Thursday, October 31, 2019

Communication of the Saudi Arabian Culture Research Paper

Communication of the Saudi Arabian Culture - Research Paper Example ere allowed to enter Saudi Arabia only when they witnessed during the Depression period, a drastic fall in their revenues which they received from the pilgrims (Lacey, 2009, p.75). The principles and values intrinsic in these morals as well as devotion to Islam lie down at the core of the enlightening among the diversified group of citizens and non citizens, tribal or non-tribal, living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The societal values which are a part of the everyday behavior of Saudis include kindness, unselfishness, and generosity; respect for elders in the hierarchical structure of the family; liberation and independence on others and command over the emotions and feelings of each others; and a readiness to maintain lives of other members of the family assuming accountability for their mistakes also (Abbasi & Hollman, 1993, p.56). Saudis worry that respite of the world picturing them as coming from another planet, although most are outstandingly polite and convivial once you truly break free from the principles. Limitations on intermingling between not related people of the opposite sex stay rigorous. Currently, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is managing to move on against its harsh rules, initially by starting a coeducation university, allowing women to sell private clothing to other women, even harmonizing down the decapitations. King Abdullah has taken drastic measures for the positive environment of the nation. However, to the rest of the globalizing world, these changes are hardly noticeable. Saudi Arabia is measured or seen as an extremely high context culture. In high-context cultures, significance is entrenched more in the perspective rather than the policy. Hall (1982) discussed that "most of the information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message" (p.18). Thus it is important for the listener must appreciate the appropriate signals so as to seize the

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Ethics, values, and morals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethics, values, and morals - Essay Example For Rand’s line of reasoning, if one is to follow his or her hierarchy of values, then there would be no chance to lose one’s self-esteem by saving anything of lesser value or helping one’s neighbor. Even love was merely defined as à ¤ validation of loving one’s self as â€Å"an expression and assertion of self-esteem, a response to ones own values in the person of another†. For Rand, charity does not exist because one should only act in accordance to one’s self-interest which personally thinks to be wrong. In fact, true benevolence or act of charity or goodwill is being destroyed by altruism because it indoctrinated men that to value another which is just a license to sacrifice oneself and that love, respect or esteem held for other people is not a source of one’s enjoyment. Rand did not differentiate altruism whether it is ideal or reciprocal. For Rand, altruism by itself makes the doer suffer the consequence of lack of self-esteem and lack of respect for others. To quote Rand on this, she elaborated that â€Å"Many well-meaning, reasonable men do not know how to identify or conceptualize the moral principles that motivate their love, affection or good will, and can find no guidance in the field of ethics, which is dominated by the stale platitudes of altruism.† In effect, Rand is implying man cannot distinguish what really altruism because its platitudes are unrecognizable. Rather, she made a sweeping generalization that altruism whether ideal or reciprocal reduces man to a beggar and that the giver in fact lacks self-esteem. She describes altruism as an act of betrayal of one’s values because it demands the surrender of a greater value for the sake of lesser or non-value which is not consistent to the ideal actuation of acting according to the hierarchy of one’s values, that is, never to sacrifice a greater value to a lesser value. This hierarchy of values is

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Stereotyping Muslim Women in TV and Film

Stereotyping Muslim Women in TV and Film Countless stereotypes and misrepresentation about Arab Muslim women have been dominating the Western media. It all started with the theory of Clash of Civilization that was written by Samuel P. Huntington in 1997. In his theory, Huntington stressed that Islam has visible conflicting vision and action to the Western ideas of liberty and democracy, and that Islam is the main enemy to the West. In other words, Islam and Arabs has different ideologies than the west has. And that the ideologies the west have about democracy and liberty conflict about the Islam understanding of the democracy and liberation. This was the start of the stereotyping of Arabs in general. The problem of stereotyping of Arabs in general has been on the increase since the incident of 9/11. Arabs have been subjected to discrimination and violence since 9/11, a Muslim girl for example that works in a rental car company was simply fired because she was told that she cannot wear her veil, also a hotel employee stated that he was cursed many times and that people called him Taliban and Osama. After September 9/11 attack on the USA, the stereotyping began at its fullest load, that the Islam and Arabs are terrorists, cruel, robbers, heartless, religious fanatics, brutal murderers, and abusers of women. It resulted in the start of o the portrayal of Arab women that they are abused by men, and that they are sex object, belly dancers and gold diggers, and that they have no self esteem, and they are beaten by men and they are only do what men wishes and want without having any opinion about it. Following 9/11, the world started attack Islam and they accused Islam of being a religion of terrorism, however, among those attackers there were many who wanted to know the truth about that religion in order to know whether it is really a religion of terrorism or not. The media exaggerated in reporting the incident of 9/11 which resulted in making a lot of people believe that Arabs and Muslims are terrorists. Also Hollywood is a big part of exaggerating this issue. Cinema Producers and Film Makers keep on making movies that stereotype Arabs as terrorists and killers. They also stereotype them with the five Bs, which are Billionaires, Bombers, Belly dancers, Bedouins, and Barbarians. Jack shaheen in his movie Reel Bad Arabs showed that the western movies are obsessed with portraying of Arab women in their movies, but they portray them from their point of views. They didnt change anything during years of portrayals. Jack Shaheen said that the portray of Arab women mostly as slave girls, a woman wearing a transparent veil that shows her body, and that they are belly dancers and barbarian gold diggers that they are able to do anything in the sake of their well being, Shaheen in his this part about the portray of Arab women as gypsies and gold diggers is right and I agree with him that is mostly the case in western movies that portray Arab women. Moreover, in the Disney movie remake of around the world in 80 days, they represent that Arnold Schwarzenegger an Arab Sheikh, that have more than 100 wives slaves just for sex, which shows that the Arab men are not satisfied by one woman only and they want lot of everything even the wives, and this part also talk about El shariaa that the man has the right to marry 4 wives. Which the West refuses its concept from the first place, but they dont even understand the Law of Islam to talk about this issue or to misrepresent it in this way. But although they portrayed Arab women in different images the gold digger, the sex slave, mischievous, but after the attacks of September 11 the image of terrorists is the dominate image in the mind and the movies of the West. The TV influences the people in a tremendous way; it affects their attitudes and behavior, and affects their minds and believes. The media personnel take advantage of this point that the western people are ignorant about anything that relates to Arabs and they just know them from movies and TV shows, and they mostly are in the image of terrorist so they take of this point and represent Arabs and Arab women without studying them or understanding them and they stereotype them as the way they want the people to think of them. They succeed in this point that most of the Westerns when they come to think about Arabs or Arab women, the first thing that comes to their minds is Arabs being terrorists ,barbarians, cruel, robbers, monsters, beater of women, take women as slaves, women are just for their own pleasure. Everyone knows from western media and western image what image Arab women have in general, images that started by the orientalists about Arab Harim, Arab dancing, Arab women set as objects in the Arab world locked in doors, having no function in public affairs, Muslim women being inferior to men. These are the concepts in western media, in western films and in western cartoons, unfortunately. Most Arabs are submissive to being stereotyped by western media, but for Arab women the problem is particularly sensitive. It seems that the Western media is obsessed by the way a Muslim woman dresses; the veil in particular. Most of the Arab Muslim women are portrayed as fat, shapeless women in their loose dress and ugly veiled shape; they even do them as a caricature in some magazines and programs. In fact, the concept of veiled woman is always perceived in the west as shes having a life, shes always seen as a victim, poor, isolated creature politically, culturally and she is so isolated. According to Gwinn (1997), he said that the veiled woman is always reflected by the western to be the most popular way of representing the problem of Islam. In fact, Longtime ago pre Islam veils were customs among Greeks, Romans and Jews, but when Islam started and the Muslim women took the veils as a way to cover their hair as God said, the West started to identify the veiled women as the Muslim terrorist one. The veil that the Muslim women wear is seen as a symbol of threatening and alien status as mentioned by Posetty (2008) in his article. Images of Islamic dress are increasingly used in the Western media as a symbol of extremism. As a result, Muslims all over Europe and the West in general, are suffering from the consequences of such associations. The main problem as Ahmed (1992) pointed out in his article, has been that the act of veiling among Muslim women is associated with the lack of traditionalism and backwardness that does not fit into the modern society and among Western women. This reflects the theory of Orientalism that was stated by Said 1978, which asserts that the East and its inhabitants are considered backward, barbaric and outsiders to Western society. As mentioned by Edward Said in this Orientalist framework, the Muslim Arab women have always been thought as others; they are always considered as different from the Western women and the Western culture. The Western imaginary, Othered portrayed women as sexual objects, weak, and that they are marginalized in their own society. The Orientalism focused on Arabic, history, and philosophy, but failed to truly convey the lives and feelings of Muslims, their voices remained mute. Muslims, as portrayed in western media, illustrate two Orientalist assumptions that arouse concern and fear in Western societies. The fisrt as mentiond by Posetty (2008), Muslim women are oppressed and in need of liberation and the second is that Muslim men are a violent force that creates a threat to Western society. In an agreement with Mishra (2007), who has been studying the misrepresentation constructed by the Western media about the Muslim Arab women since the 9/11 incident. She has examined the articles published by The New York Times and other newspapers and magazines after the 9/11 incident, particularly, between September 11, 2001 and September 11, 2003. Through her study she found that issues such as rape, torture, and patriarchal oppression were all topics that related to Muslim women in non-Western countries. Additionally, the discussion of women in Islam tends to be centered around the burqu, hijab, or as it is called in the Western societies as the veil. Muslims women living abroad are facing a bigger problem than just a misunderstanding or negative image, unfortunately they are facing a huge discrimination between them and the westernized women. The Arab Muslim immigrant women are facing gender-based media representations as well. As stated by Morin (2009), the immigrant Muslim Arab women are subjected to cultural misconceptions and the recent political conflicts that have spoiled Arab-Western relations. These misconceptions that are created by the Western media make it hard for those women to live abroad without being discriminated and thought as others. In the West, clearly, negative Arab images rooted in history are providing a base for the stereotyping of Arab women in the media. In addition to the misconception about the veil, words such as the circumcision, polygamy, the sharia (Islamic) law, the harem, forced marriages, etc, are just a few issues that are associated with the Arab Muslim women, which resulted in fitting women into the absolute, homogenous oppressed Muslim woman category. News on Muslim women is dominated by the culturalist presentation and interpretation of Islam. In fact, the discrimination of these women, which attracts media attention, tends to be explained almost exclusively according to theories on Islamic culture. For example, when referring to the rights of Muslim women, the news discourse tends to focus on symbolic and religious issues such as the veil or Islam, and they tend to avoid more important issues that are related to the equality of these women, such as rights to education or public freedoms. These visions are removed from reality because they fail to take into account bond of millions of women to their Islamic identity. The Western newspaper articles mainly present Muslims women in three ways: as passive women, as victims and as veiled women. They are portrayed as observers rather than as active participants in their community. Their role as victims is reflected through the publishing of news stories describing conflicts such as the Afghan or Algerian conflicts in which women are clearly victims. Muslim-Arab women have increasingly been on the face covers of magazines and front pages of newspapers since 9/11 and all the events that followed; among the major topics covered were the war in Afghanistan, the U.S.-led Iraqi invasion, as well as the elections in both countries. For example, on the covers of National Geographic and various other magazines, veiled women demonstrate the western urge to discover what lies underneath the veil. Since the invasion of Afghanistan, the Western media began to focus on the unveiling of women as a sign of their liberation, which we totally disagree with. Images of women removing the veil serve as justification to many individuals for the war. Time Magazine published an article in December 2001 that told the story of 200 women who gathered together to remove their veils together in a post-Taliban Afghanistan. (Macdonald, 2003). As stated by Ayish (2010), news media has made it a point to document the lives of millions of women that are in need of saving from an oppressive religion. The news media, specifically The New York Times and Time Magazine, have employed divisive methods founded in Orientalist assumptions that provide justification for Western intervention in the Middle East. And as stated by Mishra (2007), the media portrayals of Muslim men and women in The New York Times reinforced the need for Western intervention in Muslim societies and communities, to whether help liberate Muslim women or to keep Muslim men under surveillance as they are considered as a threat and violence. In advertising, they are being misrepresented as well. The Western advertisement also used the Arab Muslim women in their advertisement and they didnt want to risk by changing the image that the west already have for the Arab Muslim women, so they used the stereotyped and typical image of the veiled woman harem, the mysterious veiled woman that is under the control of an oppressive man, to appeal to their customers of the west. They didnt want to risk changing the image in an advertisement and that this image is strong in the mind of the Western people, and they might lose money or even customers and they might accuse them with treason because they put the Arabs in a good image. They use the veil of the Muslim Arab women as a sex symbol to sell for sex. They think when they put a woman in a veil they will get the consumers to buy the product. And when they do, they will buy the mystery behind the veil. The Westerns are usually buying a false and imaginary image of the Others which are the Arab or Arab women. The continuous and repetitive of these images in the different types of media will make these images real in the mind of the Western people, and this will enlarge the gap between the East and the West The oppressed veiled Muslim woman in the ads may also be connected to the escalating intolerance and disputes surrounding Muslim women and the veil in the Western world. Media people should be careful with what they put in the different types of media so as not to spread false and imaginary images or believes about another culture or other people traditions, and make them in the worst image that could be, and make them by these images increase the hatred between countries and increase hate crimes and wars. Media people should see the sensitivity in the materials they publish, and consider these images will hurt or damage someone or not, they should study the Arab and study their traditions and their believes Shariaa before talking falsely about it in different ways and different types of media. Western fascination with the veiling of Muslim women as a symbol of oppression is often contradictory to reality. The west are portraying Arab women in this way because they inherited this stereotyping, and they didnt try to do research or study of Arabs and Arab women to see if they are right about what they are showing in their movies or what they are writing. They just took what they have watched in the movies and read in papers, and they started to portray or actually kept on the same way of this negative portrayal and stereotyping of Arab women, without the right knowledge about the Arab culture, religion, and mostly people. Conclusion In the West, Arab women are often portrayed through stereotypical representations and discourses in which they have no voice. The Western popular imagination, nurtured by a media which commonly lacks sensitivity to complex realities, is quick to associate Arab women with oppression and subordination. Arab women are limited to a debate between tradition and modernity in which they are alternatively perceived as model of a mythical cultural authenticity, of a drift towards extremism or of radical modernization. Therefore, they find themselves at the heart of the ambiguous relations between the Eastern and Western worlds, which was analyzed by Edward SaÃÆ'Â ¯d. They are, however, essential actors in the development of the Arab region, and it is indispensable that their position at the heart of all contemporary social, political, economic and cultural matters be recognized in both the East and West. Basically the media is the main reason of enlarging the gap between the West and the East, it keeps on pressing and pressing on the west and filling their minds with pictures, movies, and news against Muslims and Islam that arent true. Since September 11 until now Hollywood keeps on making movies about Arabs and Muslims portraying them as terrorists and killers who attack innocent people without any reason, while they dont make any movies about Israeli. The mass media not only exclude modern Islamist women but also, in general, the socially and culturally diverse communities of Muslim women living in either the Arab world or in Western world. These women are not only housewives, mothers and Muslims as portrayed by the media, but also students, researchers, entrepreneurs, domestic workers, artists, politicians, volunteers, activists, etc. In this respect, it is also not accidental that the media do not report on the evolution of pro human rights movements (including womens rights and freedoms movements) that exist in some Arab countries, such as Egypt and Morocco. Misconceptions by the media have resulted in misunderstanding Arab women. As Gwinn (1997) stated, ideas about the Muslim world have managed to deform much of our understandings toward Muslim women. Words such as the veil, the harem, female circumcision, etc. have managed to give an impression to some of the images associated with the oppressed Muslim woman. The problem now is how to convey knowledge to public opinion so that they know truly whats going on in the Middle East. Unfortunately theyre trying to build on peoples ignorance, or on peoples busy time as nobody has the time to read a lot. It is time to build on information or on knowledge that the Arabs are descendents of great civilization, Arab women have the right to live like any other woman in the world with their children and to have their childrens future away from humiliation, away from occupation. The western media is the one who damaged the image of the Muslims specially the veiled women, so they must take step and start to do campaigns, movies, or documentaries to correct the image of the Arab Muslim woman and start to treat her normally or even correct the negative images.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Dantes Inferno Essay -- English Literature Essays

Dante's Inferno In Canto I, Dante has strayed from the True Way into the Dark Wood of Error. He opens his eyes and sees the mount Mount of Joy which is lit up by the sun. He sets out to try to climb the mountain, but his way is blocked by the Three Beasts of Worldliness: The Leopard of Malice and Fraud, The Lion of Violence and Ambition, and The She-Wolf of Incontinence. He then starts to lose all hope when Virgil, Dante’s symbol of Human Reason appears. Dante is very frightened and nervous by Virgil’s presence as you can tell by his response towards Virgil saying â€Å"Have pity on me, whatever thing you are, whether shade or living man† (Dantes Inferno pg. 30). Dante doesn’t know who or what Virgil is and is really scared of him. Virgil then explains to Dante why he is here and reassures h...

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Environmental program Essay

Superfund is an environmental program formed to address abandoned hazardous waste sites. It is also established by the amended Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980. The law was enacted in the height of the discovery of dumps of toxic wastes in the 1970. The law permits the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clean up such hazardous locations and to require responsible companies/persons to do clean up or compensate the government for EPA-initiated cleanups. The Superfund cleanup procedure is intricate. It starts on the assessment of the sites and placing them on the National Priorities List, then conduct cleanups on them. Located at 4109 West Linebaugh Avenue in Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida, the Southern Solvents, Inc. served as a delivery and trade point for tetrachloroethylene. The chemical, which is also known as perchloroethylene or PCE was stored in four aboveground storage tanks in the facility from 1977 to 1985. The facility distributed the chemicals for dry cleaners located within the area. From 1985 to 1989 the facility was leased to P. J. ’s Spa and recently leased to a commercial painting company. The whole property of Southern Solvents, Inc. is about 100 feet wide and 185 feet deep. When the company is still in operations, the aboveground tanks were individually filled from tanker tanks that brought the chemicals to the facility. One former tank had a capacity of 3,000 gallons while the size of the other three is still unknown. It is believed that leaks and spills of tetrachloroethylene happened while the tanks are being filled and emptied. The tetrachloroethylene that spilled and leaked was not contained and eventually goes down into the nearby sandy soil. In 1988, when the facility’s drinking water well and several private drinking wells nearby, it was positive contamination of tetrachloroethylene and related compounds of trichloroethylene and 1,2-dichloroethan. The Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services advise instantaneously the residents within the area to stop using water from these wells and supplied bottled water to owners and tenants in the area. The Florida Cites Water Department and the Northwest Hillsborough County Utilities have four wells that draw water from an aquifer within 4 miles of Southern Solvents facility. They provide water supply to more than 46,000 people in St. Petersburg, Hillsborough County, and nearby communities. As early as 1994, EPA conducted preliminary assessment of the site and its threat to the community. On July 27, 2000, Southern Solvents site was placed on the National Priorities List (NPL). Various studies then undergoes since the signing of the Superfund Contract that commits the State for 10 percent of the cost for the clean up. Until now, there are only initial steps of chemical oxidation studies and soil vapor extractions are done into the site. Reference: Environmental Protection Agency, Florida. (2009, March 20). Southern Solvents. Retrieved March 24, 2009, from http://www. dep. state. fl. us/waste/quick_topics/publications/ wc/sites/summary/141. pdf Environmental Protection Agency, United States. (2009, January 30). Superfund. Retrieved March 24, 2009, from http://www. epa. gov/superfund/about. htm

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Critically Discuss the Contribution of the Work of Frederick W. Taylor

Grey offers a number of opinions on management thought in his book â€Å"A Very Short Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organisations† (2009). He outlines his opinions through a number of themes within the book such as looking at bureaucracy and scientific management together, his views on human relations theory (HRT) and its links with people management, the theme of organization culture and post-bureaucracy and how it is effecting change management.The final theme I will discuss in my essay is fast capitalism and how it is ending management. While looking at the themes I will also be evaluating Grey’s arguments within them and try to relate them where applicable to Wren and Bedeian’s book â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought† (2009). Grey views on bureaucracy are that he sees it as a highly efficient way of management in this book bureaucracy is not seen as red tape but a management type as put forward by Weber whereby rule s and regulation are used to become as efficient as possible. Relevant materials: Scientific Management Theory in NursingGrey tells us how Weber saw an emergence of an ideal called â€Å"rational legal authority† (Grey, 2009). Grey tells us how rationality links with bureaucracy using a number of examples such as formal or instrumental rationality the idea of this is to adopt a means to meet and end using the most efficient way possible. Grey uses an excellent example to illustrate this being the Nazi Holocaust it is as Grey (2009) says the extreme application of bureaucratic logic. It operated under a set of rules which were applied impersonally.This allowed it to be unbelievably efficient. Grey’s ideas on bureaucracy are linked to the ideas explored in Wren and Bedeian’s â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought† (2009) both books emphasise how Weber did not mean red tape when he said bureaucracy, they also share similar views of the disadvantages of bureaucracy such as how workers will work to the rules and theref ore know exactly what they must do to stay in the job or to achieve something Grey’s view on scientific management as put forward by Taylor is that his ideas still define management today.The real leap for scientific management as explained by Grey (2009) was the use of it by Henry Ford the man who made Ford cars. He employed scientific management within his factory to increase efficiency and it did so hugely. Grey also recognises the problems caused by Taylor’s ideas. Such as the many strikes by workers as it left the workers with less power and the managers with all the power, one of the main problems with it as explained by Grey (2009) is it eroded working onditions, reduced autonomy and threatened unemployment. I feel that Grey’s view here focuses too much on the problems caused by scientific management he does give a few advantages of it but he doesn’t emphasise enough how scientific management really revolutionised the way in which factories and com panies operated such as how using Taylor’s ideas on scientific management thought companies such as General Motors and Du Pont have become two of the biggest corporations in the world thanks to it.Wren and Bedeian share similar views to Grey on scientific management however I feel they show more admiration for it when they say how scientific management paved the way forward for subsequent management development (Wren and Bedeian 2009). Grey (2009) expresses his view many people see scientific management as the bad guy and human relations theory (HRT) as the good guy. I agree with this and Grey uses the Hawthorne experiment example which I feel expresses this view correctly and helped me understand the inefficiency’s caused by HRT.He tells us of an experiment in a bank wiring room where workers were producing electrical components and rather than produce at maximum output which would earn them a bonus they choose to produce at a lower level. This was due to informal nor ms set around the workplace such as peer pressure and an unofficial gang leader. This shows us that the informal side of an organisation to some is more important than the formal side. This shows how HRT can be seen as inefficient as and not always better than scientific management.This can be linked to Wren and Bedeian’s (2009) conclusions drawn from the Hawthorne Studies, they conclude that these experiments showed us that workers were not driven only by money but also by social factors which can lead to increased and decreased productivity. People management and HRT are very similar in my opinion as HRT is the way in which we manage people. It is important for people to see a manager as someone who helps people and not just a person who exploits someone to get the best work out of them.Grey (2009) gives an example of how HRT has changed the way we view managers by using a son and father conversation. The child asks his dad what he does and he replies how he exploits people and dehumanises them by making them work as hard as possible. Under HRT thought he replies how he helps people and makes unhappy people see that he cares about them. This example by Grey is exceptional in my opinion and to me it personifies what HRT and people management is; it is type of thought whereby the manager’s aim is to care for and motivate his workers.The view of the manager is undeniably hugely important to motivating workers as if they are seen as caring and helpful it acts as an incentive to workers to work harder this view is also shared in Wren and Bedeian (2009) where they say the significance of effective supervision in maintaining employee’s productivity and job satisfaction is huge. Grey’s (2009) view on organisation culture is that its aim is to intervene and regulate being so that there is no distance between individual’s purpose and those of the organisation for which they work.I agree with what Grey is saying here organisation cult ure to me is simply making an organisation a place where the worker feels completely comfortable and for the worker to feel proud to work for the company. An example of this I can relate to is the bank RBS having done work experience with them I now understand how they create organisation culture. On all their leaflets, cards and employee videos they try to show their core values and company slogans to create a good organisation culture. Grey argues that managers who try to change organisation culture are completely unrealistic.I agree with what Grey says here as the example he uses shows us how it is not possible. He cites an experiment carried out by Ogbonna and Wilkinson (1988) where a supermarket told all its employees to make customer service their prime focus by smiling all the time and to make them feel valued. The study results showed they obeyed superficially because they knew they were being watched but they didn’t mean their shows of friendliness. This may seem lik e they are carrying out the organisation culture but actually they have failed as they don’t actually believe in it.In relation to Wren and Bedeian’s view on organisation culture differs to that of Grey they see it as more innocent and with less scepticism than Grey does. They (Wren and Bedeian 2009) believe technology, economics and political facets provide the framework for organisation culture. Wren and Bedeian don’t go into the areas that Grey goes into when discussing organisation culture such as how management tries to change organisation as I have discussed already. Grey (2009) argues that post-bureaucracy can and should be mocked.He gives examples of studies which have been carried out to show that it is a flimsy thought. He cites a study by Paul Thompson who used aggregate statistical evidence and individual cases to prove that job structures and work experience are mostly unchanged by the post-bureaucratic revolution. This study was similar to that of Delbridge (1998) who studied two factories one which had all the paraphernalia of a post-bureaucratic workplace and one which did not. He concluded that both still shared very similar forms of working.I agree with what Grey is saying here as if you walk into a workplace today such as a factory the methods of management are still evident of the bureaucracy model and yes there is some evidence of post-bureaucracy but not enough to claim it’s a new era of post-bureaucracy. On the theme of change management Grey (2009) argues that is almost always fails. He supports his claim using the example of total quality management (TQM) which is implemented for the first time in a certain industry. One organisation may adopt it and then others will see it and decide to adopt it to.Now no one has a competitive advantage and there is a conveyer effect where by the companies now want a new method and therefore change. This claim by Grey in my opinion is correct change management doesn’ t work as for it to work something has to be applicable from one industry to another but change management fails at this. Grey (2009) however does admit that post-bureaucracy and change management cannot be ignored and that it is a huge part of society today as they have a huge hold over the managerial role in today’s world. Grey (2009) tells us how the post-bureaucracy and change management attract huge attention in the media today.He gives us the example of policies past by the British Government in which all are based on post-bureaucracy. Grey (2009) says how it is now assumed that for an economy to do well it must be purged of bureaucracy and open to change. I agree with what he has said here all we here about in today’s news is the need to change everything and for rules and regulations to be got rid of. However all we have to look at is the current economic climate to show us what happened when there was less bureaucracy and lots of change. People took advantage of it and we are now stuck in a recession for a number of years because of it.To show what fast capitalism is Grey (2009) uses the United Kingdom as an example and many of the companies within it such as Jaguar, P&O and Body Shop what all these companies have in common is they once used to be British owned now however they are owned by international companies or consortia. This shows us how Britain has taken on the idea of fast capitalism this however can lead to problems whereby the international companies who buy these smaller firms most of the time only see the financial value of them and not what the company may offer to a community with generations of families who have worked in the same business.This can lead to employees not feeling the need to work as hard as now they are working for an international company and therefore in my opinion inefficiency will begin to take place. The argument that fast capitalism is failing and problematic is put forward by Grey (2009) using the e xample of the bank Northern Rock who began by simply taking in deposits from savers and lending to borrowers for house purchases. In 1997 they choose a new more risky route whereby they raised money by through short term borrowing on financial markets.They also began to give loans to those who had poor credit history and they didn’t take in their account to pay them back. This was all well and good until 2007 when poor credit risks and the inability to get short term funds caused the bank to nearly collapse with customers going to the banks to take out all their money. The bank was then nationalised in 2008. This story shows me how fast capitalism failed as those who ran Northern Rock tried to adopt a new style of management and thought within the business to keep up with fast moving capitalism and in the long run their ideas failed leaving the customers and shareholders to suffer greatly.Grey (2009) puts forward the argument that management is ending. He explores this idea u sing a number of examples. The example which explores it best is the one about the study he carried out with a number of colleagues on a set of managers. They interviewed them and none of them described themselves as managers. When ask why they didn’t they all said it was an overused word which didn’t denote any real seniority in today’s workforce and secondly they felt the word had a meaning of someone who was inflexible and bureaucratic. This was not to say the end of management just it has become a somewhat meaningless word.The final thought Grey (2009) has on this is that managers might be coming to an end but management itself is not and it is constantly evolving and I whole heartedly agree with this point that it is simply changing constantly. Overall I feel that the themes in Grey’s book â€Å"A Very Short Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organisations† (2009) which range from looking at bureaucracy and scientific management together to his views on human relations theory (HRT) and its links with people management and the theme of organization culture and post-bureaucracy and how it is effecting change management.To the final one which I have explored; fast capitalism and end management have provided me with an insight into Grey’s thoughts on management and the arguments he has put forward about it. I also feeling my reading of this book has allowed me to relate it where applicable to Wren and Bedeian’s â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought† (2009) and allowed me to compare some of the older views on management within this book to the more modern ones explored by Grey. However I do believe that Grey’s book is far more concise than Wren and Bedeian’s which I feel is too long winded and less interesting than Grey’s.Bibliography: Grey, C. (2009). A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organizations. London, Sage. De lbridge, R. (1998) â€Å"Life on the Line in Contemporary Manufacturing† Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ogbonna, E. and Wilkinson, B. (1988) â€Å"Corporate Strategy and Corporate Culture: The View from the Checkout† Personnel Review, Vol. 19 Iss: 4, pp. 9 – 15 Wren, Daniel A . Bedeian Arthur G. December 2008,  ©2009. â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought. 6th Edition†. USA: John Wiley & Sons Inc.