The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - 773 Words

While I was reading the novel Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, I realized that this story not only portrays the theme of violence and sexual abuse, but it was also about the importance of and friendship and relationships. The novel illustrates the real life effects of sexual violence on victims and survivors, emphasizing the importance of getting help and the triumph of mentally surviving the event. Having friends and most importantly relationships, did a big part in the story to help some characters get through and find strength. I found the character Lisbeth Salander very brave, because, not only did she fight back and gain revenge on her sexual abuser, Nils Bjurman, but she got through the torture and remained strong. If†¦show more content†¦After reading this novel, I have definitely come to appreciate New Zealand more now, because of how reasonably safe it is. We don’t have nearly as much of a crime rate as Sweden does, which leads me to believe that I live in a safe place. I am very grateful to have never been put in Lisbeth’s position but I admire her bravery throughout the novel. Her past experiences made her stronger, and may be apart of whom she was at the end of the novel; I look up to her veryShow MoreRelatedThe Girl With The Dragon Tattoo1337 Words   |  6 PagesThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson For the last and final essay of the semester, I decided to pick a couple themes that are included in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Themes are a very important part of any story, play, poem, or any writing for that matter. It is important to understand what themes are involved in a story because it helps the reader better understand what is going on throughout it all. This novel has two main characters named Lisbeth Salander andRead MoreGirl with the Dragon Tattoo907 Words   |  4 PagesThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo By: Steig Larsson The book that I chose to read was, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In the book we learn about social issues that are not only found in Sweden but from all over the world. Through the book the two main characters solve a murder mystery from 40 years ago. While solving the murder mystery, social issues are brought up time and time again. One of major issues that are brought to the reader’s attention is sexual violence that is used towards womenRead MoreA Review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo1165 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿ There have been few works of popular literature written in the new century which have so accurately captured the conflicted state of feminist identity in todays modern corporate culture that Stieg Larssons 2005 novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Written in a searing tone which is representative of the repressed rage exuded by Lisbeth Salander, the enigmatic heroine who suffers atrocious crimes at the hand of powerful men and wields a sadistic sense of vigilante-style vengeance against thoseRead MoreGender And Sexuality : The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo854 Words   |  4 Pagespart of the Swedish crime novels since most of their writing has to do about a conflict between two opposite genders. The girl with the dragon tattoo, one of the most famous Swedish crime novel, written by Stieg Larsson addresses these issues. In this particular book, men and women tend to have the equal amount of power. Sallander, in other words, â€Å"the girl with the dragon tattoo† has almost the same amount of power as the Mikel Blomkvist, which is the main character of the novel and also a male genderRead MoreThe Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Analysis1744 Words   |  7 Pages Surname 1 Author: Professor’s name: Course name: Date of Submission: The Portrayal of Women On the surface of the novel, â€Å"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo† is a simple uncomplicated thriller, but at a deeper level, the novel is a complex and in-depth examination and analysis of the violent abuse against women in Sweden, particularly concentrating on the distorted and rather warped philosophies as well as the failure of the government that permit and accentuate such acts. More importantly, theRead MoreFilm Adaptations Of Stieg Larsson s Man1096 Words   |  5 PagesIn both film adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s Mà ¤n Som Hatar Kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women), the 2009 Swedish film directed by Niels Arden Oplev , and the 2011 American version, renamed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , directed by David Fincher, the two principle characters only meet halfway through the film. For a significant portion of the movie, they interact only by spying on each other. As a film that addresses differences between male and female interactions, the presence of a male or femal e protagonistRead MoreThe Mystery Of Crime Fiction1365 Words   |  6 Pagesnon-existent. The course of the two novels that I am analyzing are exemplary in that they exhibit the complex and contrasting elements of an investigation, all the while engendering applicable validity to the tangible world. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, written by Stieg Larsson, addresses with precision the complex dynamics of interpreting a case when multiple challenges are encountered through the duration of an investigation. For much of the novel, the focus is on solving one case that revolves

The Common Core State Standards - 1791 Words

The new Common Core State Standards for Mathematics bring a new opportunity to the classrooms of the United States that many people view as a controversial. According to the NCTM (2013) â€Å"The Common Core State Standards offer a foundation for the development of more rigorous, focused, and coherent mathematics curricula, instruction, and assessments that promote conceptual understanding and reasoning as well as skill fluency† (par. 1). While some people believe that the Common Core State Standards may hinder progress in the classroom for many reasons including too much government control, teaching to the test, an excessive focus on language arts and math, and wasted resources, others agree with the NCTM statement about that claims the standards help increase conceptual understanding, reasoning, and skill fluency. The Common Core State Standards are considered to be a high-quality group of academic standards. Before the standards were developed, it seemed as if the progre ss of the students in the United States was remaining stagnant and that America students were falling behind their international peers. The blame for this setback has fallen on the fact that standards are not consistent and from state-to-state students are required to know different things at different grade levels. As a result students are not graduating with the same set of skills (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2014). There are two sets of Common Core State Standards, one for mathematics andShow MoreRelatedThe Common Core State Standards764 Words   |  4 PagesThe Common Core State Standards are a state attempt to create strong educational standards. The standard are created to ensure that students in the country are learning and grasping the information that are given in the classrooms for them to succeed academically. The Common Core plan included governors and education commissioners form forty-eight states and the District of Columbia. They wanted to make sure th e standards are relevant, logical and sequential. For content all subjects must have critical-thinkingRead MoreThe Common Core State Standard1492 Words   |  6 PagesWhen looking over the Loveless article, the paper seemed to have a very negative view of the Common Core State Standard. The part that was most interesting to me throughout the reading was when Loveless referred to the furthering of teacher development with the Common Core Standard. The article was very persuasive for someone who had not known a great deal about the Common Core and led me to believe that it was not a helpful tool to the teaching community. Nonetheless, once I did some deeper researchRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards1733 Words   |  7 PagesCommon Core, these two words have come to mean more, in the past four years, than two words with no similarities. 43 out of 50 states are signed on to the Common Core State Standards as of now (Khadaroo). This paper will review the good, the bad and the alt ernatives to the Common Core, from the eyes of a student that is affected by these standards everyday. Through researching this topic, it has become apparent that the common core has good intentions, however bad implementations. Forty PercentRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards Essay1433 Words   |  6 Pagesyour life? The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) not only standardizes education, but it makes comprehension and intricate tool of the learning process. When it comes to American public education, the diagnosis has been offered that our schools suffer from a lack of consistent standards from coast to coast about what our kids should leave school knowing. The fix that has been adopted in a number of states in the last few years is a set of standards called the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), whichRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards881 Words   |  4 PagesIn 2009, states around the country began adopting the Common Core State Standards. These standards were put in place to ensure that each child was on the same academic level by high school graduation. As the global marketplace becomes increasingly more competitive, the United States hopes that Common Core will enable the coming generati ons to be better prepared. As of right now, my working thesis is Common Core is overall unsuccessful in its effort, and discontinuing or, at the least, replacingRead MoreCommon Core State Standards760 Words   |  3 PagesCommon Core State Standards, or Common Core for short, has been making headlines in 2014. Not a curriculum, Common Core is a set of standards defining the skills in which students from kindergarten through 12th grade need to have each year in order to be prepared for the next grade. Creating these national academic standards was a state-led initiative that included a coalition of educators and governors. Administrators, educators and parents participated in the developement of the actual standardsRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards Essay1271 Words   |  6 Pages2009 the Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, was initiated, and since then has become a large part of education today. News shows in multiple states have shown students protesting these new standa rds by skipping classes and school all together. These actions obviously show their refusal to work with the new standards. While there are many teachers who are happy with these standards, students still need to be convinced, and teachers can help this by supporting Common Core State Standards. This inRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards937 Words   |  4 Pages Forty-two states, along with the District of Columbia have adopted Common Core State Standards. These standards were created to focus only on English and Mathematics. An effect of states adopting Common Core State Standards is that all other subjects taught in school were emphasized less. History, Science, and many other subjects are no longer stressed; therefore students are limited to being proficient in only two subjects. The Common Core deprives students’ ability to be skilled in multiple areasRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards1298 Words   |  6 Pagesterms of core subject content, as well as though social activity and elective/activity courses. However, there has often been a disconnect between different states and districts over what exactly should be in the curriculum for various grades and what is needed to prepare students for life beyond school, as well as providing little basis for comparing the US to other countries. That’s where Common Core State St andards (CCSS) come in. According to Teaching in the Middle School (2012), the Common CoreRead MoreThe Common Core State Standards1282 Words   |  6 PagesThe Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative is a plan to restructure the educational system in the United States and provide students with a high-quality education. Many states have adopted and are implementing these standards. In our fast changing world, different skills are needed to do the jobs our society has to offer. Upon completion of high school, these students need to be equipped to either enter the workforce prepared to meet the demands of their employers or to enter college prepared

Infosys - Challenges and Opportunities of Organizational Behavior

Question: Discuss about OB challenges at Infosys. Answer: Introduction With a US $9.5 billion LTM revenues and an employee strength of more than 1,94,000, Infosys, after Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is the second largest IT company in India. It mainly deals in Business Consulting, Strategic Consulting, Software Engineering, Operational Leadership, provides solutions in Mobility, Sustainability, etc. software related services. Founded by N. R. Narayana Murthy along with 6 other colleagues in 1981 in Pune, India, Infosys currently has 950+ clients in 50 countries (Infosys, 2016). Along with its main IT business, Infosys has a number of subsidiaries like EdgeVerve Systems (innovative software products), Infosys BPO (integrated, end-to-end Business Process Outsourcing), Infosys Consulting (Business Consulting), Infosys Public Services (US based subsidiary partnering with public sector organizations in US and Canada), Skava Systems (digital services on mobile). Infosys is led by principle of CLIFE. Customer delight: To meet and exceed client expectations always. Leadership by example: To set industry standards, lead the way in whatever it does and to be an exemplar in their field. Integrity and transparency: To maintain ethical and transparent functions in all their transactions. Fairness: Earn respect and trust from all the stakeholders by being fair and just. Pursuit of Excellence: To be the best in the industry through pursuit of excellence by the company, the teams and services and products by the company. (Babu, 2013). This statement serves as the value statement, vision and mission of the company and drives its employees to excellence. Infosys recently has undergone two major changes viz. changes in its upper management starting with recruitment of Vishal Sikka and removal of Bell Curve performance evaluation system. Mr. Sikka is the first non-founder CEO of the company. The latter, a forced ranking system, has been removed in an effort to curtail the high attrition rate. Infosyss strength lies in the fact that existing in Indian landscape, it has easy availability of highly skilled English speaking workforce and that too at comparatively lower rates. Further, due to being one of the pioneers of Indian IT industry, Infosyss financial position is very strong which gives it leverage to exist, experiment and survive in the highly competitive Indian IT industry (Jha, 2014). A few of the areas in which Infosys can be suffered to improve include its high attrition rates and its smaller size as compared to its global competitors such as HP, IBM, etc. Why Infosys Indian IT industry is plagued with high attrition rates all over the industry. However, even in such a volatile HR environment, Infosys has been especially noteworthy because of its exceptionally high attrition rates. In recent years, Infosys has faced quite high employee attrition rates, which peaked to around 20% in 2014 (Verma, 2015). Organizational Conflict constitutes one of the main reasons for this exceptionally high employee turnover rate and at Infosys, a lot of individual and team level problems are believed to be the main cause for such. Infosys, in 2015, declared that it will be getting rid of its Bell curve appraisal system. Forced ranking system, as it is sometimes called, is often at the root of a number of employee problems since the system is believed to be inefficient. Post removal, Infosys was predicted to have an attrition rate of only 13%. Hence, it will be worthwhile to note its performance in this regard also. (Verma, 2015). Bell Curve Appraisal, introduced by GE, is a rigid framework wherein a manager is forced to slot the employees functioning under him into three different categories based on his judgement of their annual performance. The system is not only ambiguous, it also gives a lot of power to middle management while leaving employees powerless. The major OB issue focused in this study is the high employee attrition rates faced by Infosys and an attempt has been made into analyzing the different reasons for this phenomenon. Discussion analysis of three OB issues Individual level issues Indian IT companies are famous across Indian college campuses for being mass recruiters of fresh talents. While this is a highly advantageous situation for students from CS and IT streams since even Tier II and Tier III colleges are able to get 100% placements done, the picture is not equally rosy for students from non-CS and IT branches. Though hiring is done for even non-CS, IT branches, the majority of work in these companies remain related to CS and IT only. According to Upadhyay, Singh, Jahanyan, Nair (2016), Integration between the persons expectation from the role and the role offered to him is required for increasing the effectiveness at work. (para 1). While such acts ensure that organizational diversity is maintained at a certain level, it creates high work pressure on such individuals along with high level of dissatisfaction. The situation is often abetted by the lack of role clarity that often exists in such situations. Since the work orders come from senior managers and work is then distributed to the employees, often distribution of the work is haphazard. The hierarchy of communication makes it difficult to contact the senior managers directly and clarify your doubts. The result of this is that at the working level where an employee is in direct contact with a client, an employee rarely has any sort of empowerment. Communication channels have to be then setup to clarify the situations from senior managers leading to time delays and thus inefficiencies in the system. Another aspect of working in an IT BPO is the lack of development and growth opportunities. Not allowing a person to utilize his skills and abilities to their full potential leads to stress and eventually burnout in an employee and thus disengaging him from the organization. To avoid this, organizations often send employees to career planning sessions, seminars, etc. However, as discussed earlier, if a person is not given a correct role, all such measures are ultimately futile. Analysis Expecting a person from completely different stream to excel at another stream very fast is unfair not only to the individual but also harmful to the organization. As regards to communication channels, often the whole mechanism is stuck when some out-of-the-way problem occurs to which employee is not used. The lack of employee focus at Infosys along with a dearth of employee development plans and activities have led to a significant increase in the attrition rates at Infosys and have necessitated swift action from management side to control the situation. Organizational level issues Easy availability of proper communication with senior managers is a rare phenomenon in Indian IT industry. The complex hierarchical level followed by Infosys is a testimony to how little interaction takes place between senior management and base level employees. Communication performs the functions of facilitator in decision making, role clarity, motivator, employee engagement and many more, small and big tasks in an organization (Robbins, Judge, 2013). This is further exacerbated by the type of appraisal system prevalent in the company wherein mangers are not responsible for explaining it to the employees that on what basis were they scored and appraised. This leads to creation of an atmosphere of mistrust and dissatisfaction towards management from employees. This can safely be attributed to a Middle management crisis going on in Infosys and which should be looked into as soon as possible. A major part of costs in the IT companies involve HR related costs. In such a scenario, when Infosys started making lesser profits because of industry downturn, it decided to cut-off its employee benefits to still make up the company profits. Not only variable pays were reduced by more than 100%, around 2003, Infosys stopped giving even ESOPs (Correspondent, 2014). Rewarding an employee for a job-done-well is as much important a part of running a successful business as it is to make sure that the job is done well in the first place. In absence of such, employee morale goes down, motivation levels reduce and employees feel disengaged with their job. Analysis Communication is not only important for the functioning of processes, open communication with managers is important for employee morale and their emotional wellbeing. If due to lack of proper communication, an employee feels cut off from the organization since he is unable to discern the ultimate purpose or result of his work. Again, rewarding an employee duly is important for maintaining morale as well to give him appreciation for his work. Curtailment of a major part of rewards at Infosys led to a significant downturn to employee morale. Appraisal process The appraisal process is often seen as a report card for an employee and often it defines his future in the organization. According to Swanepoel, Erasmus, van Wyk, Schenk (2000), The formal and systematic process of tabulating the strengths and weaknesses of an employee, that he exhibits in his workspace, is known as appraisal process. It also brings in the concept of organizational justice wherein an employee who believes that his appraisal has been done in a fair and just manner is highly satisfied with the company (Palaiologos, Papazekos, Panayotopoulou, 2011). The appraisal process followed by Infosys is Forced ranking method or the Bell Curve method wherein managers mandatorily have to classify employees into three different categories viz. 70% average, 20% above average and 10% below average. This kind of a system categorizes individuals performance on a yearly basis. Since the appraisal has to be done by a superior, there are always chances of leniency, partisanship and halo error rather than meritocracy. Another issue is that the process being an annual appraisal process it is, prone to recency bias. While it is supposed to be a scaling of employees performance over a complete year, often the activities of an employee in the recent months colours the performance appraisal. Again, in forced ranking system, managers can easily do away with the responsibility of explaining it to his subordinates the basis on which their ranking was done since there is a necessity to force people into certain categories. Analysis Performance appraisal usually affects employee morale and satisfaction is a big way given the fact that the future of an employee is decided by the appraisal. Under bell curve appraisal system, majority of employees ended up being average performers which creates a feeling of dissatisfaction in employees who work hard the whole year round but just cant reach that coveted top 20%. The system also leads to development of inter-team friction as a feeling of competition is generated within the team to reach the top slot. Recommendations As propounded by Maslows need hierarchy theory, for happiness and satisfaction, a person has 5 different types of needs, the fourth of which is self-esteem. Once the initial needs like physiological, social and security needs are met for a person, which usually are in case of an IT employee, the next thing he seeks is a boost to his self-esteem. This can be achieved at Infosys through granting of autonomy to an employee, giving him recognition, etc. For this, efficient hiring along with proper role description is very necessary. Further, once hired, an individual must be given correct position so that the transition into the organization is easy. Further, developing career development plans for the employees would satisfy the employees need for achievement and increase his overall satisfaction. Since communication plays one of the biggest role in any organization, it is important that communication channels are not only efficient but also effective. Setting up of direct communication channels between senior management and base level employees is a need of the hour for Infosys. Not only would it increase the organizational efficiency whole company wide, it would also help in employee retention also. Existence of an effective communication channel would mean increase in employee satisfaction and commitment to the company and in turn would improve the customer satisfaction levels thus helping Infosys reach its value proposition of customer for life. By changing its appraisal process from Bell curve to Open Ranking system, Infosys took a major step towards controlling its high attrition rate in an industry riddled with very high attrition. This cognizance of its limitations and weakness gave Infosys a significant competitive edge over its competitors who were still struggling with employee turnover thus converting one of its most notorious weakness into a strength. Being a year round affair, the new performance appraisal system, called as iCount, is supposed to give employees feedback whole year round based on specific goals assigned to an employee (Sen, 2016). Such an appraisal system is supposed to increase the chances of employee growth, both personal and professional, and hence make employees more committed to the organization. Conclusion To conclude, by removing bell curve appraisal system from Infosys, Vishal Sikka ensured that a few of the most prevalent employee problems are well on their way to being solved. It is not only expected to reduce employee turnover rate, but also improve the organizational harmony as well as inter team adhesion. Due to removal of peer to peer comparison, the intensely competitive environment of Infosys is now expected to significantly lighten up. Further, it is important the management at Infosys realizes the importance of proper task allocation to appropriate individual so that there is role clarity and an employee can perform at his best. There is a concomitant need for establishment of more effective communication channels so that management can get to know what the employees are saying and work upon any feedback they get. They need to make senior management more accessible so that employees do not keep their grievances to themselves and finally prefer to leave the system rather than help improve it. Existence of effective channels of communication will also help reduce inter team cohesion and bring harmony across the organization. Arrangement of more employee engagement programs such as celebrations, etc. are expected to improve employee commitment to the organization while arranging team engagement activities like outings and dinners would help improve team bonding. Improvement in its salary structure, especially the variable component, more open communication, encouraging free speech, etc. are some other steps Infosys can take to ensure new employees join the company with a vision of long engagement with the company rather than just a stepping stone for better horizons. Once bellwether of Indian IT industry, Infosys, in the past few years lost its position in the industry due to certain troubles including but not limited to HR related issues. The situation grew serious to such levels that, in 2013, the long retired company founder and leader, a firm believer in retirement at 65, had to come back at the helm of the company to drive it out of the muddy waters it had landed itself in. Soon, a year later, Vishal Sikka was hired who brought in significant changes to the flailing company and even generated substantial profits for the company. Infosys being the giant that it is, it retains its robust fundamentals, skilled employees and the highly effective delivery engine and continuing on its current trajectory, is set to regain its position of being industry bellwether once again. References Babu, S. (2013). Infys real problem is not looking beyond founders. Hindu Business Line. Correspondent. (2014). Infosys takes step to stop high attrition. DNA. Infosys. (2016). Infosys. About us. Jha, A. N. (2014). The REAL problem of Infosys. LinkedIn Pulse. Palaiologos, A., Papazekos, P., Panayotopoulou, L. (2011). Robbins, S. P., Judge, T. (2013). Essentials of organizational behaviour. Pearson Higher Ed. Sen, A. (2016). Infosys ahead of bell curve, to evaluate staff with new performance appraisal system 'iCount'. Swanepoel, B., Erasmus, B., van Wyk, M., Schenk, H. (2000). South African Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice.