Organizational Culture and Cultural Values Essay Example for Free

Organizational Culture and Cultural Values Essay One of the most prominent instrumental values of 3M’s culture, and which has contributed to its success is employee risk-taking and encouragement of the same (Mitsch, 1990). 3M’s policy of creating room for employees to experiment and conduct research means that the researchers are more exposed to the risk of failure than they would be were risk-taking not encouraged. However, risk-taking also enhances chances of making improvements on existing products and developing new products. Another instrumental value in 3M is efficiency. Management of new technologies and innovations, assessing, reacting to and anticipating market trends, and assessing customer needs can be very challenging for the management. Research and Development can be costly yet some results are not always positive or available for immediate use. The management of available resources requires efficiency in management. Efficiency is therefore central to 3M’s culture. An important terminal value of 3M’s culture is high quality of output to meet customer expectations. 3M improves the quality of its output by encouraging research and development for long-term and short-term purposes. By encouraging risk-taking, allowing researchers to spend 15 percent of their time researching for new products and technologies, and scaling up RD budget from 4. 6 percent to 6. 5 percent within a decade, 3M declares its intention to ensure that consumers get a continous supply of high quality products (Mitsch, 1990). A second terminal value is innovation. As noted above, 3M attaches high premium on research and development of new technologies and improvement of existing technologies and products (Mitsch, 1990). Innovation is one of the factors which separate market leaders from mediocre organizations and 3M invests heavily to sharpen its innovative edge. Question 2: Human interactions, property rights and ethics do influence 3M’s cultural values. The involvement of marketing, manufacturing, quality, laboratory, financial and packaging staff in production of new products promotes healthy relationships between staff members working with the different units. This team-work reduces the frequency of inter-departmental rivalry and exchange of blame for mistakes and failures. Healthy interactions among units and sub-units are instrumental to increased productivity and staff motivation. An important property right at 3M is access to and right to use laboratory resources and technologies developed within one’s operating unit, as well as technologies developed by other units. A leading cause of failure in many organizations is unhealthy rivalry among units, which lead to some units keeping technologies and resources to themselves and barring others from accessing them. The management of 3M ensures that workers, regardless of which unit they come from, can access laboratory resources and technologies easily (Mitsch, 1990). Such property rights encourage inter-unit co-operation and cohesion, reduce RD costs, and promote productivity in the long-term. They also enrich the organization’s cultural values. Reference Mitsch, R. (1990). Case: Three Roads to Innovation. Journal of Business Strategy (Sept/Oct 1990), pp 18-21.

Realizations of Loss Essay -- Personal Narrative

It is no longer the home I grew up in. The loss of my mother is evident now more than ever, cementing the realization of how one person’s impact can be as much the foundation of a home as the concrete itself. It has been two years since our lives changed forever. My dad is recently remarried and trying to move forward after losing his wife of almost thirty-eight years to terminal brain cancer. Since my mother’s death and my father’s subsequent remarriage, our family house has lost its comfortable feel of home; in its place now resides a reflective sadness, an impersonal emptiness, and a surreal urgency. The living and dining rooms are now tidy and impersonal. Gone is the familiar clutter of children’s books and teaching aides. The half-finished crosswords and other reading material are no longer in their stacks next her chair in the living room. The chair isn’t even there anymore. It had traveled with Mom to hospice care after a stroke left her unable to walk. Another major difference is the remodeling activity. Since my parent’s purchased this house when I was four, they had remodeling plans. Somewhere along the way, everyday life and complacency had always gotten in the way. Lately, almost as if in defiance of the past, my father’s current â€Å"do it now, there may not be a later† attitude had taken over. He is currently working on the upstairs master bedroom. My parents had always wanted to make one large master bedroom out of two adjacent bedrooms upstairs, but it always seemed to take a back seat to more urgent fixes or budgetary needs. The two extra bedrooms upstairs now stood as one, finally coming closer towards their fruition. The smell of fresh paint brings a sad nostalgia running through me. Why isn’... ...as my family, my childhood†¦my mother. As time passes, I know that I will have to accept that what once was will never be again. Maybe things would be easier if my dad and his second wife moved to a different house, but that is not my decision to make. Change is part of life and while sometimes it is wonderful, other times it is a painful journey in which we feel alone, even abandoned. My home, the place I grew up in, was not so much the walls themselves, but the person who created the security that I felt through an unconditional love. That is what a home is; home is a nonjudgmental, irreplaceable love that can still see your best even when you are at your worst. Those of us who have had that kind of home should feel fortunate. I didn’t realize how fortunate I truly was until I stood within its absence. I know I do now, in more ways than ever before.

How to Write a Research Proposal Essay

The starting point for every paper, be it a term paper or a finals’ paper, should be a thoroughly worked-out research proposal. Investing sufficient time and thought into writing a research proposal will yield a good return and can save you a lot of time, confusion and disappointment when actually writing your paper. A research proposal serves several purposes: – It gives an overview of the relevance and objective of a research project. – It gives an overview of the content, the procedure and the timing of a research project. It shows whether a research project is manageable in scope and timing. A research proposal has six key components: – A title page – An abstract which summarizes the project – A detailed description of the project – A time schedule for the project – An overview of the structure of the paper (Gliederung) – References The following sections give an overview of each component. Although each research prop osal should follow this guideline, you will find that not all sections are (equally) applicable for each project, since every research project is different. For instance, a paper that focusses on literature review or a theoretical analysis requires a somewhat different research proposal than a paper that reports an empirical study. Identify the aspects in each section that are relevant to your paper. In total, the research proposal should not exceed 4-5 pages. Useful resources are listed at the end of this guideline. I. TITLE PAGE Give the title of your research paper, your name, your student ID, your course of study, the semester you are in, your contact details, and the course details for which you are submitting the proposal. II. ABSTRACT The purpose of the abstract is to give the reader a brief introductory summary of the project. The abstract should not be longer than 100-150 words. It should address the following questions: – What is the topic of research? – What is the research question? – Why is this relevant? – How do I study the topic? – What kind of findings do I anticipate? – How will I interpret the findings? – What are the implications of my research paper? (c) November 2007, Holger Hopp 1 Even though the abstract comes first in a research proposal, it is advisable to write it last, i. . once you have spelt out all information in detail in the later sections. III. PROJECT DESCRIPTION In this section, you give a detailed account of what, why and how you are going to write about. Write this section in a goal-directed manner. Do not attempt to give an exhaustive overview of the literature you have read and do not try to look at every angle of a prob lem. Rather, everything in this section should relate clearly to your research question. 1) What is the research question? In the research question, you succinctly express the objective of your paper. If you feel your project cannot be formulated in a research question, there is something wrong with it. Every suitable project addresses a clear research question! 2) Why is this relevant? In this section, you briefly explain why you consider the research question to be relevant. What does your paper add to previous research in the field? 3) What do you want to study/write about? Here, you zoom in on the particular topic/phenomenon/problem your paper addresses to answer the research question. Make clear why your topic, etc. is suitable for answering the research question. ) What did previous research find? In this section, you provide a brief overview of the relevant literature. Typically, you outline the different positions/approaches/theories in the field, identify flaws or lacunae in previous research, pinpoint open questions and show how your study follows up on or relates to previous research. It is important to keep this section goal-oriented and brief. Typically, you do not ne ed to cite more than 5-7 sources in this section. 5) What is your hypothesis? Formulate a clear and testable hypothesis. Unlike the research question, which is open, a hypothesis is a testable statement. 6) How do you want to test the hypothesis? In this section, you outline the set-up of your study. If you write a paper based exclusively on previous literature, this section should include information about: (a) Sources: Which texts/approaches/analyses are you going to use? (b) Method and Analysis: How are you going to analyze the texts/approaches/analyses? What do you look for? Which criteria do you apply? How are you going to compare several texts/approaches/analyses? c) Procedure: In which order (of research subquestions) do you tackle the texts/approaches? If you carry out an empirical study, this section should include information about: (c) November 2007, Holger Hopp 2 (a) Participants: How many? What are their characteristics or the selection criteria? Where and how are you going to recruit them? (b) Materials: What are your experimental items like? (c) Design of study: How are you going to construct your items? What are the conditions? What is/are the independent variable/s? What is/are the dependent variable/s? d) Method: Name the method and explain why you opted for it. What task are you going to use? (e) Procedure: How does the task work? How do the items get presented? What do the participants do? (f) Predictions: Break down the hypothesis into experimental predictions according to the design, materials and method of your study. (g) Analysis: State how you are going to classify, group and analyze the results. Which comparisons are you going to make? Which statistical analyses, if any, are you going to use (e. g. frequencies, comparison of means, correlations, etc)? ) What are the expected findings? In this section, you anticipate the findings you think you are going to obtain. Typically, these should be consistent with the prediction flowing from your hypothesis. Write this section in future tense. Do not make up fake data or conclusions! 8) How do the findings speak to the hypothesis? In this section, you explain how you interpret the findings in relation to the hypothesis and how they confirm or disprove the hypothesis. It is interesting to think about unexpected findings: What if the findings turn out differently? Are there any alternative interpretations? 9) What is the expected contribution of your study to the field/research question? Here, you briefly summarize the impact you think your project will have. (c) November 2007, Holger Hopp 3 IV. TIME SCHEDULE Many projects fail because they could not be carried out within the set time limit. Hence, working out a time schedule is essential. In most cases, you can use a table for the time schedule as in the example table (Table 1). Your table may contain more or fewer points. Plan backwards form the date your paper is due and allow for enough time. Total time available Activity 1) Finding and reading previous literature 2) Designing materials 3) Learning how to use method 4) Designing questionnaire 5) Finding participants 6) Running tests 7) Analyzing data †¦ †¦ 8) Writing up 9) Rewriting 10) Thorough proof-reading (if possible also by someone else) 11) Submission 4 months (until 31 January 2 ) Time period Dates (from X until Y) 3 weeks 1 October – 21 October 1 week 2 weeks 22 October – 31 October 22 October – 6 November If you work in a team, state how you are going to divide work and who does what when. V. STRUCTURE OF PAPER In this section, you provide a preliminary Table of Contents of your paper that illustrates the structure of the paper. For each section, indicate how long it will approximately be and what the main points are in it. VI. REFERENCES You should list all references cited in the proposal. Make sure these references are up-to-date and conform to the department’s ABC’s of style (see departmental website). The final steps Read through your proposal and use this guideline as a checklist. Make sure you have addressed all relevant points.

The blind man from Cathedral by Raymond Carver - 600 Words

The blind man from Cathedral by Raymond Carver Raymond Carver wrote a short story called ‘‘The cathedral’’, it is about a woman who has a long time friend and he is blind. He comes at her house to see her and then realize that she as a husband. At the beginning, the husband has a good vision but he is the one who seems blind. The husband is speaks and do signs when he is talking to Robert, the blind man, the husband is kind of ‘‘blind’’ because he does not notice and understand what it is for Robert to be blind. What does it mean or how it changes his life to be a person who cannot see anything, to be a blind man. The husband seems very uncomfortable, Robert makes him feel that he is not in the right place. The husband is always†¦show more content†¦The husband does not realize and thinks that the blind mind is like him, that he is intelligent, he has emotions, and ideas. He almost sees him as an alien from another planet, a kind of strange animal coming from no where. Wilky 2 The husband really does not know what to say, what to do and how to act with Robert. Here is an example of that, they have just finished eating and they are going in the living room. The husband describes his thoughts about what happened in the room The husband shows that he does not like the fact that Robert is with them by the way he is acting. Robert is not a human, not a person, this is it, he is just a blind man that is what the husband thinks in his mind since the beginning. The story goes on and on, the relation between the husband and Robert is positively going forward and the husband is acting differently because he is starting to treat him like a human. During dinner, the husband shows that he is starting to feel good according to Robert The husband realize that Robert is not an animal and that he is eating with is fork and knife just like him and his wife and not with his hands like a monkey. He is shocked and fascinated by the fact that Robert can do that. At this point of the story, this is a very important moment according to the relation between the blind man and the husband. It is the first time that the narrator sees Robert as an human and not a different type of person. He is startingShow MoreRelatedCathedral By Raymond Carver Analysis1631 Words   |  7 Pages Cathedral is a short story written by American writer and poet Raymond Carver. (2017) The story was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1981 and appeared in The Americas Best Short Stories in 1982. (2012) In the short story cathedral, the narrator’s wife’s blind friend is coming to visit. The narrator isn’t thrilled about his wife’s blind friend coming to visit nor is he happy that the man is blind. 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Through the narrators changing character, theme of loneliness and jealousy, and the cathedral being a symbolRead MoreRaymond Carver with Cathedral and John Updike with AP979 Words   |  4 PagesRaymond Carver with â€Å"Cathedral† and John Updike with â€Å"AP† â€Å"Cathedral† and AP both short stories written during the same century. But even though they both introduce stereotypical characters that somehow change their view of the world, they have many more different aspects. The stories differ in atmosphere and the quantity of people involve in each story. 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