Case study of the Management and Organisation of ADIDAS

Case study of the Management and Organisation of ADIDAS Adidas is a Germany shoe, clothing and apparel company that also owns Reebok, Taylor Made and Rockport. Adidas is the largest sportswear company in Europe and is the second only to Nike as the largest sportswear company in the world. The company sports the recognizable logo of three slanted parallel bars of ascending height. Adidas was founded in 1924 by Adolf Dassler, but it did not become a fully registered company until 1940. Its headquarters are located in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the hometown of its founder. Although many believe that Adidas stands for All day I dream about soccer the true origin of the name comes from the amalgamation of Adolfs nickname, Adi, and the first three letter of his last name. Adidas specializes in the design and manufacturing of footwear, sportswear, sports equipment and, yes, even toiletries, most notably, deodorant. However, the company first gained international recognition in 1936 at the Summer Olympic in Berlin, where it outfitted U.S. track star Jesse Owens with its track shoes. Owens won four gold medals in the games. With a specifically stated Corporate Strategy, the company needs to ensure that their organizational structure will allow for and be flexible to this strategy being sought after. Their objectives outlined in the corporate strategy ensure the mission statement will translate into action, while also guiding and coordinating decisions. There is no purpose in having well thought out strategic objectives, but no structure and cohesion to attain these objectives. The Adidas Group comprises of a four person executive board, including one Chief Executive Officer and three board members representing the shareholders and six members representing the staff. The Supervisory Board advices and supervises the executive board in matter concerning the management of the company. It is the role of the supervisory board to ensure that the pathway and vision determine by the executive board is forthrightly followed by the rest of the organization from the top, all the way down to those entrusted with man ufacturing their products. The strengths of ADIDAS are strong management team and good corporate strategy in North American and overseas markets, brand recognition and reputation, diversity and variety in productions offered on the web (footwear, apparel, sporting, equipment, etc.), strong control over its own distribution channel, strong customer base, and strong financial position with minimal long term debts. Weakness of ADIDAS is negative image portrayed by poor working condition in its overseas factories, and E-commerce is limited to USA. Planning Planning is one of the most important project management and techniques. A plan is like a map, when following a plan, you can always see how much you have progressed towards your project goal and how far you are from your destination. Knowing where you are is essential for making good decisions on where to go or what to do next. The most important is to ensure that everyone is clear of what to accomplish. Planning meaning is how setting goals and defining the actions necessary to achieve the goals, in light of the situation. That is situation must be analyses or understood and the appropriate goals and actions must be determined in order to take advantage of opportunities and how to solve problems. Basic management function involving formulation more than one detailed plans to achieve optimum balance of needs or demands with available resources. First, the planning process is identifies the goals or objectives to be achieved and formulates strategies to achieve them. The Managers throughout the organization must develop goals, strategy, and operational plans for their work groups that contribute to the success of the organizations as a whole. Planning is also crucial for meeting your needs during each action with your time, money, or other resources. With careful planning you often can see if at some point you are likely to face a problem. It is much easier to adjust your plan to avoid overcome crisis, rather than to deal with the crisis when it comes unexpected time. Example Adidas plans to expand their operations in Europe, so they need consultation to the Government of Germany. They have been granted landing rights in Paris and are awaiting further details from authorities. In addition, planning has a different meaning depending on the political or economic context in which it is used. Two attitudes to planning need to be held in tension on the one hand we need to be prepare for what may lie ahead, which may mean contingencies and flexible processes. There is one thing on which every manager can expect to be appraised, the extent to which he or she archives his or her units goals or objectives. Whether its a work team or a giant enterprise, the manager in charge is expected to move the unit ahead, and this means visualizing where the unit must go and helping het there. Organization exits to achieve some purpose, and if they fail to move forward and achieve their aims, to that extent they have failed. On the other hand, our future is shaped by consequences of our own planning and actions. Planning in organization and public policy is both the organizational process of creating and maintaining a program. In the psychological process of thinking about the activities required to set a desired target or goal on some scale. Business planning is like water to a thirsty plant. It keeps our business vital and thriving. Without business planning, business will never improve as it could may even loses or bankrupt. Many small business or stall owners dont have the business planning so they cant earn so much profit when their doing business. Their business unable further progress and stagnant it is, eventually as to close to close shop or behind other competitors. The rapid of change in todays business world and globalization is making it increasingly necessary that mangers keep their plans current. Strategic management is the application of the basic planning process at the highest levels of the organization. Through the strategic management process, top management determines the long-run direction and performance of the organization by ensuring careful formulation and strategies. For example, top management may ask middle and lower-level managers for inputs when formulation top-level plans. Once top-level plans have been finalized, different organizational units may be asked to formulate plans for their respective areas. A proper strategic management process helps ensure that plans throughout the different levels of the organization are coordinated and mutually supportive. The slogan of Adidas is Impossible is Nothing. The mission of Adidas is to be Best Sport Brand in the world. They had achieved the mission but in this strong competitive era, too many company like Nike and Reebok also want to be globally recognized brand, but they will work hard to achieve their goals. Adidas is passionate about all sports. So Adidas Company will try their best for planning new product or equipment for athletes. As part of their End-to-End Planning initiative they have been focusing on implementing an optimized demand planning process and system more than 20 countries in Europe. They standardized or partially automated certain planning functions to increase forecast accuracy. Following the first wave of implementations in 2008, they continued the roll-out to the remaining European countries throughout 2009. Hereafter, they expect to continue the roll-out to other key Adidas Group markets such as Japan. They set up a dedicated Profitability Management department to monitor macroeconomics trends, forecast the impact on product and supplier cost and devise their supply chain profitability strategy. In addition, their development teams also contribute significantly to this initiative by engineering their products with a stronger focus on price. Throughout 2009, they also engaged their supplier with the aim to increase transparency and predictability in costing. Such as, they closely tracked raw material costs and leveraged this information to consolidate volumes. This allowed them to negotiate more effectively and offset cost increase. In addition, their sourcing teams improved their products allocation process to better utilize suppliers capabilities and take into account of total supply chain cost. Moreover, by leveraging consolidated volumes, their Transport and Customs team success negotiated reduced transportation cost and optimized shipment routes with their service providers. In conclusion, planning is very important for the organization to achieve their goals and objectives. Especially, current globalization every organization is using latest technology to do the market analyses and compressive planning. In order for them to survive and growth, for example, in year 2008, financial crisis, many banks in US will decline bankrupt. This is because of their poor planning. Organizing Organizing (also spelled organising) is the act of rearranging elements following one or more rules. For a company organization is means to an end to achieve its goals, which are to create value for its stakeholders (stockholders, employees, customers, suppliers, community). The Study of organisations includes a focus on optimizing organisation structure. According to management science, most human organizations fall roughly into four types. They are pyramids or hierarchies, committees juries, Matrix organisations and Ecologies. Organising is the managerial function of making sure there are available the resources to carry out the plan. Organising involves the assignment of tasks, the grouping of tasks into department, and the allocation of resources to department Organising is the managerial function of arranging people and resources to work toward a goal. The purposes of organizing include but are not limited to determining the tasks to be performed in order to achieve objectives, dividing tasks into specific jobs, grouping job into department specifying reporting and authority relationship, delegating the authority necessary for task accomplishment, and allocating and deploying resources in a coordinated fashion. Managers must bring together individuals and tasks to make effective use of people and resources. Three elements are essential to organizing to develop the structure of the organisation. Organising are also acquiring and training human resources. In addition, organising are establishing communication patterns and networks. Determining the method of grouping these activities and resources is the organizing process. Organising is the process of defining and grouping activities and establishing authority relationships among them to attain organisation objectives. Organisation is the process of identifying and grouping of the works to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority and establishing relationships for the purpose of ena bling people to work most efficiently. Organising can be viewed as the activities to collect and configure resources in order to implement plans in a highly effective and efficient fashion. Organising is a broad set of activities, and often considered one of major functions of management. Therefore, there are a wide variety of topics in organising. The following are some of major types of organising required in a business organisation. Organising is the structural frameworks within the various efforts are co-ordinated and related to each other. Organising is one of the basic functions of management. Organising is referred to a creating a structure of relationship for the efficient management of the enterprise. In other words organisation means a group of persons working together to achieve some common objectives. It is related with building up of a framework or structure of various inter related parts.This is the process of allocating and arranging human and non human resources so t o achieve organizational goals. Issues of organisational culture and human resource management are also related to this function. Furthermore, organising also includes the activity of acquiring the resources that the organisation needs to achieve its aims. In many organizations, staffing and sourcing of funds and raw materials take up much time and effort. Anything is commonly considered organized when it looks like everything has a correct order or placement. But its only ultimately organized if any element has no difference on time taken to find it. In that sense, organizing can also be defined as to place different objects in logical arrangement for better searching. Organizations are groups of people frequently trying to organize some specific subject, such as political issues. So, even while organizing can be viewed as a simple definition, it can get as complex as organizing the worlds information. Organising also means creating an organisation structure that is suitable for th e achievement of the agreed objectives. Work has to be allocated, lines of authority and responsibility defined, and a system of rules and procedures that guide the conduct of employees laid down. The structure should not be regarded as permanent but as constantly changing to suit the organisations needs. The organisation is where resources come together. Organisations use different resources to accomplish goals. The major resources used by organisation are often described as follow : Human resources financial resources, physical resources, and information resources. Managers are responsible for acquiring and managing the resources to accomplish goals. Organising will work towards maximum efficiency and minimum waste. Organising helps organisation to reap the benefit of specialization. Organising provides for optimum utilization of resources. Organising helps in Effective administration. Organising channels for expansion and growth. Organising achieves co-ordination among different departments. Organising creates scope for new change. The advantages of this include easy communication due to shared specialization, better performance evaluation within the team, and quicker decision making as they are all on the same perspective. The main disadvantage is that coordination between different departments become more difficult. Divisional, which is based on product, market or geography has the advantage of functions being able to focus on a specific good, service or customer. This promotes high quality products and customer service. The risk is in conflict arising between division if they begin to compete for organisational resources or pursue individual objectives. Other than that, organising plays a central role in management process. Once plans are created the managers task is to see that they are carried out. Given a clear mission, core values, objectives, and strategy, the relationship. It identifies who is to do what, who is in charge of whom, and how different people and parts of the organisation relate to and work with one another. All of this, of course, can be done in different ways. The strategic leadership challenge is to choose the best organisational form to fit the strategy and other situational demands. When organising, managers must take decision about the division of labour and work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of management, centralization, and formalization. Collectively, these decisions are often called organisational design. There is no standard formula for the best way to organise an enterprise. Several factors have been shown to influence organising decision. Among the most important of these factors are strategy, size, environmental conditions, and technology. Managers organise in order to achieve the objectives for the enterprise for which they work. Thus, the strategy of the enterprise affects organising decision. Change in strategy frequently necessitates changes in the way the enterpri se is organised. Small enterprise tend exhibit less formalization, centralization, and complexity in their organisational structure. Nevertheless, enterprises of the same size may be organised quite differently because of differences in strategy, environmental conditions, and technology. The key factor in the external environment that is relevant to organising is uncertainty. Some enterprises face competitive environments that change rapidly and quite complex, while others face relatively stable conditions. Generally, turbulent environments call for organising decisions that lead to less formalization and centralization in the organisational structure. The processes by which an enterprise transforms inputs into outputs may also affect organising decisions. Some research suggests that organising decisions that lead to high degrees of formalization, centralization, and work specialization are more appropriate for routine technologies and that the converse is true for non-routine techn ologies. Competition is tough but is steady and manageable, the handling of cost leadership is reasonable and such differentiation follows an organized pattern is such focused activities and events of the company. Adidas will be sustaining capital investment and access to capital and apply process engineering skills in such ideal supervision of labour in giving good brand value to such products being designed for manufacturing purposes as they have applied a structured organisation and responsibility driven business ways that narrow. Adidas ability to maintain enough of price differential to offset competitors brand image for differentiation. The need for strong coordination among functions in R D, product development and marketing and focus on company policies as directed in such strategic target. Leading Leading is organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal. The leader may or may not have any formal authority. Students of leadership have produced theories involving traits, situational interaction, function, behavior, power, vision and values, charisma, and intelligence among others. Leading has been described as the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. Definitions more inclusive of followers have also emerged. Leading is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen. Leading needs to be distinguished from posturing .The following sections discuss several important aspects of leading including a description of what leading is and a description of several popular theories and styles of leading. This article also discusses topics such as the role of emotions and vision, as well as leading effectiveness and performance, leading in diff erent contexts, how it may differ from related concepts of management, and some critiques of leadership as generally conceived .Leading as one of four functions of management, leading can be both extremely important and challenging. Along with planning, organizing and controlling, all managers will execute these four functions of management. From managing a local store to managing a large corporation, every manager will perform each of the functions at some point in their jobs. Ideally all managers should be good leaders; it is a way of establishing a cohesive group which moves towards organizational goals and objectives with spirit and vigor. While handling people a good leader will not only manage his own resources well, he or she also can motivation the worker, employee to complete their work that been given. A leader should strive to become an inspiration to the rest of the employees. Employees will follow a leader because the leader have the authority that given by boss to lead ing the employee. However, a leader that is an inspiration means that employees follow that person because they believe in what the leader is doing and they are trying to help the company achieve its goals. Finding ways to inspire employees means coaching them and motivating them to succeed as integral parts of the company. Significant relationships exist between leading and such individual traits as intelligence, adjustment, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and general self-efficacy. Considering the criticisms of the trait theory outlined above, several researchers have begun to adopt a different perspective of leader individual differences the leader attribute pattern approach .In contrast to the traditional approach, the leader attribute pattern approach is based on theorists arguments that the influence of individual characteristics on outcomes is best understood by considering the person as an integrated totality rather than a summation of individual va riables. In other words, the leader attribute pattern approach argues that integrated constellations or combinations of individual differences may explain substantial variance in both leader emergence and leader effectiveness beyond that explained by single attributes, or by additive combinations of multiple attributes. In response to the early criticisms of the trait approach, theorists began to research leading as a set of behaviors, evaluating the behavior of successful leaders, determining a behavior taxonomy and identifying broad leading styles. For example, Leading takes a strong personality with a well developed positive ego. Not so much as a pattern of motives, but a set of traits is crucial. To lead self-confidence and a high self-esteem is useful, perhaps even essential. The researchers evaluated the performance of groups of eleven-year-old boys under different types of work climate. In each, the leader exercised his influence regarding the type of group decision making, p raise, criticism and feedback , and the management of the group tasks project management according to three styles is : authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire. Authoritarian climates were characterized by leaders who make decisions alone, demand strict compliance to his orders, and dictate each step taken; future steps were uncertain to a large degree. The leader is not necessarily hostile but is aloof from participation in work and commonly offers personal praise and criticism for the work done. Democratic climates were characterized by collective decision processes, assisted by the leader. Before accomplishing tasks, perspectives are gained from group discussion and technical advice from a leader. Members are given choices and collectively decide the division of labor. Praise and criticism in such an environment are objective, fact minded and given by a group member without necessarily having participated extensively in the actual work. Laissez faire climates gave freedom to the group for policy determination without any participation from the leader. The leader remains uninvolved in work decisions unless asked, does not participate in the division of labor, and very infrequently gives praise. Positive reinforcement occurs when a positive stimulus is presented in response to a behavior, increasing the likelihood of that behavior in the future. The following is an example of how positive reinforcement can be used in a business setting. Assume praise is a positive reinforcement for a particular employee. This employee does not show up to work on time every day. The manager of this employee decides to praise the employee for showing up on time every day the employee actually shows up to work on time. As a result, the employee comes to work on time more often because the employee likes to be praised. In this example, praise is a positive reinforcement for this employee because the employee arrives to work on time more frequently after being praised for show ing up to work on time. The use of positive reinforcement is a successful and growing technique used by leaders to motivate and attain desired behaviors from subordinates. Used reinforcement to increase productivity and also increase in performance. Additionally, many reinforcement techniques such as the use of praise are inexpensive, providing higher performance for lower costs.

Free Animal Farm Essay :: Animal Farm Essays

Animal Farm Essay The name of the book is Animal Farm, which is written by George Orwell. This book is about a farm with animals who dislike the treatment, and overtake the farm and overthrow the humans of the farm. As the revolution took place, two leaders came about. Their names were Snowball and Napoleon, whose main goal was to have nothing to do with humans, and bring communism into their society. "Napoleon was a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only one of those on the farm. He was not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way" (Ch.2, P. 25). "Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive but did not have the character depth that Napoleon did" (Ch.2, Pgs. 24-25.) Snowball was the one with the ideas like the committees and the windmill. He was a better thinker than Napoleon. When all the animals helped kick Mr. Jones off the farm, Snowball led the animals to the store-shed and served out a double ration of corn to everybody with two biscuits going to each of the dogs. Napoleon on the other hand was very selfish. He stole milk that was meant for everybody and drank it all, and he stole apples. He doesn't care about the work the animals do, just what would benefit him. For example, Napoleon comes up with the building of the windmill that would supply electricity so they would not have to work as hard. Napoleon was against this because he didn't come up with the idea. When Napoleon sees that Snowball is gaining more power with the speech of the windmill, Napoleon sends his dogs to chase Snowball out of the farm. After Snowball was chased out of the farm, Napoleon gains more power by saying Snowball was a bad person. He told the animals that Snowball was with Mr. Jones from the starting. (Ch 6. P. 72) "We will teach this miserable traitor that he cannot undo our work so easily." He is now saying that Snowball was the one who ruined the windmill, even though it was his idea. He called him a traitor. And when Napoleon couldn't do the trash talking, he sent squealer. "For we know now, it is all written down in the secret documents that we have found-that in reality he was trying to lure us to our doom" (Ch. 7 P. 80). He was telling all the animals that Snowball was a traitor and was with Mr. Jones, because of the Battle of the Cowshed.

Measure of Contentment Essay

Down to that moment I had vainly supposed that my creditor had withdrawn or suspended proceedings until I should be quite recovered. I had never dreamed of Joe’s having paid the money; but Joe had paid it, and the receipt was in his name. What remained of me now, but to follow him to the dear old forge, and there to have out my disclosure with him, and my penitent remonstrance with him,† (Page 463) This shows how only Joe can rescue Pip and his identity; Joe represents who Pip should have become. Respect and admiration for Joe is once again won for Pip, as â€Å"I had never dreamed of Joe paying the money; but Joe had paid it, and the receipt was in his name† shows. As a result of this act of Joe’s, Pip continues to reform into someone with a better identity, an example of which is shown in the passage: â€Å"What remained of me now, but to follow him to the dear old forge, and there to have out my disclosure with him, and my penitent remonstrance with him,† as this shows how Pip is willing to be humble toward Joe, and ask for his forgiveness. By seeking after someone else’s pleasure before his own, Pip displays qualities of selflessness, Once Pip has discovered his true identity, he can begin to become someone he is happy and content with, because he cares less about his own problems and so they don’t loom as great and as terrible, and he becomes more content. A further lesson Pip must learn in his struggle to find contentment is to control his fantasies, phobias and delusions. A phobia is something psychological, that you fear and therefore try to shut out. Pip’s phobia that he won’t be able to obtain Estella controls him so much that he subconsciously creates fantasies to counter-act his phobias. A fantasy is when you dream of something irrational, or a surreal delusion of something that is exaggerated to fit your expectations of what you want that thing to be. Pip gets trapped by many fantasies in the novel, which prevent him living in reality and achieving contentment. A major fantasy in the novel is that Estella is meant for him, and that Miss Havisham is his benefactress, and this fantasy drives Pip into becoming a gentleman: â€Å"‘The beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham’s, and she’s more beautiful than anyone ever was, and I admire her dreadfully, and I want to be a gentleman on her account. ‘† (Page 125) This passage is when Pip confides in Biddy why he yearns after being a gentleman, and it shows how Pip has the fantasy that as soon as he is a gentleman, Estella will be his. Later, when he comes into his Great Expectations, he fantasises that Miss Havisham is his benefactress so that he can be fit for Estella, and the fantasy is so strong that he makes himself believe that it is true. A passage that displays this is found on Page 177, when Pip is getting acquainted with Herbert: â€Å"‘And as to the condition which you hold your advancement in life-namely that you are not to inquire or discuss to whom you owe it- you may be very sure that it will never be encroached upon, or even approached by me, or anyone belonging to me. ‘ In truth, he said this with so much delicacy, that I felt the subject done with, even though I should be under his father’s roof for years and years to come. Yet e said it with so much meaning, too, that I felt he as perfectly understood Miss Havisham to be my benefactress, as I understood the fact myself. † This passage shows how Pip has let his fantasy that Miss Havisham is his benefactress delude him, and how he will manipulate things that may not necessarily mean what Pip wants them to mean, to suit him and his fantasies. In order for Pip to progress in life and achieve contentment, he must learn to let go of these fantasies. However, it is apparent that Pip is unable to let go of his fantasies, because he is afraid of what the reality might be. For example, Pip makes himself believe that Miss Havisham is his benefactress and that Estella is intended for him, because if Miss Havisham is not his benefactor, who is, and is Estella still for him? To Pip, the answer to these questions are too daunting to recognize, so he fantasises about the answer that he wants it to be. Therefore, when Pip discovers that in reality, his benefactor is an escaped convict, he is in absolute shock and repulsion. â€Å"The abhorrence in which I held the man, the dread I had of him, the repugnance with which I shrank from him, could not have been exceeded if he had been some terrible beast. † (Page 313) Dickens’s cleverly uses language in this passage by repeating the same thing three times in different ways, as each of the parts of the passage that Pip describes Magwitch with all tell of his hatred and revulsion of him, but the build up of these things adds drama to the scene, emphasising Pip’s shock at the reality instead of his fantasy. Once Pip understands that Magwitch is his benefactor, a reformation begins in Pip, and he becomes a better, happier, more altruistic person. â€Å"Where I might go, what I might do, or when I might return were questions utterly unknown to me; nor did I vex my mind with them, for it was wholly set on Provis’s safety. I only wondered for the passing moment, as I stopped at the door and looked back, under what altered circumstances I should next see those rooms, if ever. † (Page 425) This passage depicts how Pip has controlled his phobia of lower class status, because he is willing to help Magwitch and develops a self-sacrificing love for him, because, as it says in this passage, Pip is willing to give up everything that he has ever consciously wanted, which is being an eligible gentleman, for Magwitch’s (Provis’s) safety. As a result of his self-centred fantasies, phobias and delusions, Pip becomes very selfish and self-concerned whilst he is in London, but when he begins to seek humble forgiveness from Joe and Miss Havisham because his fantasies have been ruined by reality, he becomes less selfish. Selflessness contributes to Pip’s happiness at the end of the novel, which is part of Pip learning to become like Joe, who demonstrates selflessness throughout the novel. When Pip seeks after other’s happiness before his own, he becomes more able to grow and develop into a better person: Giving of self makes you unselfish, which in turn makes you happy as you make others happy. This consequences in you being outward looking because you want to look for more opportunities to help others, creating less focus on your own faults and more contentment and satisfaction with yourself. For example, when Pip saves Miss Havisham from the fire, or lends Herbert money for his business, Pip forgets about his own needs and safety. The injury Pip gets as a result of the fire at Satis House does not prevent Pip from wanting to save Magwitch by helping him escape the law and Compeyson by fleeing the country, instead, he wishes he could do more: â€Å"I felt mortified to be of such little use in the boat,; but there were few better oarsman than my two friends. † (Page 426) This shows how instead of dwelling on his own unfortunate circumstances, and the fact that he felt â€Å"mortified†, Pip thinks in a complimentary manner about his two friends: â€Å"but there were few better oarsman than my two friends. † Pip learning how to become less self-centred and dispel his fantasies and phobias partly leads to the level his contentment at the end of the novel. An additional lesson that Pip must learn before he can achieve some level of contentment, and a fundamental lesson for anyone growing up, is learning to listen and take advice from others. There are many points in the novel where Pip is offered good advice, usually by someone of trust or worth to Pip, and he doesn’t take it. Once Pip learns to take the advice given to him by those superior to him in experience, he can begin to make better and more informed decisions, which consequences in his being happier, more satisfied and more content. The first major turning point in the novel, of Pip desiring to be and becoming a gentleman, could have been avoided if Pip had listened to this advice given to him by Biddy: â€Å"‘Biddy,’ said I, after binding her to secrecy, ‘I want to be a gentleman. ‘ ‘Oh, I wouldn’t, if I were you! ‘ she returned. ‘I don’t think it would answer. ‘ ‘Biddy’, I said with some severity, ‘I have particular reasons for wanting to be a gentleman. ‘ ‘You know best Pip, but don’t you think that you are happier as you are? ‘† (Page 124) This passage shows how Pip thinks that he knows best, as he speaks to Biddy with â€Å"severity† at not being able to understand why he wants to be a gentleman. When Biddy questions Pip, if he is not happier now, it shows that Pip is striving for contentment, although he attempts to find it in the wrong way, as Biddy cleverly picks up on: â€Å"‘Do you want to be a gentleman to spite her, or to gain her over? ‘ Biddy quietly asked, after a pause. ‘I don’t know,’ I moodily answered. ‘Because if it is to spite her,’ Biddy pursued, ‘I should think -but you know best- that might be better and more independently done by caring nothing, for her words. And if it is to gain her over- I should think- but you know best -she is not worth gaining over. ‘† (Page 125) Here, Biddy is offering Pip very good advice; that Estella really isn’t worth it. However, Pip thinks that he â€Å"knows best†, as Biddy says, and continues to follow the prospect of becoming a gentleman for Estella. If Pip had taken Biddy’s advice, he would have been able to achieve contentment in his life quicker than he does as he pursues the life of a gentleman, because he would have learned to forget Estella, become apprenticed to Joe, and lived the life of Joe, who is content with his life. However, once Pip is in London, it is a whole new world to him, one that he struggles to cope with at first because of the spectral difference between London and his â€Å"marsh country† home. As a result of this, Pip needs to be taught how to survive in London and he is now willing to learn and listen to the advice of others, which in turn helps him to achieve a degree of contentment. I believe that this is one of the most important lessons that readers today can get from Great Expectations; that in order to achieve contentment, you need to be able to listen to the advice of those that are older, more experienced and more knowledgeable that you are, because they are more likely to know how to best achieve it. The readers can learn from Pip’s ignorance not to make the same mistakes themselves. Dickens cleverly uses setting throughout the novel to depict different qualities of life, or levels of contentment. The marsh country Pip originates from represents a humble lifestyle, but those that live there, such as Joe and Biddy, and Pip at the beginning of the novel, seem to be more content with their lives than those that live in London, which represents the wealthy, extravagant lifestyle. Dickens uses this irony to show how money and wealth do not necessarily bring contentment, which is a further essential lesson that Pip must learn. Miss Havisham lives in Satis House, which comes from the Latin meaning ‘enough’ or ‘satisfaction’. This is ironic because from the outside, the house represents a life of wealth and grandeur, which people often assume to bring satisfaction, but on the inside, the residents of the house lead a bitter, frozen lifestyle, and Miss Havisham is so unsatisfied with her life that she lives it to wreak revenge on all men. These circumstances are used by Dickens to show how wreaking revenge does not equate to contentment; Pip must learn that if he is to be happy, he must not seek revenge from anyone, even those that have especially offended him. Nobody’s life works out perfectly, and Pip’s is evidently no exception. An example of a situation where Pip would need to learn to ‘forgive and forget’ is when Mrs Joe, his sister dies. On contemplation, Pip reflects: â€Å"Whatever my fortunes might have been, I could scarcely have recalled my sister with much tenderness. But I suppose there is a shock of regret which may exist without much tenderness. Under its influence (and perhaps to make up for the want of the softer feeling) I was seized by a violent indignation against the assailant from whom she had suffered so much; and I felt that on sufficient proof I could have revengefully perused Orlick, or anyone else, to the last extremity. † (Page 272) This passage discloses Pip’s thoughts as he moves from feeling bitter toward his sister: â€Å"I could scarcely recall her with much tenderness†, to seeking revenge upon the person that caused his sister anguish: â€Å"I felt that on sufficient proof I could have revengefully perused Orlick, or anyone else, to the last extremity†. It is a successful piece of writing as Dickens’s uses pairs of effective adjectives such as â€Å"shock of regret† and â€Å"violent indignation†, which creates more impact on the reader and helps them to empathise with the way Pip is feeling. This then results in the reader feeling more of a connection to Pip as he strives to achieve contentment, and so helps them to learn more from the novel. In conclusion, it believe that Dickens’ rite-of-passage novel Great Expectations is successful at presenting useful lessons to it’s readers as to how they themselves can achieve contentment, despite being written in the 19th century. These are portrayed through Pip’s own struggle to achieve contentment, many of the struggles relating to Dickens’ own life, such as the issues like overcoming debt, unrequited love, family problems and poor education. Dickens shows in the novel how these things can be overcome, and contentment and satisfaction achieved, through the realisation of moral values, the dispelling of delusions and fantasies, and learning how to respond to people around you. However, despite this, the most important lesson, that comes through the novel, in learning how to achieve contentment in life is living it. Pip says that he was happy at the forge before he went to London, but he was not content (Page 315). Therefore, this suggests that the novel recommends that the best way to gain contentment is to live your life and learn through the experience of it; otherwise you would feel unsatisfied with your experience of life.

The Importance of Two-Parent Rearing - 1600 Words

At this point, we all realize that parental figures are fundamental in the sound advancement of kids. As a parent, my obligation is to verify that my child grows up protected and solid, and to equip him to be a resource for himself as well as to his group natures turf. Again and again we fantasize on the thought of how kids are gathered to be raised straying far from the things that we despised about our guardians while gaining a few things that we got a handle on worked best. I have this discussion with my mother constantly- what is the right approach to parent? Regardless of what number of network shows there are or what number of individuals expound on what they accept are their victories as folks, the reality of the situation is that there is no right or wrong way. You try your hardest with the expectation that youve made his or her youth and juvenile encounters ones that help him turn into a great individual as a mature person. There are numerous concerns you have as a guardian . 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