Managing Regulative Community Relationships

The introduction of the new technology has created a massive change in the global educational system. As of the present time, the proprietary educational industry is the trend in the academic arena. As clearly mentioned, the Internet is most commonly utilized for this reason. Academic companies who opt to provide educational services and gain amiable profit at the same time take advantage of this opportunity that is provided by technological revolution. In fact, â€Å"proprietary colleges are considered a cost efficient mode of course delivery† (NEA, Internet). To be able to have a fine share in the educational industry, which brings the proprietary educational companies with the profit that they ought to have, the regulations for the said system are strongly imposed by the government and some organizations that control them. This is to be able to ensure that the education provided by such companies is considerably of high level, amidst the profit-centered motives that they have towards the services that they provide the students who are enrolled in their curriculum offerings. In this regard, it could be noted that the regulations created for this type or proprietary companies tend to allow the developmental measures that could be taken into consideration. By being able to further develop their systems of employment as well as their class offerings that are open to the public, they are allowed to balance both their services and their profit share in the market. In comparison with the less stringently regulated industries such as the ones found in the internet (e.g. Amazon.com), proprietary education industry is able to attract an ample amount of market share in the educational industry which in a way, helps them attain the profitable goal that they have aimed upon creating the virtual educational institutions. Among the regulations that controls the proprietary educational companies’ activities is the corporate citizenship. This is a regulation that indicates that companies that provide public service, such as education, should have â€Å"a shift from a paradigm of doing no harm as one of adopting a role for a positive good (Tuck, Internet). This means that an educational company found in the virtual world must not only see to it that they are doing no harm to their clients but they are also able to provide their ‘stakeholders’ with the ample service that they give, which refers to the positive good of the corporate missions. As a result, many students are further attracted to the system of education that virtual universities or colleges offer. Certainly, the convenience that it brings the students is highly motivational for young students or even professionals who would like to learn more to take advantage of the course offerings provided by the said type of educational provisions. However, the profit-oriented goals of the company at times redefine the service that these educational companies are providing their clients. Wanting to actually earn an amiably high amount of returns from the effort that the administrations put forward for organizing such types of institutions over the net, they are usually grabbed away from the excellent educational service that they are expected to provide their students. Hence, as a result, the financial stability that could ensure the company’s future existence in the proprietary educational industry is dimmed and less given attention. As known to many, the risks in any kind of industry changes over the years. This is why Lucy Benholz has pointed out in one of her articles that â€Å"foundations from different regions and sizes have found that building strong relationship with the policy makers when times are good will afford them some access to the resources that are further stretched on all sides†(Internet). This mainly points out the fact that as the policies and regulatory systems of the industry changes over time, it would be helpful for the companies to develop close relationships with the policy makers. This way they are able to earn for themselves an access to the provisions and resources given by the regulatory board creators to help them readjust their systems and still be able to attain the profit-centered missions of the company. If this is not considered by the administration, it could be well expected that the company would have a hard time dealing with the adjustments that has to be done and in later times, it would not be impossible for the virtual company to loose its track and be eliminated in the proprietary educational industry. BIBLIOGRAPHY Tuck, Jackie. (2005). Managing community relationships, reputation and sustaining competitive advantage. School of Business University of Ballarat. http://www.latrobe.edu.au/csrc/fact2/refereed/tuck_lowe_mccrae.pdf. (January 3, 2007). NEA Research Update. (2004). Proprietary Education: Threat, or Not? http://www2.nea.org/he/heupdate/images/vol10no4.pdf.   (January 3, 2007). Bernholz, Lucy. Managing up in down times. http://www.blueprintrd.com/text/managingup.pdf. (January 3, 2007).      

Digital Fortress Chapter 37

Downstairs at the Alfonso XIII, Becker wandered tiredly over to the bar. A dwarf-like bartender lay a napkin in front of him. â€Å"Que bebe Usted? What are you drinking?† â€Å"Nothing, thanks,† Becker replied. â€Å"I need to know if there are any clubs in town for punk rockers?† The bartender eyed him strangely. â€Å"Clubs? For punks?† â€Å"Yeah. Is there anyplace in town where they all hangout?† â€Å"No lo se, senor. I don't now. But certainly not here!† He smiled. â€Å"How about a drink?† Becker felt like shaking the guy. Nothing was going quite the way he'd planned. â€Å"?Quiere Vd. algo?† The bartender repeated. â€Å"?FinoJerez?† Faint strains of classical music were being piped in overhead. Brandenburg Concertos, Becker thought. Number four. He and Susan had seen the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields play the Brandenburgs at the university last year. He suddenly wished she were with him now. The breeze from an overhead air-conditioning vent reminded Becker what it was like outside. He pictured himself walking the sweaty, drugged-out streets of Triana looking for some punk in a British flag T-shirt. He thought of Susan again. â€Å"Zumo de arandano,† he heard himself say. â€Å"Cranberry juice.† The bartender looked baffled. â€Å"Solo?† Cranberry juice was a popular drink in Spain, but drinking it alone was unheard of. â€Å"Si.† Becker said. â€Å"Solo.† â€Å"?Echo un poco de Smirnoff?† The bartender pressed. â€Å"A splash of vodka?† â€Å"No, gracias.† â€Å"?Gratis?† he coaxed. â€Å"On the house?† Through the pounding in his head, Becker pictured the filthy streets of Triana, the stifling heat, and the long night ahead of him. What the hell. He nodded. â€Å"Si, echame un poco de vodka.† The bartender seemed much relieved and hustled off to make the drink. Becker glanced around the ornate bar and wondered if he was dreaming. Anything would make more sense than the truth. I'm a university teacher, he thought, on a secret mission. The bartender returned with a flourish and presented Becker's beverage. â€Å"A su gusto, senor. Cranberry with a splash of vodka.† Becker thanked him. He took a sip and gagged. That's a splash?

A Comparative Analysis of H.G. Wells’ Island Essay

H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau and Elie Wiesel’s Night are strikingly similar accounts of modern savagery and inhumanness that affect seemingly civilized societies. What is revealing however is that Wells’ novel is an entirely fictional work which proposes to analyze the effects of the advancement of science and technology in the absence of solid ethical principles, while Wiesel’s work is an autobiographical account of the author’s experiences in several concentration camps, during the Holocaust. The similarity between the experiences of the two narrators points to the inherent savageness of man. A comparative analysis of the two works exposes human civilization as a myth rather than a reality. Wiesel’s grim, nightmarish experience in the concentration camp almost surpasses the horror of Well’s fantastical island. Man is debunked as a savage, beast-like creature whose acts prove to be even more frightening and unimaginable than those of animals. The horrors produced by Doctor Moreau and by Hitler are equally unbelievable. While animal behavior is characterized only by instinctual cruelty urged by the necessity of survival, human cruelty exemplified by the experiments of Moreau and by Hitler’s massacre of six million Jews, is at once more perilous and more disturbing. In man, the animal instincts are paired with reason and imagination, just as in the symbolic hybrids created by Moreau, and thus the potency of evil increases tremendously. The two works start off from similar premises. The cruel and unprincipled experiments concocted by Doctor Moreau take place on a secluded island with a symbolic name: Noble’s Isle. In order to improve human genetics, Moreau performs vivisections and other horrifying experiments on various animals, attempting to create a new, superior race of hybrids. His experiments are symbolic because they draw attention to man’s double nature, as an animal and as a creature endowed with reason. The island’s seclusion allows the scientist to establish an empire of horrors. In Wiesel’s Night, the nightmare is also compressed into the unitary and enclosed space of the concentration camp. The barbed wire that surrounds the camps from all sides and that bears the ironic warning sign of danger, marks the boundaries of a limited and entrapping world where only the horrors are infinite: â€Å"We were caught in a trap, right up to our necks. The doors were nailed up; the way back was finally cut off. The world was a cattle wagon hermetically sealed† (Wiesel 30). Moreover, time itself is condensed into a single and prolonged night, an unending nightmare that knows no respite. Moreover, the similarity between Moreau’s design of perfecting the human race and Hitler’s project for exterminating the Jews and purifying the Aryan race, reveals the fact that man is prone to atrocities and inhuman acts that are much more terrifying than those of beasts. The hybrid race created by Moreau is a symbol of manhood in general and its proximity to savageness despite technological advancements and scientific progress, while also being similar to the new breed beast –like men created by the Holocaust. The extreme terror and dehumanizing physical suffering of the prisoners of the concentration camp, change them into savage beings that are limited to a few basic instincts. The horrors that they have to endure are almost unbearable. The Jews are therefore rapidly transformed into beasts who try to cling to the miserable and terrible lives they have. Hungered, beaten, separated from families and friends, the men and women lose their individuality and their human feelings. Gradually, as the horrors progress, they become so inured in the beastly life they lead that they no longer communicate or try to express themselves. Any trace of human feeling or dignity disappears from the men that are brought even lower than the animal condition: â€Å"Within a few seconds, we had ceased to be men† (Wiesel 45). The sheer nightmare of permanent terror and sufferance, without the light of hope or comfort is increased by the Jews’ awareness that they were being persecuted by fellow beings. As the narrative progresses, the horrors also increase. The thousands of Jews that live and work in crammed-up places become walking skeletons. With scarcely enough food to sustain life and insufficient clothing to shield them from the weather and with no treatment for their illnesses the remaining Jews survive only by a miracle. They are surrounded by death: its threat blazes in the furnace of the crematories where the ‘selected’ ones are taken, it piles up in the corpses that are ubiquitous in the camps, it takes the loved ones away and threatens their own emaciated bodies at any moment. The cruelties that these people suffer are beyond description and their endurance impressive. The author himself was only fifteen years old at the time that he had to bear witness and to be a part of these horrors. His deep religious feeling and his faith are shaken forever by the black memory of the holocaust: â€Å"Never shall I forget those moments, which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never† (Wiesel 43). While the Jews are reduced to less than beastly conditions, their force of endurance is overwhelming. According to Wiesel, the suffering people gathered there were greater than God himself because of their spiritual strength that makes them pray even in these dire conditions. The image of the Jews sufferance is easily comparable to that of the beast-like creations of Doctor Moreau: â€Å"And the dwindling shreds of the humanity still startled me every now and then,—a momentary recrudescence of speech perhaps, an unexpected dexterity of the fore-feet, a pitiful attempt to walk erect† (Wells 159). Significantly, the Jews as well as other people had regarded Hitler’s promise of exterminating an entire race of people as an impossible farce. The civilized man deems himself safe from extreme pain inflicted by another human being. The narrator himself believes at the beginning that nothing like what was rumored about the camps could be true in the middle of the twentieth century. The same disbelief surrounds Prendick’s account of the scientific experiments on the island. The ultimate feeling that seizes both Prendick and Wiesel in front of these atrocities is the fact that they do not have the desire to return to mankind, despite their sufferance: â€Å"It is strange, but I felt no desire to return to mankind. I was only glad to be quit of the foulness of the Beast People† (Wells 166). This emphasizes the fact that real cruelty is much more often witnessed in man than in animals. The two works describe the nightmarish experiences of the narrators. Entrapped alongside the direst human savagery, the Jews have no choice but to bow to it and expect their own end. Their endurance is obviously superhuman. As in The Island of Doctor Moreau, the liberation of the last Jews is brought by their revolt. This liberation however will never shake the curtain of the horrors that remain inscribed in history as a testimony to human savageness and its persistence in the modern world. ? Works Cited: Wells, H. G. The Island of Doctor Moreau. New York: Signet Classics, 1996. Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Holt McDougal, 1999.

Should gay couples be able to marry Research Paper

Should gay couples be able to marry - Research Paper Example Regardless of the legality the same-sex marriages, research show its trend moving in an upward direction. Therefore, this manuscript will critically analyze the issue of same-sex marriages, vitally weighing the positive and the negative aspects of same-sex marital union. Same-sex marriage is an issue that has raised concern for a long time in most communities across the globe. Moreover, the US is among many countries around the world that has experienced many protests, some campaigning for the same-sex marriages, while others against this form of marital union (Mello 64). The pro-gay marriage activists cite several reasons for their relentless campaign for legalization of same-sex marriages. Firstly, these activists argue that gay couples have equal rights as other couple and that disallowing them to practice same-sex marriage is against the freedom of association (Rimmerman and Wilcox 176). Moreover, they argue that it hampers the group’s freedom of religion choice. In additi on, they argue that refuting same-sex marriage is an example of prejudice against the minority, since gay believers form a small minority in most communities across the globe. These critics allege that it has no negative effect on other individuals, since it only affects the gay believers (Aldarondo 122). Some even claim that any marriage should be based on love, regardless of which sex an individual is. Furthermore, pro-gay campaigners argue that same-sex marriage is the in-thing, and civilized individuals should adapt to this ‘modern’ lifestyle. Another reason cited by these activists is that an increase in the number of gay marriages is advantageous to the society, since it will increase the number of child adoptions within societies. This, they claim is possible, since gays are unable to have children and will only rely on adoption (Cahill 53). Some activists claim that a gay union is an association, just like the business associations. As such, people should be all owed to associate, just like other business associates are free to unite. Moreover, these campaigners argue that since the marriage entails, two individuals of the same sex, the two partners will have equal rights (Hull 124). Therefore, since the partners are of the same gender, they will have same responsibilities, thereby improving the financial capability of the couple. On the other hand, the majority of the world communities do not support same-sex marital unions, based on several factors. For instance, the main world religions do not support gay marriage since it is against their sacred teachings (Snyder 99). According to these world religions, marriage should be a sacred union between a man and a woman, with the principal purpose of procreating. As a result, gay marriage does not fit in any world religion. However, gay activists may retaliate to this by alleging that most states’ constitutions provide for freedom of worship as long as it does not harm other individuals (Snyder 98). Same-sex marriage supporters claim to increase the rate of child adoption. However, anti-gays claim that a gay family setting is not a suitable environment to raise children, since these children may grow up with socially unnatural and unaccepted norms. As a result, these children may have serious problems while they grow and interact with other children. This will also bring confusion to the children

Middle East Studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Middle East Studies - Essay Example This is achieved through networks of charitable organizations that also form the bases for political mobilization of the Islamists. The support for the Islamists stems from the fact that they are active and unified with proper organization in the provision of services to the population. For example, Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and Egypt are actively involved in the management and development of resources in healthcare, education and infrastructure. Hamas rise and popularity in the Palestinian society can be attributed to the many social services that they provide to the society through its efficient network of social, sports and health facilities and libraries. Therefore, it is no wonder that in the elections held on January 2006, it won a massive 74 out of 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council; thus, becoming the ruling party. The Hezbollah in Lebanon started as a military organization but transformed into a political outf it aimed at preventing the continued settlement of Israelis in parts of Lebanon especially the south. In the early 1990s, it transformed into an outfit for the solution of socio-economic problems of the society through integration into the Lebanese political system specifically the legislature. Their social welfare programs have included the provision of food rations to impoverished neighborhoods. This has increased their popularity in areas that the government has failed to provide utilities (Nicholas 73). The Muslim Brotherhood has been actively involved in the Egyptian civil society by taking up professional organizations making them efficient in the provision of social services. The failure by the state to provide these services to the people has endeared the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood making it involved in electoral politics in professional associations, trade unions and political parties (Haynes 241). War, Political Violence, Terrorism, Counter-terrorism in the Middle East si nce 1967 Since the Cold War era and the end of the Soviet Union, the United States has developed a bipartisan foreign policy known as selective engagement. This requires it to be applied differently depending on certain factors such as the issue at hand, the time of the issue and the preferences of the leader at the time of the occurrence. America’s policy in the engagement of war must be determined by factors such as the protection of national interests, the costs on the American citizen and the time of the engagement. Moreover, there is need for the availability of allies to shoulder the human, physical and financial burdens in the engagement and find a viable exit strategy that leaves the prevailing political environment in the country being stable than before (Lacquement 11) The Arab-Israeli conflict has been widely followed by the US regime through what is known as preventive and constructive diplomacy. Constructive diplomacy has involved assistance in the form of financ ial aid to Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan and the Palestine Authority including Israel. This is achieved through information sharing on matters of terrorism and countering them by offering viable arrangements in addressing the security situation in the region. Russia has also proposed cooperation by the superpowers in the region to mitigate fear in the regions (Breslauer 286). The Iran-Iraq was about religious schisms such as the Sunni-Shia, the

School Uniforms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

School Uniforms - Essay Example In fact, advocates of the uniform policy at Long Beach insisted that the uniform policy was the only factor involved in the positive outcomes at the school district. Contrastingly, the authors noted that opponents to mandatory school uniforms were adamant that the use of school uniforms encountered ‘legal’ and ‘financial’ problems. Further, they noted the ‘questionable effectiveness’ of the wearing of these uniforms (53). Thus, the researchers in their attempt to test the relationship between uniforms and the four major outcomes made by advocates of the uniform policy utilized data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study conducted in 1988 with 8th grade students. Their results were astounding for in all four cases the researchers discovered that the empirical evidence did not support the claims made by the advocates. Instead there appeared to be the need for alternative thinking on the cause of the positive effects of the use of uniform s at the Long Beach Unified School District. Brunsma and Rockquemore were quick to note that there was other ‘reform efforts’ implemented at the same time as the uniform policy at the Long Beach District (60). The researchers concluded that the negative correlation between the mandatory uniform policy and academic achievement was perhaps asymptomatic of the ‘quick fix nature’ of reform policies at schools. Interestingly, in her article entitled, â€Å"School Uniforms, Academic Achievement, and Uses of Research†, Bodine highlighted possibly erroneous conclusions in Brunsma and Rockquemore’s article. In fact, Bodine contrasted the results obtained by Brunsma and Rockquemore with the results of an Educational Testing Service article. Bodine emphasized the differences in the reasons put... The author of this paper intends to demonstrate that the wearing of a uniform is but a drop in the bucket of methods of reducing the negativity associated with poor academic performance and behavior problems. In addition, claims of improving academic performance through the implementation of a uniform policy have strongly been refuted by researchers and educators alike. This report approves that the uniform initiative should not be a ‘quick fix’ rather other initiatives such as ‘aggressive truancy reduction initiatives, drug prevention efforts, student-athlete drug testing, community efforts to limit gangs, a zero tolerance policy for weapons, character education classes, and conflict resolution programs’ can be used to improve behavioral problems at schools. This paper makes a conclusion that consistent with the conclusion of Brunsma and Rockquemore, the author of this paper believes that although the use of uniforms may be one of the factors which contribute to academic success it does not cause the success. In the Long Beach positive results researchers noted that there were many other policies implemented simultaneously with the school uniforms. The introduction of different teaching methods was one such policy. Northern highlighted Anthony Gell in the United Kingdom who refused to make uniform mandatory at his school. Gell along with other educators found the uniform issue to be highly political, complex and divisive.

Estate Planning (Australia) Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Estate Planning (Australia) - Case Study Example Margaret deemed acquisition date and cost base is the original date and cost that applied to the assets. Any capital gain tax liability on the principle residence is subjected to 50% individual CGT discount. All the contents of the principle residence are inherited by Margaret. Since the assets were under joint tenancy, therefore the principle of survivorship applies. Margaret deemed acquisition date and cost base will be the original date and cost that applied to the assets. The contents are treated as personal use; since they are valued above $10,000 therefore they are not exempted from CGT and any capital losses are ignored. Since the investment property is held as tenant in common the principle of survivorship does not apply. In case of Gary’s death the property is inherited by Margaret as there is no will therefore his spouse that is Margaret becomes the sole beneficiary. CGT rules apply where all capital gains and losses are taxed. The property was acquired post-CGT therefore its acquisition date and cost base are same as the original. In the case of subsequent disposal by his wife, the capital gain will be deemed as the day contracts were exchanged. The bank account was held as a joint tenancy, this makes Margaret the sole beneficiary as she inherits the account and the money. She takes full control of the account and she can continue transacting through it unless she decides to close it. Since all assets under joint tenancy are assumed be tenancy in common, therefore CGT rules apply. Since the shares are held as joint tenancy between Gary and his wife, his death entitles transfer of the shares to his wife because there is no will. For the shares that were acquired before 19 September 1989 (pre-CGT), they are deemed acquired for the market value of the shares on the date of death. For the shares acquired after 19

International Business ) Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

International Business ) - Research Paper Example Corporate social responsibility also has a great impact on the company’s market share and expendability. Many companies in various continents treat corporate social responsibility as a key aspect of their company survival technique. It has evolved from being a value additional concept of management to on being among the key concepts. This is because consumers evaluate their produces depending on how friendly they are to the environment, and their conformance to most of the international laws that business ethics demand be met. Many European companies are among the leading socially responsible companies in the present society (Global edge, 2012). This is true because Europe gets ranked as one of the greatest markets in the world. For this reason, the companies that operate in this zone must be willing to impress their consumers. The FTSE index provides the best tool in monitoring corporate socially responsible companies, in Europe, and the remaining parts of the world. The resh uffle of leading global responsible investment index series provides information on the companies that have adhered to environmental and social laws in the internal business arena. Companies get to fluctuate from one position to another because social laws change daily, and an organization will not be able to conform to each and every that is passed. In addition, not all corporate laws are universal. One of the most common companies that are socially responsible in Europe is Microsoft Europe. This is a company that was invented by Bill Gates and Paul Allen way back in 1975, and has since with co-operation with other companies revolutionized the software computing industry. As a software company, Microsoft does not face common responsibility in terms of social and environmental laws like other production companies. This is because it does not pollute the environment or utilize much of its resources (Barth & Wolff, 2009). Despite this, social responsibility has been key to the company because it has since been expanding in to different countries that harbor different social values. Microsoft has also been aware of the security issue their customers get to face in the internet, hence introducing free protective software’s such as windows defender. They have also included a vast number of language packs for their software users, hence allowing their products to be used by almost everybody in the world. Another company that is well known for its social responsibility and international conformance is Toshiba. Toshiba is an electrical component manufacturing companies to most other manufacturing companies, mostly in the computer industry. With a company of this nature, it demands so much from the environment due to the need for raw materials such as plastic and carbon fiber used in designing electrical circuit boards. It also utilizes metallic elements in some of its parts mostly aluminum and copper wires for cabling purposes. This means that the company gets to emit a lot of toxic gases to the environment. This will demand that to shows a lot of responsibility to those that live in its environment, and employees that work inside. However, the German company is ranked as the 22nd among the top a hundred companies that are socially responsible. This is because they have made sure that they do not release high levels of toxic gases to

The adding machine by Elmer Rice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The adding machine by Elmer Rice - Essay Example Most importantly, being Mr. Zero is also associated with being oblivious to some serious life aspects. Mr. Zero seems to pay no attention to his needs, desires, and wants in life (Gabrielle and Sprinchorn 307). In other words, he observes a lifestyle that is notably characterized by zero personal concerns. He takes no action to develop personally and professionally, amid serious changes that are being realized around him. For example, the emergence of the adding machine is not instantaneous. However, Mr. Zero takes no effort to maneuver the situation. Conscious awareness on needs, desires, and wants would be expected for Mr. Zero, but unfortunately this is not forthcoming. Mr.1, 2, 3†¦is associated with being responsive to what is happening around an individual. Most importantly, it means taking charge and responsibility when the need arises. Here, dormancy is outweighed and outperformed by being active. Mr.1, 2, 3 has nothing to do with obliviousness. Essentially, there are actions, choices, and alternatives as far as Mr.1, 2, 3 are concerned. Killing the boss did not solve the issue between Mr. Zero, the boss, and the adding machine. If anything, Mr. Zero commits a crime for which he is tried, found guilty, and subsequently executed. In the context of being Mr. Zero, there does not seem to be any choice for his actions. The man is oblivious to his life and he, therefore, lives the outcome of whatever he does. Given that he is an accountant professional, though zero in nature, he is responsible for himself and who he is. The Elysian Fields mark a transition in Mr. Zero’s life. Mr. Zero’s execution marked his death, but the Elysian Fields bring him back when he is said to have woken up in a heaven-like setting (Gabrielle and Sprinchorn 329). Mr. Zero killed his boss over an adding machine that was set to replace him at the company. In Elysian Fields he wakes up to operate the machine, implying that his role had relatively changed. The Elysian

Gullivers Travels Essay Example for Free

Gullivers Travels Essay The saga of Lilliput is more fun and entertaining than that of Brobdingnag. Discuss. Gullivers Travels is a classic example of eighteenth century satire, one of Swifts greatest works in an outcry against the values and practices of his time. While his words ruthlessly attack numerous aspects of human society and human character, by the nature of satire his weapon is humour. So there is plenty of amusement to be had through the course of the book, most notably in the first two adventures, in Lilliput and Brobdingnag. On Gullivers first adventure to Lilliput, he awakes on the island to find himself bound and tied to the ground by the six-inch tall Lilliputians. After being stung with arrows and stabbed with spears, he decides to obey, and then help the Most Mighty Emperor of Lilliput and his country. So we see the foremost target of Swifts humour and satire, that surrounding Gulliver himself, as Richard Rodino said, Gulliver is a satirical device enabling Swift to score satirical points. In Lilliput he subjects to the Emperors imprisonment and his wishes, some strange, such as when he desired I would stand like a Colossus, draw up the troops in close order, and march them under me. Some others were simply humiliating, however, such as when, upon receiving his decree of liberty, he swears to it with great cheerfulness and content, despite the fact that he does not agree fully with all of the articles within, and proceeds to be grateful for the honour of the Emperors presence, to whom he prostrates himself. This acquiescence on the part of Gulliver to a people who, to him, are little more than dolls that walk and talk, is degrading on Gullivers part, yet also funny, since his lack of humour and perspective leaves him open to ridicule. He, who can tow whole fleets and span an entire blustrug with a single step, is reduced to begging a miniature monarch for his freedom. Later on, he receives the ingratitude of the Lilliputians for the desecration of the royal palace, when he put out the fire by urinating on it. The result, due to his enmity with Skyresh Bolgolam, was that he was sentenced to have his eyes cut out. While most others in such a position would have laughed at being threatened by a people a twelfth their size, he is worried and scared by the decree to have his eyes put out. Despite the fact that the sentence expects him to gratefully and humbly submit, depending on him not resisting as very sharp-pointed arrows are discharged into his eyes, he decides to run anyway, to the court of Blefuscu. This cowardice amplifies the humour in his behaviour, the image of a giant being scared and running away from midgets is one that is contrary to the one we would expect. Compare this behaviour to the way that Gulliver presents himself in Brobdingnag. At almost every turn his diminutive size is ridiculed, he becomes the plaything of a nine-year old girl, the rival of a thirty-foot dwarf, and is forced to perform a debasing show till I was half-dead with weariness and vexation. While he is as subservient, indeed, perhaps even more than before, he is no longer doing so to a people far smaller than him. This image of Gulliver being overworked by people far bigger, more important than him, is only funny from the big peoples point of view. As we read it, there are, instead, distinct undertones of slavery and torture. Another example is when the Maids of Honour would sometimes set me astride upon one of her nipples, as well as various other appalling things, leaving Gulliver far from giving me any other emotions other than those of horror and disgust. While one could find comedy in this passage, it is much cruder and less funny than similar passages in Lilliput, a typical example of the type of humour found in this second adventure. Although Swift is satirising our fascination with beauty and appearances, the power of this extract stems not from underlying implications but from the shock of having the human body so cruelly assaulted. Thus, instead of subtly hinting his satire as he does in Lilliput, Swift takes a far harsher line in Brobdingnag, using Gulliver to demonstrate the shortcomings and failings of the human race, through the medium of his various adventures there. Its always entertaining when youre dealing with those smaller and weaker than you are, but a great deal less funny when its someone more powerful dealing with you. The affairs and events which occur in the two adventures also contribute a great deal to the humour. When Gulliver is in Lilliput, one of the first curious things he relates to us is the practice of choosing ministers for governmental and court positions by the nominees skill at dancing on a tightrope or leaping under or over the Emperors stick. This idea seems ridiculous to us, it probably elicited a few smirks when you first read it, but Swift is alluding to the way that in his day and age, many government officials achieved their positions from skill with words or putting money in the right places. Politics becomes a mad ballet, says Philip Pinkus. When we learn that Flimnap would have infallibly broken his neck, if one of the Kings cushions had not weakened the force of the fall, Swift is protesting against the way the favour of a powerful minister could easily protect a man from the loss of his position if they strain so far as to overreach themselves and make a fatal mistake. In Brobdingnag, much of the humour revolves around the way that Gulliver must make his way in a world where everything is too big, John F. Ross says that he retains a pride and self-esteem which would be perfectly normal for him among his physical equals, but which is ridiculous under the circumstances. One time, above twenty wasps, allured by the smell, came flying into the room These insects were as large as partridges. The image of Gulliver surrounded by bird-sized wasps is immediately funny, but aside from the comedy value, there is little satirical content in this passage. There are many other comical stories in both adventures, which can entertain, but also have other layers of meaning. In Lilliput, one of the most amusing anecdotes is that of the war between Lilliput and Blefuscu, largely because of its origins: It is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of breaking eggs before we eat them, was upon the larger end: but his present Majestys grandfather, while he was a boy, and going to eat an egg, and breaking it according to the ancient practice, happened to cut one of his fingers. Whereupon the Emperor his father published an edict, commanding all his subjects, upon great penalties, to break the smaller end of their eggs. The result is that the inhabitants of the two islands go to international war over so minor an event as breaking an egg. We find this hilariously funny, thinking the Lilliputians and Blefuscudians stupid and petty to allow this incident to escalate so to such an extent. However, when the Blefuscudian king listens to Gullivers praise of my own dear native country in a style equal to its merits and felicity, he sees through the pompousness and self-importance of Gullivers account of Europe, seeing the corruption in government, the prejudice in law, the inefficiency in politics, the mismanagement of the economy. Swift is hinting that the two situations are not so different, since little people tend to place great significance upon little things, and when we are the little ones, it is brought home to us that the vast majority of our affairs are of little consequence in the long run. While the story found in Gullivers Travels is highly entertaining, it is, primarily, a work of satire, and this adventure is designed as a message to the people and government of Swifts 18th century Britain, to change, or even just to reflect upon, the way in which they go about their lives. Upon reading both Lilliput and Brobdingnag, there is an evident trend in how Swift has written his book. In Lilliput, Swift uses engaging, fine humour to disguise his satire, whereas in Brobdingnag he moves onto rougher, coarser humour, with a far more obvious attack on European society, a trend which is continued through to the end of the book, culminating in a scathing assault on our perceptions of human nature itself, in the fourth adventure. Therefore, due to the ways in which we respond to the portrayal of Gulliver, and the events and humour found in the two passages, I conclude that the saga of Lilliput is funnier and more entertaining than that of Brobdingnag. Bibliography Jonathan Swift, Gullivers Travels, 1726 Richard Rodino, The Study Of Gullivers Travels, Past and Present, 1992 Philip Pinkus, Sin and Satire in Swift (1965)

Why Do Children Join Gangs?

Why Do Children Join Gangs? Gang association of juveniles is the concern of researchers and field workers .Why do the youth join these gangs yet most of them are involved in criminal activities? This study aims to understand the various factors that contribute to youth gang membership. With these factors it may be possible to conceptualize a practicable plan that will effectively prevent or reduce the juveniles from joining gangs. 1.0 Introduction Currently, it is well known that the issue of street gangs, and the operations of the gang wars have been something quite common to people. What should be agreed is that there have been increases in enmity springing between a number of groups of certain people as well as personal rivalries who have been slowly by slowly taking dreadful stands or thirsty and bloody fights. This has led to an upsurge of cases and numerous instances which are comprised of gangs who are wrestling towards achievement of own supremacy and dominance over the others (Visher, 2006). Therefore, all the way from the streets to the cells and prisons, such criminal sides have been able to strengthen themselves beyond the national level to become a global issue. Having achieved that, these groups have continued to get engaged in illegal activities or actions which have seen a continued spill of blood on the side of the foes. Criminal gangs have hence become a commonplace term which has been in use to denote differ ent kinds of gang-related activities even in the major correctional centers and prison facilities (Stearns, 2009). Basically, the term gang has always been in use to stand for any kind of approach or performance that stands for any group of individuals who team up towards establishing an interest that seems to undermine the performance of a given system. In countries where majority of the gangs have been able to effectively establish themselves, it has been noted that they have been going a step farther other than protecting the members of the gangs (John, 2009). For instance, it is well known that, more often than not, all kind of gangs in a country like United States have been responsible for any kind of drugs spread across the country, and found inside the correctional centers and prisons. These individuals give the necessary modalities on how drugs, tobacco, and even alcohol are handled within the society. Furthermore, a number of observations have gone ahead to observe that these gangs have also been greatly involved in issues such as assaults, prostitution, muggings, murders and even kidnap ping (Bourdieu, 2007). Another important thing to be noted with gangs is that they do seek ways through which they will intimidate other people by pressuring forcing them to submit their resources .This research will therefore dig deeper towards understanding why the young people involve themselves with gangs and come up with useful findings which can be applied in addressing the issue reforming the youths and ensuring proper security and peace concerns in the society (Richard, 2007). 2.0 Literature Review There are various reasons as to why the youth join gangs; the reasons vary from culture to the gang itself. Gangs can replace family units for some young people and provide a sense of protection, some young people are displaced and these gangs offer a means of survival .For instance most gangs that are made of Latinos are based on members of real families. The pop culture positions gang leaders as heroes and therefore most youth want such acceptance. Poverty also forces the youth to join gangs, they want to be able to provide for themselves. Young people from minority groups tend to join criminal gangs, further most young people have social adjustment problems and are looking for a place where they can adjust without much pressure, and gangs provide a safe haven for them. 2.1 Poverty Research has shown that most of young people that are in criminal gangs come from broken homes where the single parent has to work two or three jobs just to survive. In the eyes of these children there is a sense of wanting to be rich, they are never content with there lifestyle and constantly compare themselves with the rich .Gangs propose some sense of being stable, crime offers an opportunity to have more than what they had even with the risks. In addition, the juvenile system of justice is not harsh and does not deter the youths from joining gangs. Anyone who comes from a poor background has felt a sense of hopelessness that can result from being unable to purchase wanted goods and services. Young people living in poor neighborhoods find it difficult to meet basic needs that may be physiological or psychological which can lead to a lack of self-worth and delight. The only way for these youths to earn money is to join a gang involved in the drug trade. Conditions of poverty and la ck of opportunities to improve their situations lead these young individuals to participate in gangs instead despite them knowing the risks involved. 2.2 Minority groups A minority group can be described as a group of people whose members have less power and control over society compared to members of the majority group. In America, Latinos and black Americans are considered a minority. Ethnic youth are more prone to joining street gangs in order to adapt to the way of life. Research has shown that minority groups face education disparity and therefore do not get good jobs; this cycle continues for generation and even becomes the way of life. Most children in the minority groups drop out of school, dropouts significantly diminish their chances to secure a good job and a promising future. There are certain group of people that are at a higher risk for this type of appeal; to join criminal gangs (Giblin, 2002). People who belong to minority groups, may feel left out gang up in order to experience a sagacity of belonging. Gangs time and again come up along racial or religious lanes. Teens experience trouble fitting in or have been out of favor from the mainstream social group are at risk a, as they often will seek any associations that will accept them. 2.3 Social adjustment problems Gang members time and again come from homes where they feel estranged or neglected. They may turn to gangs when their desires for love are not being met at house. There is an increased risk where there are no programmes or recreational facilities that are provided by the community as an alternative to violence. Gangs often do in reality well is provide a teen with a sense of belonging, something that every teenager craves. Teens who join gangs often describe the gang as a family, or a reliable group of acquaintances that they can lean on in every situation that they face. This social advantage is very potent it entices the teenager to join and then cements the gangs hold on the individual making it very hard to leave. Leaving the groups makes the teenager feel like he or she has lost a group of very important friends and at times feels like a traitor. 2.4 Family traditions There are various aspects of a family that increase the chances of a young person joining criminal gangs, disorganization in the family, including broken homes and parental drug/alcohol abuse .Troubled families, including incest, family violence, and drug addiction or having other. Gang members often come from homes where they feel left out and neglected and more often than not there have been cases where other immediate members of the family have been members of criminal gangs. They often turn to gangs when their desires for love are not being met at home. 2.5 Problem Statement The youth make up a very large population and therefore any illegal activity they engage in should be addressed as quickly as possible since it can easily go out of control. The occurrence of gangs has compromised societal bonding and life in our communities while going ahead to distort economic and social structures of the country and at the same time causing a lot of losses and fear within the communities. This calls for means through which the issue can be addressed and come up with better measures of addressing issues that make the youth join gangs and how to deal with the youths already in these gangs. 2.5.1 Hypotheses Gang membership enhances status among the youth. Probability of a young person joining a gang is high if they come from a neighborhood whose level of integration is low. All gang members come from poor families 3.0 Research Methodology The sample is comprised of self-identified gang members from the community, drawn using respondent-driven sampling by Heckathorn (1997, 2002). It samples individuals through their acquaintance networks. Thus, it has the ability to get to individuals who might not otherwise participate in the study using other methods of sampling. It begins by having the first participants of the study, known as seeds. Seeds then start the chain referral by recruiting a specific number of their peers who also look for their other peers to participate in the study.The process goes on until the targeted size of the sample is achieved. In this case the sample size will be very small therefore will take a very short time. Because this kind of sampling is based on networks of peers , it may give overrated results in certain subgroups especially the subgroups many people who who form big networks or networks of people who are more well-organized in recruiting. The experiment is designed in such a way that t here is no bias in order to make sure that the sample is representative of the entire population. Reports collected ensures that inclusion probabilities will be calculated. This helps in assessment of any bias that may be present in the population es, and to estimate any variabilities of indicators (e.g., standard errors). This study aims to: a. Determine if independent variable(s) Poverty, Family bonding, social adjustment problems that lead to the youth wanting to belong somewhere and belonging to ethnic minority groups have a strong correlation with the dependent variable (Joining gangs); The study utilizes qualitative and quantitative study approaches, and comprises of administered questionnaire. Since most gangs are illegal, it will be important to ensure the confidentiality of the information that will be given by the participants. There will be no real names used in the study and the participants will not be required to sign any documents. 3.1 Significance of the study The findings of this study will advance our understanding of why the youth join criminal gangs and will enlighten us on how to avoid teenagers from joining these gangs.The experiments will provide an insight on how to deal with teenagers who are already in the gangs. Youth gangs have compromised societal bonding and life in communities while going ahead to distort economic and social structures of the country and at the same time causing a lot of losses and fear within the communities. This has hence been the reason why it has been necessary to carry out a study which has been able to come up with proper findings, and which can be competently adopted towards maintaining of proper justice within our country through practical applications. Generally, all what the study will be able to come out with can be given a theoretical approach hence being able to contribute towards this fight. This shall ensure that the mutual benefits commonly noted in the streets is addressed in a better manne r and have more individuals who are responsible given the job. This study therefore holds the key for the rightful future practice in dealing with the youth gangs.

Migration Plan from UNIX to Microsoft Server

Migration Plan from UNIX to Microsoft Server Data Migration is the process of transferring data between different storage types, servers or formats. It’s not just about copying data, but also about validating the data according to constraints and since different databases uses different data types, this step also include modifying the data as per the target server. One essential requirement is that the data migrated should verify the Business logic to run applications smoothly on target server. Migrating from one server to another can be a tricky situation. There are various challenges while migration of full data from UNIX server to Microsoft Server. First of all the user should completely understand the data sources and their proper formats. Usually, too many spreadsheets or excel files, or redundant data may affect proper migration. Wherever possible, instead of manual, automated systems should be used. Microsoft offers MAP (Microsoft Assessment and Planning) tool to identify the various constraints, or issues that might occur while migrating from UNIX platform to Microsoft server. Moreover, SSMA (SQL Server Migration Assistant) can further help in performing the migration. SSMA can create mapped schemas to UNIX server, which helps in easy migration of data. It is essential that the all applications like email, finance systems, personal records, CAD/CAM engineering facilities, production systems, Sales Marketing databases, Website etc. should run smoothly after migration. There are various underlying steps that need to be taken care of for easy and error-free migration, as explained below: Recognizing the pattern-Template Creation: To begin migration, first we’ll have to understand the schema of UNIX database. We’ll create a template consisting of master data key objects. The template has following two sections: Section 1: Key Data Fields: In the first section of the template user will provide the key values, such as storage objects material, address etc. Usually, in key field columns, drop-down lists are provided for accurate and easy entry of data. Section 2: Derived and Default Fields:Based on the key field values, various fields can be derived based on the Business translational logic. For example, using the production unit key field the template will determine the employee names working in it. For different production units, different employee names will be automatically derived by the template. The default fields like, â€Å"currency used† will be automatically updated. Process of Migration: The process of migration is summarized on the figure below: Figure-1 (Source: Ranga Rao Davala, Nikhil Singh, 2011, A Case Study on Data Migration Strategy, The Data Administration Newsletter, Robert Seiner Publishers.) Select Source:Due to various applications running on UNIX server, the data will be spread across many sources like different DBs, excel files or spreadsheets. In this step, user will identify the various data sources that are to be migrated. The selection of sources will be based upon the requirements in the project, according to which what data needs to be migrated can be identified. Data Fields Mapping:This is an essential step, where the schema or key fields from source system are mapped to target system. The field names in target schemas should be kept similar to source schema for easy mapping. This step is usually done manually for error-free mapping. Usually the different database servers will have different underlying data types. For example, Integer’s maximum and minimum limit in UNIX server is different from in SQL Server. The mapped data, therefore, should be transformed according to destination server data types. Data Transformation:This is where the template we created will come in picture. User will manually enter the key field values in the template and based on that all the derived and default field values will be generated automatically. Moreover, in this step, the user will transform the data based on the difference between data types of both servers. Validations and Constraints:This step is to ensure that the data entered in the template is accurate. The template will gray out the field which are entered wrong or doesn’t qualify the constraints, such as mandatory fields, null values etc. This step will help in minimizing errors and improving the quality of data. Extract Files:Once the data is entered into the template, the master data objects are extracted or generated. Load files:The load files are in text format, and they can be generated in single click by macro-enabled extract files system. This step ensures that data present in the text file is in exactly the same format as we require in the Microsoft system. Loading data in Microsoft Server:The data is loaded in batches. Since there are multiple applications running on UNIX system that are to be migrated, this step may take several hours to complete. Web server migration (FTP or HTTP Websites) Once we have completed the initial steps of creating a template and selecting the proper migration tools, we can begin full migration from UNIX to Microsoft server i.e. IIS. We must follow following steps: Assessment of hardware requirements and acquiring new hardware if required. We can begin migrating FTP or HTTP websites by copying their content to destination server. Next step is to replicate Web application files to destination. Migration of log files. Migration of Web server configuration settings. The last step is to create security settings and user permission and roles. DHCP/DNS Migration: The process of migrating UNIX server DHCP/DNS services to Microsoft Windows Server DHCP/DNS servers requires the following steps: Install Microsoft Windows Server DHCP/DNS Services Manually Configure Microsoft Windows Server DHCP/DNS Services Create Forward and Reverse Lookup Zones: Creating lookup zones will make sure that Microsoft server is authoritative for the DHCP/DNS names for local resources and forwards other queries to an ISP or performs recursive resolutions. Add secondary zones to Microsoft Windows Server DHCP/DNS for the existing zones that are hosted on UNIX based DHCP/DNS servers. In this step we’ll initiate zone transfers at the Microsoft Windows Server-based DHCP/DNS servers to transfer the zones from the UNIX servers. After the transfers are successful we will convert secondary zones into primary zones. In the last step, we’ll point client configurations to Microsoft Windows based DHCP/DNS Servers. Avoiding downtime while migrating: We can avoid the downtime while migration by reconfiguring our sites to connect to our new database remotely. Using this way, our users or visitors will be redirected to new site and all the updates will be saved to new server. This technique is, though, very complex, but it will minimize the downtime to a great extent. We can summarise this process in following steps: Transfer the files, DBs and important settings to the new server. Then we can test our site on the new server to check if it’s working as expected. After two steps are successfully completed, we will change the various database settings on our site, to make sure that the old server accesses the DB from the new server. Then we’ll modify the name servers and DNS and point them to the new server.

Finding Freedom in Kate Chopins The Awakening :: Chopin Awakening Essays

Finding Freedom in The Awakening  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Awakening was shocking to readers in 1899, and would be today if it were published in â€Å"Ladies Home Journal†. Even today, women are expected to sacrifice themselves, if not to their husbands, then definitely to their children. I find it interesting that Grand Isle is the setting for the beginning and end of the novel. The story is built around a circle and represents the whirling force that is the energy of Edna’s life. The circle reminds me of Yeats’ â€Å"The Second Coming† : â€Å"Turning and turning in the widening gyre/things fall apart/the center cannot hold.†   So often I wanted Edna to act and she didn’t, I suppose that it is Chopin’s purpose to not let us into Edna’s thoughts, or make us omniscient of her actions. This was hard for me while reading. I wanted Edna’s point of view, so I could EASILY figure out what she was going to do, and that’s what was most difficult about this novel, and the reason it is not an easy read. I guess this is Chopin’s purpose. An example is when Edna cannot pinpoint why she is crying - the reader is left just as confused as Edna about the emotions. The sleep motif is very enlightening, in that key moments of Edna’s awakening are preceded by sleep. Sleep, especially for those who are depressed, is used as a way of escape, but in this novel sleep is used mystically as a way for Chopin to show that many things happen while Edna is sleeping that leads to awakening. In this way, the reader can only guess what occurs during sleep. I found I related to Harding Davis’ work more in that I can relate to Hugh and Deb’s oppression (politically, economically, class structurally). One thing the two works have in common is that both main characters (Hugh and Edna) actually hold the key to their own oppression, yet Edna’s social condition doesn’t require much sympathy from the reader. Also, if a reader cannot step into that world with Chopin, it is difficult to comprehend that kind of oppression. Perhaps it’s not correct to use the term oppression when writing about Edna, as it seems she only lives a life of obligations. She breaks free of these, however, and realizes: â€Å"Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual.

John Sayles Men With Guns (Hombres Armados) :: Film Movies Analysis

John Sayles' Men With Guns (Hombres Armados) In Men with Guns, John Sayles depicts a feudal economic system in an agricultural South American setting. Using the travels of Dr. Fuentes, a concerned doctor from the city, to reveal numerous aspects of peasant life, Sayles shows the economic whirlwind in which these peasants are caught. Men With Guns demonstrates how the feudal economic system operates by revealing the economic and political power the rich plantation owners possess and lord over their lessers. A cruel cycle in which the rich people maintain control and the poor people are trapped with no way to rescue themselves, feudalism is a hierarchical market system. The people with money in Men With Guns are the landlords, the owners of the plantations. These people obviously control the land that they own as well as the profit from the output their land produces, but they also control the government, the army, and consequently, the common people. This near omnipotent control forces the common people into a feudal relationship. Unless the peasants work on the feudal plantations, they will starve. The army ensures their reliance on the plantations by kicking them off of all arable land, leaving them with no food and no employment. Committing themselves to the only employers in the region, the peasants are forced into a feudal relationship. They are held in this relationship by the army, which goes to extreme measures to maintain control of the peasants. Maintaining feudal conditions through violence and intimidation, the army holds the populace in a constant state of fear. Guaranteeing that the peasants stay ill and in need furthers the necessity that they work to stay alive, but prevents them from doing so. This is the paradox of the poor worker, but one the army does not see. The army blindly kills anyone who tries to help the peasants, murdering all the doctors and priests that enter the villages. They do so to keep the peasants in need and in ignorance, to prevent them from learning another way of life. Lacking knowledge of the outside world ensures that the peasants will remain in the plantations, because fear of the unknown is stronger than fear of the known. Acting as feudal knights, the army forces people into the feudal plantation relationship using fear and intimidation. Because the peasants do not make money or get food according to the amount of time they work or the amount of labor they produce, the managerial role of the army becomes a necessity for the motivation of the workers. John Sayles' Men With Guns (Hombres Armados) :: Film Movies Analysis John Sayles' Men With Guns (Hombres Armados) In Men with Guns, John Sayles depicts a feudal economic system in an agricultural South American setting. Using the travels of Dr. Fuentes, a concerned doctor from the city, to reveal numerous aspects of peasant life, Sayles shows the economic whirlwind in which these peasants are caught. Men With Guns demonstrates how the feudal economic system operates by revealing the economic and political power the rich plantation owners possess and lord over their lessers. A cruel cycle in which the rich people maintain control and the poor people are trapped with no way to rescue themselves, feudalism is a hierarchical market system. The people with money in Men With Guns are the landlords, the owners of the plantations. These people obviously control the land that they own as well as the profit from the output their land produces, but they also control the government, the army, and consequently, the common people. This near omnipotent control forces the common people into a feudal relationship. Unless the peasants work on the feudal plantations, they will starve. The army ensures their reliance on the plantations by kicking them off of all arable land, leaving them with no food and no employment. Committing themselves to the only employers in the region, the peasants are forced into a feudal relationship. They are held in this relationship by the army, which goes to extreme measures to maintain control of the peasants. Maintaining feudal conditions through violence and intimidation, the army holds the populace in a constant state of fear. Guaranteeing that the peasants stay ill and in need furthers the necessity that they work to stay alive, but prevents them from doing so. This is the paradox of the poor worker, but one the army does not see. The army blindly kills anyone who tries to help the peasants, murdering all the doctors and priests that enter the villages. They do so to keep the peasants in need and in ignorance, to prevent them from learning another way of life. Lacking knowledge of the outside world ensures that the peasants will remain in the plantations, because fear of the unknown is stronger than fear of the known. Acting as feudal knights, the army forces people into the feudal plantation relationship using fear and intimidation. Because the peasants do not make money or get food according to the amount of time they work or the amount of labor they produce, the managerial role of the army becomes a necessity for the motivation of the workers.

Lifespan Development and Personality

Oprah Winfrey’s development as an individual has a very unique and interesting perspective in terms of Psychological development. Ms. Winfrey is a product of an â€Å"accidental conception† by her parents. Her mother was a house maid and her father was a coil miner. At the age of 6 and 14, she was raped and sexually molested by her uncle and cousin. Her mother was often not around to help her and guide her. Ironically, even though she was having a hard time at home, she still excelled in school and had scholarship to support her education. As a growing child, she was used to poverty and hardships.After the incident of sexual molestations, she was forced to live with her dad. During these times, Oprah was helped by her dad to focus on her studies. At an age of 18 she won the Miss Black Tennessee Beauty pageant and then later on was given a job at a local radio station. Her exposure to media later evolved as she aspired to become a prominent figure in American Television years later. The forces that made big differences in her life are her childhood experiences and family as well as her experiences in her late adolescent years. The mixture of her bad memories and her successful life can be accounted on how she managed the anxieties and problems in which she might have encountered in the process of her maturity as a person.Oprah can be said to have a bad environment growing up. The way of life she lived in the poverty stricken places she grew up on might had opened her eyes on the realities of life even on   a tender age. She was not nurtured well also because her mother was irresponsible. Her father helped her to focus on her studies in her adolescent years but still had missed out a lot of important years in the childhood days. Fortunately, she overcame all adversities with her innate ability to be diligent in her goals.Even though she underwent a depressing phase in her childhood, she was also compensated later on by good education and support f rom her father. Emotionally, she might have chosen to become depressed and angry at life. In fact, she showed signs of rebellion at age 14 when she got regnant but eventually lost her baby. You can see the transition of her life as she was guided by her father. She became more focus and determined in life.There was less hostility in her environment as she entered the late adolescent and it helped her to become the person she is today. Today Oprah is known to be the good moral type of person. She is a philanthropist and helps the needy people in America as well as other parts of the globe. Her view of morality can be traced back to how she saw the injustices in her society in her childhood. The oppression of black people, the life her parents lived, and the way her classmates made fun of her due to her poverty opened her eyes on what’s right and wrong. Her ability today to empathize and sympathize is really a product of her first hand experience with the good and bad experienc es her had.Going back to her moral and emotional development, I want to focus more on the negative experiences she had in her childhood. We can see that Oprah went through a lot in her childhood. In Erik Erikson’s theory of development, she was at around stage three when her sexual molestation experiences happened. This stage is important since this is a stage where a crisis in a person’s development happens (initiative-guilt). The fact that family plays the biggest role in this stage makes her more vulnerable to level on more guilt than initiative. Instead of helping her feel purposeful and learn new skills, her family at that time mistreated her. In her next stage of development (industry and inferiority), she might had leveled on more inferiority than industry.This is where she was having troubles in school and starting to rebel on her family. She might have a sense of â€Å"inertia† or inferiority complex due to the fact that she had not strong support syste m in her family. When â€Å"inertia† happens, the child usually avoids doing something she was not able or failed to do properly (Boeree, 1997). In Oprah’s situation she might had given up on building good relationship with her family. Fortunately she was able to over come it as time went on and she stayed with her father. As she progress on to the stage five (ego-identity and role confusion crisis), she looked like she was successful in balancing out the crisis due to the fact her father offered social support for her and she was excelling in her studies.This might had giver her good amount of confidence to share herself to others and to be comfortable to be oneself. Her excellence in school and constant exposure to media might led her to develop a good social support system. Together with her father’s guidance, she had a healthy support system that helped her achieve many goals in her life. A good social support system of friends and family is vital in everyon e’s growth and security in life. After a turbulent childhood, she was able to find good connection to the world by her achievement. Later on in her life, she was one of the most powerful women in television and Hollywood. She helped people who needed help. She influenced politics. President Bill Clinton even singed an â€Å"Oprah bill† for the creations of a database of child abusers. She opened schools for people who can’t afford to go school. She directed her passion of helping other children and victims of catastrophe. She is said to be one of the most credible and influential Americans in history.Two theories of personality best apply for Ms. Winfrey. Abraham Maslow’s theory of heirrachy of needs can help us understand how Oprah’s traits and actions develop through her career and as a person. In her childhood, she was stuck on surviving on the first level of needs (physiological needs). As she grew older, she was given more and more support by her father, colleagues and friends. She was able to climb up the hierarchy of needs. By the time she was in her 20’s, she had already fulfilled the safety, belonging and esteem part of the hierarchy of needs. Today, she is seen to help others and use her past dispute in life as her tool to help and change other people’s lives.She is on a level in which she is self-actualizing and reaching out to help other since she had already fulfilled her own needs. Being in this self-actualization state, people who reached this usually has the continuous desire to fulfill his potential to become more and more of what you want (Boeree, 1997). In connection to this theory, Viktor Frankl’s theory of transcendence is a good approach in her case. Ms. Winfrey’s painful past could have destroyed her internally and made her a depressed person throughout life but instead she was able to transcend her experience to something useful to the world.She channeled her pain and suffer ing to counseling others in her show. She gave moral support to women who were abused and children who were in the same situation as her.   In comparing the two theories, Viktor Frankl stated that self-actualization is the side-effect of transcendence. In conclusion, the theory of transcendence of Frankl best accounts her behavior. Oprah’s actions and behaviors towards finding meaning in her life and helping others can be seen more of a spiritual and self less acts rather than Maslow’s theory in which people satisfy their own self-actualization needs thus resulting to helping others. Oprah over came a lot of adversities and trial in life and was able to overcome many â€Å"noogenic anxiety† that might have come in her way. She can be said to have found meaning in what she does today. She transforms her life’s experiences and lessons to something for the betterment of others.ReferencesBoeree, C. (1997). Retrieved on 24 April 2008 fromhttp://webspace.ship .edu/cgboer/perscontents.htmlBoeree, C. (1997). Retrieved on 24 April 2008 fromhttp://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/erikson.htmlBoeree, C. (1997). Retrieved on 24 April 2008 fromhttp://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/frankl.htmlBoeree, C. (1997). Retrieved on 24 April 2008 fromhttp://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.htmlDinh, M. & Murphy, J. (2008). Retrived on 24 April 2008 fromhttp://people.com/tag/oprah-winfrey/Unknown. (2008). REtrived on 24 April 2008 fromhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

Managers Explore and Exploit

Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit Author(s): Charles A. O'Reilly III and Michael L. Tushman Reviewed work(s): Source: California Management Review, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Summer 2011), pp. 5-22 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www. jstor. org/stable/10. 1525/cmr. 2011. 53. 4. 5 . Accessed: 27/11/2011 04:22 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www. jstor. org/page/info/about/policies/terms. sp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email  protected] org. University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to California Manag ement Review. http://www. jstor. org Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers explore and exploit Charles A. O’Reilly III Michael L. Tushman he life span of the average American is 79. Japanese can expect to live to age 83, Liberians to only 46. The average age of a large company is much less than any of these. Research has shown that only a tiny fraction of firms founded in the U. S. are likely to make it to age 40, probably less than 0. 1 percent. 1 In this study, for firms founded in 1976, only 10% survived 10 years later, leading the authors to conclude that â€Å"Despite their size, their vast financial and human resources, average large firms do not ‘live’ as long as ordinary Americans. 2 While this is partly understandable because of the high mortality rates among newly founded companies, other research has estimated that even large, well-established companies can only expect to live, on average, between another 6 to 15 years. 3 Ormerod, in a study of firm failure, noted that â€Å"Over 10 percent of all companies in the U. S. , the largest and most-successful e conomy in the history of the world, fail every single year. 4 In a study of the world’s largest companies between 1912 and 1995, Hannah reported that only 20 firms remained on her list for the entire period— and many of those were in industries like natural resources without disruptive change. In her study, the modal large firm failed. 5 Why this should be is a puzzle, since when firms are doing well they have all the resources (financial, physical, and intellectual) to continue to be successful. Yet the evidence is that most organizations do not survive for long periods of time. In addressing this conundrum, James March notes that central to the ability of a firm to survive over time is its ability to exploit existing assets and positions in a profit-producing way and simultaneously to explore new technologies and markets—to configure and reconfigure organizational resources to capture existing as well as new opportunities. In March’s terms, this is the fundamental tension at the heart of an enterprise’s long-run survival. â€Å"The basic problem confronting an organization is to engage in sufficient exploitation to ensure its T CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu 5 Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit current viability and, at the same time, devote enough energy to exploration to ensure its future viability. †6 March also notes that this requires not the blind variation-selection-retention process of biological evolution but what he refers to as â€Å"evolutionary engineering† in which organizational experience and memory are used to strengthen exploitation and exploration rocesses and adapt to changed environmental conditions. 7 Hannah, struggling to explain the survival of a comparatively small number of the world’s largest companies, suggests that a plausible explanation for the survivors is that â€Å"they had some distinctive architecture which enabled them—but not others—to constantly replicate their early success [and that] such corporate architectures must be complex and difficult to ident ify, describe and copy, for, if that were not the case, their value would be competed down by emulators. 8 In the past decade, a growing body of research has examined how organizations can both explore and exploit. 9 One promising stream of research has focused on how dynamic capabilities may underpin the ability of firms to sense, seize, and reconfigure organizational assets to adapt to changed environmental conditions. 10 With dynamic capabilities, sustained competitive advantage comes from the firm’s ability to leverage and reconfigure its existing competencies and assets in ways that are valuable to the customer but difficult for competitors to imitate. In this view, dynamic capabilities are embedded in organizational processes or routines around coordination, learning, and transformation and allow a firm to sense opportunities and then to seize them by successfully allocating resources, often by adjusting existing competencies or developing new ones. These capabilities underpin the organization’s ability to maintain ecological fitness and, when necessary, to reconfigure existing assets and develop the new skills needed to address emerging threats and opportunities The Roots of Organizational Ambidexterity O’Reilly and Tushman argue that the ability of a firm to be ambidextrous is at the core of dynamic capabilities. Ambidexterity requires senior managers to accomplish two critical tasks. 11 First, they must be able to accurately sense changes in their competitive environment, including potential shifts in technology, compeCharles A. O’Reilly III is the Frank Buck Professor of Management at the Graduate tition, customers, and regulation. Second, they School of Business at Stanford University. must be able to act on these opportunities and threats; to be able to seize them by reconfigurMichael L. Tushman is the Paul Lawrence ing both tangible and intangible assets to meet MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business new challenges. 12 As a dynamic capability, ambiAdministration at the Harvard Business School. dexterity embodies a complex set of routines including decentralization, differentiation, targeted integration, and the ability of senior leadership to orchestrate the complex trade-offs that the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation requires. Developing these dynamic capabilities is a central task of executive leadership. 6 NIVERsITy OF CALIFORNIA, bERkELEy VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit Although theoretically compelling, research on dynamic capabilities and ambidexterity is still at an early stage. Conceptually, the need for organizations to both explore and exploit is convincing, but how do managers and firms actually do this? At an operating level, how do the challenges of ambidexterity present themselves—and what differentiates the more successful attempts at ambidexterity from the less successful? To develop a more granular sense for the managerial challenges presented by ambidexterity, consider the following three examples. Mike Lawrie at Misys In 2007, Mike Lawrie was appointed CEO of Misys, a $1B FTSE 100 global supplier of software and services to banking and health care customers. Although Misys had been a star performer earlier in its history, by 2006 the firm was in trouble with margins and growth rates far below their competitors. It had grown through acquisitions and was a loose federation of 34 separate business units with 6,000 employees spread across 79 countries. Part of Lawrie’s turnaround strategy was straightforward: to install common practices across the business units to reduce costs and drive productivity. As a 27-year veteran of IBM and former CEO of Siebel Systems, Lawrie knew how to do this. More problematic was the potential disruptive challenge posed by open source software, which threatened the proprietary products from which Misys derived most of its current revenue. However, given the poor financial position of the company, Lawrie’s senior team was focused on cutting costs and getting through the immediate crisis. With their legacy business and their powerful business unit managers under cost, quality, and growth pressures, open source experiments were seen as a needless distraction and a $300M cost. They questioned whether the company should divert scarce resources to fund an uncertain new initiative that, if successful, could undermine their current business model? In addition, if they were to do this, how should the new venture be organized and led? Ganesh Natarajan at Zensar Technologies Zensar Technologies is one of India’s top 25 business process outsourcing companies proving services to 300 of the Fortune 500 firms. In 2005, its business was growing but Ganesh Natarajan, the CEO, saw the opportunity to implement a potentially radical software process innovation (Solution Blue Prints or SBP). SBP was a revolutionary way to do software development that, if implemented, would require a more collaborative relationship with clients, a different product development framework, and a different sales process. Zensar’s existing customers, its top team, its sales force and its product development staff were not enthusiastic about SBP. Like Mike Lawrie’s team at Misys, Natarajan’s senior team and business unit leaders were preoccupied with their current business and saw little need to explore an approach that would require them to alter their current business model. When pressed by Natarajan to explore the new approach to software development, several senior managers CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu 7 Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit suggested that SBP simply be integrated into their existing units. Others wanted SBP to be spun out as a new venture. In contrast, the leader of the SBP project wanted to have his own business unit reporting directly to the CEO. As Natarajan reflected on the challenge, he was sure that the company should pursue SBP but was unsure how to structure the new initiative to best ensure its success. Caroline White at Defense Corp Defense Corp (pseudonym) is a major U. S. defense contractor with long-term relationships with customers in the military. Caroline White, a vice president and general manager of a division, saw an attractive opportunity for growth in the new Homeland Security market but was frustrated in her efforts to develop this area. Her mission, approved by the President, was to create a franchise in this business equivalent to those it enjoyed in other defense markets. In spite of this high-level approval, Caroline found funding difficult, with the business development funds budgeted by supporting units never available in the amounts promised. Instead, these seem to be siphoned off to support more near-term opportunities with existing clients. When Caroline pressed her colleagues in other business units about this, she heard complaints about her new initiative. They saw her mission as less tangible and immediate than theirs, with a smaller payoff to investment, and labeled her effort as a â€Å"think tank† as opposed to a real business. They also complained that her project lacked clarity around deliverables and metrics. Making matters more difficult, line of business leaders were under significant pressure to deliver revenues and questioned the viability of Caroline’s efforts. In the face of these obstacles, Caroline was resolved to ask the CEO to intercede. The question, however, was what she wanted him to do to ensure the viability of her exploratory effort? Given the resistance, she knew that it would require more than just funding to ensure the success of the new initiative. Mike Lawrie, Ganesh Natarajan and Caroline White each face the classic explore-exploit dilemma. What specifically can they do? At a high level of abstraction, ambidexterity requires a willingness of senior managers to commit resources to exploratory projects and the establishment of separate structural units for exploitation and exploration. Most research on ambidexterity begins with the acceptance of these general characteristics. 3 However, while there is general agreement about the elements of ambidexterity, O’Reilly and Tushman have noted that what is missing is a clear articulation of those specific management actions that facilitate the simultaneous pursuit of exploitation and exploration. What has been missing from the research on ambidexterity is insight into the core leadership mechanisms that underlie how dynamic capabilities operate in practice. T hus, while directionally correct, the research is not granular enough to be of much use to an operating manager facing the problems described above. To be practically useful, what is needed is greater insight into the specific micromechanisms required for a manager to implement and operate an ambidextrous strategy. This article reports the results of interviews and qualitative case studies 8 uNIVERsITy OF CALIFORNIA, bERkELEy VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit of leaders in 15 organizations that were confronted with the need to simultaneously explore and exploit. We use these data to induce how managers actually dealt with the challenges of ambidexterity. In doing this, we also explored those activities that discriminated between those more- versus less-successful attempts at implementing ambidextrous designs. Leading the Ambidextrous Organization In an attempt to characterize the specific elements of ambidexterity, we offer five propositions that are necessary for leaders to be successful at managing ambidexterity. 14 These are specific mechanisms that enable firms to successfully manage separate â€Å"explore-and-exploit† subunits and to leverage common assets in ways that permit the firm to adapt to new opportunities and threats. It is the presence of these characteristics that permits leaders to reconfigure existing competencies and assets to explore new opportunities even as the organization continues to compete in mature markets. Absent these elements, inertial forces keep the firm focused on the exploitative part of the business. 15 Thus, we propose that ambidexterity is more likely to be successful in the presence of the following five conditions: b A compelling strategic intent that intellectually justifies the importance of both exploration and exploitation. An articulation of a common vision and values that provide for a common identity across the exploitative and exploratory units. b A senior team that explicitly owns the unit’s strategy of exploration and exploitation; there is a common-fate reward system; and the strategy is communicated relentlessly. b Separate but aligned organizational architectures (business models, structure, incentives, metrics, and cultures) for the exploratory and ex ploitative units and targeted integration at both senior and tactical levels to properly leverage organizational assets. The ability of the senior leadership to tolerate and resolve the tensions arising from separate alignments. To appreciate the logic of these, consider the effects on ambidexterity if these elements were not present. First, without an intellectually compelling strategic intent to justify the ambidextrous form, there will be no rationale for why profitable exploit units, especially those under pressure, should give up resources to fund small, uncertain explore efforts. As previous research has shown, managers routinely discount future threats and focus on short-term gains at the expense of less certain long-term returns. 6 Second, absent a common vision and values, there will be no common identity to promote trust, cooperation, and a long-term perspective. 17 Third, if the senior team lacks a consensus about the importance of ambidexterity, those who are uncommitted will be encouraged to resist the effort, diminishing cooperation, increasing competition for resources, and slowing down execution. 18 The absence CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu 9 Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit f a common-fate reward system and a lack of relentless communication of the ambidextrous strategy can further undermine cooperation and encourage unproductive conflict. 19 Fourth, without separate alignments for explore and exploit units and targeted integration to leverage common assets, there will be inefficient use of resources and poor coordination across the units. 20 Finally, if the leadership is unable to manage the conflicts and trade-offs required by ambidexterity, the necessary decision processes will be compromised and end up in confusion and conflict. 1 Method and Results To assess whether these five propositions are veridical descriptions of ambidexterity in practice, we conduc ted semi-structured interviews with senior managers at fifteen firms that were attempting to manage both exploratory and exploitative units. Eight of the 15 cases were either successes or qualified successes as reflected in increased growth or profits, three were clear failures, and four firms were underperforming before learning how to be ambidextrous and deemed successful afterwards. Table 1 lists these companies and the challenge each faced. Senior managers and key informants in each firm were interviewed and asked to describe in detail how they attempted to simultaneously explore and exploit. 22 They were probed about the nature of their leadership challenges, what actions they had taken, an assessment of their progress to date, and to identify those elements that they believed were helping or hindering them in accomplishing their task of exploration and exploitation. The focus in these interviews was on understanding in some detail what actions had been taken and how these had been implemented. The goal of these interviews was to specify in a granular way what leadership actions were associated with the organization’s ability to reconfigure existing assets and develop the new capabilities needed for exploration. 23 Table 2 provides a summary of the comparative results across the fifteen organizations studied. These results suggest that there are themes associated with the leadership of more- versus less-successful ambidextrous designs. The first proposition offered by O’Reilly and Tushman suggests that ambidexterity is facilitated when there is a compelling strategic intent that intellectually justifies the explore and exploit strategy. In each of the 15 cases investigated here, there was a clear strategic intent on the part of the organization to pursue an exploratory venture (this obviously reflects our sample selection where cases were chosen based on their attempt to be ambidextrous). While each of the 15 firms articulated a strategic intent, only ten were able to actually execute such an aspiration. The articulation of a clear strategic intent clearly does not discriminate between more- versus less-successful attempts to implement ambidextrous designs. Other research has documented the transformation of firms occurring without an explicit ambidexterity strategy. 24 These results suggest that while 10 uNIVERsITy OF CALIFORNIA, bERkELEy VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit TABLe 1. sample description (continued on next page) IBM Life Sciences (Success) In 2000, IbM began a programmatic effort, (termed the Emerging business Organization or EbO), to identify and develop cross-IbM business that could provide $1b in revenue within a 5-year time frame. In April of that year, Carol kovac, an IbM R manager, was asked to establish a new Life science business that would capitalize on the increased demand for computing being generated by the genomic revolution. between its founding and 2006, Carol grew the business to $5b in revenue. IBM Middleware (Success) In 1998, IbM’s software division was in turmoil. There were conflicting pressures to continue to develop and service software for their existing installed base that relied heavily on mainframe computers and to develop radically new products based on the emerging World Wide Web. Resolving this required that their senior managers exploit existing programming languages and customers and to explore new languages and markets. They accomplished this by systematically establishing different units and carefully integrating them at senior levels. Cisco TelePresence (Success) Cisco systems is a $22b company that sells plumbing for the internet. It has grown at 12-17% annually and currently has a dominant market share in its main businesses. As a part of his effort to continue Cisco systems growth, John Chambers, the CEO, has launched an ambitious initiative to identify 30 new potential $1b businesses. His aim is to generate 25% of the firm’s revenues from these new ventures within 5-10 years. In October 2006, one of these efforts (TelePresence) was launched as an internal venture to develop high-end video conferencing. since then the business has grown from two internal entrepreneurs and a sheet of paper to more than 100 people and $200M in revenue. Misys Corporation (Success) Misys is a $1b software firm selling service and systems to health care and banking clients. As a part of a turnaround effort commenced in 2007, the new CEO initiated a cost-cutting effort in the mature business and proposed a new open source approach to replace the existing proprietary platform. To ensure the success of this disruptive approach, he set up a new exploratory unit and replaced several members of his senior team who were resisting the new approach. by 2010, the new open source platform had opened up new markets and attracted a significant number of new customers. DaVita Rx (Success) daVita is a $6b business that derives the bulk of its revenues from operating kidney dialysis centers. In 2004, kent Thiry, the CEO, formed a team to identify new business opportunities that would match daVita’s clinical skills with economic opportunities. One opportunity identified was to provide prescription drugs to chronic kidney patients. begun in 2004, daVita Rx was an internal start-up with a different business model, metrics, and margins than the larger daVita. by 2010, this new business was generating $220M in revenue with 400 employees. Defense Corp (Success) defense Corp is a $6b provider of hardware and systems to the u. s. military establishment. In 2005, in an attempt to broaden their customer base the company initiated an effort to sell technology to the newly established Homeland security Agency. Although the initiative was approved by the CEO, development funding and cooperation from main lines of business were slow in coming until a separate unit was established with a clear charter, appropriate metrics, and an aligned senior team. The new unit recently won a $13M contract. Ciba Vision (Success) In the early 1990s, Ciba Vision, a maker of soft contact lenses and lens solutions, was losing ground to their larger competitors, J and bausch and Lomb. In a bold move, Glenn bradley, the President, halted all incremental innovation and placed six bets on revolutionary new products such as extended wear lenses and daily disposables. These new units were encouraged to establish their own alignments (people, structure, culture) as they pursued their breakthrough innovation. With the success of several of these, revenues tripled over the next decade. Zensar Technologies (Success) In 2002, Zensar Technologies, a mid-sized Indian IT services firm was losing market share and key talent. There was substantial tension between a potentially promising new technology platform and the existing geographical business units. A new CEO shifted Zensar to a product-focused firm but kept the new technology venture as a business unit reporting to his office. In 2008, after the entrepreneurial unit’s technology and business model was validated this unit and its innovative business model was integrated into the product units. Over the five-year period, Zensar was able to build its core business even as it brought to the market a fundamentally new technology. CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu 11 Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit TABLe 1. sample description (continued from previous page) SAP Business-by-Design (Failure) In 2006, the CEO of sAP declared that future revenue growth for the company was in the small and Medium business market and selling software on demand. This software-as-a-service product (business-by-design or byd) was developed but no separate unit was established. Although this market has grown substantially, sAP has failed to successfully market their offering. In 2010, the CEO, Leo Apotheker, was fired for failing to implement business-by-design. HP Scanner (Declining to Success) beginning in 1991, HP’s scanner division had begun to develop a portable scanner to complement their flatbed product. For five years they had failed to commercialize any of their inventions. In 1996, a new division GM separated out the handheld business into an ambidextrous unit that was physically separated from the flatbed business and had its own people, systems, incentives, and culture. Two years later, this business was successful enough to be spun-out as its own division. Printing Company (Failure) In 2007, faced with increased competition and declining customer satisfaction and usage of their core legal research products, the senior managers of the business decided to reinvent their business as a web-based publisher based on a new open source architecture. In spite of a clear vision of the future, heavy investment in the new technology, and a promise to â€Å"rescue the company†, the new product has failed to reignite growth. The new unit has faced continual resistance from the more mature part of the business. Turner Technologies (Declining to Success) The Advanced IC division of Turner had issues of growth in new products as well as quality in its existing product line. While the division’s strategic intent was clear, it could not get traction on either performance issue until it split out the innovative strategic agenda from its existing product line. Energized by two new managers reporting the divisional GM and a rearticulated identity for the division, Turner was able to both effectively explore and exploit. Software Company (Failure) under pressure from corporate executives, the general manager of software Company articulated a strategic intent to both build on its struggling extant product line and initiate a remarkable set of new software solutions. This general manager built a separate unit, reporting directly to him, to focus on innovation. Over a three-year period, he did not, however, staff or fund this innovative unit. The unit underperformed in its existing as well as its innovative product line. IBM Network Technologies (Declining to Success) A highly entrepreneurial general manager articulated a strategic intent to exploit her existing chip line even as she promised to explore into fundamentally new chips. yet her zeal for exploration led her to build a business unit only focused on exploration. Her extant product line suffered. under pressure from corporate staff and client dissatisfaction, the general manager rebuilt her senior team and her business unit to focus attention on both her current product as well as her new product lines. USA Today (Declining to Success) In the late 1990s, usA Today, like most u. s. ewspapers, began to see a decline in both circulation and advertising revenues as web-based news began to supplant print. In response to this trend, Tom Curley, the paper’s publisher, adopted a â€Å"network strategy† which emphasized the delivery of news content across three platforms, print, the web, and TV. between 1999 and 2002, he was successful at managing this transition and simultaneously d elivering news content across the three platforms-with the result that earnings increased by 50 percent. 12 uNIVERsITy OF CALIFORNIA, bERkELEy VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit TABLe 2. Interview Results (continued on next page) strategic intent that intellectually justifies ambidextrous form Vision and values that promote a common identity but separate cultures senior team that explicitly owns the ambidextrous strategy (common-fate rewards, communication) Ambidextrous Leadership (conflict resolution, resource allocation) separate units with aligned architectures and targeted integration (senior level and tactical) Proposition 1 Proposition 2 Proposition 3 Proposition 4 Proposition 5 Success: IbM Life sciences yes yes yes 100% of bonus for senior executives yes yes yes 70% of bonus yes EbO structure yes success— $5b in revenue in 6 years Cisco TelePresence yes Council/board structure yes Geographically separate yes daVita Rx yes yes yes but some initial disputes over autonomy yes but some conflict over metrics and rewards yes senior leader integrates Ciba Vision yes yes â€Å"Healthy eyes for life† yes yes Geographically separate Explore report to senior team IbM Middleware yes yes â€Å"beat bEA† yes senior leaders agree on a new structure yes yes Geographically separate units yes distinct unit for new platform es senior leaders integration yes Tension held at top Zensar Technologies yes yes â€Å"Among the top Indian IT services Firms† Misys yes yes drive productivity and innovate yes Replaced old team with new one yes Open source reports to CEO yes CEO drove the new effort CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy . Edu Overall Performance success— $200M in revenue in 4 years success— $220M in revenue in 6 years success— tripled sales in 10 years success— old and new products combined both profit and growth doubled from 20052010 success— developed new platform with new customers 13 Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit TABLe 2. Interview Results (continued from previous page, continued on next page) strategic intent that intellectually justifies ambidextrous form Vision and values that promote a common identity but separate cultures senior team that explicitly owns the ambidextrous strategy (common-fate rewards, communication) Ambidextrous Leadership (conflict resolution, resource allocation) separate units with aligned architectures and targeted integration (senior level and tactical) Proposition 1 Proposition 2 Proposition 3 Proposition 4 Proposition 5 defense Corp yes No but did set new explore culture yes After initial resistance yes unit reports to President yes used consultant to mediate conflict Failure: sAP businessby-design yes No No disputes over revenue recognition yes but the strategy does not fit well with current one yes yes â€Å"save the company† No short-term revenue still dominates No clear ambidextrous unit or leader No Continued conflicts over who owns the customer No Ambidextrous unit not represented Failure— lack of penetration in targeted markets Failure—no new growth Printing Company No Explore unit not protected software Co No No yes No Transition to Success: usA Today yes yes â€Å"Network, not a newspaper† H-P scanner yes No No then yes senior team bonus based on overall performance No to yes yes separate units with targeted integration No then yes Physically separate units No to yes Resource allocation to web-based business No to yes senior leader integrates stalled to success— increased earnings 50% in 3 years stalled to success— then innovation unit spun out 14 uNIVERsITy OF CALIFORNIA, bERkELEy VOL. 53, NO. suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu Overall Performance success— Won $13M in new contracts Poor Innovation Performance Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit TABLe 2. Interview Results (continued from previous page) strategic intent that intellectually justifies ambidextrous form Vision and values that promote a common identity but separate cultures senior team that explicitly own s the ambidextrous strategy (common-fate rewards, communication) Ambidextrous Leadership (conflict resolution, resource allocation) eparate units with aligned architectures and targeted integration (senior level and tactical) Proposition 1 Proposition 2 Proposition 3 Proposition 4 Proposition 5 Turner Technologies yes yes No to yes No to yes No to yes IbM Network Technologies yes No to yes yes No to yes No to yes possibly helpful, a clear strategic intent may not be a necessary condition for executing ambidextrous designs. The second proposition suggested the importance of a common vision and values as necessary to promote a common identity across explore and exploit units. Here the evidence is largely consistent with proposition two. Six of the eight consistently high-performing firms had a clear over-arching vision and common values. In contrast, two of the three poor performing firms did not have such clarity. Printing Company (pseudonym) had a senior team that both articulated a clear strategic intent as well as an overarching vision and identity. This senior team could not, however, execute against this clear strategy and overarching identity. Moreover, three of the four firms that learned how to be ambidextrous had or developed a well-defined vision. For example, at USA Today there was an explicit strategy to â€Å"be a network, not a newspaper. † The over-arching aspiration was to be â€Å"the local paper for the global village. † This strategy and vision, and a common set of values around fairness, accuracy, and trust, helped knit together a highly differentiated organization. Of the twelve firms able to execute ambidextrous designs, only HP Scanner and Misys were able to implement the ambidextrous design without an overarching identity. Thus, while not definitive, the evidence suggests that a common vision is an important discriminator of more- versus less-successful ambidextrous designs, but not necessarily a sufficient one. The third proposition argued for the importance of a consensus in the senior team about the ambidextrous strategy and a common-fate reward system within the team to promote this. Our data supports this proposition. In each of the three instances of failure, there was a lack of consensus within the senior team about the relative importance of ambidexterity and there was no CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 3, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu Overall Performance declining to improving declining to Improving 15 Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit common-fate reward system for the senior team. Interviews suggested that the existing reward systems that were based on sub-unit or functional performance were a major cause of the inability of the organization to leverage common assets. In the case of SAP, these disputes played out in the unwillingness of the sales force to promote lower-margin new products and disputes among senior managers about revenue recognition. In the printing company case, short-term financial pressures and the lack of any common-fate reward for the senior team resulted in a focus on achieving short-term revenue targets through the older but higher-margin products. Similarly, at Defense Corp, White’s Homeland Security initiative was initially opposed by other members of the senior team because of its inability to generate short-term revenue. The uncertainty of a long sales-cycle associated with a new government customer was overwhelmed by the short-term metrics of revenue and gross margin. The senior team’s systems for evaluating performance lacked the capacity to evaluate a business at a more immature phase of development. In contrast, in the most-successful ambidextrous efforts, the senior team was heavily incented to promote both explore and exploit businesses. In the Cisco TelePresence case, members of the governance team (Boards and Councils) had a significant portion of their bonus contingent on the success of both units. In the successful DaVita Rx case, there were initial disputes within the senior team about metrics and margins that were only resolved after a common-fate reward system was installed. At Misys, senior team resistance was overcome only after Lawrie replaced the opposing managers. Importantly, in three of the four cases where the firms learned how to be ambidextrous, there was a shift from a lack of consensus ownership about the importance of the exploratory effort to a fully committed senior team. This shift in top team ownership of the ambidextrous strategy involved the creation of common-fate incentive systems, a shift in leadership behaviors of the senior manager, and, in several cases, turnover within the senior team. The fourth condition proposed as necessary for successful ambidexterity was the presence of separate aligned architectures for the explore and exploit units coupled with targeted integration to ensure that common resources were leveraged across units. In all three instances of failure, these distinct alignments were conspicuously missing. In the case of SAP, responsibility for the exploratory venture (software-as-a-service) was split between two functional heads with the result that effective coordination never occurred and decisions were made slowly. At Software Company (pseudonym), a separate exploratory unit was established on paper but never staffed. In each of these ambidextrous failures, the locus of integration between the needs of the exploratory and exploitative activities was either too low in the firm or was ambiguous. In contrast, in each successful case there were always separate explore and exploit units with senior-level integration to ensure that resources were allocated. At IBM this was done either through their EBO process (e. g. in Life Sciences)25 or, in the Middleware case, through the establishment of distinct units focused on different time horizons; that is, mature, growth, and emerging 16 uNIVERsITy OF CALIFORNIA, bERkELEy VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit products. At Cisco this was done through a Boards and Councils process where there was a clear allocation of responsibilities, resources, and structures. In all successf ul cases, the exploratory units were initially physically separated from the exploit parts of the business. Similarly, for three of the four firms that learned how to be ambidextrous, there was a switch in organization design from an integrated approach (e. g. , project teams) to the establishment of separate units for explore and explore businesses. The final core mechanism proposed as important for successful ambidexterity was the ability of the ambidextrous leader to resolve the inevitable conflicts and resource allocation decisions that this organization design entails. This too is an important discriminator between more- versus less-successful ambidextrous designs. In each failure case this capability was lacking. At SAP there were continual disputes about resources and responsibilities across the participating functions without a clear mechanism or clear leadership for resolution. In the printing firm, although there was a separate explore unit with a responsible manager, he reported to an exploit manager who was held responsible for margins and short-term revenues. The exploratory unit manager was not represented on the senior team with the result that his voice was not heard when critical resource decisions were made. In contrast, in each successful case, there was a clear, identifiable leader and forum to resolve conflicts and make definitive resource allocation decisions. For example, at Zensar, even though there were substantial conflicts between the existing business units and the new integrative software platform, the CEO saw to it that his team actually dealt with these conflicts and made the appropriate resource allocation shifts between the existing units. At Misys, Mike Lawrie ensured that resources needed for the new open source effort were allocated in a timely manner. Similarly, in each of the four units that learned how to be ambidextrous, the general manager changed the senior team composition and processes to resolve conflicts associated with exploration and exploitation. For instance, at USA Today, only after Curley replaced several members of his team was his firm able to excel at both print and web-based content delivery. Similarly, only after the division general manager changed her leadership style at IBM’s Network Technology Division was her team able to balance resource allocation and decision making between her explore and exploit business lines. The Management of Ambidexterity One of the key features of ambidexterity is the ability of the organization to reallocate assets and capabilities to address new threats and opportunities. Practically speaking, this means that leaders within the organization are able to make the difficult choices required to reconfigure assets to promote exploratory ventures. The results from these fifteen case studies suggest that there are identifiable core mechanisms that discriminate between more- versus less-successful ambidextrous designs in action. The most-successful ambidextrous designs had leaders who developed a clear vision and common identity (Proposition 2), CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu 17 Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit built senior teams that were committed to the ambidextrous strategy and were incented to both explore and exploit (Proposition 3), employed distinct and aligned subunits to focus on either exploration or exploitation (Proposition 4), and built teams that could deal with the resource allocations and conflicts associated with exploration and exploitation (Proposition 5). Those less-successful attempts at ambidexterity did not employ these core mechanisms. Although useful, the articulation of a clear strategic intent (Proposition 1) and, to a lesser extent, the provision of an overarching vision (Proposition 2) did not discriminate between the more- versus less-successful attempts to build an ambidextrous organization. This suggests that articulating why ambidexterity is important is not the same as how it is implemented. In the implementation of an ambidextrous design, execution appears to trump strategy. The first two propositions (articulating a strategy and overarching vision for the ambidextrous form) are the easy part for senior managers. The next three propositions are about strategic execution. These require hard choices about resource allocation, leader behavior, senior team composition (or replacement), and the balancing of contradictory organizational architectures. The most-successful ambidextrous designs had more of these components from the beginning. In contrast, those firms that learned how to be ambidextrous struggled with at least two of these core components and only after resolving these were they to effectively implement an ambidextrous design. These results suggest that effective ambidextrous designs are based on a set of interrelated choices made by the leader. Any subset of the core mechanisms is associated with underperformance. As such, executing ambidextrous designs can be seen as a complex senior leadership task that requires an integrated set of strategic, structural, incentive, and top team process decisions. Clearly, successful ambidextrous designs require more than the simple organizational structural decision in which the exploratory and exploitative subunits are separated. The critical elements, and perhaps the more difficult elements, are the processes by which these units are integrated in a value enhancing way. Discussion These results are largely consistent with Teece’s observation that â€Å"dynamic capabilities reside in large measure with the enterprise’s top management team. †26 Concretely, it appears that ambidexterity as a dynamic capability rests on the ability of leaders not only to articulate a strategic intent and vision that justifies exploration and exploitation, but—more importantly—to manage the inherent tensions associated with incompatible organizational architectures. These results also extend previous research that has linked transformational leadership to successful ambidexterity by explicating some of the core processes that underpin the transformational leadership construct. 27 These mechanisms are largely consistent with earlier research. For example, our findings that senior team consensus is an important ingredient in the implementation of ambidexterity is consistent with previous research showing that the behavioral integration 18 uNIVERsITy OF CALIFORNIA, bERkELEy VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit of the senior team is a precursor to successful ambidexterity. 28 Similarly, the importance of targeted integration and clear incentives documented here has also been suggested in previous studies. 29 The critical aspect of resource allocation illustrated here has also been seen in previous studies, especially in research showing that failed efforts at renewal stem not from a lack of technology or resources but the inability of senior managers to allocate those resources effectively to the exploratory effort. 0 Finally, while each component characteristic of ambidextrous designs is important, it appears that it is the set of components interacting together that define the dynamic capabilities that drive effective ambidextrous designs. 31 These patterns suggest concrete yet integrated sets of actions that leaders can take to execute strategies that encompass both exploration and exploitation. At Misys, Mike Lawri e articulated his strategic intent for open source software solutions at a senior team offsite. He kept Misys Open Source as a separate unit reporting to his office. He also emphasized the need for cost and quality progress in his existing business units even as he encouraged disciplined experimentation in the open source unit. As a leader, Lawrie was able to tolerate the competition between Misys Open Source and other platforms and was willing to risk shortterm revenue to help create longer-term options with a potentially disruptive technology. He has seen his strategy pay dividends. The healthcare business unit revenues grew more than 30% in 2009 with Misys Open Source as the basis for important new contracts with hospitals, physicians, and insurers. At the same time, Open Source has triggered innovation into other Misys units—a new banking product has large open source components, and the Misys website is completely open source. To realize the potential of SBP at Zensar, Ganesh Natarajan made the decision to keep SBP separate from the other units. He clarified his strategic and emotional rationale for exploration and exploitation with his senior team and, for the next two years, relentlessly emphasized both exploration and exploitation. By 2008, SBP had almost doubled its number of clients as well as profits. Having demonstrated its success technically and in the market, SBP was then reintegrated within the main business in 2008. Finally, at Defense Corp, Caroline White received approval to separate her homeland security exploration unit and built a new management system and metrics for gauging progress of this business. She also changed the incentives of her top team so that they were all accountable for both short-term results as well as longer-term results. By 2010, the exploratory unit proved its value, winning a $13M contract with the Transport Security Agency for improving perimeter security at U. S. irports. Conclusion There is now convincing evidence suggesting that for organizations to survive in the face of change, they need to be able to successfully exploit their existing businesses and to explore into new spaces by reconfiguring existing resources and developing new capabilities. 32 While the evidence for the benefits CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CM R. bERkELEy. Edu 19 Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit of ambidexterity is accumulating, there exists a gap in understanding how ambidexterity is actually managed within organizations. This article has explored how leaders within organizations actually implement ambidexterity. The actions, behaviors, and design choices made by the senior leader comprise the dynamic capabilities that enable firms to simultaneously explore and exploit and emphasize the key role of strategic leadership in adapting, integrating, and reconfiguring organizational skills and resources to match changing environments. Notes 1. Charles I. Stubbart and Michael B. Knight, â€Å"The Case of the Disappearing Firms: Empirical Evidence and Implications,† Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27/1 (February 2006): 79-100. . Ibid. , p. 96. 3. Rajshree Agarwal and Michael Gort, â€Å"The Evolution of Markets and Entry, Exit, and Survival of Firms,† Review of Economics and Statistics, 78/3 (August 1996): 489-498. 4. Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail (New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 2005), p. 18. 5. Leslie Hannah, â€Å"Marshall’s Trees and the Global Forest: Were Giant Redwoods Diff erent? † Center for Economic Performance, Discussion Paper #318, 1997. 6. See James G. March, â€Å"Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning,† Organization Science, 2/1 (February 1991): 71–87; James G. March, â€Å"The Evolution of Evolution,† in J. Baum and J. Singh, eds. , Evolutionary Dynamics of Organizations (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 39-52. 7. For interesting examples of how biological evolution might apply to organizations, see Tim Harford, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011); Martin A. Nowak and Roger Highfield, Supercooperators: Altruism, Evolution and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed (New York, NY: Free Press, 2011); Charles A. O’Reilly, J. Bruce Harreld, and Michael L. Tushman, â€Å"Organizational Ambidexterity: IBM and Emerging Business Opportunities,† California Management Review, 51/4 (Summer 2009): 75-99; Ormerod, op. cit. 8. Hannah, op. cit. , p. 19. 9. See, for example, Ze-Lin He and Poh-Kam Wong, â€Å"Exploration vs. Exploitation: An Empirical Test of Ambidexterity,† Organization Science, 15/4 (July/August 2004): 481-494; Sebastian Raisch, Julian Birkinshaw, Gilbert Probst, and Michael L. Tushman, â€Å"Organizational Ambidexterity: Balancing Exploitation and Exploration for Sustained Performance,† Organization Science, 20/4 (July/August 2009): 685-695; Michael L. Tushman and Charles A. O’Reilly, â€Å"The Ambidextrous Organization: Managing Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change,† California Management Review, 38/4 (Summer 1996): 8-30. 10. For a review of the growing literature on dynamic capabilities, see V. Ambrosini and C. Bowman, â€Å"What Are Dynamic Capabilities and Are They a Useful Construct in Strategic Management? † International Journal of Management Reviews, 11/1 (March 2009): 29-49; Kathleen M. Eisenhardt and Jeffrey A. Martin, â€Å"Dynamic Capabilities: What Are They? † Strategic Management Journal, 21/10-11 (October/November 2000): 1105–1121; J. Bruce Harreld, Charles A. O’Reilly, and Michael L. Tushman, â€Å"Dynamic Capabilities at IBM: Driving Strategy into Action,† California Management Review, 49/4 (Summer 2007): 21-43; Constance E. Helfat, Sydney Finkelstein, Will Mitchell, Margaret A. Peteraf, Harbir Singh, David J. Teece, and Sidney G. Winter, Dynamic Capabilities: Understanding Strategic Change in Organizations (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007); David J. Teece, Gary Pisano, and Amy Shuen, â€Å"Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management,† Strategic Management Journal, 18/7 (August 1997): 509-533. 1. C. O’Reilly and M. Tushman, â€Å"Ambidexterity as a Dynamic Capability: Resolving the Innovator’s Dilemma,† Research in Organizational Behavior, 28 (2008): 190. 12. Harreld et al. (2007), op. cit. ; David J. Teece, â€Å"Explicating Dynamic Capabilities: The Nature and Microfoundations of (Sustainable) Enterprise Performance,† Strategic Management Journal, 28 (D ecember 2007): 1319-1350. 13. See, for example, Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble, â€Å"Building Breakthrough Businesses within Established Organizations,† Harvard Business Review, 83/5 May 2005): 58-68; Justin P. Jansen, Frans A. Tempelaar, Frans A. Van den Bosch, and Henk W. Volberda, â€Å"Structural 20 uNIVERsITy OF CALIFORNIA, bERkELEy VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Differentiation and Ambidexterity: The Mediating Role of Integration Mechanisms,† Organization Science, 20/4 (July/August 2009): 797-811; Michael H. Lubatkin, Zeki Simsek, Yan Ling, and John F. Veiga, â€Å"Ambidexterity and Performance in Small- to Medium-Sized Firms: The Pivotal Role of TMT Behavioral Integration,† Journal of Management, 32/5 (2006): 646672; Tom J. Mom, Frans A. Van den Bosch, and Henk W. Volberda, â€Å"Understanding Variation in Managers’ Ambidexterity: Investigating Direct and Interaction Effects of Formal Structural and Personal Coordination Mechanisms,† Organization Science, 20/4 (July/August 2009): 812-828; Sebastian Raisch and Julian Birkinshaw, â€Å"Organizational Ambidexterity: Antecedents, Outcomes, and Moderators,† Journal of Management, 34/3 (June 2008): 375-409; Michael L. Tushman, Wendy K. Smith, Robert C. Wood, George Westerman, and Charles A. O’Reilly, â€Å"Organizational Designs and Innovation Streams,† Industrial and Corporate Change, 19/5 (October 2010): 1331-1366. O’Reilly and Tushman (2008), op cit. Clay M. Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1997); Erwin Danneels, â€Å"The Dynamics of Product Innovation and Firm Competences,† Strategic Management Journal, 23/12 (December 2002): 1095-1121; March (1991), op. it. ; Mary Tripsas and Giovanni Gavetti, â€Å"Capabilities, Cognition, and Inertia: Evidence from Digital Imaging,† Strategic Management Journal, 21/1011 (October/November 2000): 1147-1161. Max Bazerman and Michael Watkins, Predictable Surprises (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2004); Mary J. Benner and Michael L. Tushman, â€Å"Exploitation, Exploration and Process Management: The Productivit y Dilemma Revisited,† Academy of Management Review, 28/2 (April 2003): 238-256; March (1991), op. cit. Justin J. Jansen, Dusya Vera, and Mary Crossan, â€Å"Strategic Leadership for Exploration and Exploitation: The Moderating Role of Environmental Dynamism,† Leadership Quarterly, 20/1 (February 2009): 5-18; R. Scott Livengood and Rhonda K. Reger, â€Å"That’s Our Turf! Identity Domains and Competitive Dynamics,† Academy of Management Review, 35/1 (January 2010): 48-66; Louise A. Nemanich and Dusya Vera, â€Å"Transformational Leadership and Ambidexterity in the Context of an Acquisition,† Leadership Quarterly, 20/1 (February 2009): 19-33. Lubatkin, Simsek, Ling, and Veiga, op. cit. Jatinder Sidhu, Henk Volberda, and Harry Commandeur, â€Å"Exploring Exploration Orientation and Its Determinants: Some Empirical Evidence,† Journal of Management Studies, 41/6 (September 2004): 913-932. Christine M. Beckman, â€Å"The Influence of Founding Team Company Affiliations on Firm Behavior,† Academy of Management Journal, 49/4 (August 2006): 741-758; J. Jansen, G. George, F. Van den Bosch, and H. Volberda, â€Å"Senior Team Attributes and Organizational Ambidexterity: The Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership,† Journal of Management Studies, 45/5 (July 008): 982-1007. Charles A. O’Reilly and Michael L. Tushman, â€Å"The Ambidextrous Organization,† Harvard Business Review, 82/4 (April 2004): 74-83; Nicolaj Siggelkow and Daniel Levinthal, â€Å"Temporarily Divide to Conquer: Centralized, Decentralized, and Reintegrated Organizational Approaches to Exploration and Adaptation,† Organization Science, 14/6 (November/December 2003): 650-669. Clark Gilbert, â€Å"Unbundling the Structure of Inertia: Resource versus Routine Rigidity,† Academy of Management Journal, 48/5 (October 2005): 741-763; Mom, Van den Bosch, and Volberda, op. cit. Charles A. O’Reilly, David F. Caldwell, Jennifer A. Chatman, Margaret Lapiz, and William Self, â€Å"How Leadership Matters: The Effects of Leaders’ Alignment on Strategy Implementation,† Leadership Quarterly, 21/1 (February 2010): 104-113; Wendy K. Smith and Michael L. Tushman, â€Å"Managing Strategic Contradictions: A Top Management Model for Managing Innovation Streams,† Organization Science, 16/5 (September/October 2005): 522-536. V. J. Gilchrest, â€Å"Key Informant Interviews,† in B. F. Crabtree and W. L. Miller, eds. , Doing Qualitative Research (London: Sage, 1992). This research used a multi-case design in which cases were written for each of the fifteen ambidexterity efforts (e. g. , Eisenhardt, 1989). These cases were then used to generate insights into those actions that were more or less likely to be associated with the successful implementation of an ambidextrous form. Each of the 15 cases was compared to the five propositions suggested by O’Reilly and Tushman (2008). Given the exploratory and qualitative nature of this investigation and the nature of our convenience sample, any results are necessarily tentative. CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu 21 Organizational Ambidexterity in Action: How Managers Explore and Exploit 24. Govindarajan and Trimble, op. cit. ; Charles H. House and Raymond L. Price, The HP Phenomenon: Innovation and Business Transformation (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009); Richard S. Rosenbloom, â€Å"Leadership, Capabilities, and Technological Change: The Transformation of NCR in the Electronic Era,† Strategic Management Journal, 21/10-11 (October/ November 2000): 1083-1103. 25. O’Reilly, Harreld, and Tushman, (2009) op cit. 26. Teece (2007), op cit. , p. 146. 27. Jansen, George, Van den Bosch, and Volberda, op. cit. ; Jansen, Vera, and Crossan, op. cit. ; Nemanich and Vera, op. cit. ; Smith and Tushman, op. cit. 28. For example, see Beckman (2006), op. cit. ; Lubatkin, Simsek, Ling, and Veiga, op. cit. ; Alva Taylor and Constance E. Helfat, â€Å"Organizational Linkages for Surviving Technological Change: Complementary Assets, Middle Management, and Ambidexterity,† Organization Science, 20/4 (July/August 2009): 718-739. 9. See Jansen, Tempelaar, Van den Bosch, and Volberda, op. cit. ; O’Reilly and Tushman (2004), op. cit. ; Wendy K. Smith, â€Å"Managing Strategic Ambidexterity: Top Management Teams and Cognitive Processes to Explore and Exploit Simultaneously,† paper presented at the 25th EGOS Colloquium, Barcelona, July 3, 2009; Tushman, Smith, Wood, Westerman, and O’Reilly, op. cit. 30. For example, see Gilbert, op. cit . ; Robert Sobel, When Giants Stumble: Classic Business Blunders and How to Avoid Them (Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999); Donald N. Sull, â€Å"The Dynamics of Standing Still: Firestone Tire and Rubber and the Radial Revolution,† Business History Review, 73/3 (Autumn 1999): 430-464; Tripsas and Gavetti, op. cit. 31. Harreld, O’Reilly, and Tushman (2007), op. cit. ; Jan Rivkin and Nicolaj Siggelkow, â€Å"Balancing Search and Stability: Interdependencies among Elements of Organizational Design,† Management Science, 49/3 (March 2003): 290-311; Richard Wittington, Andrew Pettigrew, Simon Peck, Evelyn Penton, and Martin Conyon, â€Å"Change and Complementarities in the New Competitive Landscape,† Organization Science, 10/5 (September/October 1999): 583-600. 2. Matthew S. Olson and Derek Van Bever, Stall Points (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008); Raisch and Birkinshaw (2008), op. cit. ; Juha Uotila, Markku Maula, and Thomas Keil, and Shaker A. Zhara, â€Å"Exploration, Exploitation and Financial Performance: Analysis of S 500 Corporations,† Strategic Management Journal, 30/ 2 (February 2009): 221-231. 22 uNIVERsITy OF CALIFORNIA, bERkELEy VOL. 53, NO. 4 suMMER 2011 CMR. bERkELEy. Edu