Critical Literature Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Critical - Literature review Example The way to behave was more readily mapped, and people knew what to do in the various phases of their lives from childhood through teenage years, work, marriage, parenthood, retirement and preparing for death of loved ones and of one’s own self. The modern industrialised, capitalist world, he argues, is fluid and contains many more uncharted areas and this requires that our self-identity should form a trajectory, requiring that we make day to day adjustments depending on what happens in our lives. (Giddens: 1991, p. 14). Incessant streams of new information result in a process of what Giddens calls â€Å"chronic revision† (Giddens: 1991, p. 20) and the complexity of modern capitalist society requires people to place their trust in increasingly opaque systems and organisations, many of which are subject to quite spectacular failures and radical transformations. Crossley partly agrees with this analysis and adds the observation that modern societies consist of overlapping networks, and that embodiment is reflexive, and imposed upon individials from many souces (Crossley: 2006, p. 112) Giddens describes the way that all human beings put on â€Å"performances† of their self in different social situations. ... 57. Bourdieu’s influential work on human judgement and taste proposes that all human culture is structured in a hierarchical way and that people access this culture through the family that they are born in and then via all the opportunities that they meet in later life (Bourdieu: 1984, pp. 1-5) This theory implies a structuralist view whereby social patterns tend to repeat themselves again and again through the generations. Bourdieu uses the concept of habitus, which is the partly unconscious way in which people deal with the society around them. (Bourdieu: 1984, pp. 169-174) He argues that people learn how to see the world, and consume all it has to offer, in their early childhood, and that they are conditioned by their family background to approach things in certain habitual ways: â€Å"The manner in which culture is acquired lives on in the manner of using it.†(Bourdieu: 1984, p. 1) The foods people eat, the clothes that they wear, the music and films they like, the values they place on educational achievement and all the other products of the modern world are therefore embodied in each person in stratified ways, and this explains the differences between social classes and the tendency for people to remain within their original social class. When this insight is applied to inborn qualities like race and gender it also helps to explain why people from ethnic minorities, women and people from lower social classes still suffer exclusion and unequal access to promotions in work even when educational barriers have been removed. Bourdieu’s point is that how people learn things is just as important, as what they learn because this

Managing Value for Competitive Advantage Company Analysis Essay

Managing Value for Competitive Advantage Company Analysis - Essay Example The rapid changes in business environment in the 21st century demand that businesses reinvent themselves in order to remain relevant. The economy has changed from being commodity based to become a knowledge –based one. Sources of value creation have shifted from tangible assets to intangible things. Advances in technology and globalization have given the issue of making networks and building long-term relationships more prominence (Castell, 2000). Simply put, in the information age, the flow of communication plays a vital role in enabling the business to succeed. According to Freeman, the term stakeholder may be defined as any group or individual who are in a position to affect or be affected by a company’s objectives. The type of interests that the stakeholders have in a company differs. For instance, investors have a stake in the equity of the firm. In addition, other direct stakeholders such as customers, employees, suppliers and competitors have a stake in the financial success of the company. Wheeler and Sillanpaa (1997) also included individuals and groups that speak for the environment, non-human species and future generations in the list of stakeholders. This type of stakeholders is interested mostly on the impact that the firm has on people and on the environment. Further, Freeman states that there are two fundamental issues that should be articulated in the analysis of stakeholder theory and value creation (1994). First, the fundamental question on the purpose of the organization must be answered. This sets the stage for the management to elaborate on the core function that the firm engages in. The shared purpose of the value that the organization creates helps to rally the stakeholders to work hand in hand towards achieving their goal. The second issue that should be considered is about the responsibility of the management to the stakeholders. It is accepted that sustainable economic value can only be created by the voluntary coming together of people to improve the wellbeing of each other. It is imperative the organization outlines how it intends to do business and precisely the kind of relationships it intends to build with the stakeholders. Creating value for stakeholders provides a win-win scenario for both the firm and the stakeholders (Jones et al, 2002). When a company creates products and services that customers are willing to buy, offering rewarding jobs that