End of Feudalism essays

End of Feudalism essays In Medieval Europe, politics were organized into a religious hierarchy knows as feudalism. This system dominated Europe for many years. Many factors contributed to breakdown of the feudal system. When this order finally ended it was replaced by an era known as the Renaissance, which would lead to modern Europe. Feudalism was based on two main concepts. One was the divine right to rule, where everyone believed that the leader ruled in the power of God. Therefore if someone went against them, then he or she was committing blasphemy and should be put to death. The second concept, known as absolutism, meant that there were no appeals for arguments with the leaders or their decisions. When these concepts began to be questioned and even proven wrong feudalism began to fail. Feudalism ended for many reasons, many of them relating to a change in economy. In order for feudalism to succeed it needed to be in a strictly agricultural society. Therefore its fall began with the rise of commerce. Many things aided commerce in its rise, such as religion. The cathedrals encouraged people, who would not normally leave their home villages, to venture out on pilgrimages. While on these journeys people had to spend money. They needed food and a place to stay, preferably near the cathedrals. From this created cities around the cathedrals. With the cities came trade, commerce, and a business class of people. Under these conditions there was no economic reason for feudalism to continue. This trading encouraged small villages to trade with one another. Eventually people were traveling often and constantly interacting with other villages. This raised the idea of regionalism and eventually nationalism. Along with the trading of money came the sharing of cultu res, art, music, and ideas with the Islamic world, Mongol Empire, and other foreign places. From these cultures Europeans picked up ideas like, the alphabet, and ide...

Origins and Schools of Abstract Art

Origins and Schools of Abstract Art Abstract art (sometimes called nonobjective art) is a painting or sculpture  that does not depict a person, place, or thing in the natural world. With abstract art, the subject of the work is what you see: color, shapes, brushstrokes, size, scale, and, in some cases, the process itself, as in  action painting.   Abstract artists strive to be non-objective and non-representational, allowing the viewer to interpret each artworks meaning in their own way. Thus, abstract art is not an exaggerated or distorted view of the world such as we see in the Cubist paintings of Paul Cà ©zanne  and  Pablo Picasso, for they present a type of conceptual realism. Instead, form and color become the focus and the subject of the piece. While some people may argue that abstract art does not require the technical skills of representational art, others would beg to differ. It has, indeed, become one of the major debates in modern art. Of all the arts,  abstract painting  is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential.  Ã¢â‚¬â€œWassily Kandinsky. The Origins of Abstract Art Art historians typically identify the early 20th century as an important historical moment in the history of  abstract art. During this time, artists worked to create what they defined  as pure art: creative works that were not grounded in visual perceptions, but in the imagination of the artist. Influential works from this time period include Picture with a Circle (1911) by the Russian artist  Wassily Kandinsky  and Francis Picabias Caoutchouc  (1909). The roots of abstract art, however, can be traced back much further. Earlier artistic movements such as the 19th centurys  Impressionism and Expressionism were experimenting with the idea that painting can capture emotion and subjectivity. It need not simply focus on seemingly objective visual perceptions. Going back even further, many ancient rock paintings, textile patterns, and pottery designs captured a symbolic reality rather than attempting to present objects as we see them. Early Influential Abstract Artists Kandinsky (1866–1944) is often noted as one of the most influential abstract artists. A view of how his style developed over the years  is a fascinating look at the movement as he progressed from  representational to pure abstract art. He was also adept at explaining how an abstract artist may use color to give a seemingly meaningless work purpose. Kandinsky believed that colors provoke emotions. Red was lively and confident; green was peaceful with inner strength; blue was deep and supernatural; yellow could be warm, exciting, disturbing or totally bonkers; and white seemed silent but full of possibilities. He also assigned instrument tones to go with each color. Red sounded like a trumpet; green sounded like a middle-position violin; light blue sounded like a flute; dark blue sounded like a cello, yellow sounded like a fanfare of trumpets; white sounded like the pause in a harmonious melody. These analogies to sounds came from Kandinskys appreciation for music, especially the works of the contemporary Viennese composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951). Kandinskys titles often refer to the colors in the composition or to music, for example, Improvisation 28 and Composition II.   The French artist Robert Delaunay (1885–1941) belonged to Kandinskys Blue Rider (Die Blaue Reiter) group. With his wife, Russian-born Sonia Delaunay-Turk (1885–1979), they both gravitated toward abstraction in their own movement, Orphism or Orphic Cubism. Examples of Abstract Art and Artists Today, abstract art is often an umbrella term that encompasses a wide range of styles and art movements. Included among these are  nonrepresentational art, nonobjective art, abstract expressionism, art informel  (a form of gestural art), and even some op art (optical art, referring to art that makes use of optical illusions). Abstract art may be gestural, geometric, fluid, or figurative (implying things that are not visual such as emotion, sound, or spirituality). While we tend to associate abstract art with painting and sculpture, it can apply to any visual medium, including  assemblage  and photography. Yet, it is the painters that get the most attention in this movement. There are many notable artists who represent the various approaches one may take to abstract art and they have had considerable influence on modern art. Carlo Carr  (1881–1966) was an Italian painter best known for his work in Futurism, a form of abstract art which emphasized the energy and fast-changing technology of the early 20th century. Over his career, he worked in Cubism as well and many of his paintings were abstractions of reality. However, his manifesto, Painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells  (1913) influenced many abstract artists. It explains his fascination with synaesthesia, a sensory crossover in which, for example, one smells a color, which is at the heart of many abstract artworks.Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) was another Italian Futurist who focused on geometric forms and was heavily influenced by Cubism. His work often depicts physical motion as is seen in  States of Mind (1911). This series of three paintings capture the motion and emotion of a train station rather than the physical depiction of passengers and trains.Kazimir Malevich (1878–1935) was a Russian painter whom many describe as a pioneer of geometric abstract art. One of his best-known works is  Black Square (1915). It is simplistic but absolutely fascinating to art historians because, as an analysis from the Tate mentions, It is the first time someone made a painting that wasnt of something.   Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), an American painter, is often given as the ideal representation of Abstract Expressionism, or action painting. His work is more than drips and splashes of paint on canvas, but fully gestural and rhythmic and often employed very non-traditional techniques. For instance, Full Fathom Five  (1947)  is an oil on canvas created, in part, with tacks, coins, cigarettes, and much more. Some of his work, such as There Were Seven in Eight (1945) are huge, stretching over eight feet in width.Mark Rothko (1903–1970) took the geometric abstracts of Malevich to a new level of modernism with color-field painting. This American painter rose in the 1940s and simplified color into a subject all on its own, redefining abstract art for the next generation. His paintings, such as  Four Darks in Red  (1958) and Orange, Red, and Yellow (1961), are as notable for their style as they are for their large size.

Intercultural Conflict Resolution in Schools Assignment

Intercultural Conflict Resolution in Schools - Assignment Example Note that for research purposes, the real names of respondents were replaced. Justine: These programs help to establish peace, remove vehemence and create healthy relationships among students. In schools where cultural conflict is low, programs such as the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) have been implemented to help bring an understanding between students of different cultures. Justine: The schools address cultural conflicts by making sure these programs are run and encouraging teachers and parents to respect the diverse cultures within each school system. This starts by learning of the practices in other people’s cultures in order to ensure awareness. For instance, one’s culture may permit interaction of both sexes both in classroom sitting arrangements and the playgrounds while another culture is against this. The awareness by the students will ensure that the activities conducted by the students do not bring conflicts among them. The school should implement policies that respect each culture. They should educate on the harms of intercultural conflicts and penalize those who are intolerant to coexistence. Justine: The beliefs of some cultures lead to intercultural conflicts. This is for instance, in cases where big Korean girls share the same school with smaller Korean girls. According to their beliefs, the bigger girls are allowed to assault the smaller ones in case they believe they do not receive enough respect from them. This leads to conflicts. Justine: Students experience different conflicts in relation to cultural difference. These include socio-economic status conflicts, for instance as seen between Iranians and Soviet Armenians who share same cultural views but the conflict in socio-economic status from back in their communities. Conflicts are also evident in the formation of cliques, the rise of fights, formation of gangs, and even in assigning homework.

Integration of ERP Systems in Accounting Practice Essay

Integration of ERP Systems in Accounting Practice - Essay Example This paper illustrates that beginning the early 1990s, the world has embraced technological advancement in literary all fields of application, including business management and organization. A prime example of technological adoption is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in business management. ERP is software for business management that enables organizations to use an integrated applications system for the business management. The software integrates all paradigms of business operation, including manufacturing, development, marketing, and sales. ERP software incorporates various enterprise software modules that an organization may decide to purchase, depending on its technical capabilities and business needs. Particular ERP modules focus on specific areas of business processes, such as marketing or development. Among the popular ERP include those that tackle material purchasing, product planning, accounting, distribution, human resource, distribution, inventory control, marketing, a nd finance. The consistent growth of the popularity of the ERP methodology, businesses, and organizations are increasingly adopting the use of ERP for management and organization, particularly in the accounting field. In their case study on the introduction of an ERP system in an Ivy League University, Wagner, Moll, and Newell outline an array of accountability and management control issues associated with the system, including dependency of the ERP systems on the entanglement of technology and users (socio-material assemblage). Others include the probability of ERP packages not to capture management accounting despite the particularity of the design, affordability, and power of community practice that influence the integration of the accounting logics within the system. Moreover, the study highlights the possibility of employee resistance in cases of incompatibility with practice legacy logic, and the need for reconfiguration, which is in misalignment with traditional system develo pment theories and vendors (Wagner and Newell, 2004:314). Another significant challenge that the ERP systems face is different context of use concerning the scope and type of modifications made in the post-roll-out phase, a factor that may influence the relational and on-linear nature of accounting literature. Summarily, the main problem result from misalignments legacy practices in the adopting organization and best practise embedded in the ERP systems. The authors of the study attribute the above problems are particularly common in packaged software implementation, thus necessitating early detection of any misalignments in system configuration and selection. Nonetheless, the authors acknowledge that complex and externally regulated misalignments tend to surface much later in the implementation phase, citing the case of the one of the Ivy League Universities (hereafter â€Å"Ivy†) as an example. Empirical evidence from recent studies indicate that conflicts and intense effor ts surface in the early stages of custom-built software development-use cycle, but in tailor-made software, these issues only surface at the later stages of implementation (Pouloudi and Whitley, 2000:341). Consequently, this highlights the need to address misalignment issues in the post-roll out phase. Indeed, the case study focuses primarily on this particular stage, highlighting the turnaround processes that address the misalignment and the subsequent emergence of a working ERP system. It is important to note that a working ERP system is essentially one that is different applicant within the organization use and accepts, but not necessarily the ideal one from any particular perspective (Yeow and Sia, 2000:15). The â€Å"

3010 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

3010 - Essay Example nt significance to highlight that majority of the problems faced by the organizations always revolve around the management flaws, that trickle down to the employees (Shermon, 36). This contributes towards hampering the organizational performances. As such, the organization may be considerably impacted with failures in certain measures. In relation to the above, it is important to understand some of the eminent problems that most organizations always face that may always contribute towards organizational failures. One of the problems that contribute towards hindering success in organizational setups is the ineffective performance management processes employed within those organizational setups. In some situations, the organizational may fail to have any organizational performance management process in place. This is very critical for such organizations since lack of such performance management processes is always amongst the top ranking agents of failure (Shermon, 41). The other problem may take the form of lack of, as well as, ill-defined performance expectations. This may present major challenges towards the realization of success in the organizations. In some situations, the performance expectations may be poorly communicated to the staff, thereby acting as amongst the top ranked predisposing factors of organiza tional failure. Other than the listed above, the inconsistent management practices employed within organizations as well as companies may also hinder the realization of the success. Furthermore, the partial participation of the managers and some leaders may also be one of the agents of organizational failure in companies (Shermon, 56). This is a big problem since some leaders may be fully engaged in discharging the best of their efforts towards realization of good results, whereas others may essentially ignore managing the performance. This is akin to organizational failure. Therefore, in order to address these organizational challenges and problems, it

Boston Matrix - Refresher Essay Example for Free

Boston Matrix Refresher Essay According to those two figures and based on some sales figure from Unilevers marketing department, it is clear that most of its products are in the maturity stage and Cash-Cow products except for some new products which are undergoing the introduction stage or growth stage because there are many similar new products which are developed in China and focusing on Chinese consumer. The annual sales figure appear that, in personal care sector, its products have been kept in a slightly increase or decrease lever and tend to grow to a stable maximum level. However, because of in the huge market, the amount of sales normally is significant. This situation, therefore, could be effective for Unilever China run and maintain its business owing to the enormous cashflow. It also contributed to launching Unilevers sixth Research and Development (R D) Laboratory in China, 2000 in order to meet the everyday needs of the Chinese consumer and develop more products for the Chinese market. Facing the pressure form not only another large firm P G but also a lot of local booming manufactures, Unilever China has adopted a lot of effective measures in order to compete with them. For instance, frequent products promotion with the purpose of offering more profits to the customers and keeping the lower price. In addition, in order to maintain the awareness of brands, Unilever launches a lot of brilliant advertisements by using many famous pop stars in every season. Commentary on the three underlying systems: Technical, People, Economic (including: Organisational use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) A. Technical When I was working in ChinadotCom corporation Shanghai branch, I had had a lot of opportunities of communicating with IT staff of Unilever China. According to the information which I have gained form them, it is clear that if there was no supporting from Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), possibly, all of its business and management would be out of control. ICT plays a significant role of management in lots of successful western firms as well as in Unilever. Thus, when Unilever re-entered China in 1990, it also brought some advanced management systems especially Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software which it had already operated in most of its subsidiaries into Unilever China. Throughout six years development, based on original ERP system, Unilever China has been building a brand-new Management Information System (MIS) which is different between the common MIS during current years. This new MIS concentrates in generating and analysing date source which forwards to provide efficient reports rather than the function of information communication. Unilever China has launched a number of separated information systems such as Dealer Management System (DMS), Sales Information System (SIS) and Supplier Management System as well. All of them have integrated with MIS through ERP in order to offer standard data source. Moreover, it has planned to launch a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system owing to maintain high proportion of royalty among its consumers. As we know, most multinational companies adopt single united globe standard for their IT equipments including hardware and software as well as Unilever. It should be easy and effective for the companies to manage and maintain the whole systems for example, once any engineer of Unilever turns on any PC of Unilever, there would be the same operation system and application software in the PC. However, for Unilever China, this situation could lead to some problems when it would like to merge other companies. It also has cost Unilever China much money and labour to integrate all the different systems which the fourteen joint ventures had been used, when it was carrying out the two revolutions. B. People In a world where technologies and markets are speedily changing, as well as in China, both local knowledge and globe proficiency have been required to deeply understand and meet the complex needs of the 150 million customers who choose Unilevers products everyday. It is very important, therefore, for Unilever China to make its employees localising as possible as it could. At its beginning stage, Unilever China had employed more one hundred foreign staffs including managers and professionals. Although they had more working experience and good management approaches, there still had been some disadvantages of this state. Firstly, it had led to the high cost of labour because Unilever should pay nearly six times more than employing local people. Secondly, most of foreign staffs, they had not had enough knowledge of Chinese economy environment. This might provide some wrong decisions in both marketing and manufacture areas. Finally, because they had been so proud of their characters and positions, they tended to be difficult to communicate with local people. All in all, thus, Unilever China has modified its mind to reduce the number of foreign staffs and offer more opportunities to local employees. (Unilever China, 2001) In every recent year, Unilever China has sent numbers of its local managers abroad to practise for senior positions in their own countries. Its target of 95 percent local management in China includes five percent of local managers who are also working overseas at any given time. On the other hand, in purpose of reducing the cost of workforce, Unilever China decided to cut down the number of workforce in Shanghai which is in the highest level of working payment in China, and move its manufactures to the lower cost place. C. Economic Inside Unilever China, the significant motive of two revolutions is to decrease their working expenditures and utilise all the business resource efficiently. The production lines of most its products such as shampoo and shower are quite similar including the raw material as well. There had been several same production lines among the fourteen joint ventures, before Unilever China re-structured them. In addition, the waste also happened to the IT departments, administration department and supporting department. Once Unilever China had held a new joint venture, it had had to build an individual business system for it. It seems to be more efficient and having more abilities of competition, when the two revolutions have been accomplished. Furthermore, the changes also facilitate Unilever to concentrate its brands in order to meet the needs of different markets. For instance, in Shanghai which is the huge developed city in China, its key products are in the personal care and wash area including Lux, Dove, Hazeline and Ponds. Due to the changing of Chinese government economy policy, China is going to be more open for the foreign companies. As a result that China has joint World Trade Organisation (WTO), more foeign companies will enter China. Most local manufactures tend to become stronger because they will have more chance to gain the advanced management approaches and learn the business skills by competing with more foreign companies. They also could the big challenge to the Unilever China. Another purpose of its changes, thus, is to maintain its leader position in China. Since these changes, Unilever China becomes more flexibility because it clearly to allocate its business targets to three groups. Every group has its own responsibility of manufacturing and selling particular products. Thus, both of them could be the professional in their own economical environment. Discussion of management activities and approaches (including typical errors) Until this section, it seems that there has been no obvious evidence which could show that Unilever China has made some clear mistakes of management so far. However, there might be no completely perfect result once you have accomplished some changes. In the short-term, we could regard it as more positive than negative but no one could image the future. Also, before the two revolutions happened, there had been some typical management errors which Unilever China had made. Inside most of joint ventures in China, there are two different manager teams: one group of them are assigned straight by foreign companies; another are the people who have already worked in the companies which are going to co-operate with the foreign companies. However, both of them have the responsibilities of managing the new companies which we exactly classify as Chinese-foreign joint ventures in China. Thus, because of different working background in different economics system, these two manager teams provide two different management styles. For the managers who have been worked in Unilever world group for a period of time, because of underlying the western developed management theory, their management approach could be considered as Proactive Positive. The management approaches have been argued and developed by a lot of western researchers for a long time. Those effective management approaches, such as team work, business culture and management information system, have been widely utilised in Unilever. This also could contribute good forecast of marketing and sales, efficient decision making and powerful capability of competition. Those advantages could be clearly embodied in the two revolution of Unilever China. In particular, in order to avoid more waste of resource, Unilever China terminated some business in 2002 in Shanghai and transferred them to the low cost place which was in HeFei. During this process, certainly, it should deal with the loss of re-investment and high risk of changing. Nevertheless, due to some typical management errors which it had made at the beginning of re-entering China, it has had to change its temporal situation. The typical mistakes could be Market Share wars and The big project. The evidences of these errors could be discovered by some investigation in its process of growth. For instance, only in a decade, it had constructed fourteen joint ventures in China to take the leader position of Chinese market and compete with P G. Following its step, P G China also carried out some measures which might beat its challenge. Finally, that lead to both of these two firms had to reduce their products price in order to obtain more market share. Those fourteen joint ventures had caused numerous waste of fix assets, labour and operation cost.

puddnhead wilson :: essays research papers

This section is the heart of both the farce and the tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson. The action is fast-paced, often absurd, and accompanied by convoluted plot twists. Yet it is always intimately tied to the central problem of the story: Roxy's failure to "save" her son, whose racial heritage seems to damn him inescapably. Roxy herself seems to agree with racist sentiments when she tells "Tom" that his black blood is to blame for his behavior. She also takes the opportunity to make claims for her own heritage, telling her son that she is descended from Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, and is thereby of as high quality Virginia stock as the judge or anyone else. While Roxy may seem to be a sort of "Uncle Tom" figure here, Twain avoids this interpretation by making her as much of a victim as her son. Her claims about her ancestry are pathetic and ridiculous, but they show how deeply entrenched the white hegemony is. Roxy's comments point to the fact that b lack blood is the problem: black labor has made the white masters wealthy and thus enabled both "Tom"'s upbringing and the kind of rhetoric that the judge and Roxy use about their fine old families. Concepts of "honor" in this novel have little to do with standards of behavior but are instead ways to uphold an exploitative system. Aside from the more profound issues at stake, this section also contains some of Twain's finest comic writing. The scene at the anti-temperance meeting is theatrical and amusing. It also makes reference to one of the major figures to whom Twain sought to compare himself: Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was the first to set up fire companies in the United States, and the Dawson's Landing fire brigade is similar in its bumbling to the companies Franklin describes in his Autobiography. The comment about the townspeople insuring themselves against the firefighters rather than against fire is obviously Franklin-esque: wry, practical, and linguistically aware. Franklin is the epitome of the self-made man in American literature and history, and by making reference to him Twain means to challenge the idea of self-constructed identities in a world where race is so powerful a determinant that it can erase all else. Pudd'nhead, the most Franklin- like of the characters in this novel, has so far fai led to become who he wants to be, and is left, like Franklin, conducting experiments that are ridiculed rather than appreciated. puddnhead wilson :: essays research papers This section is the heart of both the farce and the tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson. The action is fast-paced, often absurd, and accompanied by convoluted plot twists. Yet it is always intimately tied to the central problem of the story: Roxy's failure to "save" her son, whose racial heritage seems to damn him inescapably. Roxy herself seems to agree with racist sentiments when she tells "Tom" that his black blood is to blame for his behavior. She also takes the opportunity to make claims for her own heritage, telling her son that she is descended from Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, and is thereby of as high quality Virginia stock as the judge or anyone else. While Roxy may seem to be a sort of "Uncle Tom" figure here, Twain avoids this interpretation by making her as much of a victim as her son. Her claims about her ancestry are pathetic and ridiculous, but they show how deeply entrenched the white hegemony is. Roxy's comments point to the fact that b lack blood is the problem: black labor has made the white masters wealthy and thus enabled both "Tom"'s upbringing and the kind of rhetoric that the judge and Roxy use about their fine old families. Concepts of "honor" in this novel have little to do with standards of behavior but are instead ways to uphold an exploitative system. Aside from the more profound issues at stake, this section also contains some of Twain's finest comic writing. The scene at the anti-temperance meeting is theatrical and amusing. It also makes reference to one of the major figures to whom Twain sought to compare himself: Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was the first to set up fire companies in the United States, and the Dawson's Landing fire brigade is similar in its bumbling to the companies Franklin describes in his Autobiography. The comment about the townspeople insuring themselves against the firefighters rather than against fire is obviously Franklin-esque: wry, practical, and linguistically aware. Franklin is the epitome of the self-made man in American literature and history, and by making reference to him Twain means to challenge the idea of self-constructed identities in a world where race is so powerful a determinant that it can erase all else. Pudd'nhead, the most Franklin- like of the characters in this novel, has so far fai led to become who he wants to be, and is left, like Franklin, conducting experiments that are ridiculed rather than appreciated.