Arts and communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Arts and communication - Essay Example suous because it is here that the definition differs from a simple, nearly involuntary expression of shock or anger and the almost automatic directives of everyday communication. In order to be considered art, the form of expression must be capable of inciting an emotional response in some form of premeditated presentation. While the art itself may be to a large extent spontaneous, the display of it as such would qualify for the required element of premeditation while the encouragement to others of stopping and reflecting upon the emotions this display evokes elicits the sensuous response. Although art can be appreciated for its aesthetic values alone, it can also be put to work for a variety of other reasons, such as advocating a particular political or ideological concept. This is most often accomplished through mass media which is influenced by and influences political and corporate agendas. However, in this more fragmented society, in which socially isolated individuals become mo re susceptible to exterior manipulation, propaganda produced within the mass media has a repressing effect upon the mass population. This, in turn, has a repressing effect upon the art that is being produced as only those art forms that support the dominant conventions gain notice. This single viewpoint shared across all mediums is referred to as hegemony. However, there is another art form that subverts these restrictions. Graffiti, largely identified as an illegal art, has been used by artists as a means of expressing resistance to this hegemonic shift in countries around the world. The definition of graffiti changes depending upon who is providing the definition. Although often referred to as art, its artistic merits are frequently ignored or deemed unimportant, as is exemplified in the definition provided by the Dublin City Council (â€Å"What is Graffiti?†, 2007) in which only one of the five listed characteristics even mentions its artistic qualities: â€Å"Graffiti is

Metaphysics Essay 3 Essay Example for Free

Metaphysics Essay 3 Essay PLEASE WRITE A 1250-1500 WORD ESSAY IN RESPONSE TO THE PROMPT STATED BELOW. IN WRITING THIS ESSAY, YOU SHOULD USE THE TEXTBOOK AND CLASSROOM DISCUSSION AS YOUR FOUNDATION. YOU SHOULD NOT TRY TO SUMMARIZE THE READING ASSIGNMENTS IN TURN, BUT ONLY THOSE PARTS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO DEALING WITH THE PROMPT AND FOR SETTING UP AND HELPING TO EXPLAIN THE CRITICAL REMARKS IN YOUR PAPER. IN THIS PAPER YOU SHOULD HAVE YOUR OWN THESIS TO DEFEND ABOUT THE QUESTION IDENTIFIED IN THE PROMPT. YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO USE ANY SOURCES OTHER THAN THE ONES FOR THIS UNIT AND YOUR OWN MIND. HOWEVER, YOU ARE PERMITTED TO USE SUCH ADDITIONAL SOURCES. FOR ANY SOURCES YOU USE, EXCEPT YOUR OWN MIND, YOU SHOULD PROVIDE DOCUMENTATION IN ONE OF THE USUAL WAYS. THIS INCLUDES THIS COURSE=S TEXTBOOK, AND APPLIES BOTH TO SUMMARIZED AND PARAPHRASED MATERIAL DRAWN FROM ANY OF THESE SOURCES. THE PAPER SHOULD BE WORD PROCESSED AND PRESENTED IN THE FORM OF A PAPER, NOT OF AN EXAM. IN OTHER WORDS, THERE SHOULD BE A TITLE AND INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH WHERE YOUR THESIS IS CLEARLY STATED AND THE PLAN OF YOUR DISCUSSION EXPLAINED. THIS IS LIKE A UNIT EXAM, BUT I WISH TO MAKE THIS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO PRACTICE THE MECHANICS OF PAPER WRITING. Prompt BEGIN BY EXPLAINING WHY THE QUESTION OF WHY THERE IS SOMETHING RATHER THAN NOTHING CAN REASONABLY BECOME THE QUESTION OF WHETHER THERE ARE ANY NECESSARY BEINGS. NEXT DESCRIBE TWO WAYS OF ARGUING FOR THE EXISTENCE OF A NECESSARY BEING. (THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY IN EACH OF THE CHAPTERS. ) COMPARE AND CONTRAST YOUR SELECTED TWO WAYS AND DEFEND A THESIS ABOUT WHICH OF THE TWO SEEMS A BETTER (OR LESS WORSE) WAY TO ARGUE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF A NECESSARY BEING.

The Wife of Bath Analysis

The Wife of Bath Analysis Chaucer is generally considered as the father of English poetry; looking specifically at The Canterbury Tales we can see that Chaucer attempted to portray a depiction of society as he knew it. It is also evident that he attempted to provide his own commentary on his society. Chaucer distances himself from the comments made in The Canterbury Tales as he tells his audience Blameth nat me (Chaucer, 2006, line 73) if they are to take offense from what the Miller says as it is not Chaucer, himself, saying it, he simply has too repeat what was said. This is a very clever technique that Chaucer uses so that he cant be faced with controversy or come under attack from any one as he has only repeated this tale. Chaucer would have had to ensure that his work did not offend those in the church, seeing as the church was the only place where literature was preserved. However Chaucer still attacks society, and the greed of the church amongst other social issues, by not personally saying it, he skilfully distances himself from the issues he highlights in this tales. Chaucer also manages to tactfully deal with these issues, resulting in highly enjoyable tale, which offers a social commentary on a society faced with corruption and hypocrisy. The Canterbury Tales was written in a time where an audible, social reading of literature (Ford, 1976, p86) was preferred, this is possibly because of the influence that the church had on Medieval Literature. One of the main reasons for this may be due to the church, as they supplied the only form of education, everyone at church would have been listened to preachers, and as preaching itself had throughout the Middle Ages a great influence on other literature of all sorts (Ford, 1976, p85) it is not unreasonable to assume that this is why oral forms of literature were preferred in the medieval period. The Canterbury Tales were written as thought hey were being spoken aloud, so they fit in well with this medieval trend. The language and diction used in both The Millers Tale and The Wife of Bath conforms to a plain, low style (King, 2000, p47). Chaucers dominant sentence structure is paratactic (King, 2000, p47); with a rhyme scheme consisting of couplets of iambic pentameters (King, 2 000, p47). The purpose of Chaucers use of language, allows both tales to be easily read aloud for a group of people, rather than just read alone. Aware of his language choices, Chaucer will have also been attempting to make the background story to The Canterbury Tales seem authentic. The narrator is telling these stories on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, so as we read the tales to ourselves we can get a sense of the pilgrimage, and the way these tales would have been told. Chaucer uses The Canterbury Tales as a social commentary. Through the general prologue we can see how he feels about whole sections of society by making individuals represent whole groups of medieval life (Bunting, 2003, p6). These representations slowly begin to build up an entire view of Chaucers life in the medieval period. The Canterbury Tales is famous for upsetting the social hierarchy. Despite the conventions, after the Knights tale is told at the very beginning the rest of the tales are not told in order of those with the higher social standing, as would be conventionally expected. Certain characters interrupt, pushing their tales over others, making The Canterbury Tale humorous as it does not follow the conventional order as som bettre man shal telle us first another (Chaucer, 2006, Line 21). Chaucer also satirises the medieval idea of romance, through the tales, he satirises courtly love, and how it is portrayed as being the ideal way to create a romance. The Millers Tale, in particular, satirises this concept as it is a parody romance (King, 2000, p73). This medieval concept is often found ridiculed in these tales. In the Wife of Bath she admits that I have wedded five! (Chaucer, 1995, line 44), if this had been a courtly love, surely it would have lasted and the Wife of Bath would not have been able to marry again, out of love for her previous husband. Absolon in the Millers Tale attempts to woo Alison using techniques expected of a courtly lover, however he fails to impress Alison and his efforts go unrecognised. Chaucer uses the literary convention of courtly love with Absolon to demonstrate just how ridiculous the efforts of the courtly lover can be, and how ridiculous it can be presented in literature. Chaucer is able to express some views on religion in the tales, even though he would have had to ensure that this was not a deliberate or obvious attack on the church. In the Millers Tale Absolon is satirised as the parish clerk (Chaucer, 2006, line 204) as That of no wyf took he noon offrynage (Chaucer, 2006, line 242). Chaucer also suggests that when Alison goes to church it is much more of a social outing, rather than a religious event. In the Wife of Bath the satire is directed at the sex obsessed and guilt-ridded attitudes of medieval christianity (Whittock, 1968, p121). The main social issue that Chaucer is seen to satirise in both these tales is the idea that women are repressed. Chaucer seemed able to perceive the genius and subtlety of the female mind in making the best of their situation in life, while still allowing the men to think they were in control (Bunting, 2003, p5). This is perhaps best envisioned in The Wife of Baths Prologue. She mentions her having had wedded five! (Chaucer, 1995, line 44). However she is able to defend this position that she is in as God says that to be wedded is no sinne (Chaucer, 1995, line 51), she also asks when God commanded he virgintee? (Chaucer, 1995, line 62). She speaks out against the church and what they are saying in the medieval period, where women were given two stereotypes, either compared to the treacherous Eve, or had to live up to the standards of the Virgin Mary with her being both a virgin and a mother this was an impossible role model for women to achieve. The Wife of Bath is unashamedly a larger than life character designed to squash the constraints that medieval Christianity have placed upon women. She is a matriarchal figure who has declared war on mankind (Whittock, 1968, p119) Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath to defend womankind. Chaucer looks at the relationship between the two sexes, as it is often perceived that women were always the weaker of the two, due to all the constraints put upon them from the Medieval church. However Chaucer seems to argue that not only do they not deserve this, but that women are cleverly able to control men, by subtlety manipulating them, however they exist in a masculine world so self-satisfied, or stupid to realise it (Bunting, 2003, p45). The Wife of Baths tale itself sees an important moral message, Chaucer cleverly places behind the shadow of the Wife of Bath. Faced with the issue of what women desire, the Knight concludes that: Wommen desiren have sovereynetee As wel over hir housbond as hir love, And for to been in maistrie hym above. (Chaucer, 1995, lines 1038-1041) The moral hides not behind the fact that women desire equality, the tale condemns the desire for mastery (Whittock, 1968, p126). When the Knight allows the woman to be independent and gives her the choice to be with him, he does not force his will upon her, resulting in an ideal relationship between the two. Chaucer demonstrates that possessing a woman can bring no man joy, out of fear that they will end up a cokewold (Chaucer, 1995, line 1214). When the woman chooses the Knight Chaucer shows that woman should have the right to choose their husband too, and more importantly he shows that when this happens this creates the best marriage. With the Wifes constant use of plural, it dissolves her individual situation into a general female experience (Saunders, 2001, p292) emphasising that this is a universal problem for all women in the medieval period. In the Millers Tale Alison manages to secure a victory at the end, being the only character not punished for her actions. She is able to manipulate Nicholas into thinking that she was doing him a favour by sleeping with him, however it is obvious throughout the tale that it is mutually beneficial for both of them. She manages to escape her narwe (Chaucer, 2006, line 116) cage (Chaucer, 2006, line 116). Both the Wife of Bath and Alison demonstrate that Chaucer definitely approved of women being treated as equal to men, allowing them to choose their own destiny, he also held them in high regard for their ability to overcome the fact that they were used as a commodity by men by quietly controlling small issues, eventually helping their own trapped and difficult situation. However it can be argued that although the Wife of Bath was a vehicle for satirising male attitude (Whittock, 1968, p121), but also to satirise female attitudes (Whittock, 1968, p121). She is a grotesque personification of all the undesirable traits found in women. While she argues that God has never forbidden marriage, and that she is actually doing a good thing by following her owene juggement (Chaucer, 1995, line 68), she then contradicts her arguments for marrying five times by wondering why members maad of generacion (Chaucer, 1995, line 116) were made and argues that they were nat maad for noght (Chaucer, 1995, line 118). This statement suggests that she marries for sex and lustful thoughts, not for the ideal love. The Wife of Bath is every anti feminists dream come true (Cooper, 1983, p76). It is argued that Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath to make these arguments against the church and male dominance as she is sexually predatory, extravagantly dressed, ultra sensitive to social positions and worst of all irresistible attractive (Cooper, 1983, p76). She is over indulgent, and it is often suggested that she has married her husbands for reasons other than love, something both the church and society frowned upon, regardless of gender. Alison is described by Chaucer using a heavy amount of animal imagery, suggesting that she is in fact an animal, with uninhibited desires and wild attitudes. She is also described with a high undertone of sexuality, again suggesting her unmanageable sexuality. This is not a woman who would be expected to dispute the controlling power men hold over them; although neither does the Wife of Bath, yet in both Tales women secure a victory, albeit a small one, against the men in their lives. Suggesting that Chaucer is not only trying to give women a disguised victory, but shows that in every undesirable position you find yourself in there will always be a small victory to be had. Chaucer is viewed as inheritor of a great tradition as well as the inventor of a new one (Saunders, 2001, p5) he stuck to particular conventions of the medieval period, and is work is characteristically medieval. He is also held in high regard as he invents a whole new way of tackling many of the medieval literary and social issues that he did not agree with in this social commentary. Chaucer has contributed highly to literary criticism as he produced a prose narrative that is clearly medieval in its style and delivery, however its message provides a strong moral message, and a social commentary on a society that without literature we would not know how society worked and what people thought about it without Chaucers work providing a social commentary and literary criticism.

Ann Hutchinson and Jarena Lee :: essays research papers

Men are not the only people who played an instrumental role in religion. It is true that for most of Western history, religious leadership and power have been restricted to men. It is also true that women were excluded from theological education and even from lay leadership in most Christian denominations until quite recently. Until women like Ann Hutchinson and Jarena Lee decided not to but on the back burner any more. They decided to stand up for what they believed in and defended women’s rights. Ann Hutchinson stood trial alone, with no lawyers to defend her. She was charged with heresy and banished from Massachusetts Bay in 1636. Hutchinson believed that people could communicate directly with God without the help of ministers or the Bible. This was in direct contradiction with the established religion. Local ministers taught that people could only find God by following the teachings of the Bible and that only they could interpret the Bible correctly. During this time all ministers were men, they believed that women should obey man at all times and that women should not teach religion because they were not intelligent enough. One of Ann Hutchinson "crimes" was expressing religious beliefs that were different from the colony's rulers, during that time it was against the law especially for a woman. Making matters worse, she held meetings in her home to discuss religion that was a common for Puritan in England. She believed that God had spoken to her directly, and that only God could be her judge. Anne was drawn by the excitement of this religious struggle and based her opinions on the study of the Bible. Although in some areas, she did disagree with Puritan doctrine, she was still a devoted member of the church and agreed with the majority of the Puritan principles. Her purpose in expressing her opinions was not to break down the church but rather to make positive change in those areas where the church was in error in her opinion. In 19 century, women were still prohibited by social and religious custom for preaching. Jarena Lee experienced a dramatic conversion when she was 21 after hearing a sermon by Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Lee said, "As if lightening had darted through me, I sprang to my feet, and cried, 'The Lord has sanctified my soul!'" (132-133). Her religious awakening in 1804 stopped her from committing suicide and years later, she felt God’s call to preach.

cinco de mayo :: essays research papers

The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but it should be! And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be. Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to leave Mexico. So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862. The French had landed in Mexico (along with Spanish and English troops) five months earlier on the pretext of collecting Mexican debts from the newly elected government of democratic President (and Indian) Benito Juarez. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. The French, however, had different ideas. Under Emperor Napoleon III, who detested the United States, the French came to stay. They brought a Hapsburg prince with them to rule the new Mexican empire. His name was Maximilian; his wife, Carolota. Napoleon's French Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion. The French were not afraid of anyone, especially since the United States was embroiled in its own Civil War. The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City to the west, as the French assumed that the Mexicans would give up should their capital fall to the enemy -- as European countries traditionally did. Under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa, (and the cavalry under the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz, later to be Mexico's president and dictator), the Mexicans awaited. Brightly dressed French Dragoons led the enemy columns. The Mexican Army was less stylish. General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in the world, out to the French flanks. In response, the French did a most stupid thing; they sent their cavalry off to chase Diaz and his men, who proceeded to butcher them. The remaining French infantrymen charged the Mexican defenders through sloppy mud from a thunderstorm and through hundreds of head of stampeding cattle stirred up by Indians armed only with machetes. When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their cavalry was being chased by Diaz' superb horsemen miles away.

Women in Euripides Alcestis, Medea, Andromache, and Bacchae Essays

Euripides portrayal of women in his plays has been somewhat bizarre. His female characters kill out of revenge, kill out of jealousy and kill because a god possessed them too. In Alcestis and Andromache Euripides does produce classic heroic female characters. The women in Medea and The Bacchae are not your typical heroines but serve to show the same theme of female liberation as the women in Alcestis and Andromache. While Alcestis is straight forward with its message, the other three plays mask their true intentions from the people they are created to oppose. Euripides might have been misinterpreted by his society because it was dominated by the very people he wrote his plays against. Euripides disguises some of his radical ideas to those who might oppose him and in Alcestis, Andromache, Medea, and The Bacchae shows his female characters being liberated from oppression. In Alcestis we have the heroic female character Alcestis. She dies as a sacrifice to Death so that her husband, Admetus, can escape his own fate when his time comes. A sign that women are oppressed is that Admetus picked his wife to die for him without giving it much thought. It was only after he realized how loving and caring this woman can be, did he regret his decision. Not only did he regret the decision made with the god Apollo, but Apollo himself goes and has a talk with Death. This switch in the opinion of Admetus in a way expresses the fact that women are not viewed as they should be. Women should not be treated as if they have no useful value, as was the case when Admetus first allowed his wife to be his sacrifice, a decision that he would not have made if he had known the woman for more time. Women therefore should be valued more than they are now,... ... have committed were done against men as of the results of mans oppression against women. Euripides could have been telling the truth about his time, the tales of murderous women who seek revenge on their husbands, and the men of the his time might have tolerated this view. The point that might have escaped the men of Euripides' time was that he was pointing the finger at them. This accusation of men was hidden in his plays. Euripides masked such accusations as rants by crazed females. In a culture where disrespecting woman was in the norm, Euripides highlighted what could go wrong with such disrespect. The only reason that the people of Euripides' time might have not understood his point was that they saw no wrong being done in disrespecting women. How can people be afraid of the results of a mistake if they do not realize they made the mistake in the first place?

Japanese Management Essay

In the early 1980s, William Ouchi asserted in the U.S. soil the significance of Theory Z (1981), a Japanese management style that includes communal relationship in organizations and strong trust bonds as a more effective way to handle business as evidenced by the success of Japanese corporations.   This has made the interest and appreciation for the Japanese style of management and practices grow for the last twenty years, especially those successful Japanese companies who used unusual approaches (Lee and McCalman, 2008). For Japanese firms, the development of good relationship is a primordial interest. A Japanese firm may refuse to deal with another and ink a partnership regardless of the possible profits it may gain from the venture. The drive to develop a good relationship is primarily due to the very important principle called â€Å"tsuikiai† (socialization) (Lee and McCalman, 2008). Peer-to-peer relationship is more essential than relationship between levels as the Japanese believe that an organization draws strength from the former rather than from the latter. Hence, for American managers, it is only normal to assess their subordinates based on certain criteria. On the contrary, Japanese organizations tend to assess their employees based on their ability to work with their colleagues (Byham, 1993). Japanese managers get good evaluations if their subordinates can work well with each other. As such, Japanese firms give more emphasis on the ability of the employees to work with other employe es and not much on their performance. This is due to their belief that as long as a good relationship is established within the organization, the organization can handle other matters effectively (Lee and McCalman, 2008). For the Japanese, good relationships can be developed through the following: 1) After work dining & drinking session As previously mentioned, the principle of tsuikiai or socialization allow the Japanese to continue to incorporate good relationships as part of their corporate management style. Apparently, this can be seen in their popular practice of usually having dinner and drinking sessions amongst employees after office hours (Lee and McCalman, 2008). This is also the idea of the â€Å"communication plaza concept† wherein the executives meet their employees informally to have lunch or dinner and at the same time to listen to each other   (Otsubo, 1993). Through such engagements, employees have the chance to be more familiar with each other away from the four corners of their business premises. This positively affects the connections among the employees. This enables the Japanese organizations to create a warm and communal workplace where employees feel that they can communicate freely with everyone (Sullivan, 1992). Such practice is not the same with Americans where the latter would pr efer to   maintain the division between their personal and work life. According to Arenson (1993), the connection between U.S. workers and their companies are created by written contracts and the compensation that the companies renumerate to their employees. This complimented the observation rendered by   Rehder (1979) that Japanese managers treat their subordinates like their family members while western managers’ relationships with their subordinates are through contracts which makes the relationship depersonalized.   This is contrary to the belief of Japanese workers that they are obligated to the company they are working for because of the close relationship and bond that they have with their company and this creates mutual trust between the employees and the company. They likewise have a sense of shared focus to reach the goals of the organization. This management theory has been one of the core values of Honda from 1980s when they first established their operations in the United States and this was adopted by Nissan, Mazda and Toyota ( Sullivan, 1992). 2) Quite often meetings rather than electronic or paper work Americans would prefer to have everything first on paper before they can act on a project. Whereas Japanese prefer to do meetings rather than convey their messages through e-mails or doing paper works primarily as they despise memos and paper work (Arenson, 1993). According to Lee and McCalman (2008), it is through meetings that the workers would begin to know each other and determine the things that need to be done. This is most applicable in cases where there are no contracts or written documents involved and through meetings, the employees are able to worke on matters they need to attend to (Lee and McCalman, 2008). 3) Informal arranged agreements vs. legal agreements Before an American company would deal with another enterprise, it is not needed that the two companies develop a good relationship. It does not matter if a company would deal with a competitor provided that the two companies would gain mutual benefit. As a sense of security, American companies need to employ countless lawyers and execute numerous contracts before setting matters off. As a pre-requisite, everything needs to be laid out on paper before anything is started (Lee and McCalman, 2008). The mentality in America is that everything is governed by laws to make sure that people involved know what is set on the line (Arenson, 1993). It is ordinary for companies to deal with strangers and just develop a relationship during their venture (Lee and McCalman, 2008). This is not the case for Japanese companies as they require developing personal relationships before they transact with other business entities. This is because of their belief that it is important that a trusting relationship between two companies is developed before considering to have business venture   (Lee and McCalman, 2008). In Japan, there is less dependence on the laws and rather, more premium is placed in developing a trusting relationship before going into a business transaction. Unlike Americans that prefer to settle everything in a legal way or execute contracts first, Japanese are known to have healthy disdain for lawyers and legal or written actions. And unlike the Americans that would employ lawyers and execute contracts before the transaction, Japanese dislike being forced to deal just because of the contracts and in the process may just ignore some provisions thereto. They believe that the situations will have changed after signing the contract (Lee and McCalman, 2008). In fact, the two countries have a big difference in the number of lawyers as in the United States, there are over 800,000 lawyers as compared to Japan that has 15,000 lawyers only (Arenson, 1993). Moreover, Japanese would prefer to spend more time interacting with their potential customer or supplier before they would commit themselves   (Otsubo, 1993). 4) Networking- personal contacts Japan depends on networking as their society is very much a relationship-oriented one. Japanese would get things done though their personal contacts. For them, a man’s success or failure could be directly affected by their connections that he or she has developed over the years. In fact, a newly graduated Japanese would almost depend exclusively on his or her connections through university or from personal connections to land a job. That is why there is a high probability that the company recruiters would hire applicants coming from the same university as theirs because of the special connection that is existing between the recruiters and the university faculty and staff. This is what Japanese called â€Å"jinmyaku† or the web of human beings. Any internal or external undertaking to the company is accomplished through personal contacts (Lee and McCalman, 2008). It is then ordinary for an employee to develop extensive personal network within and outside the organization to protect his or her success rate especially that a person’s capability depends also on the extensiveness of the networks he or she may have   (Kase and Liu, 1996). Such mentality may affect the attitudes of the Japanese of not working with strangers. Through developing personal contacts takes time, once the networks have been created, everything is much easier as there is not much paperwork and lawyers involved. This principle makes it more difficult for foreign companies to penetrate Japan (Lee and McCalman, 2008). Japanese organizations would prefer hiring somebody who has a connection thereto because hiring a new employee is like welcoming a lifelong member of the corporate family. An individual applying for a position in a company by reason of an advertisement is considered a total stranger. As such, there is a possibility that Japanese companies may look after the personal attributes of an applicant rather than his or her technical attributes (Lee and McCalman, 2008).   It is very vital for an organization to ensure that the person to be hired is a team player and will blend well within the group. This is in contrast with U.S. companies as they prefer to look at the technical attributes of the applicants and highly rely on grade-point averages and specific credentials or competencies (Lee and McCalman, 2008). Networking works wonders in cases where a manager tries to launch a new project and the project is not really within the expertise of the concerned department, managers that have a w ell-established network within the organization could use their connections to persuade their colleagues to support their projects and also use these connections outside the organization to help make the project successful (Kase and Liu, 1996). Japanese manufacturing companies were able to capitalize in their personalized networking system that they were able to establish when they internationalized their operations during the late 1970s and 1980s. The personalized networks developed between their head offices and subsidiaries made the flow of the information run smoothly and eventually positively affect the efficiency of the companies (Kase and Liu, 1996). Moreover, Japanese companies establish personal networking with other Japanese companies in other countries (Yu and Ohle, 2008) for their advantage. 5) Teaming up in everything they do One of the major difference between Japanese management and Western management is that the structure of the organization is loose or poorly defined whereas the structure of the organization of the western management is tight or the specific functions are associated with specific boxes (Rehder, 1979). Teaming is a very important aspect in the management of a project. That is why the composition of teams that will handle organizational projects are carefully selected (Lee and McCalman, 2008). Even in creating an organizational project, the composition of the team that will develop and plan the concerned project is carefully assembled from the different departments of the organization (Gray and Larson, 2003). And up to the time that the organizational project is already running after the planning stage, there are still some times that the personnel from the planning stage will coordinate with the functional managers and project managers of the actual operation of the project (Gray and Larson, 2003). As Japanese companies or the Japanese culture itself has high regard on the â€Å"web of human beings†, it is part of the establishment of trust within the team to develop close personal relationship among the team members. The trust created by the â€Å"tsuikiai† plays an important role in the accomplishment of the interconnected tasks of the team members. A high level of trust is necessary for the accomplishment and implementation of the various tasks that the manager is leading (Kezner, 2000). Every meticulous aspect of the project requires the highest level of cooperation and team work among the players performing the tasks. That is why it is the responsibility of the project manager to build and maintain a high level of trust within the team to ensure the successful operation of a project throughout its course (Kezner, 2000). This is where the American employees of some Japanese companies are impressed with how every Japanese members of the team would persist to wo rk together to collect and discuss data gathered and develop ways to respond to different situations and improve their performance (Sullivan, 1992). Another thing that shows the Japanese persistence to teaming up is their decision-making system, or also known as â€Å"ringi† or decision by consensus system. This enables the employees to be motivated to work together.   The term ringi actually came from two words: ‘ri’, which means to ask from below and ‘gi’ which means to deliberate (Ichiro, 1977). By the Japanese decision-making systems, the organization initially debates on the meaning of a certain question and determines its possible solutions until consensus if finally reached. The process of the decision making and even the initiation of the process are participated in by all levels of the organization, whether the process be a verbal or written one (Naotsuka, 1978). This is because the Japanese have a view that it is important to first debate the problem or the question to achieve full comprehension in its general corporate-wide perspective, after which is to establish a consensus to preve nt groups from taking sides on one solution or another hastily. In such case, clash between the prevailing and losing groups is prevented because conflicts will only weaken the implementation of the favored solution. This normative process is called by the Japanese as â€Å"nemawashi† (Naotsuka, 1978).