Drama and Theatre Studies structured records

‘Use of space' explored the broad topic of social and professional satisfaction and happiness. In order to highlight the universal implications of our piece, we decided that it was necessary to use diverse characters allowing the audience to identify with aspects of each persona's issues. Initially, we brainstormed several different problems that could affect an individual's happiness in the work place, and came up with the fundamentals for five characters. The original basis of my character came from my own anxieties towards life. During devising we were contemplating university choices and starting to arrange our lives after college. As a group we all felt anxious and many felt a lack of direction. This insecurity we felt towards leaving the secondary education system, led to the creation of Pamela (the character I played. ) After discussing Pamela's initial characteristics, focusing on her feelings of anxiety and confusion we had to decide her plot. Her lack of control and direction led us to create her objective to gain a secure role in the work place to solve her anxieties. After creating the fundamentals of each character we discussed as a group their characterisation. The role of Pamela primarily emerged through a series of role-plays. Firstly, I performed as her character in different situations allowing me to develop her personality. The remaining members contributed as supporting characters in the role play and often suggested ways to present her. I feel that my understanding of Pamela's persona emerged during the staging of her box monologue. Through this monologue we hoped to communicate to the audience Pamela's feelings of anxiety and confusion towards her professional future. As a group we felt the most effective way to portray this was through the use of physical theatre, therefore, the remaining members of the group adopted the role of a maze in which Pamela was metaphorically trapped. During the staging of this sequence I had to deliver my monologue whilst struggling through a figurative maze. As a performer I was sensitive to my characters claustrophobic feelings allowing me to successfully communicate her anxieties to the audience. Throughout the staging of this monologue the remaining group members concentrated on the performing space I was given. Although it was frustrating for me to be contained to a very small performing area, it allowed me to sympathise with my characters feelings of confinement and eventually resulted in a very successful portrayal of Pamela. During devising our characters, we were aware that each individual had to adopt a dream persona in the ‘fantasy' scenes. We hoped to communicate to the audience contrasting characteristics in these persona's, to highlight their desire to escape the frustration they feel towards reality. Whilst creating the character Angela's ‘fantasy' persona we analysed the reality Angela. Angela shows boredom towards her monotonous life. Through her character we hoped to communicate to the audience the necessity of having hobbies and dreams. The fantasy Angela emerged through the improvisation of a Latin American soap opera. We created the vivacious and dramatic character Maria who starkly contrasted Angela. As a group we agreed that the performance of Maria should be melodramatic and exaggerated to further contrast Angela's tedious reality. It was important to introduce a character for Maria to interact with to inject more energy into the scene. Through discussion we settled with a clichi love story and decided to introduce a male character who Maria is having an affair with. It was essential for this scene to maintain intense energy levels to contrast with the previous office scene. Firstly, we researched typical novella characters to influences our roles. I suggested that the group members in this scene (Helia and Payam) should highlight the sexual attraction between the characters. Initially this provoked awkwardness between Payam and Helia; therefore, we felt it was necessary to introduce an activity to make the two more comfortable with each other. We used several team building exercises to make Helia and Payam more physically comfortable with one another; the most successful was the leading the blind exercise. Through this exercise the participants were forced to be more sensitive towards each other, in partners one partner was chosen to lead the other blindly by the tip of the nose. Through constant contact and reliance this was very successful in making Payam and Helia more at ease. Similarly, it helped to distance the novella character to the actor. Through exaggerated physicality and melodramatic acting techniques the actor was dissociated with the character. Costumes successfully contributed to the portrayal of my character in the murder mystery fantasy. I played a stereotypical, stock detective character originally based on the Agatha Christie character Hercule Poirot. Initially I struggled to effectively portray this character because it was such a contrasting role to my reality. Physicality was a very important aspect of this character because of the desired effect we hoped to achieve. We had chosen to use melodrama and clichid anecdotes, therefore, it was important that the audience drew parallels between my character and Poirot for comedic effect. Through further independent research I discovered Poirot's defining feature was a French trench coat, and I decided to rehearse wearing this item. Surprisingly, the trench coat allowed me to connect with Poirot's physicality and personality, through wearing the coat my characterisation improved and allowed me to successfully perform as a response to Poirot. How the group planned for a range of responses from the audience. Initially we intended to present a serious production highlighting the importance of life satisfaction parodied through working life, based in an office. However, during the initial devising stages we decided to introduce fantasy scenes to contrast the monotonous office scenes and highlight the significance of dreams and ambition. As a group we showed interest towards comedic genres and felt that these would juxtapose the natural and static nature of the office scenes. However, although many of our fantasy scenes were intended for humorous effect a few were interpreted by the audience as humorous without intent. Fortunately, we decided to perform a dress rehearsal to a mock audience to gain an understanding of the successful aspects of humour the results were unexpected. Through devising the silent movie fantasy scene, we were expecting humorous results due to the slapstick nature of the comedy, however, we had to take into account the clichi and overexposed format of the silent movie. As a group we discussed the possibility that the audience would not react well to this scene due to the lack of originality. Throughout popular culture for the past fifty years in some opinions this genre has been exhausted, therefore we had to be prepared for an underwhelming reaction towards this particular scene. In order for the humorous response to be successful we decided that the content of our silent movie had to be obviously inspired by original content. As a group we decided that we were not going to aim to be original in this scene but aimed to create a polished and skilful tribute to silent films. It was important for us to consider different attitudes towards comedic genres. In particular silent films and slapstick comedy often generate various opinions. Through discussion we discovered that in our group of five alone there were several different opinions regarding slapstick comedy. Personally, I contributed an annoyance towards the genre explaining that I found it tedious, patronising and often crude. However, contrastingly, Payam presented his enthusiasm towards slapstick comedy and defended his fondness towards slapstick comedians such as Lee Evans and Charlie Chaplin. Therefore we were initially prepared for an audience varied responses to the slapstick moments throughout our piece. This discussion led us to consider our target audience. Due to the content of our play we discussed that it transcended a fixed target audience, any age group could respond to the implications and the messages we were hoping to portray. However, because of the universality of our play we discussed different attitudes towards aspects of the play. Firstly, we evaluated that a younger audience would react better towards the humorous aspects especially ages between 12 and 19, therefore we decided to target the humour to this age group. We initially decided to do this by exaggerating our humorous stereotypes and characters physicality to the extreme. However, during a viewed rehearsal run it became apparent that our characterisations needed to be exaggerated, especially in our silent movie scene. Through discussion we came to the conclusion that older audience members would react well to the stereotypes used in out murder mystery fantasy. In particular the detective stereotype took inspiration from the fictional character Poirot. Generationally, we were aware that a younger audience member would be alienated by the introduction of this stock character because they would not be able to identify with the original. The characterisation of the detective also played a large reliance on the audience members, creating a pantomime like effect. Whilst playing the detective character I often made eye contact with the audience and projected jokes to them, therefore their reactions were very important at these stages. We used lighting to gain more audience reaction during this scene by up lighting the audience subtly allowing the performers to see their reactions and in turn play off their reactions to the humour. During the novella fantasy scene, melodrama was employed. An argument between Carlos and Maria the Latin American characters led to Maria slapping Carlos around the face. This prompted a shocked reaction amongst the audience because they were not expecting it. Difficult reactions from the audience- racist generalising Latin American, stereotyping French maids, stereotyping in general we had to be sensitive towards the audience whilst approaching these scenes. Explore the impact of social, cultural and/or historical conditions on your devised piece. – Vicki Marks. Our devised piece ‘Use of Space' is socially and culturally influenced by traditional conventions of popular culture. Foremost, we decided to exploit the familiarity of these conventions to highlight social perils. Most poignantly we decided to highlight the implications of a female in the workplace and comment on the fact that women still earn substantially less from their employment than men. We chose to emphasize this by going against traditional clichis. Primarily, the character of Nicky symbolised an ambitious business women hoping to succeed in the workplace. To highlight her characters struggle to be successful we altered the traditional female clichi. We felt that typical stereotypes of women came from medieval genres; furthermore the clichid format was a damsel in distress being rescued by her knight in shining armour. For this social comment to be accessible to the audience we simply chose to invert the roles of the typical damsel in distress and knight in shining armour. This resulted in highlighting the fact that women are capable of metaphorically ‘rescuing' themselves, in turn reaching success without help, showing the capability of women and hopefully promoting sexual equality in the workplace. Additionally, through our research into the presentation of women in conventional medieval drama, we learnt the historical relevance of female roles. In a traditional damsel in distress story women are patronised and demeaned. To emphasise the inequality between the sexes we chose to use contrasting levels. For example we chose to place the damsel on higher levels than the knight; this allowed the damsel to take a more commanding role. However, throughout we made constant references to the traditional format through humour, by showing the characters awareness of the reversed roles. I feel that this was very effective because we were culturally aware that a modern day audience would be aware of the clichi allowing it to become humorous in itself. Whilst devising another characters fantasies we settled on the concept of a traditional Latin American soap opera. We chose to use this format to contrast the tedious nature of the characters work life. This idea initially was influenced by the popular television series ‘Ugly Betty' showing clips of traditional Latin American soap opera's or novellas. This genre was particularly useful because of the melodramatic acting techniques used, to give this scene authenticity we chose to have the characters speak a few words or phrases in Spanish and maintained a Spanish accent throughout. Surprisingly, the use of accents and clichid Spanish phrases created a comedic effect, the audience reacted well to this humour. To further the humorous effect we exaggerated the Spanish personalities getting inspiration from the Mexican cartoon character ‘Speedy Gonzales' which allegedly depicts a stereotypical Mexican. Through popular culture we were aware of many of the love clichis also apparent through this scene, in particular the over poetic declaration of love using the analogy of the ‘fake red rose. ‘ Initially, we wanted to explore the format of a silent film in order to highlight the importance of communication, but were anxious to use such a challenging convention on stage and were worried that the audience would become confused. However through research we were able to adopt this style very successfully. Silent movies were made before technical advances allowed an audience to view a film with both images and sound. We wanted to make our silent scene as authentic as possible therefore through our research into silent movies we noticed the projection speed and decided to significantly slow the scene down; some scenes were intentionally slowed down further in order to accelerate the action, particularly in the case of the slapstick moments. One of the main messages of our production was the importance of job satisfaction. There have been many recent surveys and articles surrounding job prospects and the amount of people dissatisfied in their current job placements. We therefore decided to show a group of characters that want to break free from the confinements of an unsatisfying job to highlight the importance of passion and dreams. We feel as young adults embarking on our working lives and starting to make important decisions that will shape our futures, it is very relevant that we have shown our anxieties towards working life. Work related stress is also socially rife especially in western culture therefore; through one of our characters we showed the importance of maintaining hobbies outside of a job to hopefully indicate that money is not the most important thing. Use of Space is an escapist piece; the fantasies represent each character hoping to escape the constraints of their tedious, impassionate lives. Dream worlds are a commonly used plot device in fictional works, most notably in science fiction and fantasy fiction. The use of a dream world creates a situation whereby a character (or group of characters) is placed in a marvelous and unpredictable environment and must overcome several personal problems to leave it. The dream world also commonly serves to teach some moral or religious lessons to the character experiencing it a lesson that the other characters will be unaware of, but one that will influence decisions made regarding them. When the character is reintroduced into the real world (usually when they wake up), the question arises as to what exactly constitutes reality due to the vivid recollection and experiences of the dream world. How acting techniques or design elements and the use of dramatic form were consciously employed to achieve intended effect. The dramatic form of ‘use of space' was inspired by abstract theatre. Our devised piece does not follow a typical chronological time sequence; it has a warped sense of time due to our introduction of ‘fantasy' scenes. Dreams allow the repressed parts of the mind to be satisfied through fantasy and let the mind express things that would normally be suppressed in the waking world. Dreams may also offer a view at how future events might proceed; this is similar to running future events through the mind, for instance a work presentation or a job interview. As a group we identified dreams as an interaction between the unconscious and the conscious. Therefore we wanted to highlight the contrast between reality and fantasy. To begin with we discussed using contrasting lighting effects to show an obvious transaction between reality and fantasy. To express the abstract, fantasy scenes we felt the audience would react well to pink colour fill lighting. This was successful because, the unnatural pink lighting allowed the audience to be aware of the abstract format of the scene. We also relied on the audience's familiarity with clichi dream scenes shown in popular culture. Dream worlds are a commonly used plot device in fictional works, most notably in science fiction and fantasy fiction. Lighting is often used similarly when representing a dream, often flashing lighting is used and mists to show the audience the unreality. As a group we took this into account and decided to use soft lighting throughout the ‘fantasy' scenes by using a flood effect to fill the whole stage. Flash lighting was also used subtly during the transaction from a reality scene to a fantasy scene. We decided as a group to only use subtle flash lighting during the transition because we did not want to reproduce the clichi formats of a dream sequence, we felt that this would undermine the intended serious messages we were trying to relay to the audience. Firstly each fantasy scene is triggered by an action and a simple freeze frame to link the office reality to the dreams. This use of gestus was an acting technique developed by Bertolt Brecht which reflects the characters emotional conflict through a brief frozen action. Gestus was employed during the transaction from my characters monologue to her fantasy scene. As a group we discussed our desired effect of the gestus and decided to show an obvious link between the character's emotional conflict and the freeze frame, for the audience's accessibility. We therefore decided to each come up with a simple freeze frame highlighting the principal emotions of my character, due to the lack of direction my character was feeling we chose to physically interpret the emotion confusion. Coincidentally, each member of the group similarly replicated a curled up freeze frame with their hands clasping their heads. As a group we decided that this composition showed the audience the characters basic feelings of confusion. Sound plays a big part in our production. Our opening scene begins with a metronome to highlight the artificial nature of the office scene and the rhythm of a monotonous life. We decided to open with a metronome to cause a feeling of anticipation through the audience; the ticking rhythm exaggerates and builds tension therefore immediately engaging with the audience before the action begins. The metronome rhythm also acted as a beat to keep our opening routine in time. The beat and the routine showed the audience the typical rhythm of an unsatisfying job. Due to the intimacy of our staged environment we decided not to use microphones because we wanted the sound to be raw and natural even in the fantasy scenes to accentuate the fine line between dreams and reality. This also made the audience feel close to the actors and therefore able to relate to the performers more easily. However to contrast this effect we chose to show all costume changed on stage employing the popular Brechtian technique Verfremdungseffekt through using this we hoped to communicate that the audience's reality was, in fact a construction. During the silent movie scene we used clichi silent movie music. We wanted to stay authentic to a conventional silent film therefore we had a pianist. This music contributed to the atmosphere and gave the audience vital emotional cues. Silence is also an important tool in our production because it is in contrast to the loud interludes of music for example in the silent movie fantasy. Silence was often used after intense sections of dialogue or monologue. For example during my characters monologue the volume levels of my voice were used to create intensity building up to a climax. The silence during my characters gestus freeze frame is poignant because when the sound is taken away the audience begins to focus more on the movement and the emotion of the character, the silence intrigued them. There are many different characters and settings in our play; therefore we decided that our set should remain very neutral. We designed our set in a deliberately ambiguous way, so we could move easily between fantasy and office scenes. We decided that altering the layout of the stage and the set between each scene would prove noisy and would distract the audience's attention. We were however very aware that a permanent set would become boring and the audience would lose interest, nevertheless we decided through rehearsals and a practice production that the intensity of the action made up for the lack of set changes. We used two black oblong boxes as the fundamentals of each scene, occasionally changing the positioning of them to create a different atmosphere. We chose not to have a specific setting contributing to the representation of free-flowing images within the characters mind. However, we decided to introduce an element of decaying society preoccupied by work ambitions and promotions through the use of broken computer monitors, keyboards, mice, and disks positioned around the stage. This gave the stage an overall look of disarray and immediately introduced the audience to the conflict within the characters in the production. How research material was gathered and used within the process. – Vicki Marks To begin the devising process our group was presented with five quotes that took inspiration from different aspects of life, this supplied us with an excellent starting point for developing a challenging piece of theatre, however our initial responses to the stimuli shaped our early work and many aspects were later changed as the piece matured. Firstly each member of the group decided separately which quote inspired them and worked towards abstractly analyse the meaning of these quotes. As a group we were drawn towards the quote â€Å"fear is a dark room where negatives are developed. † We felt that this quote gave us enough scope to produce a brainstorm surrounding the analysis of it. After analysing the quote through a brainstorm we decided to focus on the idea of fear. These fear aspects of the quote lead our group to research and gain an interest surrounding common phobias. As an initial response to phobias we decided to explore phobias that restrain and dominate everyday life. As a group we were interested in the psychological effects of irrational fears, through discussion, we realised one of our member's arachnophobia and decided to research real life stories showing the influences of phobias. We began to gain an understanding of the psychological effects of living with an irrational fear, this allowed us to contemplate the way a person living with a phobia views the world. This topic particularly appealed to our group because three of the members were studying a course in psychology and took a specific interest in phobias. Through research we were drawn to highlighting different perceptions of the world, this is initially why we decided to show a dream or fantasy of each character. I was currently studying Margret Atwood's dystopian novel â€Å"A Handmaid's Tale. † And inferred parallels between dystopian societies and living with a life altering phobia. As a group this led us to discuss the concepts of normality and initially directed us to create a dystopian society to base our phobic characters in. However, we felt that through creating a dystopian society we were overcomplicating the piece and decided in order to create an accessible message we would have to simplify the plot. Many of our responses to the quote were detached and impersonal; therefore we decided to take a more personal approach to the analysing the quote. We wanted to create a more abstract approach to analysing, consequently, rather than brainstorming we played a word association game. Our earlier research indicated to us the potential of exploring fear; for that reason we opened by associating responses to the word ‘fear'. This resulted in a discussion of our apprehension and anxiety towards our futures, each member of the group was in the process of applying to university and planning the next step of their lives. It was important for us to follow our dreams and mistakes in choices at this stage worried us and we were sensitive to the idea of being stuck doing something we were not passionate about. This discussion allowed us to infer parallels between our fears towards losing our passion and job satisfaction in the work place. This led us to create a work place scenario, highlighting different characters problems with the way their lives have transpired. Although we had created an initial scenario we had to decide how to highlight the importance of job satisfaction and dreams. This is where our ideas surrounding an exploration of dreams and fantasies linked in with our running idea. How group skills contributed to the development of the drama. – Vicki Marks As an ensemble, we had many different approaches to the production of our devised piece. Firstly, after the initial discussions of the basic structure of ‘use of space' we decided that each member should separately prepare an initial suggestion for a fantasy scene. Subsequently as an ensemble we modified each member's idea to fit the characters objectives incorporating each group member's requirements. Two of the four fantasy scenes required only two characters, therefore allowing the two remaining members to direct. This particularly put pressure on the team and initially certain members of the group did not respond well to being directed, however, we had to be flexible whilst blocking a scene and be open to criticism and changes. Considering the ensemble approach to devising we wanted each member to experience directing each scene, this also allowed us to incorporate more than one member's objective for a particular scene. Therefore, we often resorted to switching roles mid scene to appreciate the way each member would perform certain characters and situations. I feel that this successfully allowed us to create two dimensional characters and by including aspects of everyone's ideas created an overall satisfaction towards each scene. Each member of the group had a monologue allowing the audience to understand each individual characters state of mind. The preparation of a monologue is often very personal, initially, Helia and I scripted each monologue, but we worked as a group throughout the blocking and performing, however, this proved difficult. Due to the individual approaches of a monologue, taking control of scripting them was ineffective. This approach resulted in confusion and the monologues were less emotionally effective, because members struggled to connect with them on a personal level. Therefore, firstly, we each took our monologues separately and worked on the content through closely analysing our characters objectives and intentions. After we were happy with the essential content of our monologues we worked as a group to develop them. Group timing was essential during the silent movie fantasy, due to a lack of dialogue the scene required carefully choreographed action, which required the group to work carefully in relation to one another. At one stage of this scene, Helia was required to jump on Payam's back and knocked to the ground. In order to prevent any injuries we applied a partnering system, involving a free member of the group shadowing Helia, providing support during the initial stages of rehearsals. During the later stages of devising the murder mystery scene we became uninspired with the outcome An evaluation of the ways in which ideas were communicated to the audience. – Vicki Marks Throughout the devising process we focused predominantly on comedic genres, to allow the audience to access the central messages through humour. Although we were aware of the comedic value of each scene it was difficult to predict the audience's reactions, therefore we decided to perform it to a small audience during our rehearsal to evaluate which areas of humour were successful and which were less effective. Consequently, we realised that many of the melodramatic fantasies such as the silent movie were physically being underplayed resulting in a misrepresentation of our desired style. This resulted in a member of our group to employ a technique that we had used on a physical theatre work shop. Performing our characters physicality on levels from one to ten, ten being the most physically expressive allowed us to evaluate which level of physicality was successful. As a group we decided that the audience reacted best towards the silent movie scene when we employed a physicality level of ten. Due to lack of dialogue, physicality and expression allowed the audience to follow the storyline whilst also creating humour. As a result of working with a limited number of actors it was necessary to multi-role; however, through multi-rolling it is often easy to confuse an audience. We therefore decided to employ the Brechtian technique of changing our signifying costumes on stage. This allowed the audience to understand the style of our piece, and the abstract nature of the fantasy scenes. We also decided to place each change of costume on stage from the opening scene to intrigue the audience and allow them to become more involved in the action. We also had to take into account the wide range of characters we used. For example in one fantasy scene Payam took on the role of a Spanish soap character and during the next fantasy scene his character changed to a medieval knight. As a group we realised that a change of costume would not be sufficient to demonstrate to the audience a change in character, therefore we had to ensure that each actor varied their physicality according the role they were playing. As a group we consciously casted many of the characters as stock characters and stereotypes, allowing us to successfully communicate to the audience a significant change in role. Naturalistically it was difficult to vary each member's character therefore by using melodramatic genres we were able to separate each members character. Originally, we intended to highlight the importance of job satisfaction through juxtaposing the office scenes with the fantasy scenes. We hoped to communicate to the audience the monotonous routine of being unsatisfied in a job. In order to convey this to an audience we decided to use opposing theatrical styles for the fantasy and office scenes. We decided on a naturalistic approach for the office scenes to highlight the dissatisfaction of the characters, similarly we decided to use abstract and melodramatic genres for the fantasy scenes to show the positivity. The accessibility of the humour in our piece relied on the audience's knowledge of the common clichis we drew inspiration from. I feel we did not fully take into account the age range of our audience and miscalculated the universality of the clichis. After discussing with our audience their reactions towards our piece many of the younger members did not understand the humorous aspects on every level. For example in our murder mystery fantasy we took inspiration from the popular detective character Poirot, however many of the younger To open our piece we decided to have each character on stage the composition involved my character facing the audience frozen in a spotlight and a visible shadow of the four other characters in the background, to show individual stories and the universal message that applied to each character. t. How rehearsal and the production process contributed to the final performance. – Vicki Marks During the rehearsal process, we encountered many difficulties with the staging of certain idea's and aspects. Initially we had decided to each perform a separate monologue as our office characters to highlight the objectives of each individual, we felt that it was important to portray to the audience an interesting insight into the characters feelings and wanted each monologue to project different forms. After the initial scripting of the monologues, we brainstormed the different approaches to staging them. Fortunately, each monologue adapted distinctive structures which allowed us to manipulate and create visually appealing scenes. During the staging of Payam's monologue initially aimed to block the physical placement, this required him to be free to travel across the stage, and therefore, a remaining member of the group read his monologue whilst he attempted to block it. Surprisingly, this created an interesting effect of daydreaming; therefore we decided to continue having his monologue projected from off stage. At one stage during our rehearsals we were challenged to find an original and inspiring way to present our idea. We had already decided that we wanted to contrast reality and fantasy. We had devised the fundamentals of ‘office scenes' created to depict our original character Dylan's disconnection with a dystopian society. Because we had created a leading character we struggled to introduce equal roles. Therefore, we decided to create a structured brainstorm addressing our themes and the ideas we hoped to communicate. Through this we discovered a situation where Dylan's disconnection with society linked to a modern day scenario. Dylan's alienation towards an unfamiliar society was transformed into a group of office workers unsatisfied with their situations. Luckily, through former improvised scenes we had created characters which fitted this scenario. Throughout the devising process we were interested in developing an interpretation of parallel universes. We were initially drawn to this idea through different interpretations of phobia's and the way an individual interprets fears. This idea led one member of the group to compare parallel universes to dreams, and fantasies. As a group we decided that we were interested in highlighting the importance of following your dreams, therefore began to research different fantasies and dream scenarios. We began to discuss different genres and settled initially on medieval clichis drawing on the typical female fantasy of being rescued by a knight in shining armour. As a group we decided that our acting techniques should mirror this genre therefore we settled on melodrama. Previously, we had only attempted naturalistic acting techniques, and as a group we were aware of the contrast between naturalism and melodrama. In order to familiarise ourselves with this acting technique we attended a physical theatre workshop, it was apparent to us that in order to effectively portray a melodramatic genre we would have to introduce exaggerated physicality. Initially this felt unnatural to most of the group members due to our back ground in naturalism, therefore, the support we received from the workshops group leader was very helpful. We benefited from the group leader knowledge surrounding physical theatre and he introduced us to a technique which allowed us to exaggerate the physicality during rehearsals. How the influence of ideas of other playwrights and/ or directors, designers and performers have been used. Originally, we hoped to achieve a depressing and desolate office scene highlighting the impassionate emotions of the characters. We initially decided that the characters would remain deadpan to express their negative attitudes towards their work environment; however, we wanted to employ a more exciting abstract format to express this further. We therefore turned to ‘Machinal' by Sophie Treadwell which one of our group members had previously studied. The opening scene to Machinal is a powerful expression of a monotonous office scene. Treadwell uses an expressionist form employing repetitive dialogue and action and harsh audio effects to create a tedious and mechanical impression. Inspired by Treadwell's use of repeated dialogue and action we began to improvise scenes using similar techniques. Firstly, we chose words and phrases linked to an office environment and repeated them, overlapping each other and increasing in volume throughout to create an intense atmosphere. Unfortunately, due to the small group, this did not achieve our desired effect. This then lead us towards a more physical representation, as an alternative to repeated dialogue we chose to highlight the routine of the office through repeating typical office actions. The use of stylised actions reminded a member of the group of a performance of ‘absolute beginners' through which the director had expressed the rigidity of the office through women typing in unison creating a routine effect. Considering the size of the group we were not enthusiastic to have each character simultaneously performing one action, we therefore, took inspiration from the over exaggerated nature of each movement. Instead of using a routine we highlighted a sense of artificiality by introducing a metronome to emphasise the mechanical and artificial nature of the scene. Characterization was very important to the success of our performance. Because we had chosen to show many stark and stereotyped characters throughout it was important to exaggerate the physicality of the characters in certain places. Physicality was expressed most poignantly through the silent film fantasy. Because this was such a challenging format to express due to the lack of dialogue it relied fully on each actor's physical representation of the character. Inspiration was originally taken from Charlie Chaplin. Through research we learnt that as a Silent film actor he emphasized his body language and facial expression so that the audience could better understand what his character was feeling and portraying on screen. However, simply watching and attempting to replicate Chaplin's style was not enough. As a group we decided to participate in a ‘Jet' physical theatre company workshop. This not only allowed us to work on our physicality as performers in general but gave us excellent scope to improve our silent film scene. Costumes were not hugely significant in our performance. We did not want to over complicate things and circumstantially our performance consisted of many short scenes and an array of different characters, similar to the conventions of epic theatre employed notably by Bertolt Brecht we decided to do all of the costume changes on stage. These changes only consisted of small variations to costumes such a hats a jackets that symbolised each character Brecht employed the use of techniques that remind the spectator that the play is a representation of reality and not reality itself, which he called the Verfremdungseffekt. Such techniques included changing costumes on stage. Through this Brecht hoped to communicate that the audience's reality was, in fact a construction and, as such, was changeable. Another Brechtian technique used in our performance was the use of song. We decided that this allowed the audience to distance themselves from the action hopefully making the social comments throughout more accessible and setting the abstract theme from the beginning notably the entire performance was strictly episodic and many scenes were in isolation from each other. Each fantasy scene is triggered by an action and a simple freeze frame to link the office reality to the dreams. This use of gestus was also an acting technique developed by Bertolt Brecht which reflects the characters emotional conflict through a brief frozen action. Gestus was employed during the transaction from my characters monologue to her fantasy scene. As a group we discussed our desired effect of the gestus and decided to show an obvious link between the character's emotional conflict and the freeze frame, for the audience's accessibility. We therefore decided to each come up with a simple freeze frame highlighting the principal emotions the character. The initial idea to dress each character in their own variation of full black was inspired by a performance of ‘attempts on her life' at the national. The director Martin Crimp chose to dress each character in their own interpretation of completely black. We adapted this idea to our performance because it allowed each character to show their own individuality whilst still highlighting the monotony and dull nature of the office and their negative emotions towards their situations. We took a large amount of inspiration from the melodramatic acting techniques employed by soup opera's. We particularly focused on the style of acting used in traditional Novella's or Latin American soups. Whilst approaching this style we researched the soup opera ‘Days of our lives. ‘ To help us adopt similar persona's. How the stimulus material was developed through the drama process. To begin the devising process our group was presented with five quotes that took inspiration from different aspects of life, this supplied us with an excellent starting point for developing a challenging piece of theatre, however our initial responses to the stimuli shaped our early work and many aspects were later changed as the piece matured. Firstly each member of the group decided separately which quote inspired them and worked towards abstractly analyse the meaning of these quotes. As a group we were drawn towards the quote â€Å"fear is a dark room where negatives are developed. † We felt that this quote gave us enough scope to produce a brainstorm surrounding the analysis of it. After analysing the quote through a brainstorm we decided to focus on the idea of fear. These fear aspects of the quote lead our group to research and gain an interest surrounding common phobias. As an initial response to phobia we decided to explore phobias that restrain and dominate everyday life. As a group we were interested in the psychological effects of irrational fears, through discussion, we realised one of our member's arachnophobia and decided to research real life stories showing the influences of phobias. We began to gain an understanding of the psychological effects of living with an irrational fear, this allowed us to contemplate the way a person living with a phobia views the world. This inspired us to contemplate feelings and emotions surrounding living in a different mindset to the norm. We therefore decided to create five different freeze frames, abstractly exploring the physicality of emotions.

Administrative Matrix

Associate Level Material Appendix C: Administrative Matrix Instructions: Complete the Administrative Matrix located below. You are expected to identify and explain the functions and roles of management. This information is based on the four functions of management. By providing an example, you demonstrate an understanding of each management function. | | | |Function |Role of Management |Example | |Leading |This includes interpersonal roles, subordinates within the |A manager has the responsibility to lead by example within the | | |organization, and persons external to the organization. Three |organization.It is important to model the behavior subordinates| | |interpersonal roles include figurehead, leader, and liaison |are expected to fulfill | |Top managers |Individuals who are responsible for making |In my company these are 7s they make sure that all policies are | | |decisions about the direction of the |signed by staff and that everyone knows what is going on in the | | |organiz ation and establishing policies that |company. They are rarely ever seen unless a situation needs | | |affect all organizational members. addressing and they are normally the voice of the HR department | |Middle Managers |Individuals who are typically responsible for |In my company these are called 6s they usually are in an office | | |translating goals set by top managers into |setting and do not have to take care of the individuals, but | | |specific details that lower-level managers will |they do make schedules, make sure everyone shows up for work and| | |see get done. also make sure that when overtime is available everyone works | | | |accordingly | |First line managers |Supervisors responsible for directing the day-today |In my company these are established by numbers they would be a 5| | |activities of nonmanagerial employees |someone who works directly with us doing the same work, but also| | | |overseeing what we do and doing all the daily paperwork to make | | | |sure we d o what is best for our individuals |

The Dark Beauty Of Pi And Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy...

Discoveries are defined as new understanding that alter our lives and add richness and value through contemplation of others and ourselves. This helps underpin the concept that ourselves and others around us are constantly changing, and while through these discoveries occurs. Realistic poet Robert Frost through his poems â€Å"mending wall† and â€Å"stopping by the woods on a snowy evening† contract traditional standpoints between the contempary film â€Å" life of pi† by Ang Lee conveying the capacity for discovery to be universal. These are explored through the themes of nature, companionship and death, which develop upon our new understanding to alter life’s perceptions. Death alters the way we perceive discovery, which can ultimately vary our†¦show more content†¦Captured by the tranquility and beauty of the woods that offers ease of disregard responsibilities although he has â€Å"promises to keep†¦ ad miles to go before I sleep†. Here frost focuses, with the use of fist person perspective, on the external choices people make as natural beauty is juxtaposed by the demand of responsibility. Holding sleep as a metaphor of death emphasizing the pull of life over death. Life of pi however extenuates the proximity of death as it provides a means of survival through fantasy. Lee’s film is structured to portray an experience of great suffering and great joy. Pi cannot be free to discover himself while he exists within the comfort zone of his family. The sinking of the Tsimtsum casts him into the ‘ocean of life’ signifies his discoveries through death. The aerial shot of his head, dwarfed by the vast, dark ocean emphasizes his vulnerability as he is cast adrift. His intense suffering is revealed most powerfully in the storm scene where wide shots again portray his vulnerability in the wild sea and Christ-like imagery shows him screaming at his ‘God’, arms spread in prayer: â€Å"Why are you scaring him? I’ve lost my family. I’ve lost everything. I surrender. What more do you want?† . Pi’s life raft is swept away, symbolizing the loss of his haven and material possessions and a high angle shot of Richard Parker shows that even the tiger – a symbol of Pi’s braver and more primitive self – is afraid. A s scene that cuts between

Bullying Bullying And Bullying - 880 Words

Ever since this incident administrators have taken serious actions and the bullying has dramatically decreased. Students ceased to create rumors about him. They don’t physically abuse him or call him names in front of his peers anymore. However, he still gets talked about behind his back but of course it’s not as bad as before. He visits his counselor on a weekly basis and things have gotten much better. I’m glad that I stuck around to be there for him while he struggled with such a horrible time. We all need someone to be there and care for us. We all need a shoulder to cry on every once in a while. Bullying is happening in schools all across America and teens need to start helping those who need it the most. We need to start taking action and stop being scared to fight for what we think is right. I admit that maybe before I lived these instants of bullying with my friend that I would have been scared. It is scary to stand up to someone that is intimidating. The fear of being a victim yourself can overpower your desire to step in and help. But if one person steps up, others will follow and the bullying chain will end. Such is the power of one voice that can save someone from being bullied at school. Bullying is a problem that starts as early as in elementary. Little things like excluding people and leaving them out of the group on purpose can make a person feel rejected and hurt. Many schools have a no-toleration policy for bullying but it’s really the children whoShow MoreRelatedBullying And Bullying : Bullying1180 Words   |  5 Pages Bullying is defined as unwanted or aggressive behavior that causes someone to feel afraid or intimidated. This behavior could be something physical, verbal, or something done electronically or through social media. If someone feels threatened by someone’s actions or words, it could be considered bullying, even if that was not the intent.There are many types of bullying, how to recognize bullying, how to report bullying, what to do if you see incidents of bullying, and what resources are availableRead MoreBullying : Bullying And Bullying985 Words   |  4 PagesBullying You may hear the word bullying a lot but never actually knew what it meant, well know is the time to know and be aware of what’s happening around you. Bullying is the use of force, threat, or aggressively dominate others. Bullying is common worldwide but there are specific types that are more common than others, there are four types of common bullying one of them is verbal bullying meaning when someone calls another person name, treating, and making disrespectful comments about someone isRead MoreBullying : Bullying And Bullying1366 Words   |  6 PagesKyle McBrady Ms. Coyle English 2A (3) 9 December 2014 Bullying Leading to Violence Bullying is when a person abuses his power to another person by causing physical or mental harm to the victim who is often weaker, says Dictionary.com (Bullying). This definition can be applied to a recent story in The Washington Post, where bullying caused a student by the name of Jaylen Fryberg to shoot his friends in a lunchroom cafeteria. 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Bullying is seen as aggressive and unwanted behavior between two or more people (Aspa).   Most people who are not involved in the actions going on do not really know it’s happening.   Most parents do not even know when their child, or children, are being bullied (Bullying Facts).   Bullying can be prevented if the right consequences take place.   Parents and schoolsRead MoreBullying : Bullying And Bullying769 Words   |  4 Pagesphysically bullied on the premise and cyber-bullying. The females reported more Cyber-bullying, off-school premises, through text massages and social media outlets. The males reported a higher rate of physical bullying on the school premise than the females. Students reported the occurr ence of physical intimidation preventing younger students to access hallways. Also, student’s who are perceived as â€Å"different† are target and taunted. Currently, the bullying behavior seems to be accepted by the staffRead MoreBullying : Bullying And Bullying948 Words   |  4 Pages Bullying Teasing and playing around are all part of growing up; however, what happens when it happens over and over. The Hernando County Code of Conduct defines bullying as: systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress, or physical behavior, including and threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gesture, by a student or adult, that is severe or pervasive enough to create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment; cause discomfort orRead MoreBullying : Bullying And Bullying Essay1924 Words   |  8 Pages Bullying is a very touchy subject for people to talk about. It deals with a lot of mental, physical, and emotional damage. Bullying is violent and unwelcoming behavior among various different aged children in school that involves a lack of power for one kid and a lot of power for another. The behavior of a bully is repeated numerous times over time and becomes more aggressive as the path goes on. The bully has an imbalance of pow er over the one being bullied. They bully uses their power for givingRead MoreBullying : Bullying And Bullying941 Words   |  4 PagesThere are different ways to describe bullying. Stopbullying.gov states the definition of bullying is â€Å"unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance.† Webster’s dictionary portrays the definition of bullying is to frighten, hurt, or threaten (a smaller or weaker person): to act like a bully toward (someone), or to cause (someone) to do something by making threats or insults or by using force. Violenceproventionworks.org mentions A personRead MoreBullying : Bullying And Bullying1030 Words   |  5 PagesKassandra Barragan Ms. Filar English 4/ Per: 1 9 May 2017 Bullying While doing research on bullying, I found studies on subject like cyber bullying, physical bullying, and verbal bullying. Bullying is a big problem now and has been in our society for some time. What is disturbing is that school is supposed to be a place where students learn and try to get away from outside problems but sadly some see it as a battlefield or place of survival. According to Webster s Dictionary, a bully is someone

Strategic Planning Push The Ymca - 2021 Words

Within this paper I will introduce a series of tactical plans to push the YMCA to success in the coming years. Strategic planning is a set of clearly defined goals, objectives, strategies and tactics. Along with the long-lasting mission and vision, as well as a strong accountability structure, this paper will set a roadmap for growth and continued success for the YMCA organization. The true beauty of the YMCA lies with staff and volunteers working together to create all-inclusive opportunities for Youth Development, Healthy Living and Social Responsibility for all members of our community. THE Y’S mission statement is to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind, and body for all. At the Y, strengthening community is our cause. We believe that positive, lasting personal and social change can only come about when we all work together to invest in our kids, our health, and our neighbors. (Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA, 2013) Strategic Planning methodology/process 1. Promote and Protect the Y Name 2. Support Public Policy 3. Promote Sustainability Through Charity 4. Address Community Needs Through Programs 5. Measure Impact of program 6. Work together With Others 7. Develop Passionate, Cause-Driven Leaders 8. Ensure Access, Presence and Engagement 9. Develop Relationships With and Among Members 10. Internal Study and External Environment Assessment 11. elevate membership and improve program usefulness 12. build theShow MoreRelatedPersonal Reflection and Personal Development Plan2558 Words   |  11 Pagescareer. Finally, I often overload myself with other people’s work or problems. Another key point of self awareness is the knowledge acquired about myself being a moderate internal locus of control. This will help me with personal development planning in terms understanding my natural tendencies and adapting to situations within and outside of my control. Other self assessments have enabled me to understand my learning style, become more aware of my productivity and stress levels, and howRead MoreNon-Profit Marketing- Problems and Future Challenges4243 Words   |  17 Pageseach of them part of the social Institutions and operated under social framework and structure, it was realized very late that marketing can also be used to address social issues. In a traditional sense, marketing is broadly defined as process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of Ideas products and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals. 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To achieve a market share of 15% among the target market segments in the first year of operation, and grow to 20% market share within

Discussion on Strategic Management Planning and Decisions -Sample

Question: Discuss about the Strategic Management Planning and Decisions. Answer: Introduction The process of strategic management involved all types of planning and decisions making process that are taken by top management of a business organization. The overall business planning is decided with the help of the strategic management process which aims to improve upon the performance of a business organization and also raise the amount of profitability. All the major marketing decisions and management process are done with the help of strategic management. It is important for all business organization to properly plan the strategic management process in order to properly implement the entire business plan in practical that can help to build a strong foundation for the future. The current essay will focus on the strategic management practice that is implemented by enterprise Life Insurance Company. It will help to define the concept related to strategic management practice and also the importance of strategic management in context of modern day business processing. The innovative strategic management techniques that are practiced by the business organization are also highlights it along with providing few real life examples of strategic management. With the help of this assignment it is possible to highlight upon the importance of strategic management practice that can help in development of business plan. Strategic Management? In any business corporation there are many ups and downs that represent challenges and hurdle in the path for success and attaining sustainability in the market. With dynamic economy changing its stride every day, this is corporations belonging to different disciplines and with different target markets are struggling to cope with the cut throat competition. The human society advancing a new notch every day, placing the customer base is not an easy task anymore. The consumers are more aware of their types and importance now more than ever before and the struggle for the different organizations to be at the top of the game has become an everyday challenge to overcome. With a new challenge to overcome everyday strategic management and execution of smart work has become any pursuit of business organizations nowadays. Business organizations strategic management as an armor to overcome any hindrances that may come in the path for it success and prosperity in the market. Many business analysts have team strategy to be the central part of organisational life and pivotal activity in order to facilitate awareness and physician in the critical decision making involved with corporate scenarios. There are two integral elements of organisational strategy, when strategic thinking and the other is is strategic decision making (Moutinho 2011). The fact does not need to be more pronounced that both these elements are extremely interlinked and are vitally important in Association with corporate challenges and problems. In simple terms strategic management can be defined as the formulation and implementation of prime goals and initiatives undertaken by the organisa tional body to cope with the disruptions in growth graph of the organization facilitated by factors belonging to the internal and external environment of the corporate organization. It should not escape noticed that in the face of dynamic economy that will even the place of strategic management in the corporate scenario is Paramount and without the foundation of strategic management the growth of organizations can fall to pieces (Eden and Ackermann 2013). Importance of strategic management in organizational perspective Every business organization wants to make wise critical decisions, in order to ensure extreme profit for the organization and avoid the chances of any laws that the company may face. However making the perfect critical decision in case of a potentially harmful challenge in the corporate scenario can be very tricky. Studies suggest a strategic management is the new face of Corporate understanding however it is the same subject that is often misunderstood and flawed used in the concept of business organization. In very simple terms the word strategy indicates at an important tool to extract elements from different cognitive dimensions that are influential in Planning and undertaking actions that are the perfect fit for a particular adverse situation. It has to be mentioned that any risk situation that has a considerable risk matrix ratio in the organisational perception, man's planning and implementing a set of actions that can positively antagonize the effect that the particular risk has the potential to inflict. Strategic management is the one way out for proactive and reasonable decision making in the face of any risk situation to prevent and to manage and neutralize the adverse effects of it (Swayne, Duncan and Ginter 2012). Other than the telltale importance of strategic management as a coping mechanism for risk situation, the importance of strategic management is much broader spectrum. Strategic management is an accident mechanism to manage the business operation processes in a day to day basis and planning for future success by the means of financial planning HR management and facilitating focus for a mission statement. Other than that corporate governance is also advantage of having an effective and efficient strategic management in the organization under consideration (Wheelen and Hunger 2011). Mini business analyst have considered strategic management to be one of the core competencies required for successful business management, according to their views without a proper strategic management most of the corporate decisions and operational processes will be massacred without an order to neutralize it. Last but not the least facilitating and pre-fixating future goals and missions is also largely faci litated by active strategic management, with proper and efficient strategic decision making critical analysis of factors affecting the growth and prosperity of the organizations will be easier and simplified, which will eventually lead to setting the optimal goals and objectives for the business organization to achieve through its hard work and statically smart actions (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014) Approaches to Strategic Thinking Complexity Perspective According to Bryce (2017), the process of strategic management is one of the important parts that are involved in the overall action of decision making. It is important to have an effective approach in order to deal with the strategic management process which decides upon the success rate of an organization. The strategic management practice can help to set the long term goal of an organization and also fix up on the objective that need to be achieved within a certain period of time. In case of the insurance company the long term plan can include implementing new policy that needs to be sold to the customers in order to increase the market range of the company. All the details about the policies can also be decided upon with the help of strategic management practice. The company can also decide upon the financial planning process with the help of strategic management techniques. It is also possible to set short term goals with the help of strategic management practice. For example the insurance company can have a short term goal of selling fix number of insurance policies within a fixed group of target customers. It is also important for the insurance company to have the policies of the strategy management that is made according to the needs and the lifestyle of the target customer groups. Strategic management approach can also aim to reduce the overall cost of the organization and also help to improve upon their profit rate. It is also important for all companies to have proper strategic management in order to avoid all possible future risk and unfavorable business environmental condition. Morden (2016), have mentioned that it is important for all business organization to have proper market approach to increase the level of brand awareness among the customers that will help them in the overall process of increasing the popularity within the market. The message that is send to the public in the form of advertisement is one of the popular ways to have effective strategic management approach. The message that the company can use to communicate with the public will depend on the target group of customers. The commander approach is regarded as one most popular ways of strategic management implementation of decision making process. In this type of approach the top management of the company takes all the crucial decision related to policy making and thereby implement and execute those policies in practice. The leader of the organization plays the most important role in this type of approach. Nevertheless, one of the most negative point of this kind of technique is that all the workers and employees cannot take active participation in the crucial decision making process of the organization (Ethiraj et al. 2016). Collaborative approach of strategic management is also regarded as one of the effective way to implement business policy in practice that is usually done with the help of business partnership. One of the major advantages of collaborative approach is that all types of stakeholders within the organization take part in business policy implementation process. There is also the cultural policy of business strategy implementation, which is regarded as one of the important part of the business policy making process. With the help of most of this kind of approach, it is possible to implement the democratic type of leadership within the organization. The company increase upon their popularity within all culturally diverse business environments (Ethiraj et al. 2017). New Ways of Thinking about Strategy We live in the age of dynamic changes and exponential impact, and in order to sustain the niche in the market business organizations need to always be a step ahead. It has to be understood that surprised if element that is always appreciated, and in order to keep the customers captivated the business organizations need to wear the armor of constant changes. Along with that with the economy and the market inflation being in a constant state of upheaval, newer and better strategies are required in every step of the way. In order to facilitate new Strategies for overcoming any challenges that may present itself in the organization scenario the strategic management concepts and methods is utilized need a fresh start as well. It has to be understood the strategic management as well as an age old concept with the tools and methods and theories being not very recent. However the organisational risks and challenges are no longer what it used to be a decade ago. Therefore it does not need mor e emphasis that there is a pressing need for innovations in the strategic management and strategic thinking as well. As mentioned above there are various theories for strategic management, a varied number of schools of thoughts addressing the needs of different types of risk and challenges (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 2012). The prevalent School of thoughts regarding strategic formation are the cognitive school, the learning school, power school, and the cultural School among many others. On a more elaborative note, all the schools of thoughts have a single focal point foundation of which the entire process of strategic thinking and decision making is established. For instance in the cognitive school of thought this approach for strategic thinking is focused on analysis of the different levels of perception in different people and the patterns it brings to the mix, Silicon eventually concentrating on the actions on the outside world and relating it to the different perceptions of those happenings to articulate a proper strategy to combat with the effects are the actions are inflicting. And on the o ther hand the learning school of thought exercises on the management paying close attention on the actions that do work and the actions that are not applicable in the particular scenario (David 2011). The school of thought exercises on the distinction between effective Strategies and an effective Strategies and therefore articulating the best possible means of dealing with any risk or challenge by the means of strategic thinking. All this schools of thought have effective in implementing and articulating strategic actions to combat with the challenges and risks in the last decade. However it should not escape noticed that the challenges and the risk associated with Bose challenges have changed over time with the changes brought about in the organisational scenario in the last decade. In the current age of the strategic thinking requires Complex adaptive systems and analytical tools to judge the efficacy of the Strategies prior to implementation of them. Usage of these adaptive tools and models facilitate evaluation of the patterns in the changes that the risk situation has represented and based on the evaluation implementation of strategies that will counteract those changes and manipulate them for the benefit of the organization. One such innovation in strategic management is the complexity chaos and entropy model that is abundantly used in organisational sectors (Freeman 2010). Modeling Complexity The implication of the adaptive system is one of the best techniques that can be applied within an organization that forms an important part of the strategic management approach. The complexity approach of strategic management helps to implement the learning methods that form an important part of the business plan of the company. There is also high probability that with the application of the adaptive system, it is possible for the Enterprise Insurance Company to have effective planning for the future. It is also possible to adopt the goal based adoptive techniques that can help in the overall process of dealing with the business complexity. One example of a business organization that has faced risk situations requiring apt strategic management is Enterprise Life (Leaders 2017). Due to using the strategic management, it may require to change the organizational structure. However, the management of the company needs to identify the issues at first before applying the strategic management in the organization. Eden and Ackermann (2013) mentioned that biasness is unethical and strategic management can help to reduce the biasness. For this, the organization needs to make the mission, vision and goal so that the employees of the company can set their own short- goal, vision and mission to achieve those. Moreover, some of the employees complaint that they have no efficient leader, who can motivate them. Hence, it is necessary to reduce the gaps and train the leaders to take efficient steps to motivate the employees and reduce the issues. The Quality Insurance Company is another insurance company that faced the problems like Ent erprise Life Assurance Company. However, the company got help by implementing the strategic management in their company and thus reduced the issues. Hill, Jones and Schilling (2014) mentioned that the strategic management is one type of processes that help the organizations to develop and implement new plans to set the goals as well as aims and objectives. This can ensure the concepts of strategic management to meet the needs of the organization. The first thing, Enterprise Life Assurance needs to adopt is to make the achievable goals. The managers need to take the initiatives to set the goals, aims and vision and mission so that it can help to build a healthy environment for the employees where they can work peacefully. Moreover, the strategic management helps to enter into the international market and thus expand the business and reputation (Stark 2015). The strategic management helps tin the employee motivation that helps to increase the productivity and the revenue as well. This will help to analyse the strategic formation. By the strategic management, the management will be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, which will help them to reduce the issues created in the organization. The internal and external analysis is necessary for the development of the position of the company. The analysis facilitate s to strategize the paths to adopt the changes of the technologies in the organization and the emerging markets. Due to using the strategic management, it may require to change the organizational structure. From the analysis, it is clear that the Enterprise Life Assurance company needs to develop their organizational structure (Leaders 2017). Hence, they need to use the strategic management. The employees of the organization need a strong and positive environment to work peacefully, where no biasness would occur. The managers will take the initiatives to set the goals, aims and vision and mission so that it can help to build a healthy environment for the employees where they can work peacefully. Organization will be able to develop and implement new plans to set the goals as well as aims and objectives. Conclusion On a concluding note, it can be sent the strategic management is an important person for a business organization to survive the rising types of economy and sustain a stable position in the market. It has to be understood that the customer preferences are changing rapidly and to cope up with the demands and sustain in the face of unbelievable competition, a business corporation needs to be one step ahead of its competitors. It has to be understood that importance of strategic thinking is integral as a core competency, without which the organizations cannot hope to sustain a stable presence in the target market. However, it must not escape notice that the patterns of corporate market is changing and so are changing the business processes and operational statistics. Hence, as a cumulative affects the challenges and risks in the business scenarios are also changing, along with the objectives and aims. Hence in order to survive these tides of transformation the business corporations need to adapt to innovations in even strategic thinking associating with complex adaptive systems to ensure optimacy of the startegic thinking procedure. References: Bryce, H.J., 2017.Financial and strategic management for nonprofit organizations. Walter de Gruyter GmbH Co KG. David, F.R., 2011.Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Peaeson/Prentice Hall. Durand, R., Grant, R.M. and Madsen, T.L., 2017. The expanding domain of strategic management research and the quest for integration.Strategic Management Journal,38(1), pp.4-16. Eden, C. and Ackermann, F., 2013.Making strategy: The journey of strategic management. Sage. Eden, C. and Ackermann, F., 2013.Making strategy: The journey of strategic management. Sage. Ethiraj, S.K., Gambardella, A. and Helfat, C.E., 2016. Replication in strategic management.Strategic Management Journal,37(11), pp.2191-2192. Ethiraj, S.K., Gambardella, A. and Helfat, C.E., 2017. Reviews of strategic management research.Strategic Management Journal,38(1), pp.3-3. Freeman, R.E., 2010.Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Cambridge University Press. Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014.Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning. Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014.Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning. Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D. and Hoskisson, R.E., 2012.Strategic management cases: competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning. Leaders, S. 2017.Enterprise Life Assurance Company Limited (ELAC) - Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC). [online] Gipcghana.com. Available at: https://www.gipcghana.com/89-ghana-club-100/sector-leaders/355-enterprise-life-assurance-company-limited-elac.html [Accessed 7 Jun. 2017]. Morden, T., 2016.Principles of strategic management. Routledge. Moutinho, L. ed., 2011.Strategic management in tourism. Cabi. Rothaermel, F.T., 2015.Strategic management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Slack, N., 2015.Operations strategy. John Wiley Sons, Ltd. Stark, J., 2015. Product lifecycle management. InProduct Lifecycle Management(pp. 1-29). Springer International Publishing. Swayne, L.E., Duncan, W.J. and Ginter, P.M., 2012.Strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley Sons. Thompson, J.L. and Martin, F., 2010.Strategic management: awareness change. Cengage Learning EMEA. Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., 2011.Concepts in strategic management and business policy. Pearson Education India.

Mag Rec Inc. free essay sample

Dinah will now question Pats professional ethics and integrity from that point forward. Trust and communication will be in jeopardy at this point and Pat will need to take steps in order to gain that back from Dinah. In my opinion, Pat should have pressed forward with the information she was given to Mr. Leed. Hopefully, Mr. Leed would have made an ethical choice and informed Partco of the issue. Mr. Leed then may be able to negotiate a more favorable discount as opposed to what they were forced to give Partco. Even though it was a bad situation, not being straight forward with Partco initially probably ended up costing MagRec more in the long run. 2. Do you think Dinah was right? Why or why not? If you were she, and you had to do it all over again, would you do anything differently? If so, what and why? I do think Dinah was right. We will write a custom essay sample on Mag Rec Inc. or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Dinah brought Pat the file knowing that there was an ethical and legal violation with what MagRec was doing. One would assume that Dinah is acting properly by showing her supervisor the file and reporting this through her chain of command. If I were Dinah, the only thing differently I would have done was take the file to Mr. Leed once I discovered that it was not reported to him. This way MagRec Management still has the opportunity to address it and try to resolve what had happened before Partco was ultimately informed by Dinah. 3. Using cognitive dissonance theory, explain the actions of Pat, Dinah, and Fred. Cognitive dissonance is when there is an inconsistency between an individuals attitude(s) and their behavior. I think the theory applies more to Pat than either Dinah or Fred. Dinah displayed appropriate ethical standards throughout the ordeal and her actions definitely supported her thoughts. When what she thought was appropriate action was not taken, she did what she felt was right and reported the issue to Partco. This seems consistent with her thoughts. Fred as well seemed to have his actions confirm his thoughts. His thoughts and actions both are unethical, but consistent with each other. Pat, on the other hand, did display cognitive dissonance. When shown the file, she immediately felt that her company was committing fraud. Pat did show the file to Fred, but failed to act appropriately after Fred convinced her to drop the matter. Her failure to act demonstrates a difference between her initial thoughts and ultimate actions.