Nationalistic Design in Practice Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nationalistic Design in Practice - Assignment Example In this way, the above products all represent some form or fashion of American ideology and majority belief. The Campbell’s soup retains the traditional labeling that has defined the product for so long as a staple of American life. Likewise, the brand’s labeling holds true t the use of Red and White – both colors of the American flag. Secondly, the Ford F-250 is also a quintessentially American product that hearkens back to the days in which a vast frontier stretched before would-be settlers (Ford 1). Reminiscent of the Conestoga wagons, the massive truck is the epitome of American oversize and excess. Lastly, the Dickies brand of work clothes invokes the idea that America is still a country of industrial producing workers (Dickies 1). Although this is far from the truth, the brand continues to evoke such ideas with its careful use of Red, White, and Blue along with the inclusion of a horse shoe in the logo. With regards to three products that are noticeably non-nationalistic in origin, this analysis has chosen to examine Pepperidge Farm’s Pirouettes, Ford’s Fiesta, and American Apparel’s European-themed product offerings. Due to the fact that each of these products draws on inspiration from the other side of the Atlantic, the amount of nationalist influence on the products is limited if not non-existent. Firstly, the Pepperidge Farm product does not even bear a comparable name in English. It is marketed as a French creation even though it is made and distributed by an American bakery (Pepperidge Farm 1). Secondly, the Ford Fiesta has recently had a major face-life and redesign from its earlier days as a very boring and non descript econo-box (Ford 2). As such, the designers have drawn on inspiration from Ford’s European division to design a product offering for the American market that draws heavily on European

United States Foreign Policy Toward Jewish Refugees During 1933-1939 :: History Historical foreign Jews Essays

United States Foreign Policy Toward Jewish Refugees During 1933-1939   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In reviewing the events which gave rise to the U.S.'s foreign policy toward Jewish refugees, we must identify the relevant factors upon which such decisions were made. Factors including the U.S. government's policy mechanisms, it's bureaucracy and public opinion, coupled with the narrow domestic political mindedness of President Roosevelt, lead us to ask; Why was the American government apathetic to the point of culpability, and isolationist to the point of irresponsibility, with respect to the systematic persecution and annihilation of the Jewish people of Europe during the period between 1938-1945?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the years of 1933-1939, led by Neville Chamberlain and the British, the United States was pursuing a policy of appeasement toward Hitler. They had tolerated his military build-up and occupation of the Rhineland, both violations of the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the annexing of Austria and the take-over of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. Hitler realized early on in his expansionist campaign that Western leaders were too busy dealing with their own domestic problems to pose any real opposition. In the United States, Americans were wrestling with the ravages of the Great Depression. With the lingering memory of the more than 300,000 U.S. troops either killed or injured in World War I, isolationism was the dominant sentiment in most political circles. Americans were not going to be "dragged" into another war by the British. The Depression had bred increased xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and with upward of 30% unemployment in some industrial areas1, many Americans wanted to see immigration halted completely. It was in this context that the democratic world, led by the United States, was faced with a refugee problem that it was morally bound to deal with. The question then became; what would they do?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Persecution of the Jews in Germany began officially on April 1st 1933. Hitler had come to power a few weeks earlier and he immediately began the plan, as outlined in his book Mein Kampf, to eliminate "the eternal mushroom of humanity - Jews".2 German Jews were stripped of their citizenship by the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 and had their businesses and stockholdings seized in 1938. Civil servants, newspaper editors, soldiers and members of the judiciary were dismissed from their positions, while lawyers and physicians were forbidden to practice. Anti-Jewish violence peaked on 9 November 1938, known as the "Night of the Broken Glass" or Kristallnacht, when over 1000 synagogues were burned. Jewish schools, hospitals, books, cemeteries and homes were also destroyed3.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The mistreatment of non-Aryans in Germany was common knowledge in the U.S. in 1938. After the anschluss, the flow of

Maureen Frye at Quaker Steel and Alloy Corporation Essay

Frye made several mistakes with respect to her initial attempt to implement change, however there are wider company issues beyond Frye’s immediate control that also contributed to the failure of her initiative. Having seen her original memo attract criticism for its arbitrary nature, Frye failed to fully comprehend the reasons for the initial rejection of her proposal, when she proceeded with her January 1995 meeting with the DSMs. This is due to the fact that Frye did not properly understand the way in which the sales department worked. On page 7 it is mentioned that â€Å"Frye had not been able to spend as much time in the field as she had hoped†, while on page 9 Frye says â€Å"we gave them a rough outline of what we wanted done, and we expected the DSMs to follow through as they saw fit†. As a result of this, we speculate that she was unaware of the large degree of autonomy afforded to individual salespeople by the regional DSMs. In a scenario where there is ordinarily a large degree of autonomy, a â€Å"rough outline† presented to people who then have to pass on the concept to their respective subordinates is totally inadequate. Frye showed a complete lack of empathy with the changes involved for the sales force. She has not solicited widespread feedback on her proposals and from her position behind a computer analyzing cold hard numbers, she has entirely underestimated the change involved to the nature of the sales force’s work. Additionally she has made no effort to understand their motivations and frustrations. Frye does not appear to have engaged the General Sales Managers at all. By sidelining them in this way she removes their motivation to ensure correct implementation. She thus effectively discards what could be very effective resources that exert direct line responsibility over the employees who will ultimately need to implement Frye’s proposed changes. Finally, Frye was not properly empowered by her superiors and seems to have made no effort to address this. As evidenced on Page 2 the complicated â€Å"responsibility lines† that cut across departments meant that typically managers who joined Quaker from other companies found Quaker a â€Å"confusing place to work†. These complicated responsibility lines (Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 3) meant that Frye was not given explicit control over the people who would ultimately implement her proposals. â€Å"In the workplace, credibility grows out of two sources: expertise and relationships†[1] Coupled with the fact that Frye did not have established working relationships, this confusing structure meant that in the absence of explicit empowerment, Frye lacked the credibility to effect change. The two overriding themes that we have identified are that: †¢ Frye has demonstrated a clear lack of people skills. She has shown no understanding of the key motivators of the sales force and communication around implementation of her idea has been poor both in terms of content and its direction. †¢ Frye has been unable to exhibit leadership due to both a complicated organizational structure and her personal lack of established credibility due to lack of relationships. What would you do if you were Maureen Frye, at the end of the case? One standalone alternative that Frye could pursue is for Israel to send a direct order to his entire department asking that they comply with Frye’s proposals. This proposal benefits from the fact that Israel has direct line authority over the salespeople and is in a better position to monitor the implementation plan. This alternative however entirely fails to address concerns around soliciting feedback and ignores the â€Å"†¦generally accepted norm of influencing through persuasion and analyses rather than through formal authority†¦Ã¢â‚¬ .[2] Additionally this entirely underestimates the change for the salespeople, which Frye was initially guilty of. What is more, this does not address what appears to be one of the fundamental frustrations that salespeople have when dealing with large accounts, namely that the quality of service from the Technical Service department varies greatly depending on the salesperson involved. Thus, whilst Frye might see a change in behavior she may not necessarily see the desired result of higher sales due to lack of buy-in from the Technical Services Department. Another alternative is to try and implement her proposal while at the same time introducing a change to the compensation policy whereby salespeople would be remunerated based on a fixed salary plus a large variable component determined as a commission on sales revenue. This alternative however requires a radical shift in the corporate culture and its likely outcome of success is severely reduced by the fact that when talking about motivation of salespeople in the Chicago and New York offices, â€Å"All rated monetary rewards and incentives lowest on the scale†[3]. This solution also fails to address the problem of making sure that both the Sales and Technical Services departments are pulling in the same direction. Our favored alternative composes several elements: †¢ Frye needs to get the VP for Technical Services on board. This is probably most easily achieved by a meeting involving Salk, Bethancourt and Israel where all spell out their clear support for the project. †¢ Frye needs to obtain comprehensive feedback on her proposals from the sales force. She should do this by immediately visiting all regional offices and conducting interviews with the General Sales managers, all the DSMs and as many salespeople as possible. o The meetings between Frye and the salespeople should not be of a formal kind, but rather informal and friendly in order to properly develop a collaborative relationship. o If we assume that meeting each and every salesperson is impossible, then she needs to select the people she meets with on a strategic basis by choosing those who exert most influence on their colleagues. o She should clearly explain the rationale for her proposals in person and take account of any feedback provided and include in the implementation where possible. Feedback should not merely be point in time but should be ongoing. o According to the case, there is already one senior salesperson that is convinced about the project and has implemented the project to some extent and believes in its future outcomes. Frye needs to make good use of this senior salesperson because as we know, â€Å"credibility, along other lines can be built or bought.†[4] He can serve as a good liaison between her and the other salespeople, showing evidence that the project works and emphasizing to his colleagues the benefits based on his first-hand experience. o Given that monetary rewards are not a high priority Frye must emphasize that whilst they may have an initially fallow period in sales, the subsequent benefits from their time and effort will result in increased sales of a higher magnitude. Additionally she should emphasize that the interim period will also yield scope for significant satisfaction as they collaborate with clients in order to resolve their problems. †¢ In addition to seeking input from the sales force, Frye needs to further establish credibility with the sales force before asking them to implement her proposal. As a result of our first point, we believe she can do this by ensuring better cooperation from the Technical Services Department for all salespeople. In this way she â€Å"helps them see how they can get from here to there, by establishing some credibility and by giving them some reason and help to get there.†[5] †¢ There should be memo sent by the VPs for Technical Support Service, and Sales to their subordinates which: o Details Frye’s proposals and explicitly mentioning that she should be afforded all possible help in implementing her proposals. o Emphasizes that the company practices â€Å"a strong philosophy of providing customers with the best technical service and assistance available†[6] o Insists on each DSM providing a weekly progress report in order to ensure greater accountability. o Gives thanks to staff for their excellent performance thus far. By going through the points above we believe that Frye addresses the issues that we identified when answering the first question, namely: a lack of empowerment, a lack of understanding of the sales department, a lack of empathy and a failure to engage the General Sales Managers. The process however does not stop there. Close monitoring of the implementation is fundamental so that any deviation is identified and corrected appropriately in a timely fashion. Frye should ensure that she uses the need for monitoring as a way to gather continued feedback and comments and thus evaluate the change in sales behavior and its effect not only on sales but also on employee satisfaction. She needs to establish an ongoing and collaborative relationship and make sure that the sales force see her as an approachable colleague working towards the same company goals rather than as a demanding taskmaster. Frye needs to ensure that she has a contingency plan in place. We suggest that should there be complaints from the Sales Department in relation to Technical Services Department cooperation, Frye should escalate immediately to the VP in charge as well as Israel and Bethancourt. Assuming she continues to encounter resistance on the Sales side, this should be escalated to Israel for immediate action. Should the trial of Frye’s proposals be successful i.e. increase overall sales through a greater focus on large accounts, we believe that when rolled out to other products that a more formal relationship should be established between the Technical Services Department and the Sales Department. As part of this process we advocate a process of 360degree evaluation feedback where employees are ranked versus their peers. For Frye’s personal learning she must realize that â€Å"†¦feedback is not an interpersonal process where others tell one how they react to his/her behavior. It is rather a self initiated process where one examines the effects of one’s behavior on others† therefore once the implementation plan has been drawn up and executed, it would be valuable for Frye to request 360 degree feedback from all stakeholders engaged in the reallocation process and initiate a thorough self-assessment to address her areas of weakness.

Gun Control Laws Should Have A Good Middle Balance

While some people say it takes away their rights , Gun control is a good thing because Less crimes will be committed by firearms, Gun control is good for everyone s safety , and Countries with stricter gun control has less death by firearms .America has the highest amount of gun related deaths each year in the world. â€Å"In Germany 381, in France 255, in Canada 165 in the United Kingdom 68, in Australia 65, in Japan 39 and in the United States, 11,127† (Moore Michael, 51:15-51:48). Since the United States has the most number of deaths, it is quite important to have tight gun-control laws that restrict people from owning or having in possession dangerous firearms like machine guns, or anything automatic. Gun-control laws should find a mid†¦show more content†¦However, the United States government should be able to regulate the types of gun’s Americans can own and who can own those guns because times are not the same and American’s mental health system i s broken. This can cause a poor choice in how a gun is used. Many decades ago, the United States was once a great country in which a gun was considered to be needed and essential to survive and protect your family. â€Å"As Americans civilized the wilderness, they would eventually be able to rely not just on their own skills at individual self-defense for protection, but on laws and civil authorities and the other institutions of government they were building † ( Whitney, Pg. 103). The United States did not have the amount of civil authorities that we have today. Americans back then had to rely on their guns to protect themselves as laws changed and were made. Times were different in early America and that is a big reason why the Second Amendment was ideal. Guns, such as the AK-47, had not existed yet. Firearms in the early years were too slow to load and that is one of the reasons why gun control was not such a serious issue In the early United States History. Gun control has become necessary throughout our history as different types of guns have emerged and people became interested for our civic duty but for the entertainment ,or even violence. The National Firearms Act, enacted in 1934, â€Å"All gun sales and gun