Tim O’Brien “The Things They Carried”, and His Writing Style

In his story â€Å"The Things They Carried† O’Brien depicts casualties of Vietnam war through evolution of characters’ emotional and psychological state. Psychological pressure is caused by war, but O’Brien portrays it symbolically through material and emotional things the soldiers carry. He gives a detailed list of everything soldiers take. The evolution of emotional perception of the world and values is depicted through the character of Lieutenant Jim Cross.His negligence, passion for a girl and narrow-mindedness causes a death of one of the soldiers, and this event forces his to revise his values and ethical code of a soldier. O’Brien uses a simple language, but symbolism and stylistic devices helps him to unfold the message of the story. The short story â€Å"The Things They Carried† was published in 1990. It describes the events of Vietnam War and analyzes deep personal feelings of the main heroes, and things they were faced with during wartime. Soldiers carry different â€Å"things† with them.Under â€Å"things† O’Brien means weapons and ammunition as well as terror, love, personal values and beliefs, but â€Å"almost everyone humped photographs† (p. 4). This story vividly depicts inner state of the characters during wartime and their living essentials such as fear, kindness, love, and uncertainty. These things are so important for them as ammunition during wartime, because they help the main heroes to overcome depression and difficulties they face with. It is important that â€Å"a set of things† has been changed, and at the end of the story the heroes carry a completely different â€Å"things† with them.As Kaplan characterizes war stories: â€Å"Almost all of the literature on the war, both fictional and nonfictional, makes clear that the only certain thing during the Vietnam War was that nothing was certain† (Kaplan, 1993, p. 43). The main character of the book i s Lieutenant Jim Cross, a man who falls in love with a girl who does not return his feelings. Jim suffers greatly and can do nothing but dreaming about close relations with this girl. His negligence of duties costs life one of his soldiers, and after this terrible event, he puts an end to his false dreams, and rethink most of his values and views.It was really difficult to him to change his worldview but he was strong enough to cope with emotional burden, and re-sort his â€Å"things†. The main idea of the text is that wartime has a great impact on feelings and views of people. When one person's actions begin to affect another person, we have moved from personal ethics to social ethics and often have to place some limits on human behavior (Bowen, Weigl, 1997). The story morality states that everyone is responsible for his own actions, and it is useless to blame everything on the people around you.Jim Cross is depicted as the person who is full of life experience, but still ha s not found the truth of life. The story â€Å"The Things They Carried† portrays that for some soldiers their burden is too heavy and they cannot carry it any longer. At the beginning of the story O’Brien describes things they carry: â€Å"what they carry was partly a function of rank, partly a field spatiality† (O’Brien, p. 5). Further, for most of them it is difficult to change their attitude towards life, but the rat-trap of war has an great influence on their outlook.For instance, Jim Cross has burned all pictures of Martha and shifts his attention to duties. â€Å"These burdens – the supplies the men carried to stay physically alive – are placed on the same level in terms of description as the objects carried that provided emotional sustenance to the men of the platoon† (Posek, 1997). The other main characters, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Lee Strunk, and Henry Dobbins, are also carry their â€Å"things† which differ because they have different life experiences and expectations. Nevertheless, war forces them to carry the same psychological things as scary and hope.They need to adapt to war, but the only way for them is to change their habits and personal values. Some of them like Ted Lavender’s conditioned to this reality using their own way, but fails. Subconscious persuasion and mind-altering drugs have no effects. This causes lack of coincidence between war and personal feelings, since many of the characters struggling to develop their emotions while everyone else struggles to suppress their feelings. O’Brien depicts that when fear starts to dominate, people usually act in their own interests, they degrade as the keepers of customs and morality.It remains disappointing that the social issues that are generally identified as pertaining to deal with questions of individual choice, rather than of communal responsibility. Besides, material things the characters carry emotion burden: â€Å"Grief , terror, love, longing these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. † (O’Brien p. 6). The remarkable feature of O'Brien’s style is very exact descriptions: â€Å"As a first lieutenant and platoon leader, Jimmy Cross carried a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a . 45(c) caliber pistol that weighed 2.9 pounds full loaded. † (O’Brien p. 4). Detailed list of material things the soldiers carried helps O’Brien to force a reader to understand a burden they carried. O’Brien goes far beyond a simplistic description given a weight of each item the soldiers carries. â€Å"The weapon weighed 7. 5 pounds unloaded, 8. 2 pounds with its full 20 round magazine. The riflemen carried anywhere from 12 to 20 magazines†¦ adding on another 8. 4 pounds at minimum, 14 pounds at maximum. † (O’Brien, p. 5). O’Brien is a keen observer of people, historical and w ar events which is manifested in his style of writing.O’Brien depicts that a battlefield is the most terrible place he has ever seen. In this collection of the short stories he portrays the futility of soldiers deaths and sufferings of men who are still alive, but know that death is â€Å"around the corner†. The message of his stories is that war is senseless, war brings only grief and constant tension to be killed. In the story O’Brien rings up questions concerning moral health of people, and in spite of all the negative life lessons soldiers understand what it is to be an individual.Throughout the story there is a definite blame unmoral behaviour of the people, but it is most poignantly and symbolically demonstrated with the rejection of previous life. O’Brien shows that the inner state of soldiers has changed, and the readers cannot find a cynical man as most of them were before the war. On the other hand, war causes people to become insensitive. Obrie n depicts that the psychological state of Jim Cross has changed. He has not a â€Å"a love man† as he was depicted at the beginning of the story.To some extent, the moment of death caused the awakening of many characters in the story. For instance, Jim Cross sees the truth of life only when the soldier dies because of his negligence. O’Brien depicts that fear applied to love leads to individual degradation. Tolerance protects that diversity and demands respect. Jim Cross is a person who fights with his own imperfection changing his personal views after Ted Lavender’s death. When fear starts to dominate, people usually act in their own interests, they degrade as the keepers of customs and morality.It remains disappointing that the social issues that are generally identified as pertaining to deal with questions of individual choice, rather than of communal responsibility. The most impressive and powerful is the last scene of the story, when after the death of Lave nder Jim burns Martha’s letters and photographs promising never have fantasies. The facts mentioned above prove the idea that only in difficult situations people show their real nature and values. Toughness stems not from insensitivity but from a strict persona; code which functions as the characters' sole defense against the overwhelming chaos of war.O’Brien possesses a unique style of writing which appeals to readers mind and emotions. Writing of the author is filled with meaning and symbolism, hidden in plain sight beneath a seamless narrative style that breathes not a word of agenda, of dogma, or of personal belief. In this way, his writing contains knowledge that is hidden to all, but give only hints to be comprehended. Also significant in the writing style of O’Brien is a tendency to take on the character point of view in the narrative. The representation of the material is very affective.The structure of the piece is aimed to compel readers to think the p roblem over. Clear representation underlined the author’s awareness of the issues under discussion. The vocabulary is mostly neutral. Style and choice of words create a sophisticated tone, but, as the most important, unprepared readers understand the message of the chapter without difficulties, because the O’Brien’s language is very vivid and clear. He appeals to such universal virtues as equality and faith, and gives insight look into the root of the problem.The most important that the second chapter provides it readers, especially those who are not familiar with the reality of war. There are no romantic and lengthy descriptions in the short stories, but description of events and emotions ae very concise and brief. O’Brien depicts that our ordered and organized world one feels sometimes the need of a change. He â€Å"draws the reader into the text, calling the reader's attention to the process of invention and challenging him to determine which, if any, of the stories are true† (Calloway, 1995, p. 249).The repetition technique helps to shift logical stress and draws the readers attention to some key elements of the sentence structure, helping to shape authors message: â€Å"That's what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story. † (O'Brien p. 40). The collection of his stories can be called a â€Å"true† war story as it describes casualties of life experienced by soldiers.O†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Brien states â€Å"that war is Hell† potraying â€Å"in-depth and sensitive exploration of soldiers’ hearts and minds† (Literary Encyclopedia. 2005). The author depicts that war is a dangerous and tremendous evil which change emotion and feeling, views and customs of so ldiers. In spite of all the negative life lessons Jim Cross understands what it is to be an individual, and re-sorts his â€Å"things he carried†. It was the only way for all soldiers to survive during war. At the end of the story â€Å"things† form a strict ethical code which functions as the characters' sole defense against the overwhelming chaos of war.They set of things include the ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic and always painful. The story teaches that a mature person acts in accordance with his own ethical code developing an approach to life that helps him get through the day. As O’Brien writes: â€Å"By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself† (O’Brien, p. 9). His characters are mature persons who act in accordance with their own morals developing an approach to life that helps them get through the day.The evolution of a character from a narrow-minded per son who does not care much about the consequences of his actions to a mature personality is another feature of style of writing: â€Å"I’d come to this war a quiet, thoughtful sort of person, a college grad, Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude, all the credentials, but after seven months in the bush I realized that those high, civilized trappings had somehow been crushed under the weight of the simple daily realities. I’d turned mean inside (O’Brien, p. 9).To conclude, O’Brien uses different specific techniques and different stylistics devices to convey a message of the stories and appeals to emotions of readers and imagination. Evolution of characters, simple vocabulary and a deep emotional impact on the reader are the main writing features of O’Brien.Brainstorming IdeasWhy did O’Brien give detailed list of all things the soldiers’ carries?O’Brien depicts a death of Ted Lavender. Why did he select this character?Was it so impo rtant to â€Å"kill† someone?O’Brien uses the theme of love at the beginning of the story. Why?What material and emotional things the soldiers carry? What is their meaning?What is the link between morality of the characters and their actions? Did it affect the other characters? How?The war is not sweet for those people who suffer from it. O’Brien describes, explains and justifies soldiers in terms of a deep and ineradicable difference between â€Å"past† and â€Å"present†. In stories O’Brien uses emotional impact with the implication of uncertainty, hesitation and deliberation. At the end, O’Brien criticizes horrific and piteous nature of war which change people and their world perception.Symbols, metaphors, repetition helps to impress the reader and appeal to his emotions. Emotional burden should not be taken for granted at a causal explanation of death. However, a war giving special significance to the ‘uniqueness' led to a p articular concern about the common sense of reflecting the desire of individual to find relief from emotional pressure. For most of the soldiers a a sense of being in the army to be fully expressed and developed requires that the people enjoy the right to decide upon their destiny.Second, at a personal level, it obviously makes relationships with others possible, creating a world of meaning. War is a true journey for men: it helps to make choices, makes possible relationships with others, and gives strength and resilience. At the beginning of the story many characters were not prepared to rescue the life to save the life of others while at the end they became real soldiers ready to rescuer their life.Note Cards1. â€Å"One thing for sure, he said. The lieutenant's in some deep hurt. I mean that crying jag — the way he was carrying on — it wasn't fake or anything, it was real heavy-duty hurt (O'Brien 17).2. (about cowardice) â€Å"In many respects this was the heavies t burden of all, for it could never be put down.† (O'Brien 13).3. The emotions are the heaviest burden because we cannot throw it down.4. The death of Ted Lavender is a push, which forces soldiers to look for the truth (sense) of life.5. The death of Ted Lavender is a watershed between past and future, old values and new ethics of a soldier.6. â€Å"It was very sad†¦ the things men carried inside. † (O'Brien 10). 7. â€Å"By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself† (O’Brien, p.9).8. â€Å"They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment† (O’Brien, p. 3).9. Fear applied to love leads to individual degradation.10. Soldiers carried the burden of the world (war).11. â€Å"Some escaped the fear, but dealt with the death and damage. Some made very hard decisions, and some just tried to survive† (O’Brien, p.11).Work Cited1. Bowen, K. , Weigl, B. Writing between the Lines: An Anthology on War and Its Social Consequences, University of Massachusetts Press, 1997.2. Calloway, C. â€Å"How to Tell a True War Story: Metafiction in the Things They Carried†, Critique, Vol. 36, 1995, pp. 249-257.3. Kaplan, S. â€Å"The Undying Uncertainty of the Narrator in Tim O'Brien's the Things They Carried†. Critique, Vol. 35, 1993, pp. 43-52.4. O'Brien, T. Literary Encyclopedia. 2005. Available at: http://www. litencyc. com/php/speople. php? rec=true&UID=33705. O’Brien, T. The Things They Carried. Broadway, 1998.6. Posek, J. â€Å"The Paradox of Necessity in Tim O'Brien's â€Å"The Things They Carried† Literature Seminar 180J, November 17, 1997.Available at: http://www. nd. edu/~frsw rite/mcpartlin/1998/Posek. shtml Draft Quotes: â€Å"As a first lieutenant and platoon leader, Jimmy Cross carried a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a . 45(c) caliber pistol that weighed 2. 9 pounds full loaded. † (p. 4). â€Å"The weapon weighed 7. 5 pounds unloaded, 8. 2 pounds with its full 20 round magazine. The riflemen carried anywhere from 12 to 20 magazines†¦ addin

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Title: Music Assignment Name: Shaila Sharmin ID: 1221771 Course ID: MUS 101 Course Instractor: Nazir Ahmed Section: 01 Date: 14. 03. 2013 Music is very important part for a human being. It refresh humans mind. After hard working all day people want to be relax. For such kind of relaxation music is the best way. Now I want to tell you about music and why it is important to study music; such as how music establish, where from it, why music becomes very popular to people over the world and what types of instruments are need to play a beautiful music and also the types of music.Music is found in every known culture, past and present. Varing widely between times and places since all people of the world, including the most isolated tribal groups have a form of music. Dictionaries and encyclopedias define music as â€Å"an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner. † It is also defined as â€Å"any pleasin g and harmonious sound† and â€Å"the sounds produced by singers or musical instruments. † Early Music: The history of music is very interesting. At first Bengali language is come from kolmunda & showtal.Bangle means Shanskrit or Indo European language. Bengali music was found in early period of time 9 to 18th century A. D. Then it spread out over the world. Language——–Charya Geeti—Composer -Musical tone—Geeta Govinda—Expression & its Aesthetics -Expression —-Perception -Religion Charya song is the earliest song in Bengle. Shidha Charya was the first Bangla music composed by a Buddist. Joy dev was the founder of Geeta Govinda. Geeta Govinda is the dhrupod type melody. It has different types of expressions. Such as rag-ragini. Joydev divided 24 songs in 12 kantos.After Geeta Govinda Bodu Chandidas was founded by Sree krisno kirton. Pandit Hara Prasad sastre invented more than 49 to 50 composer,they called liquipa. These co mposer was related to Dhanjog, Karmajog & ganjog. Medieval Music Time line: In the middle age people believe in religious among the Bengali people, Hindu religious and Buddist religious. Southern and Northern musical instruments were found in the middle age. Music during the middle ages is characterized by the beginning of musical notation as well as polyphony. During this time ,there were two general types of music styles, the monophonic and the polyphonic.During this period, there were several composers and musicians who largly contributed to how music evolved. 20th century Music: Music during the 20th century bought about many innovations on how music was performed and appreciated. Artists were more willingly to experiment on new music forms and used technology to enhance their compositions. Types of Music: Music is an art form that uses sound as medium in time and space. The basic elements of music, rhythm, dynamics and sound properties are color and intensity. Music through his tory had tried to define a number of theorists, philosophers, composers and musicians themselves.The very word music derives from the Greek word mousike, which is derived from the word mouse, and   people around the world know that as a Latin form of the word music. Music and sound can make human voice or instrument which can cause emotional experience. Music reaches far into the past and during this time they develop different styles and genres of music, which is still listening. All styles and genres of music, one thing is common, and that is to make people happy. Today, music has increasingly spreading and people can’t live without music. On this website you can find out what music actually is, its history and its styles and genres.There a lot of different types of music from all over the world. The best-known types of music are: 1. Bengali music 2. Classical music 3. Folk music 4. Indian music a) Southern system & b) Northern system 5. Rock music 6. Western music 7. Lat in music 8. Country music 9. Jazz music 10. Pop music 11. Metal music 12. Electronic music 13. R & B music and so on. Instruments of Music: A  musical instrument  is a device created or adapted to musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces  sound  can be a musical instrument, it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument.The history of musical instruments dates back to the beginnings of human culture. The purpose of early musical instruments was ritual. Cultures later developed the processes of composing and performing  melodies  for entertainment. Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications. The date and origin of the first device considered a musical instrument is disputed. However, most historians believe that determining a specific time of musical instrument invention is impossible due to the subjectivity of the definition and the relative instability of materials that were used in their construction.Many early musi cal instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials. Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world The classification of musical instruments is a discipline in its own right, and many systems of classification have been used over the years. One may classify musical instruments by their effective range or their material composition; There are different types of instruments used in music. These are: 1. Flute 2. Keyboard 3. Tabla 4. Harmony 5. Piano 6. Guitar 7. Setara 8.Bina 9. Tuba 10. Trumpet and so on. Prestigious person in music life: In the early music some person put a significance on music . Rabindranath Tagore was such kind of person. He (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads.. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there.He converted his Bengali poet into English. Though he was not so good in English language but he did it for his own satisfaction. About the weakness of his English he told his sister-in-law that he had no knowledge about English. In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education.From time to time he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against Briti sh policies in India. Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West.In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became the voice of India's spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution. Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he was first of all a poet. Among his fifty and odd volumes of poetry are  Manasi  (1890) [The Ideal One],  Sonar Tari  (1894) (The Golden Boat),  Gitanjali  (1910) (Song Offerings),  Gitimalya  (1914) [Wreath of Songs], and Balaka  (1916) (The Flight of Cranes).The English renderings of his poetry, which include  The Gardener  (1913),  Fruit-Gathering  (1916), and  The Fugitive  (1921), do not generally correspond to particular volumes in the original Bengali; and in spite of its title ,  Gitanjali: Song Offerings(1912), the most acclaimed of them, contains poems from other works besides its namesake. He won the Nobel prize on his creativity (Gitanjali) at 1913. His life style was so simple. He wrote different types of poets, so many songs, drama etc. The Bengali nation is proud for him for such creativity.The importance of music: Music participation provides a unique opportunity for literacy preparation. Whether the children are singing, playing, or listening, teachers direct them to listen and hear in new ways which exercises their aural discrimination. Playing instruments and adding movement to the lessons teaches children about sequential learning which is essential in reading comprehension. Music is academic. For some people, this is the primary reason for providing music lessons to their children. A recent study from the University of California found that music trains the brain for higher forms of thinking.Second graders who were given music lessons score d 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than children who received no special instruction. Research indicates that musical training permanently wires a young mind for enhanced performance. Music is physical. Music can be described as a sport. Learning to sing and keep rhythm develops coordination. The air and wind power necessary to blow a flute, trumpet or saxophone promotes a healthy body. Music is emotional. Music is an art form. We are emotional beings and every child requires an artistic outlet. Music may be your child’s vehicle of expression. Music is for life.Most people can’t play soccer, or football at 70 or 80 years of age but they can sing. And they can play piano or some other instrument. Music is a gift you can give your child that will last their entire lives. Every person should take the course of music appreciation. Because it helps people to gain their knowledge and also people can relax from mental or other types of distress   Recent r esearch has found that music uses both sides of the brain, a fact that makes it valuable in all areas of development. Music affects the growth of a child’s brain academically, emotionally, physically and spiritually.. So people have to know about music.

Case Study Jyske Bank Essay

Jyske Bank was established in 1967 after merging four Danish banks operating in Jutland. Jyske Bank had been considered as a typical Danish bank, which is prudent, conservative, well managed and undifferentiated till the late 1990s. However, with the new strategy, the bank developed to guide differentiation from the mid of 1990s among great amount of Danish banking customer satisfaction. Q1. What is Jyske Bank’s new positioning or competitive differentiation strategy? Base on the case, Jyske Bank’s new positioning strategy is strongly believed to be developed from its core values and Jyske Differences by the managers. In order to achieve Jyske Differences, which comes from Jyske Bank’s core values, the bank’s managers just became overt about values they had long held. The core values allow managers to reevaluate how the bank operate and service its consumers. Therefore, managers decided to have some specific practices that deliver service differently from both how it had in the past, and how other banks delivered service. In other words, they would have to change their conservative position of the past and become a service driven and customer innovative bank within the competitive banking sector. With the assistant of Dutch consultant that the research findings showed the target market consisting mainly of Dutch families (60% retail) and small Danish businesses (40% commercial), were favorable towards the idea of bank that had a persona and believed in what it stood for. Additional research was also conducted in more difficult areas concerning the banks 4P’s- Product, Place, Price and Promotion from a customer orientated standpoint. In contrast, soft factors such as customer relationships with the bank, served as the bank’s differentiation. From Exhibit 1, which indicates that Danish Banks were in intensive competition, Jyske Bank’s managers should reestablish its competitive position, it went through a major transformation and positioned itself as a highly customer-focused bank, eager to foster relationships with customers, understand their needs and sell solutions accordingly. Jyske Bank’s new positioning is only targeted less risky customers who could afford its premium pricing and were comfortable with the banks candid personality and portrayed image. Although after that the bank  is only about 6% of the market, but that is what call personality, some people should dislike them. Jyske Bank’s competitive differentiation strategy was born out of its ‘values and differences’ discussed in the case Exhibit 4, which emphasized equality, transparency, honesty, respect and efficiency. The aim was to have these values embedded in each of the external customer-facing and internal aspects of its business and operations and distinguish itself from competition. Jyske Bank differentiated itself on the service delivery aspect and invested in tools that would improve its employee’s ability to deliver solutions and increase the time spent with its customers. Thus, the competitive differentiation strategies mainly contain a shift from traditional product focused selling to a customer- solution approach and the way the bank’s core financial product to deliver so as to give customers a different banking experience. Q2. What changes did the bank make to gat to its new position? What effect did these changes have? In order to successfully implement its new customer- focused strategy, Jyske bank had to make both tangible and intangible changes in their business operations, as well as how they delivered service to its customers, where necessary not only to influence the outcome of the business but also to provide guaranteed customer satisfaction. These changes were made to reflect Jyske Differences in every possible way. The tangible changes they made were changes to the account teams, branch design, and details. To be more specifically, account teams were created to work together and provide personalized service to each customer to foster customer intimacy and increase understanding of customer needs. The branch interiors were remodeled to make the customers feel welcomed and cared for. The round table design, similarity in chairs and customers sitting near the employees’ workstations was deliberate as it helped in the effective use of IT programs designed to structure interactions between account team members and consumers, that facilities the employee’s ability to deliver solutions and save time. Settle a cafà © inside the branch that provides homely environment to consumers. Those visible screens also reinforced the portray openness of information with the customer. The intangible changes were training involved  teambuilding and consumer service, empowering the branches as well as throughout the bank, management style, and human resources. The effect of these strategic changes as lead to an increase in customer satisfaction based on data collected by independent third parties and has the highest customer satisfaction level among its major competitors. Q3. Analysis Jyske Bank’s success using the Service Quality gaps Model. (e.g. what are Jyske Bank’s strategies for closing each of the 5 gaps in the model?) Service Quality gaps ModelJyske Banks’s success The customer gapThe bank was able to close this gap because providing customer with their superior services. They had only targeted the premium customer’s to whom the price did not matter. As a result of which they were able to provide the customers high quality services and were able to achieve minimum customer gap and highly satisfied customers. The listening gap (Not knowing what customer expect)Refer to competitive positioning of the bank; the â€Å"soft factors† relating to individual customer relationship are relatively important. Jyske Bank changed the way they deliver services and had come out with IT tool to first figure out the customer’s problem and expectations. They had dedicated a team of 4 employees per customer to get a better understanding of customer’s problems. A good marketing research orientation also benefits to decline the listening gap. They conducted surveys to detect customers’ expectations. Thus they highlighted that customers’ expectations had changed: factors like price, product or location had become â€Å"basics† for customers, who focused more on differentiating factors like bankers’ behavior and interest toward customers. Finally, the firm developed an effective relationship focus on what consumers need. They first decided to specialize only on t wo customer segments, Danish Families and Small-to-medium-sized companies, and to focus only on people sharing the Jyske Bank values. This strategy made it easier to understand customers’ expectations and to build long- term relationship with them. The service design and standards gap (Not selecting the right service quality designs and standards)To close the poor service design, absence of customer- driven standards and inappropriate physical evidence, the bank assigned a small team of branch bankers to serve each customer, which provided its customer with the best in class service in terms of the customer solutions and also provided customers with the best infrastructure facilities to make them feel at home, e.g. cafà ©, fruit juice, openness of banker’s screen. The service performance gap (Not delivering to service designs and standards)In human resource policies, the bank has an effective recruitment that looking for social abilities instead of banking skills. Jyske Bank was successfully able to retain its employees and provide them with adequate trainings. Jyske was not only the leader in customer satisfaction but was also a leader in employee satisfaction as well. The employees were provided with good incentives and were kept happy so that they could work. The communication gap (Not matching performance to promise)The bank provided interactive marketing communication plan to the customers that all the possible information that the customer required all the solutions are delivered to consumers. Jyske Bank also implemented a good upward communication to employees. According to their re-organization of the structure (dissolution of headquarters), which leaded to less layers between top management and front-line employees, and thanks to a good intern communication between managers and contact employees, customers’ expectations were transmitted easily and quickly trough the firm. Most employees like working for Jyske and appreciate to Jyske Difference. Q4. In your opinion can Jyske Bank’s sustain its growth and success? Would you invest in Jyske Bank? I think Jyske Bank can continue its growth and success and I am willing to invest in Jyske Bank. Because the bank already has its own competitive positioning that they made a lot of changes on service delivery in both tangible and intangible sides. Secondly, the leadership that Jyske Bank  established is also an important reason, Jyske was the largest and most richly- priced bank in Demark in 2003, and they achieved the leadership in customer and employee satisfaction, which enable Jyske to step further. According to the net income increased considerably, shareholders could receive growing annual return in coming years. Besides, Jyske Bank’s core value is to gain the balance among their three stakeholders: employees, customers and shareholders. â€Å"They were more interested in determining how the bank could remain in a position of leadership while still keeping the interests of its key stakeholders in balance.† Reference: http://thefinancialbrand.com/2893/jyske-bank-branch/

Cyber security is said to be a big issue for business costing not only Essay

Cyber security is said to be a big issue for business costing not only lost revenue but damaged reputations and lost custom. Yo - Essay Example Any cyber security program strives to ensure these four fundamental cyber security components. Information confidentiality enables the organization’s sensitive information to be a secret so that it does not fall into the hands of unauthorized persons for example the competitors. Information integrity ensures that the data that is stored is accurate and serves the purpose and is always up to date. Data availability enables information to be present any time the organization required. This is by preventing any vulnerability for example denial of service. This can give the competitor firm an avenue of bringing down the company by capitalizing on the weakness of the other company and at the same time enhancing its strength. The investigation was conducted by administering questionnaire to cyber security experts of various organizations. Interviews were also conducted with CISO of both business and non profit organizations. In addition, a thorough review of the existing literature on cyber threats and cyber security was conducted. Table of Contents Cyber security is said to be a big issue for business costing not only lost revenue but damaged reputations and lost custom. Your task is to investigate the need for cyber security and analyze the threats from which it protects business. ... A cyber security is a basis or the foundation of organization’s security for its information assets. Cyber attacks are a deliberate or unintentional unauthorized task, which cannot be avoided or is in avoidable that that is capable of causing a vagary on the cyberspace resources. The scope of cyber attack is expands from hardware, software, data that is stored, data in transit, people, documents and other hardware needed like printer cartridges. Findings and Analysis The organization information system is a critical asset that calls for utmost security. For instance, employee’s personal identification information, development plan and financial data are very critical to an organization. This information can fall into two broad categories. There are information that are secured or protected by the state and federal law and those that are based on contractual obligation (Jue 2012). The deliberate or accidental exposure of this information to illegal personnel can be detri mental to the university. The different types of attack that are detriment to cyber security are Threats targeting infrastructure (Invalidated input) Problem and situation The most prevalent threat to client computers is Keylogging and spyware. This is a malware that is built to illegally obtain, track and block the right of a user to get access to the system. An example of this attack is where someone or an individual tries to log on to the system or a website like an email account but the system or the site fails to authenticate the user. This threat is related to backdoor attack command. These are weapons that give remote access that are created to divert the functionality of the system.

Key Factors of Leadership Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Key Factors of Leadership - Assignment Example Technology has transformed healthcare organizations into networks, and large companies are increasingly made up of people running small business units. A leader with change management skills means someone who can successfully steer a team, department or healthcare organization through any kind of metamorphosis. Disruptive innovations are changing the business landscape overnight and knocking market leaders out of position for failing to better understand and manage the evolution of their business. Leaders need not only to look after their own employees but also the suppliers and competitors who are seen as stakeholders and need to be managed differently.The Nature of Changeâ€Å"Change† is the popular word these days especially in healthcare organizations. It may be described as radical change, or frame-breaking change, incremental change or frame-bending change (Kolb, 1992). To achieve change in healthcare organizations, leaders adopt different strategies. These may be forced -coercion, rational persuasion or shared power strategies. A force-coercion strategy uses legitimacy, rewards, and/or punishments as primary inducements to change. Whereas, in rational persuasion strategy; the leader attempts to bring about change with special knowledge, empirical support, or rational arguments (Kolb,1992) In shared power strategy for change accommodation, the leader actively and sincerely involves other people who will be affected by a change in planning and making key decisions in respect to it. It is sometimes also called normative-re-educative strategy. Any change must bring a different corporate culture and therefore different expectations from the employees in terms of their behaviour and working attitudes. It encompasses all factors of corporate culture. A corporate culture may be defined as "the underlying assumptions, beliefs, values, attitudes, and expectations shared by the members of a healthcare

Political Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Political Communication - Essay Example Findings & Analysis Question 1 The initial question of the survey aimed at determining the significance and importance of an effective political communication system with respect to the worldwide community in relation to Bahrain’s global reputation. It was found in this regard that majority of the individuals, i.e. nearly 53% found this particular aspect to be extremely important (refer to figure 1). The majority of the respondents believed in the fact of keeping up a strong procedure and system of political communication with the global community for the reason of managing the international reputation of Bahrain. Although, the other 40% of the respondents did not consider this factor to be extremely significant, even though identifying this notion to be quite an important factor (refer to figure 1). However, the remaining 7% of the respondents merely regarded this notion to be important to a limit and did not find it necessary to focus much attention (refer to figure 1). Anot her significant aspect that came into light was that none of the respondents did completely disregard this specific stated idea. This implies that most of the respondents believed in the above stated fact. The graphical representation of this fact can be observed below: Figure 1 The above response obtained from the question evidently relates to the fact of considering political communication to be immensely important as well as quite critical for a particular country to build and enhance its global reputation (Umland, 1999). Question 2 Political communication has already been considered to be a vital aspect for developing and managing the reputation of a country. This particular question of the survey made efforts to identify the gaps that are supposed to exist in the manner the... Political communication has already been considered to be a vital aspect for developing and managing the reputation of a country. This particular question of the survey made efforts to identify the gaps that are supposed to exist in the manner the political communications are dealt with in Bahrain. 53.3% of the respondents believed that few of the information that gets communicated politically are assumed to be partially true. 23.3% of the respondents in this regard stated that all the information generated in the process of political communication was considered to be untrue or rather misleading (refer to figure 2). 40% of the individuals displayed their opinion regarding the fact that the generated information was increasingly subjected to opinion rather than any portrayal of facts (refer to figure 2). The majority of the respondents, i.e. around 76.7% stated that the information was not issued at the appropriate time which turned to be quite a significant gap with regard to the pr ocess of political communication (refer to figure 2). The similar percentage of respondents, i.e. 76.7%, also agreed to the fact that the information proves to be insufficient in answering the queries of the general public (refer to figure 2). 46.7% of the respondents considered the generated political information to be discriminatory (refer to figure 2). Furthermore, 53.3% of the respondents also supposed that the information provided was inadequate in nature as it lacked in encompassing all the facts as well as concerned individuals.

Portfolio Assessment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Portfolio Assessment - Assignment Example It first involves determining the actual existent state of a company of business. External and internal audits should be carried out to clearly bring out an understanding of an organization’s actual competency and the existing competitive environment. It will then become necessary to determine the most important goals for the company (Porter 2008, p. 89). Priorities should be set at this stage and it should be ensured that the strategic plan focuses on these priorities. Objectives should then be set in order to address any priority issues that may be existent. Accountabilities should then set so that communication becomes easier and the objectives are addressed at individual levels. The plan should then be reviewed over and over again due to the dynamic nature of the market. Strategic tools are the essential and most applied business solution tools that companies apply so as to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Innovations and new developments only become successful if the resulting products and services can sell well. These tools are instrumental in analyzing the existing market, be it a niche, so as to create opportunities for serving clients with a wide variety of products that are more competitive and adapted to a dynamic market development as compared to the other competitors. Some of these tools include Porter’s 5 forces Model, The BCG Matrix, The SWOT Matrix, and The 4 P’s of the Marketing mix, Life Cycle Analysis, Ansoff Matrix, Maslow’s Pyramid and the 7-S McKinsey method. All these strategies are aimed at analyzing different aspects and levels of existence in an organization (Simerson 2011, p. 123). As such, not all these tools are applicable to any situations, thereby their effectiveness is limited to specific si tuations. The political factors of analysis involve government controls and rules in the effort of the company to keep up with the Environmental and Corporate Social