even before an individual has realized the peace-inducing thoughts of the Buddha, or another religious leader, â€Å"inner peace† is essentially available. Moreover, nonviolence is best practiced with â€Å"inner peace. † If this kind of peace is not available to an individual, he or she may find it difficult also to understand the nonviolent practices of the religion. After all, an agitated and wrathful mind would not be able to practice nonviolence in the best possible way. Despite the fact that Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism, Smith-Christopher (1998), the editor of Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions, has positioned the chapter on Buddhism before the chapter on Hinduism. This allows the reader to understand the origins of Buddhism after reflecting on the religion. Most importantly, however, the placement of the chapter on Buddhism before the chapter on its origins allows the reader to be introduced to the concept of â€Å"inner peace† earlier on. This is an indispensable form of peace without which no concept of nonviolence is possible to be understood. Seeing that the subject of the book is the practice of peace, it would have been appropriate also to place the chapter on Buddhism as the first chapter in the book – simply for an understanding of â€Å"inner peace. †

Reflection Upon A Critical Incident Essay -- Reflection Upon Nursing S

This paper will reflect upon and explore a critical incident which occurred whilst attending a clinical placement. Reflective practice has become very popular over the last few decades throughout a variety of professions. In some professions it has become one of the defining features of competence. The wide spread utilization of reflective practice is due to the fact that it ‘rings true’ (Loughran, 2000). Within different disciplines, what is understood by reflective practice varies considerably (Fook et al, 2006). Despite this, some agreement has been achieved. In general, reflective practice is understood as the process of learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and/or practice (Boud et al 1985; Boyd and Fales, 1983; Mezirow, 1981, Jarvis, 1992). This often involves examining assumptions of everyday practice. It also tends to involve the individual practitioner in being self-aware and critically evaluating their own responses to practice situations. The point is to recapture practice experiences and think about them critically in order to gain new understandings. This is understood as part of the process of life-long learning. Critical Incident Definition Critical Incidents are regarded as valuable learning tools for nurses. (Bailey 1995). Nurses are responsible for providing quality of care to patients (NMC 2015). In order to provide this care there is a need to have the ability to critically think, problem solve, make judgement and contribute to planning. Through the use of Critical thinking these skills can be developed, which can allows the nurse to analysis the situation through evidence , logical thinking and the actions that lead to the incident and will result in a change of p... ...lassets/siteDocuments/NMC-Publications/NMC-Standards-for-medicines-management.pdf O'Shea, Ellen (1999) Factors contributing to medication errors: a literature review Journal of Clinical Nursing 8:496-504] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2702.1999.00284.x/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false Parkinson's Disease National Clinical Guideline for Diagnosis and Management in Primary and Secondary Care (2006) NICE Clinical Guidelines, No. 35. London: Royal College of Physicians (UK) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK48513/ Parkinson's UK (2015) http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/news/news-topics/research Pyne, R. On being accountable. (1988) Health Visitor Jun;61(6):173-5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3378907 "Understanding Parkinson's" Parkinson's Disease Foundation (2015) http://www.pdf.org/symptoms

Kubla Khan – C. A

Sometimes, a poem is celebrated not for the story it tells, but for how it is told. Some poems are famous simply because of the way they are told: the elaborate, vivid language used to describe places and sights. â€Å"Kubla Khan or A Vision in a Dream† by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is one such poem. Written in 1798, it is a poem that uses intricate language to portray a vision or dream that Coleridge had. Coleridge claimed that the poem was written in an opium-induced haze, which is something that can be implied by the poem's subtitle, A Vision in a Dream. This poem is essentially about nothing; it is enthralling due to its language and feeling rather than any specific message. The lines of the poem Kubla Khan sound like a chant and helps suggest mystery, supernatural, and mystical themes. The language used is expressive enough that you can yourself envision the place Coldridge dreamed of. It is a lyrical poem in four stanzas, told in iambic pentameter. In the first two lines, Coleridge describes the â€Å"pleasure dome† in Xanadu. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree Kubla Khan did not merely order, but decree that a â€Å"stately pleasure dome† be built. This dome is evidence of how unnatural or unreal the place of Xanadu is it has a ruler who ignores the unpleasantness that can be found in life. He uses his vocabulary to challenge and tease the imagination into seeing what he saw in his dream. In Xanadu, there are not small streams, but â€Å"sinuous rills† and wall and towers do not enclose the gardens but are girdled round'. Coleridge's use of language helps to convey and interrupt the extent of his imagination. In the poem Kubla Khan, imagery is also important for Coleridge to show his imagination to the reader. There are images of paradise throughout the poem that are combined with references to darker, more evil places such as hell. On example of this is the â€Å"demon lover† that has bewitched the woman. Coleridge's image of the â€Å"dome of pleasure† is mystical, contradicting the restrictions of realism. The structure of Kubla Khan is really in two parts. The first, describes Xanadu as if Coleridge is actually there, experiencing the place first hand. The second part of the poem is filled with longing and a strong want to be in Xanadu, but Coleridge is unable to capture the experience again. It begins with a definite rhythm and beat and describes the beauty of Xanadu with rich and strong images. The second part is that it depicts the violence of life outside of the pleasure dome and even mentions the threat of war. It is proven that beauty and danger cannot be separated from each other, despite what the ruler Kubla Khan wants. The fourth stanza is when the poem no longer describes Xanadu, but Coleridge's desire for control over his imagination, to be able to recall the feelings and ideas of Xanadu. This shows that even the ruler cannot have control over the forces of nature, and the writer over his imagination. Both parts of the poem deal with the attempt to create. Kubla Khan has built a pleasure dome and Coleridge is trying to use language to recreate the perfection of his dream with words. Coleridge was a very religious man and the poem is filled with references to God and other related ideas. Xanadu symbolizes the Garden of Eden, and how it is beautiful and innocent, surrounded by evil and the constant threat of destruction. Coleridge describes the river as â€Å"sacred† many times throughout the poem, and to Xanadu as â€Å"holy and enchanted. The demons described are closely related to witchcraft and the closing lines of Kubla Khan describe pagan rituals. Those rituals try to protect not only the reader, but also Coleridge himself from the forces of evil and the extent of his imagination. On the whole the poem presents a conjunction of pleasure and sacredness. At the end of the poem the poet is himself regarded as a holy and sacred person, a seer acquainted with the mystery of life, with his flashing eyes and waving hair, he is considered fed of the dew and honey and is believed to drink the milk of paradise. In the light of the above we can safely say that the poem is replete with all the qualities of Coleridge’s poetry and is a living embodiment of supernaturalism, element of mystery, fertile imagination, dream quality, medievalism, love of Nature, meditative note, music and narrative skill which distinguish Coleridge’s poetry as the most complete representative of the English Romantic poetry of the early nineteenth century and makes ‘Kubla Khan’ a great poem and make it equal to his other two great poems, ‘The Ancient Mariner’, and ‘Christable’.

Theme of Evil in Macbeth

English – Macbeth – Evil – Homework Essay – â€Å"In Macbeth, Shakespeare presents us with a powerful vision on evil†. Write your response to the above statement. Textual support may include reference to a particular performance of the play you have seen. I believe the theme of this play to be the vision on evil. It is a very powerful theme; it makes the play both interesting and memorable. There is an evil presence throughout the play; this is evident from the very first scene where we encounter the three witches. Fundamentally, there are two types of evil visible in Shakespeare’s play of Macbeth. The evil which we see, the violent acts, the violent imagery, then there is a sense of evil within the characters themselves, and the three witches, as they are considered evil beings. All of these elements combine to establish an overall atmosphere of evil. Evil characters like Lady Macbeth I think the strongest vision of evil in this play is demonstrated by the witches. The witches themselves are a symbol of evil, never mind their actual doings. They are supernatural and automatically feared. They like to play cruel tricks, mislead people. Their cruel actions always cause a cruel and bleak outcome for their victim. We see examples of this in the very first scene, when they discuss how they tortured a sailor by depriving him of sleep and tossing his ship into a tempestuous storm. They enjoy barbaric acts like severing a man’s thumb and keeping it as a trophy. In my opinion it’s very meaningful that the witches are the first people we met, the set the tone of the play. The significance of this is huge; it shows the prevalence of the theme of evil. Early on, we realise that the witches have a great deal of power over events and propensity to convince a malleable mind. Their goal is not to help Macbeth gain all the glory and power which it is his ambition to achieve but to convince him that this is their aim but rather lead him to his death! They receive satisfaction in the false sense of security and hope their prophecies have given Macbeth. I think the witches have set their sights on misleading Macbeth the whole way until his death, they pray on his sense of ambition and use this to start the fire which engulfs all and ends with Macbeth’s death. Lady Macbeth has another important role in this play, to expand on the theme of evil and carry it further through the play. I think she, like the witches enjoys in the pursuit of evil just for the sake of it. She taunts and blackmails her husband into committing unthinkable crimes for the sake of it. Lady Macbeth is an appalling woman, from the moment we met her we see her just ready to empty her wickedness upon any poor sucker that comes along, unlucky for Macbeth he happens to be her victim. She is a like a spider she catches him in her web and wraps him up and engrosses him in all her evil. Her true essence comes into play when she calls upon the evil spirits to take away her femininity, to take away her weaknesses and pity, â€Å"come, you spirits, that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty†. When Macbeth refuses to be part of the act, he decides to not kill Duncan, this infuriates Lady Macbeth. She begins to try and guilt Macbeth into committing the crime. She uses violent bloody imagery to guilt him into doing it. She is very manipulative; this shows us how ruthless Lady Macbeth is. Macbeth ends up changing his mind. While the three witches and Lady Macbeth are seen as the main forms of evil in the play, we must not overlook Macbeth himself. We cannot tell if he is truly an evil human being or if he just carries out evil acts. After all, he is the one who carries out Duncan’s brutal murder. He is the one who ordered for the killing of Banquo and Fleance (who escapes). He is the one who employs three murders to kill Macduffs wife and kids. Is this because he is evil? Or is it because of the push Lady Macbeth gave him which led him to spiral out of control and with the confidence he received from the witches. The brutal slaughter of Duncan was his first step into the bloodbath from which he finds impossible to return from. The violent bloody imagery used throughout the play also portrays a sense of evil. The evil in the play is presented very well through pathetic fallacy. In most occasions in the play, when a murder was committed or when we came upon the witches, the weather would reflect the actions or the tension in the play. Also, how the animals reacted after Duncan’s death, they all went wild and ate each other. I think this draws a very good image, and links everything in with the particular act. These unnatural acts mirror the evil in reality. In my opinion this overall intensifies the play and makes you become engrossed in the play. Overall, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is full of images of evil, cruelty, suffering and death. It is images like the amputated thumb, the horses eating each other of the brutality of the murders. There are also many references to the devil, hell and violence. The characters, their actions and moods all combine to make a very powerful vision of evil within the play. While we see that evil does not go unpunished, the final victory does not look like much compared to the amount of evil which has been seen through this play, the amount of lives lost and how it has affected the people left behind, even though law and order is finally restored. It is prevalent that the main theme in this play is the theme of evil.