Strategic management of small firms Research Proposal

Strategic management of small firms - Research Proposal Example Such firms include entrepreneurial ventures and also business trading entities. The paper is an exploratory study and draws upon existing literature and case studies of small firms to develop the proposed model. Future research scope and applicability has also been discussed. Small firms have been long neglected over the strategic management roles and issues. The problems of identification of factors that influence small firms’ strategic decisions have been restricted to leadership roles and planning techniques. The paper is aimed at resolving this very issue by identification of a framework for strategic management within small firms. Small scale industries have been the key to economic development for most of the countries during their development stage. Studies prove that they contribute towards a major portion of a country’s GDP and growth. This has also led to a huge rise in research in the economic activity of small scale enterprises. However, most research in the field did not prove to be quite resourceful, primarily, owing to the failure of identification of problems associated with the study of small scale companies. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate and develop a framework of strategic management within small enterprises by evaluation of strategies adopted by small companies. The research shall also seek answers to the source of competitive advantage of small enterprises that emerge as successful businesses and thereby analyse the strategic management factors that influence success in small firms. The research rationale in the context of this study is whether there exists any significant difference between the strategic management employed within small firms and that within large firms. If this holds true then, the research seeks to explore the factors that are responsible for strategic management within small firms. The research

Comparison and Contrast between life before internet and after Essay - 2

Comparison and Contrast between life before internet and after internet - Essay Example Likewise, telephonic messages that actually came into existence before internet helped people in conveying messages from one place to other regardless of geographical location. This particular fact provides evidence that life of people before and after internet has been quite similar in relation to the messaging system. This is because the system of exchanging messages through text messages and mails tends to be quite similar. Internet has resulted in changing peoples’ life pattern, however, the rudimentary social pattern of life has remained the same irrespective of the changes induced by internet. It has been revealed that the communication system of youngsters have persisted to be the same i.e. most of them use the conventional means of social interaction wherein internet is executed like a telephone.Therefore, it can be affirmed that the life of people before internet and after internet has remained the same in relation to their social interaction process and psychological well-being. In fact, internet has created a platform for enhancing the traditional interaction process along with evolving relationships amid individuals in the society. Thus, the social and psychological paradigms of peoples’ life have been quite similar before and after the initiation of internet. On the contrary, there has been a huge difference in the life of people before internet and after internet. People in order to entertain themselves used to devote more time to watching television or through other means such as visiting parks.

Pick 3 topics, each topic has only 1 paragraph with more than 10 Essay

Pick 3 topics, each topic has only 1 paragraph with more than 10 sentences i guess. so it will be 3 paragraphs - Essay Example The formation of gangs in schools, and the related violence and rivalry, is reduced by the absence of gang-identified clothes. At the same time, uniforms eliminate expensive items of clothing which lead to jealousy and theft. The secure school environment established by a uniform dress code creates an atmosphere of sharing which in turn leads to increased self-esteem. School uniforms contribute to the development of self-esteem in public school students. This is an off-shoot of the fact that self-esteem is significantly linked to attire in the case of most adolescents. This is largely because clothes are an indication of the student’s economic background. The difference in dress leads to the differentiation between rich and poor students. As clothes make a statement, student identities become linked to their clothes. Those who are unable to keep up with the latest fashion trends risk being teased by their wealthier peers. There is also the risk of teachers being unconsciously influenced by the affluence of students as reflected by their clothes. This many lead to differential treatment of students in class. A uniform dress code eliminates differences based on the student’s home environment and gives students the opportunity to be judged completely on the basis of their abilities. The resulting increase in self-esteem leads to improv ed academic performance. Academic performance is improved by a uniform dress code as the distraction of dressing fashionably for school is eliminated. Conflict with parents over what constitutes appropriate attire for school is also avoided. As there is no need to spend time on choosing clothes and accessories for school every morning, there is more time for study at home. At the same time, punctuality, and attendance at the first classroom session in schools, is improved. As uniforms eliminate the need for school teachers to monitor student’s attire, more time

Adolescent Behaviors and the Challenges in Society Today Essay Example for Free

Adolescent Behaviors and the Challenges in Society Today Essay Increased awareness needs to be established so that adults can be aware of adolescent behaviors and challenges in our society today. Some issues as simple as adolescents are being ostracized because of obesity, mothers work schedule causing risky behaviors, children being raised by depressed mothers, parent stress causing adolescents not to have good self-concept, and adolescents being involved in risky behavior in order to be accepted by peers. All of these actions are causing behaviors such as teen pregnancy, self-injuries, suicide, and eating disorders. Research states many of these behaviors have high statistics coming from the home environment. The United States having the highest teen pregnancy rate all around, what are parents doing wrong and how can society be educated so that behaviors can change with adolescents in the world today. With increased awareness of what adolescents are doing, adults can be helpful to adolescents who are so desperately in need of attention? A family needs to raise their children in a Christian setting so they will have a solid foundation when they grow into adolescents because, they need to be strong enough to face the challenges, peer pressures, and behaviors of our adolescents who are not raised to know right from wrong in their environment. Because of reality of society all adolescents will be challenged to deal with other adolescent behaviors. Adolescents can’t be put into a bubble and be protected from what society has to offer. Society is proof that there is lack of guidance for adolescents in the world today. Is society proof that there is lack of guidance for adolescents in the world today? Research proves lack of guidance is evident. In this study research says that adolescent problems can stem from weight problems, peer pressure, parents work schedule, and parent stress, causing many different behaviors in adolescents. See more:  The Story of an Hour Literary Analysis Essay The discussion in one of the articles researched says that social status for adolescents depend on how your body is developed. Girls and boys are not being accepted or are not popular by peers if they are overweight. â€Å"Adolescent girls are more popular if they have the â€Å"perceived body size† and the boy’s popularity depends on the â€Å"overall muscularity† of his body† (Wang,S.S., Houshyar, Prinstein, 2006). The research in this article is based on â€Å"522 students in grades 11 and 12.† (Wang, 2006) â€Å"The research was discovered by students choosing popular kids and not so popular kids and results being those popular kids, having the perceived bodies being popular and the not so popular kids being overweight† (Wang, 2006). This research states â€Å"Messages within the media or family promoting ‘idea’ body shapes may be reinforced within adolescents’ own peer groups and associated with social rewards that are particularly salient during this developmental stage† (Wang, 2006). â€Å"Adolescents who desire to achieve high levels of status among peers may be motivated to engage in behaviors that will help them achieve an â€Å"ideal† body shape. (Wang, 2006) Do adolescents have to be socially ostracized by peers to be motivated to look the same as others to be accepted? Are we accepting these behaviors from adolescents, that they should ostracized by anyone? With appropriate guidance and education, we can help adolescents with weight problems instead of adolescents wanting to lose weight to be accepted by peers. The cultural idea for adolescents is to be slim and trim and when they are not slim and trim they react with different kinds of eating disorders. â€Å"Psychological consequences may be particularly severe during a time of life when body image is of special concern† (Feldman, 2011). Anorexia is a disorder when the person refuses to eat because they are afraid of getting fat. ( 2011) When our adolescents don’t get the proper diet it can cause health problems and psychological problems in our children. Feldman states obesity is the most common problem with our adolescents stating that, â€Å"One in 5 adolescents is overweight, and 1 in 20 can be formally classified as obese† (Feldman, 2011) Our text states why our children are becoming overweight and not getting the exercise they need to burn the calories they are eating.(2011) It is a challenge to go past a fast food place because of the affordable prices and availability. It is a challenge for family’s to eat at home. The text also states a disorder called bulimia which adolescents eat large amounts of food and then they vomit it out of their system.(2011) These disorders are very serious and can lead to many health problems. The challenge for adolescents to have the perceived body weight is hurtful to those who are considered overweight or obese. This idea of perceived body weight is causing depression which causes risky behaviors for adolescents. Another example that shows guidance is vital is in this article about peer pressure and friend influences. The article states how our adolescents are being influenced by peer pressure. Do our adolescents have to join the group norms to be accepted or are they strong enough to say no and still be liked by the group? In this research there are two categories of friends called stable friends and unstable friends. Who influence who? According to research â€Å"the more accepted friend had greater influence than the less accepted friend after the friendship was established† ( Laursen, 2012). When the stable friends were paired up with the unstable friends, the stable friends were influencing the unstable friends. (2012 ) â€Å"The stable friends being the popular group and the unstable friend being the less popular group the unstable group was being pressured by the stable groups† (Laursen, B., Hafen, C. A., Kerr, M., Stattin, H† (2012). Research stated that the unsta ble friends did not influence the stable friends. (2012) The stable friends were influencing to the unstable friends because of their status in who they were and the unstable friends were being accepted. The research shows how â€Å"adolescents alter behaviors so that they will fit in even when it comes to alcohol consumption and other deviant behaviors† (Laursen, 2012). This is a challenge even for the stable friends to be able to say no to the alcohol and other deviant behaviors. If parents would teach their children about peer pressure, use the word as something happens, the children would know when an issue comes up and they said they did it because everyone else did, let them know they allowed themselves to do the wrong thing because of peer pressure. How something as simple as parental work schedules cause risky behaviors in adolescents. Why are parental work schedules vital when it comes to adolescent risky behaviors? What are adolescents doing while parents are at work? The article provides â€Å"new evidence on the pathways linking parental work schedules with adolescent risky behaviors†( Han, W.-J., Miller, D. P., Waldfogel, J. (2010). The research states that years of night shift work for mothers indicate that the relationship between their children are not developed as to mothers who work day time jobs.(2010) Parents working to make a living are having to sacrifice having a relationship with their children. As these parents work it allows more freedom for risky behaviors. Also, while parents are working different shifts research indicates that parents don’t know what their children are doing or where their children are.(2010) â€Å"Effects were particularly evident when parents work such schedules during children’s middle childhood years but were also evident during preschool years and early adolescence†(Han, 2010). Our analyses by children’s developmental stage suggest that the number of year’s parents worked nonstandard hours at various stages of childhood influence adolescent outcomes, but in different ways depending on the stage when nonstandard shift work occurred. These results make sense given that children face very different developmental tasks during these different stages. In the middle childhood years mark a time of important changes related to school transitions, developmental advances that establish children’s sense of identity, and developing relationships with parents and peers. These years serve as a foundation for later development, and experiences during these periods can have lasting effects. (Han, 2010) The risky behaviors focused on in this article while parents are working was, â€Å"cigarette smoking, alcohol use, drug use, delinquency, and sexual behavior. With evidence of all these behaviors in adolescents because of parents work schedule, parental guidance is vital in our society today so that these behaviors will be recognized by parents so they will know that their adolescent needs some attention. This article provides facts about how much parent stress is apparent toward parenting behavior and how it reflects adolescent’s self-concept? According to the findings in this article, parent behavior reflected on their stress that they deal with daily? How does the parent behavior affect the adolescent’s self-concept? The article debates how the lax parents and stern parent’s reactions are toward adolescent’s self-concept. The parent’s relationship to the child contributes to the child’s â€Å"self-concept and well-being.† Without self-worth how can adolescents achieve what they need to accomplish in their life as they grow into adulthood. Putnick, D.L., Bornstein, M. H., Hendricks, C., Painter, K.M., Suwalsky, J.T. D.Collins, W.A. (2008)† Why is society having so many problems with adolescents? Appropriate parental guidance is vital so that adolescents can grow into healthy men and woman. However, we have adolescents growing up and being exposed to many different challenges. Being raised by a mother who has dealt with depression, the article states that the children are the caretakers of the siblings and the house. (2009) The authors stated that they observed â€Å"a 13-year old boy talked about regularly preparing dinner for his mother and younger sibling (instrumental caretaking) and a 9-year old girl offered suggestions to her mother for ways to feel better and reduce her stress at work, including setting up and appointment to talk with her boss. (Emotiona l caretaking)† (Champion,Jaser, Reeslund, Simmons, Potts, Shears,Ccompas, (2009). â€Å"Emotional and instrumental caretaking were significantly correlated with greater self-reported anxiety-depression symptoms only among adolescents whose mothers had a history of depression† (Champion, 2009).The research states that â€Å"mothers think there children are more capable if they are preforming emotional caretaking however the children feel more anxiety and depression when they are preforming those task† (Champion, 2009). How do these children stand a chance to grow and develop their needs if they are caring for depressed mother? The challenges these children face are tremendous as they grow into adult hood. They totally missed childhood and all their lives saw their mother cry, take overdose and the many other behaviors that depressed people do. These children grow cold of emotions. They don’t know how to express except the way their mother expressed. How do we expect them to grow up as good citizens? The United States having the highest teen pregnancy rate of all other countries is not making a good statement of how adolescents are seeking to get the attention they need. The authors in this article state that a â€Å"disturbing discovery that the percentage of apparently involuntary sex among female teens is a significant social problem, around 13% for ages 15-19 by one estimation† (Thomas and Dimitrox, 2007). Also another alarming fact discovered is that â€Å"over half of teens ages 15-19 have had oral sex, including roughly 25% who have not engaged in vaginal sex (2007). Seeing it as a strategy to avoid pregnancies, many teens believe that oral sex avoids the prospect of STD’s including HIV/AIDS. (Thomas, and Dimitrox (2007).† Research detects that direct effects of teen pregnancy are coming from background variables such as family poverty, early school failure, and dysfunctional family systems. â€Å"Some research suggests that most of the economic consequences of early childbearing can be explained by family background variables.†(Thomas and Dimitrox, 2007) However, research is not saying that all teen pregnancies are coming from these variables. â€Å"Recent data suggest that the number of children living in poverty in the United States would have risen by 8.3% if the teen birth rates had not declined as they did for the years 1991-2003† (Thomas , 2007). Education to adolescents and parents is vital. There are so many grandparents raising the adolescents’ babies. The adolescents never have to take responsibility for their action because they have someone to raise their child. What do they do but go have another child for their parents. Even more hurtful than teen pregnancy, would be facing a knock on the door telling you you’re adolescent tried to commit suicide or even worse committed suicide. â€Å"The institute of Medicine defines a suicide attempt as a nonfatal, self-inflicted destructive act with the explicit or implied intent to die.† (Hausmann, C., Kuhlberg, J., A., Zayas, L.H., Nolle, A., P., Cintron, S., L. 2012) We often think that these things can’t happen to us until we are faced with the issue at hand. Research says that â€Å"depression is the number one disorder diagnosed among adolescents†( Hausmann, 2012). Research also states that depression is associated with the greatest risk of suicide attempts.(2012) â€Å"Adolescents are using objects in their homes to commit suicide such as, drug overdose, knives, pieces of glass, nail files, and guns† (Hausmann, 2012). Less common attempting methods were â€Å"jumping off buildings, suffocating by placing plastic bags over their heads, and trying to hang themselves† (Hausmann, 2012). The majority of adolescents in this study had a lifetime history of two to more than six previous suicide attempts† (Hausmann, 2012). The authors state that the â€Å"Latino population adolescents are at high risk for attempted suicide† (Hausmann, 2012).† Latino population for the youth is up to 41% in the US†(Hausmann,2012). The 76 adolescents in this study have already tried suicide 2 or 3 times. The article states that adolescents will try suicide in the next 3 or 4 months and may continue trying suicide up to the next 12 years. (Hausmann, 2012) `Talk about a heartbreaking behavior for parent, siblings, whom ever involved. If parents could get some education on some of these behaviors, to reinforce that there is a problem with Adolescents growing up in society today. â€Å"The structure of the family for the last couple decades has changed in many ways. With an increase in the number of parents who both work outside of the home, soaring divorce rate, and a rise in single-parent families, the environment faced by children passing through middle childhood in the 21st century is very different from that faced by prior generation† (Feldman, 2011 pg.332). Conclusion is that a family needs to raise their children in a Christian setting so they will have a solid foundation when they grow into adolescents because, they need to be strong enough to face the challenges, peer pressures, and behaviors of adolescents today. Adolescents who go to church are not free from this kind of behaviors but have a solid rock to stand on if they know the Lord. Is society proof that there is lack of guidance for adolescents in the world today? Reference Champion, J. E., Jaser, S. S., Reeslund, K. L., Simmons, L., Potts, J. E., Shears, A. R., Compas, B. E. (2009). Caretaking behaviors by adolescent children of mothers with and without a history of depression. Journal of Family Psychology 23(2), 156-166 . Feldman S.R., (2011). Food, and Eating Disorders: Fueling the Growth of Adolescence, Development across the Life Span, Pg.365. Grella, C. E., Stein, J. A., Greenwell, L. (2005). Associations among Childhood Trauma, Adolescent Problem Behaviors, and Adverse Adult Outcomes in Substance-Abusing Women Offenders. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 19(1), 43-53. Han, W.-J., Miller, D. P., Waldfogel, J. (2010). Parental work schedules and adolescent risky behaviors. Developmental Psychology, 46(5), 1245-1267. Hausmann-Stabile, C., Kuhlberg, J. A., Zayas, L. H., Nolle, A. P., Cintron, S. L. (2012). Means, intent, lethality, behaviors, and psychiatric diagnosis in Latina adolescent suicide attempters. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 43(3), 241-248. Laursen, B., Hafen, C. A., Kerr, M., Stattin, H. (2012). Friend influence over adolescent problem behaviors as a function of relative peer acceptance: To be liked is to be emulated. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121(1), 88-94. Nock, M. K., Holmberg, E. B., Photos, V. I., Michel, B. D. (2007). Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview: Development, reliability, and validity in an adolescent sample. Psychological Assessment, 19(3), 309-317. Putnick, D. L., Bornstein, M. H., Hendricks, C., Painter, K. M., Suwalsky, J. T. D., Collins, W. A. (2008). Parenting stress, perceived parenting behaviors, and adolescent self-concept in European American families. Journal of Family Psychology, 22(5), 752-762. Thomas, C.L., Dimitrov, D. M. (2007). Effects of a teen pregnancy prevention program on teen’s attitudes toward sexuality: A latent trait modeling approach. Developmental Psychology, 43(1), 173-185.

Buying a Whore by Anne Sexton

Buying a Whore by Anne Sexton Feminism is a movement that opposes women inferiority and promotes equality among men and women. It moves away from logo centrism and phallocentrism or seeing the world and its people from patriarchal lens. Feminists shed light upon womens contributions throughout history which were never taken account as significant and reject sexism in writings. Therefore they bring women from the position of invisibility to visibility through their works and protests. Feminist literary criticism deconstruct works by men which usually promotes the idea( ideology) of patriarchy and male dominance over women. Feminist criticism disturb the complacent certainties of patriarchal culture and crate a less oppressive climate for women writers and readers (Selden 128). Men wrote literary texts for example for themselves and on behalf of women as well. Thus, men hold power by strengthening the ideologies within literary texts to dominate women and prove men worthier than womenfolk . For an example women as objects whereas men are subjects. Feminists then deconstruct these texts to show readers that these were mere men made ideologies, which were not biological but socially constructed; and the dichotomous comparison between these two genders were created by men as well. Feminism movement was not confined within literary texts only but also, economics, politics and religion. The critical project of Feminist critics is thus concerned with uncovering the contingencies of gender as a cultural, social and political construct and instrument of domination Furthermore, through feminists critics like Simone De Beauvoir, we came to realize One is not born a woman one becomes one. Therefore femininity and masculinity are never natural but socially constructed. First wave feminism paid importance to the right to vote for women as equal as men (women suffrage movement). These were mostly middle class women who started to enter public domain for jobs due to World War I. The Second Wave feminism focused on not merely political rights. Their quests were much broader, for example womens right to vote, advancement in carrier, social and economical equality and their right to determine their own lives separate from men. However when the Third Wave Feminism rose up, they critiqued the second wave feminists as being not feminist enough for they universalized womens feelings, backgrounds and experiences. Thus out of Third Wave Feminism different groups of feminism were born discussing and shedding light on the various obstacles and experiences felt by women around the globe. Post feminism on the other hand did not stop from looking into feminism but also other genders as well such as men, lesbians, gays, bisexuals and so forth. When we examine the poem Buying the Whore by Anne Sexton using Feminism (Feminist Literary Criticism), we realize that the poem is about a whore also known as prostitute from the patriarchal lenses. A whore( prostitute) is a person, usually a woman who sells sex service for men to earn a living which is usually meager Whore means prostitute. And a prostitute is a woman who offers to hire her body for indiscriminate sexual intercourse, or so says The Concise Oxford Dictionary (Pheterson 39). Though the poet is a woman , the persona who degrades the whore is a man. Thus, from a feminist point of view it is true that majority men do look down upon women as the weaker sex. Throughout the poem Buying the Whore, from feminist perspective we can clearly see that whore was being objectified and was not treated as a subject with human feelings. For example the whore was compared to a roast beef, boat, glass, grate and finally the bra in the entire poem. The whore thus becomes an object of pleasure for men to satisfy their lusts and nothing more than that. Description of the whore in this poem, no doubt is from the view of phallocentrism. Phallocentrism means The privileging of the masculine (the phallus) in understanding meaning or social relations (cla.purdue.edu). Sadly, none of the whores point of view were given in the entire poem. Her thoughts, her feelings and her situation were all left out. According to French Feminsit Luce Irigaray, language is so gender bias and phallo centric that whatever characteristics that men think about women then leads women into mimicry and thus the position of mastery was formed(Rivkin and Ryan 795) and women objectified. Hence it is true through this poem that women( whores ) are treated as objects and described as things with no feelings to convey. Therefore Second Wave feminists, said that it is important to pay great attention or detail when reading any text that is soiled by patriarchal notions. By doing so, one can undo the phallocentrism within texts. For example Luce Irigaray stated that the retroactive impact of the end of each word, utterance or sentence upon its beginning must be taken into consideration in order to undo the power of its teleological effect, including its deferred actions (Rivkin and Ryan 797). Nevertheless, in my opinion, there is a flaw in the Second Wave feminists concept of undoing language that was contaminated by sexism. First of all it is very hard to reverse or change language that is dominated by male perspectives because we are all entrenched with patriarchal ideology for our entire lives. This is because from the past till now, writings in the literary world are dominated by men .Deconstructing patriarchal supporting texts and creating new feminists texts suggested by French feminist can be problematic as well. Producing text in gynocentric manner can lead to disagreement from feminists around the world as universalizing their experiences and their voices and even essentialize femininity. Second Wave feminism fail to take account the diversity of womens experiences all over world and their context. For example race, class, ethnography and geography of women.Non-sexist language and gynocentric language are criticized for underestimating the significance of gender asymmetry in language and for oversimplifying the relationship between language and corporeality (Bondi 245). Feminist reading, of the poem, Buying the Whore by Anne Sexton through tells us that the whore is commodified with having sign value attached to her. For example,The whore was purchased , rented, and paid by the persona for sexual services. According to Luce Irigaray in her article women on the Market , women were commodification exchanged by men among men to create a homosocial bonds between men. The exchange of women established relationships between men; the old family system was essentially homosexual (Rivkin and Ryan 800). However in the poem, the purchasing, renting and paying of the whore did not create a homosocial bond, yet the transaction of cash were indeed among men; pimp and the customer. You are a boat I have rented by the hour and I steer you with my rage until you run aground Besides that throughout the entire poem, there are no signs or words of the whore involving in the negotiation of price for the sexual service . This definitely strengthens the idea of the feminists that women indeed have no say in her own sign value and is invisible in literary world. Next, compared to a virgin or a wife, a whores value stoops way below for they are said to sell their honor in change for cash. Whores according to society fail to assume their role as the submissive, pure women or the Angel in the house.Whore dishonor is in part whore failure to fit the traditional wife role in marriage (Pheterson 53). So they face more chances of abuse through their customers and social stigmatization. A prostitute then becomes one who sells her honor by offering to hire her body for base gain or for an unworthy doing, specifically sexual intercourse( Pheterson 39). Women according to feminists are discriminated by the society for just being women. Husbands, fathers, society expect women to protect and guard their purity, chastity and honor. So, a whores honor thus fall and it is irreparable. . Therefore the persona( customer ) ill treats the prostitute in the poem. He even claims to have the right over her body and does as he wishes for he had paid for the whore;the object. You are the roast beef I have purchased and I stuff you with my very own onion You are a glass that I have paid to shatter and I swallow the pieces down with my spit He shatters her and even stuff her with objects without asking her permission or taking into account her physical pain. However her experiences are never important; what was more significant and was assumed was man must be pleased, but him to please/Is womans pleasure( Ryan and Rivkin 816). Since the whore was considered as impure woman, and assumed to have unattractive features, the persona describes her in negative term such as stink and goes on to vomit into her hands further emphasizing ,a whore is degraded being who deserves ill handling. Whores are usually dirty, base and pocky, but they are also bold, impudent and brazen faced(Gowing 10). Even his own mother, the persona abuses in his poem what more the whore. You stink like my Mama under your bra and I vomit into your hand like a jackpot its cold hard quarters From most Postfeminist point of view, Buying the Whore by Anne Sexton universalizes the experiences of sex workers. Anne sexton shows to us readers that whores suffer and have no voice in determining customers they allow into their quarters. In reality not all sex workers are so vulnerable or not in position of making a choice. For example not all whore have sexual intercourse with their customers but sexual related services only. The words sexual intercourse are also inadequate to describe the work of all prostitutes. Much prostitution does not include sexual intercourse (Pheterson 41). Whores have rights to deny the customers they doubt to have disease or that might ill treat them. One whore from the United States said, If I have the slightest doubt about a guy, I refuse him (Pheterson 40). Hence, it is clear that feminism, help in understanding the meaning and give constructive criticisms towards the poem. Power dynamics can also be seen in the poem Buying the whore using feminist literary criticism. When we deconstruct the text from feminist perspective, the client has power over the female (whore) who he had purchased to satisfy his sexual lust. He has the power to stuff her with objects he wishes; steer her like a boat with force till she runs aground and break her into pieces as if she were a glass. The persona has all the power over the whore for he had paid for her service. He is depicted as this powerful being forcing his might and dominance over the whore. The whore on the other hand for example was compared to a vulnerable glass that can be shattered and boat that had to submit to its owner to his directions and steering. She is portrayed as this meek, powerless person who submits to the atrocities her male client had forced upon her. The whore was shown in the poem of not having the right over her own body or the right to have sexual pleasure. Neither as mother nor as virgin nor as prostitute has woman any right to her own pleasure (Ryan and Rivkin 808).Thus it is clear through the poem that the whore unlike any other women are said to be powerless and are oppressed by man kind. Woman is riveted into a lopsided relationship with mean; he is the one, she is the other (Shelden 129). It is valuable that feminist shed light on the oppression or the powerlessness of women . Feminism is a great literary theory in showing readers how the world especially literary texts are laden with sexism and is mostly phallocentric. Yet again there is another weakness in feminist literary theory in my view point. Like many other Second Wave Feminists, Anne Sexton (American poet) in her poem Buying the Whore has brought forth the issue oppression of the whore( woman ) and the domination of men over women. She even made her whore voiceless and powerless throughout the poem. However, by portraying women as weak and men as strong and superior being in literary work , feminist are in fact strengthening the ideologies that are ingrained within society. Feminist then without realization , reinforce the dichotomous relationship between women and men created by society. Thus in feminist literary work and criticism, women are still being described as inferior to men. There is here a danger once again of slipping back into a phallocentric system which relegates women to the margi n (Selden 143). In conclusion, I do agree to an extent that Feminism does help in providing meaning to the poem Buying a whore by Anne Sexton. Feminist Literary Criticism without doubt brings womens oppression into light and celebrate women writers and their literary contributions. This movement tries its utmost best to decenter logocentrism and phallocentrism that oppressed and suppressed women throughout history. Furthermore Feminism tries to bring about equality and avoid sexism within discourses especially in the literary word. We (especially women) have benefited tremendously from this movement and its contributions. However there are weaknesses within the approaches of Second Wave which in my opinion were being rectified by the Postfeminists. Postfeminist takes into account of the diversity of experiences among women therefore avoiding generalization, universalizing and even essentialist point of view. Furthermore, Postfeminist movement pays great importance to standpoint theory which explains that peoples experiences differ according to their situations for example class, race, ethnicity, geography and ethnography. Therefore the poem Buying the Whore can best be explained through the latter part of Feminism which is Postfeminism without discrimination in meaning or experiences.

David Levinsons Seasons of A Mans Life :: Psychology Levinson Males Essays

David Levinson's Seasons of A Man's Life Introduction Background In May of 1977, Daniel Levinson constructed a model of the seasons of a man's life. His developmental theory consists of universal stages or phases that extends from the infancy state to the elderly state. Most development theories, such as Freud's psychosexual development theory or Piaget's cognitive development theory, end in the adolescent stage of life. Levinson's stage theory is important because it goes beyond most theories assuming that development continues throughout adult life. Levinson based his model on biographical interviews of 40 American men. These 40 men were between 35 to 45 years in age and they worked as either biology professors, novelists, business executives or industrial laborers. The biographical interviews lasted one or two hours and ranged from six to ten interviews for each subject. The questions asked focused on the subject's life accounts in their post adolescent years. The interviews focused on topics such as the men's background (education, religion, political beliefs) and major events or turning points in their lives. Levinson's concept of life structure (the men's socio-cultural world, their participation in their world and various aspects of themselves) is the major component in Levinson's theory. The life structure for each person evolves through the developmental stages as people's age. Two key concepts in Levinson's model are the stable period and the transitional period in a person's development. The stable period is the time when a person makes crucial choices in life, builds a life structure around the choices and seeks goals within the structure. The transitional period is the end of a person's stage and the beginning of a new stage. Levinson's model contains five main stages. They are the pre-adulthood stage (age 0 - 22), the early adulthood stage (age 17 - 45), the middle adult stage (age 40 - 65), the late adulthood stage (age 60 - 85) and the late late adult stage (age 80 plus). Levinson states "the shift from one era to the next is a massive development step and require transitional period of several years."(Levinson, 1977) This would explain why there is an overlap in each of these stages. Levinson's first adult stage in his model is called the Early Adult Transition Period. This phase is similar to Erikson's psychological theory in that both concern the young adult's identity crisis or role confusion. It is during this phase that the young adult first gains independence (financial or otherwise) and leaves the home. This is a transitional stage because it marks the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood. The second stage would be a stable period because it marks the time

Information Systems and Organization Essay

This paper, and the special issue, address relationships between information systems and changes in the organization of modern enterprise, both within and across firms. The emerging organizational paradigm involves complementary changes in multiple dimensions. The revolution in information systems merits special attention as both cause and effect of the organizational transformation. This can be illustrated by considering two key variables: the location of information and the location of decision rights in organizations. Depending on the costs of information transmission and processing, either the â€Å"MIS solution† of transferring information, or the â€Å"organizational redesign solution† of moving decision rights, can be an effective approach toward achieving the necessary collocation of information and decision rights. When information systems change radically, one cannot expect the optimal organizational structure to be unaffected. Considering the interplay among information, incentives and decision rights in a unified fashion leads to new insights and a better organizational planning. The papers in the special issue address different facets of this interaction. Despite significant progress, our understanding of the economic role of information systems in organizations remains in its infancy. We conclude that successful design of modern enterprise will require further narrowing  of the historic gap between research in information systems and research in economics. The organization of work is in the midst of transformation. In many industries, mass production by large, vertically-integrated, hierarchically-organized firms is giving way to more flexible forms of both internal organization and industrial structure. Work is increasingly accomplished through networks of smaller, more focused enterprises. The resulting structure of loosely coupled sub-organizations blurs the boundaries of both firms and industries. A canonical case in point is the computer industry. In the past, the industry was dominated by large, vertically-integrated firms such as IBM and Digital Equipment which created products and services throughout the value chain — from the microprocessor level all the way up to the provision of solutions. The vertical structure is now being replaced by a series of layers, each of which is, in effect, a separate industry. Value is generated by ever-changing coalitions, where each member of a coalition specializes in its area of core competence and leverages it through the use of tactical or strategic partnerships. Internally, team structures are replacing the traditional hierarchical form, and the Silicon Valley model of internal organization is emerging as a clear winner.3 Internal incentives are increasingly based on performance, and this further blurs the differences between inter- and intra-firm contracts. In sum, modern enterprise is undergoing major restructuring. In this short paper we briefly discuss the newly emerging organizational paradigms and their relationship to the prevailing trends in information technology (IT). We argue that IT is an important driver of this transformation. Finally, we place the studies selected for this special issue of the Journal of Organizational Computing within this context. 1. Emerging Organizational Paradigms: Symptoms and Causes At the turn of the century, Frederick Taylor sought to put the nascent wisdom  for successful business organization on a scientific basis. His work guided a generation of managers towards success in meshing their organizations with the technologies, markets, labor and general environment of the era. By the 1920s, Henry Ford had applied the Taylorist approach with a vengeance and soon dominated the automobile market, driving dozens of competitors under. Ironically, these same principles are almost diametrically opposed to the prevailing wisdom of the 1990s. For example, consider the following guideline from The Science of Management [1] It is necessary in any activity to have a complete knowledge of what is to be done and to prepare instructions†¦ the laborer has only to follow instructions. He need not stop to think. The current emphasis on â€Å"empowerment†, â€Å"learning organizations†, and even â€Å"thriving on chaos† stands in sharp contrast to Meyers’ advice (cf. [2] , [3] ). Similar contrast can be found with many, if not most, of the other principles that lead to success even as late as the 1960s. Consider, for example, the growing calls for downsizing (vs. economies of scale), focus (vs. conglomerates), total quality (vs. cost leadership), project teams (vs. functional departments), supplier partnerships (vs. maximizing bargaining power), networked organization (vs. clear firm boundaries); performance-based pay (vs. fixed pay), and local autonomy (vs. rigid hierarchy). Milgrom and Roberts [4] make the point that the different characteristics of modern manufacturing, an important example of the emerging organizational paradigm, are often highly complementary. This complementarity, coupled with the natural tendency to change organizational attributes one at a time, makes the transition from one paradigm to another particularly difficult. Strong complementarity implies that in order to be successful, change must be implemented simultaneously along a number of related dimensions. Organizations that adopt only one or two key components of the new organizational paradigm may fail simply by virtue of this complementarity. For instance, Jaikumar’s [5] study of 95 US and Japanese companies found that the majority of US companies had failed to achieve productivity  increases despite switching to flexible manufacturing technology. The reason was that they had preserved dozens of manufacturing practices such as long production runs and high work-in-process inventory levels, which complemented the old technology but kept the new technology from fulfilling its potential. Thus, the transition from the old structure to the new one is overwhelmingly complex. The switch would be easier if we apply design guided by theory instead of piecemeal evolution. There are many possible explanations for the change in the prevailing wisdom regarding organizational design. For instance, it is common to justify calls for radical change with reference to heightened competitive pressures: although firms that applied the old principles were among the most successful competitors of their day, presumably the nature of competition has changed in some way. Others suggest that consumer tastes have changed, making customized items more appealing than they once were. While historians would argue that the taste for mass marketed items was itself something that had to be developed in the early days of mass production, increased wealth or social stratification may make this more difficult today. It can also be argued that some of the new principles were as applicable fifty years ago as they are today, but that they simply had not yet been discovered. Although the enablers of the current organizational transformation are undoubtedly numerous and far from mutually independent, we would like to single one out for special attention: the rise in IT. Brynjolfsson [6, p.6] argues that IT is an appropriate candidate for explaining these changes for three reasons: First, compared to other explanations, the advances in information technology have a particularly reasonable claim to being both novel and exogenous. Many of the fundamental technological breakthroughs that enable today’s vast information infrastructure were made less than a generation ago and were driven more by progress in physics and engineering than business demand. Second, the growth in information technology investment is of a large enough magnitude to be economically significant †¦ the result has been what is commonly referred to as the â€Å"information explosion†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Third, there is a  sound basis for expecting an association between the costs of technologies that manage information and the organization of economic activity. The firm and the market have each been frequently modeled as primarily information processing institutions (see Galbraith [7] and Hayek [8] , respectively). Miller [9] foresaw the key features of the new paradigm as a natural outcome of the information era and the associated â€Å"economy of choice†: The new technologies will allow managers to handle more functions and widen their span of control. Fewer levels of management hierarchy will be required, enabling companies to flatten the pyramid of today’s management structure. The new information technologies allow decentralization of decision-making without loss of management awareness; thus employees at all levels can be encouraged to be more creative and intrapreneurial. The key responsibility of the CEO will be leadership; to capture the light or energies of the organization — like a lens — and focus them on the key strategic objectives. The new organizational paradigm is indeed intertwined with the structure of an organization’s information systems. Under the old paradigm, the firm was governed by a relatively rigid functional structure. This separation into distinct and well-defined organizational units economizes on the information and communications requirements across functional units and reduces cost and complexity. There is a tradeoff, however: the old structure is less flexible, less responsive and ultimately results in lower quality. In our view, the growing use of IT and the trend towards networking and client-server computing are both a cause and an effect of the organizational transition. Lowering the costs of horizontal communications, facilitating teamwork, enabling flexible manufacturing and providing information support for time management and quality control are key enablers on the supply side. It is equally clear that the new organizational paradigm demands new information systems: nothing can be more devastating for cross-functional teamwork than a rigid information system that inhibits cross-functional information flows. We can unify these perspectives by noting that the structure of the organization’s information system is a key element of  organizational transformation. Changes in IT change the nature of organizations just as changes in organizational structure drive the development of new technologies. 2. Information Systems, Economics and Organizational Structure Jensen and Meckling [10] provide a useful framework for studying the complementarities between information systems, incentive structures and decision rights in organizations. In their framework, the structure of an organization is specified by three key elements: (i) The allocation of decision rights (i.e., who is responsible for what actions/decisions); (ii) the incentive system, which defines how decision makers are to be rewarded (or penalized) for the decisions they make; and (iii) a monitoring and measurement scheme used to evaluate these actions and their outcomes. According to Jensen and Meckling, informational variables are key to the structure of organizations because the quality of decisions is determined by the quality of information available to the decision maker. The co-location of information and decision rights enables the decision maker to make optimal decisions. The implementation of this co-location depends on the nature of the pertinent information. Jensen and Meckling distinguish between â€Å"specific knowledge† which is localized, difficult to represent and transfer, and depends on idiosyncratic circumstances, and â€Å"general knowledge† which can be easily summarized, communicated and shared by decision makers. Now, there are two ways to bring information and decision rights together: (i) â€Å"The MIS solution†: transfer the information required for the decision to the decision maker, using the organization’s (possibly non-automated) information systems; or (ii) â€Å"the organizational redesign solution†: redesign the organizational structure so that the decision making authority is where the pertinent information is. By definition, general knowledge which is useful for a decision calls for the â€Å"MIS solution† because it can be transferred at low cost. In contrast, when specific knowledge plays a key role in a decision, the best solution calls for restructuring decision  rights so as to provide the decision authority to the one who possesses or has access to the pertinent information (since the transfer of specific knowledge is too costly).4 Jensen and Meckling thus represent the structure of organizations as an efficient response to the structure of their information costs. But then, a change in information costs must induce a change in organizational structure. In particular, IT has changed the costs of processing and transferring certain types of information (e.g. quantitative data), but has done little for other types (e.g. implicit knowledge or skills). IT changes the structure of organizations by facilitating certain information flows as well as by turning knowledge that used to be specific into general knowledge. By developing a taxonomy of information types and identifying the differential impacts of new technologies on their transferability and importance, we can take a significant step towards applying the simple insight that information and authority should be co-located [11] . Intra-organizational networks and workgroup computing facilities reduce the information costs of teamwork and hence make it a more efficient solution to the organizational design problem. Client-server computing technology lowers cross-functional (as well as geographic) barriers. IT (when applied properly) streamlines the types of information that used to be the raison d’etre of middle management — quantitative control information — and turns it into general knowledge that can be readily transmitted to, and processed by, people other than those who originally gathered the data. A reduction in the number of management layers and the thinning out of middle management ranks is the predictable result. Similar considerations apply to enterprises that cross firm boundaries. As a simple example, consider the organization of trading activities [12, 13, 14] . Traditionally, trading took place on the floor of an exchange, which was the locus of numerous pieces of specific knowledge, ranging from the hand signals indicating bids and offers to buy and sell a security to traders’ facial expressions and the â€Å"atmosphere† on the floor of the exchange. Under that structure, much of the information pertinent to trading is specific and  localized to the floor. Thus, when an investor instructs her broker to sell 1,000 shares of a given stock, the broker transmits the order to the floor of the exchange and only the floor broker attempts to provide â€Å"best execution†. The decision rights (here, for the trading decisions) are naturally delegated to the decision maker who has the pertinent specific knowledge, and since that knowledge resides on the floor of the exchange, the floor broker is best suited to have the decision rights. Technology, and in particular â€Å"screen-based† systems, turns much of the specific knowledge on the floor (i.e., bids and offers) into general knowledge. This shifts decision rights up from the floor to the brokers’ screens. The inevitable result is the decline of the trading floor and the increased importance of brokers’ trading rooms. The demise of the trading floor in exchanges that turned to screen-based trading (such as London and Paris) is a natural outcome of the shift in the locus of knowledge. More generally, markets — in particular, electronic markets –transform specific knowledge into general knowledge [15] . Ironically, even as IT has sped up many links of the information processing chain and vastly increased the amount of information available to any one decision-maker, it has also led to the phenomenon of â€Å"information overload†. This can perhaps best be understood by a generalization of the Jensen and Meckling framework to include finite human information processing capacity. As more information moves from the â€Å"specific† category to the â€Å"general† category, the limiting factor becomes not what information is available but rather a matter of finding the human information processing capacity needed to attend to and process the information. Computers appear to have exacerbated the surfeit of information relative to processing capacity, perhaps because the greatest advances have occurred in the processing and storage of structured data, which is generally a complement, not a substitute, for human information processing. As computer and communications components increase their speed, the human bottleneck in the information processing chain becomes ever more apparent. Information overload, when interpreted in light of this framework, can provide an explanation for the increased autonomy and pay-for-performance  that characterize a number of descriptions of the â€Å"new managerial work† (cf. [6] ). Economizing on information costs means that more decision rights are delegated to line managers who possess the idiosyncratic, specific knowledge necessary to accomplish their tasks. Shifting responsibility from the overburdened top of the hierarchy to line personnel not only reduces the information processing load at the top of the hierarchy, but also cuts down unnecessary communications up and down the hierarchy. This blurs the traditional distinction between â€Å"conceptualization† and â€Å"execution† and broadens the scope of decision rights delegated to lower level managers. By the Jensen-Meckling [10] framework, any such shift in decision authority (and in the associated routing of information) must also be accompanied by a change in the structure of incentives. Disseminating information more broadly is ever easier with IT, allowing line workers to take into account information that goes well beyond the formerly-narrow definitions of their job. Meanwhile, providing the right incentives for the newly â€Å"empowered† work force is an equally crucial element of the current reorganization of work. Agency theory predicts that performance-based â€Å"pay† is necessary when decision rights are decentralized (otherwise, the agents may be induced to act in ways that are inconsistent with overall organizational goals). It therefore follows that incentive-based compensation is appropriate for better-informed workers [16].5 Thus, the confluence of better-informed workers, an empowered workforce and more incentive-based pay is consistent with our thesis that IT is a key driver of the new organizational paradigm. Furthermore, the theory of incomplete contracts suggests that the analysis can be extended to include interorganizational changes such as increased reliance on outsourcing and â€Å"networks† of other firms for key components [17] . Here again the shift can be explained in incentive terms: one ultimate incentive is ownership, so entrepreneurs are likely to be more innovative and aggressive than the same individuals working as â€Å"division† managers. Both within and across organizations, then, changes in information systems are accompanied by changes in incentives and in the organization of work. 3. The Special Issue The papers in this special issue attest to the role of information systems in the structure of modern enterprise and the blurring of the differences between inter- and intra-firm transactions. Starting from the firm’s level, Barron’s paper studies how a firm determines its internal organization and how IT affects this determination. Barron considers a traditional firm, with well-defined boundaries that are endogenously determined by considering flexibility and scope of control. Ching, Holsapple and Whinston broaden the scope of the enterprise to the â€Å"network organization† — a construct obtained by tying together a number of firms that cooperate through a well-defined communication mechanism. Specifically, they use a bidding protocol to manage the relationship between suppliers and producers. Beath and Ang examine another form of inter-firm cooperation, the relational contract, in the context of software-development outsourcing. They show how relational contracts embody a relationship that can be characterized as a network consisting of two organizations. Whang studies a more subtle form of networking — information sharing between buyers and suppliers. Bakos and Brynjolfsson examine the impact of incentives and information costs on the nature of buyer-supplier relationships. They show that committing to a partnership with a small number of suppliers can be an optimal strategy for a buyer because it will maximize the suppliers’ incentives for non-contractible investments such as information sharing, innovation or quality. The papers thus present a spectrum ranging from a study of the boundaries of the traditional firm through different forms of networking to explicit buyer-supplier relationships. A common theme is the organization of work so as to reduce overall information costs not only within an organization but across them as well. The surviving enterprise is often (though not always) the one that attempts to reduce information costs while capitalizing on the comparative advantage of the participating organizations. This calls for â€Å"opportunistic cooperation† that benefits the members of the network for as long as they cooperate. IT reduces the costs of such cooperation by  facilitating communication and increasing the flexibility of the participating organizations. Using the Jensen-Meckling terminology, different network participants can make more effective use of their specific knowledge when the costs of transferring and processing general knowledge are reduced. Further, technology enables the development of markets that, by their very nature, transform specific knowledge into general knowledge. Thus, the bidding and communications protocols proposed by Ching, Holsapple and Whinston in their paper â€Å"Modeling Network Organizations† effectively transform the specific knowledge inherent in the production technology of the competing suppliers into general knowledge that encompasses not only prices but also their reputations. From this perspective, IT is key to the development of network organizations. In his paper â€Å"Impacts of Information Technology on Organizational Size and Shape: Control and Flexibility Effects†, Barron builds a stylized quantitative model to study the impact of IT on the structure of organizations. Examining flexibility and scope of control, he identifies sixteen different cases with different patterns of the actual causality between IT and firm structure. Barron shows that simplistic statements regarding the impact of IT are not as straightforward as one might imagine due to the interaction of size, scope and flexibility. His results suggest that the impact of IT is rather complex, and that further specification is necessary prior to making predictions on the impact of IT on organizational size or shape. â€Å"Hierarchical Elements in Software Contracts† by Beath and Ang focuses on the contractual structure of outsourced software development. This is an interesting example of the new organizational paradigm because of the key role of information systems in any organization. Effective software development hinges on cooperation, communication and joint management which are at the heart of the new organizational paradigm. Beath and Ang examine the mechanisms used to govern outsourcing projects as specified in their outsourcing contracts. They suggest that the relational contract, which converts an arms-length transaction into a joint project with governance and resolution procedures that resemble those used by firms internally, is an  effective way to accomplish this. Thus, while Ching, Holsapple and Whinston view bidding and explicit reputation formation as the alphabet of the network organization, Beath and Ang view actual contract clauses as the key linguistic constructs. The paper shows how the structure of the contract is driven by the attributes of the project as well as those of the parties to the transaction. In â€Å"Analysis of Economic Incentives for Inter-Organizational Information Sharing†, Whang addresses the question of information sharing in non-cooperative buyer-supplier settings. Whang studies this question for two different models. He first shows that due to adverse incentives, suppliers will not be willing to share information regarding their costs. The situation is different when the information to be conveyed is regarding the expected delay or lead time. Whang shows that suppliers are better off disclosing lead-time information to buyers (when the demand curve for their product is convex). This result is consistent with our general thesis, whereas the former one introduces a note of caution: adverse incentives pose limits to the scope of information sharing among network organizations. In â€Å"From Vendors to Partners: Information Technology and Incomplete Contracts in Buyer-Supplier Relationships†, Bakos and Brynjolfsson start with the assumption that, in many cases, complete information exchange between two firms will be infeasible, so any contract between them will be â€Å"incomplete† in the sense that some contingencies will remain unspecified. They then explore how the interplay of IT and organizational structure can affect the role of non-contractible investments, such as innovation, quality and the exchange of information. For example, Bakos and Brynjolfsson show that when fewer suppliers are employed, they collectively capture a larger share of the benefits of the relationship, and this will increase their incentives to make non-contractible investments. As a result, even when search costs are very low, it may be desirable for the buyer to limit the number of employed suppliers, leading to a partnership-type of relationship, rather than aggressively bargaining for all the benefits by threatening to switch among numerous alternative suppliers. Like Whang, they show that the incentive effects of the applications of IT must be explicitly considered in any model  of their effect on inter-organizational cooperation. 4. Conclusion In this paper, we have stressed the joint determination of the location of information and decision rights. The default mechanism used to achieve this co-location depends on one’s point of reference. Information Systems researchers are likely to take the locus of decision authority for granted. They will typically focus their attention on devising schemes that will efficiently organize, retrieve, sort, filter, transmit and display information for designated decision makers. In contrast, the economist is likely to focus on the allocation of decision rights and the concomitant effect on incentives.6 As we discussed in Section 2, transferring information and transferring decision authority are two sides of the same question. Because economics and information systems research evolved to address different problems, this complementarity long went unnoticed. Each of the papers in the special issue addresses a different aspect of the interplay among information, incentives and the structure of economic enterprise. In every case, insights resulted when both information and incentives were explicitly considered. Each paper contributes an additional piece to an emerging mosaic that describes not only the features of the new organization, but also gives some insight into their theoretical underpinnings. The papers in this special issue also highlight the incomplete state of knowledge in the subject area and the dearth of empirical guidance to the formulation and testing of theoretical research. We started this paper with a discussion of the computer industry as the canonical example of the new paradigm as exercised in Silicon Valley, and continued by arguing that its products actually fuel the shift to this paradigm. It is only appropriate to close the loop by examining the dictum of that paradigm as it applies to the inner workings of firms in the computer industry. A major effort along these lines in being undertaken by one of the authors and his colleagues in Stanford University’s Computer Industry Project. Understanding these changes so that they can be harnessed for productive ends remains a central challenge for the next decade of research. The rapid progress in designing computers and communications systems contrasts starkly with the uncertainty clouding organizational design. Yet, new ways of organizing will be necessary before the potential of IT can be realized. Furthermore, because the new organizational paradigms involve numerous complementarities, the trial-and-error methods which were important in the rise of the organizational forms of the past century, such as large hierarchies and mass markets, may be unsuited for making the next transition. Understanding and implementing one aspect of a new organizational structure without regard to its interaction with other aspects can leave the make the organization worse off than if no modifications at all were made. Design, rather than evolution, is called for when significant changes must be made along multiple dimensions simultaneously. Successful organizational design, in turn, requires that we understand the flow of information among humans and their agents every bit as well as we understand the flow of electrons in chips and wires. Perhaps, then, the revolution in information processing capabilities not only calls for a change in business organization, but also a re-evaluation of the historic separation between Information Systems and Economics. REFERENCES [1] Meyers, G. The Science of Management. In C. B. Thompson (Eds.), Scientific Management Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1914. [2] Kanter, R. M. â€Å"The New Managerial Work.† Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec, 1989, pp. 85-92. [3] Peters, T. Thriving on Chaos, Handbook for a Management Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1988. [4] Milgrom, P. and Roberts, J. â€Å"The Economics of Modern Manufacturing: Technology, Strategy, and Organization.† American Economic Review, Vol. 80, No. 3, 1990. [5] Jaikumar, R. â€Å"Post-Industrial Manufacturing.† Harvard Business Review, November-December, 1986, pp. 69-76. [6] Brynjolfsson, E. Information Technology and the ‘New Managerial Work’. Working Paper # 3563-93. MIT, 1990. [7] Galbraith, J. Organizational Design. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1977. [8] Hayek, F. A. â€Å"The Use of Knowledge in Society.† American Economic Review, Vol. 35, No. 4, 1945. [9] Miller, W. F. The Economy of Choice. In Strategy, Technology and American Industry HBS Press, 1987. [10] Jensen, M. and Meckling, W. Knowledge, Control and Organizational Structure Parts I and II. In Lars, Werin and Hijkander (Eds.), Contract Economics (pp.251-274). Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1992. [11] Mendelson, H. On Centralization and Decentralization. Stanford, forthcoming, 1993. [12] Amihud, Y. and Mendelson, H. An Integrated Computerized Trading System. In Market Making and the Changing Structure of the Securities Industry (pp. 217-235). Lexington Heath, 1985. [13] Amihud, Y. and Mendelson, H. (1989). The Effects of Computer-Based Trading on Volatility and Liquidity. In H. C. Lucas Jr. and R. A. Schwartz (Eds.), The Challenge of Information Technology for the Securities Markets. (pp. 59-85). Dow Jones-Irwin. [14] Amihud, Y. and Mendelson, H. â€Å"Liquidity, Volatility and Exchange Automation.† Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Vol. 3, Fall, 1988, pp. 369-395. [15] Malone, T. W., Yates, J. and Benjamin, R. I. â€Å"Electronic Markets and Electronic Hierarchies.† Communications of the ACM, Vol. 30, No. 6, 1987, pp. 484-497. [16] Baker, G. P. â€Å"Incentive Contracts and Performance Measurement.† Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 100, No. 3, June, 1992. [17] Brynjolfsson, E. â€Å"An Incomplete Contracts Theory of Information, Technology, and Organization.† Management Science, forthcoming, 1993.