History of the US Participation in World War II Research Paper - 2

History of the US Participation in World War II - Research Paper Example The war offered the United States to evaluate its military strength and strategies in situations and conditions that were never realised before. It is important to note that the involvement of the United States in the Second World War came in December of 1941 after the Japanese attack. However, the world war had started in the September of 1939 when Germany invaded Poland riding on the fancies of Hitler to establish German empire on the lines of the racial purity and sense of revenge against the western powers who pushed Germany into Economic oblivion after the end of the World War I. At the same time, it was the involvement of the United States that played a determining role in changing the equations of war after Japan went berserk for the establishment of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The involvement of the United States was dearly desired by the Allies who realised the military capability of the United States forces but it didn’t come before the attack on Pear l Harbour, an incident which was remembered by the contemporary President Roosevelt for its ‘infamy’. It was the unexpected intrusion of the Imperial Japanese Navy that surprised the political establishment of the United States and the measure of the damage forced the United States to go after the Japanese Forces. Thereby, the other member countries of the Axis Countries also declared war on the United States. The Second World War is often referred to as a situation where the military strategies of the United States Navy came in full use and achieved tactical advances against the navy of Japan. The Battle in the Pacific region determined the onset of a series of defeats for the Japanese Forces.

Week 5 Discussion - INTL5645 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Week 5 Discussion - INTL5645 - Assignment Example When leaving, he further instructs the lady to use a single chalk a day since the school has no adequate facilities. The lack of the basic learning facilities further compromises the quality of education that the students I the villages setups receive. Furthermore, the film does not depict any form of government intervention to salvage the sorry state of village education. The film further develops a theme on child labor. This aggravates the already bad state of education in the country. In a bid to cater for their personal effects, the destitute children take up menial jobs in the village. Lianjiang (8), asserts that â€Å"28 PERCENT OF CHILDREN LIVING IN THE COUNTRYSIDE ARE LEFT BEHIND BY THEIR PARENTS WHO SEEK EMPLOYMNET IN THE URBAN CITIES† . Wei the small inexperienced teacher comes to discover that Zhang has quit school to look for work in the city. Zhang is a child and not within the employable age, however, due to lack effective monitoring structures he finds menial jobs in the city and soon forgets about school. This casts a dark shadow on the future of the country’s economy besides securing an ever obscure future for the rural dwellers. China has one of the largest human populations in the world. Every year during winter, many Chinese usually go back home. This usually results in a logistic problems as the railway transport system gets overwhelmed. In this case, the analysis focuses on the movie The Last Train Home. In a broader perspective, the review seeks to bring to light the predicaments that Chinese immigrant workers face. Most of these Chinese workers are separated from their families. In this case, the focus is on the family illuminated on in the documentary. At the start, it is evident that the family is separated from one of their own who is called Qin. This is evident from the fact that the mother talks to her through the phone. They discuss issues regarding her report. Besides, when the

The Five Main Theories Of Truth

The Five Main Theories Of Truth There are five main theories of truth, these are: the correspondence theory, the coherence theory, and the pragmatic, redundancy and semantic theories. All these theories are concerned with the truth and falsity of what people say or think. A.Correspondance Theory The correspondence theory of truth states that the falsity or truth of a statement can only be judged in its relationship to the world and whether it actually describes the world accurately; therefore true statements correspond to the actual state of affairs. This model is a traditional way of thinking and can be linked back to some of the Greek Philosophers such as Aristotle, Socrates and Plato. This theory can be broken down into two sections; on the first hand this theory tries to conjecture a relationship between thoughts or statements and on the other hand things or facts. As Aristotle stated in his Metaphysics: To say that (either) that which is is not or that which is not is, is a falsehood; and to say that that which is is and that which is not is not, is true(Aristole ()) The correspondence theory can be split into two main categories the first being correspondence as congruence. Correspondence as congruence claims that for a statement to be true must have a structural isomorphism(2) that is directly linked to a state of affairs in the world that makes it true(3). This can be best demonstrated in Russells Theory of Judgment in which he proposed that belief cannot be a binary relation between the believer and fact, as one could not have false beliefs. As an alternative, Russell construed belief as a multigrade relation between the believer and the objects in belief. For example: Othello believes that Desdemona loves Cassio This statement can be seen as true in the eyes of Russell as the object of the belief are related as they are judged to be related and if Desdemona does love Cassio. However one of the main criticisms of Russell is that is it impossible to hold a false belief about non-existents, although it is obvious that there are such false beliefs, for example, a child believing Santa Claus has a white beard, however the sentence itself would be said to be false as there is no such thing as Santa. Richard Kirkham (1992) states, in relation to this, that the theory of descriptions can be applied to sentences but not beliefs as it is impossible to judge non-existents on Russells theory. There is a huge pothole in this theory as some sentences can pose difficult for this model: a small cheque is a kind of cheque but a counterfeit cheque may not be in Russells case as adjectives such as counterfeit lose their simple meaning. This caused Russell to abandon his theory and develop a new theory of judgm ent in 1919. Correspondence as correlation is the second half of the correspondence theory and was developed by John Austin. Austin theorised that there does not necessarily need to be a relationship between a true statement and the state of affairs that makes it true as he tried to prove that the value of truth was only a small part in the rage of utterances. Austin heavily disagreed with the presumption that utterances always have to constate or describe the subject in turn making them true or false and thus Austin introduced performance sentences(4). Performance utterances are not true or false that is not truth-evaluable(5) instead they can be said to be happy or unhappy(J.S. Andersson (1975)). Uttering such performatives can be said to be doing a certain type of illocutionary action. This to Austin would not just be describe as: just saying or describing something(J.L. Austin (1962)) Austin gives an example of a performance utterance: I bet you six pence it will rain tomorrow(J.L. Austin (1962)) In making this utterance you are obligating a promise, you are not just simply stating what you are doing. However if, for example, you do not keep your promise and offer the sixpence if it rains although this is not in order with the utterance the sentence is not false it can just be said to be happy or unhappy, however this also demonstrates how the sentence can never be true. However, J.R. Searle argues that performatives are in fact true or false and says performatives are what we would otherwise call declarations and is a technical notion of Searles account: the successful performance of the speech act is sufficient to bring about the fit between words and world, to make the propositional content true. (J.R. Searle(1989)). Bach and Harnish (1991) agree with Searle in saying that performances can be true of false, however for different reasons. They believed that these performances are directly statements not declarations. On the other hand Bach and Harnish attack Searle stating that ordinary performances do not need rationalisation, because they are an ordinary and successful way of communicating when the audience can infer your communicative intention. This contrasts Searles view point as he states performances are declarations as declarations are only accidently communicative and are only really successful if they fulfil the conventions. Bach and Harnish finally argued that even though communicative success relies on the agreement that they are statements the performative force of perfortatives does not. B. The Coherence Theory The coherence theory differs to the correspondence theory for two main reasons the first being that the competing theories give different meaning to the proposition and their truth condition. According to the coherence theory the relationship is that of coherence. There are several versions of the coherence theory of which differ on two major parts. The different versions of the theory give different accounts of the coherence relation. In accordance to some early versions of the theory the coherence can simply be put as consistency; therefore to say that the propositions join together to a specific set of propositions is to say that the propositions are consist ant to that set. This version can be deemed unsatisfactory for the following reason: consider two propositions that belong to different sets surely these propositions could both be consistent with a specific set whilst simultaneously being inconsistent with each other. The second and more credible version of the coherence theory offers that coherence is some form of entailment. In accordance with this version a proposition coheres with a set of propositions if and only if it is entailed by many sets. There are two principle lines of arguments that have led philosophers to adopt a coherence theory of truth. Early advocates were convinced by the focus on metaphysical questions, lately there has been attention paid to the epistemological and semantic basis of coherence. The earliest versions of coherence were associated with the idea of idealism. The coherence theory was adopted by a number of British idealists in the latter years of the nineteenth century. For example, F.H Bradley (1914). It can be said that idealists are lead to the coherence theory because of their metaphysical position. Advocates of the correspondence theory believe that statements and beliefs are ontologically different from the objective setting which makes the said belief true. Idealists on the other hand do not believe that there is an ontological standpoint between beliefs and what makes these beliefs true. From this idealist point of view reality is simple a collection of beliefs. Accordingly, a belief cannot be accurate or true because it corresponds to something that is not a belief. As an alternative the truth of a belief can only be validated if consistent with its coherence with other held beliefs, therefore a belief that come from an idealism perspective comes in degrees. A belief is true to the degree that it coheres with others. Bearing this in mind it has been stated by Candlish (2006) that F. H. Bradley described an identity theory not a coherence theory. There is another route to adopt when looking at coherence theory, one of an epistemological route. Blanshard (1939) argued that: a coherence theory of justification leads to a coherence theory of truth. His argument is as follows: Someone might believe that coherence with a set of beliefs is a test to seek the truth but that the truth is comprised of a correspondence theory of objective facts. Never the less, if truth consists in correspondence to facts, coherence with a set of beliefs will not suffice to test for the truth. This can be said to be the case as there is no concrete guarantee that a succinct coherent set of beliefs is a foolproof test for the truth. If coherence is simply a good but weak test for the truth, then the argument fails (Rescher 1973). There is a falling apart of truth, as Blanshard suggests, if it can be only seen as a fallible test. Another view point is that we cannot get outside or escape our own beliefs making it complicated to compare statements to objective facts. There is evidence of a version of this argument adopted by logical positivists such as Neurath (1983) and Hempel (1935). This argument is similar to Blanshards in which it depends of the coherence theory for justification. This line of argument infers that we will never know if a proposition corresponds to reality. This argument is scrutinised by two main criticisms. Firstly, it relies on the coherence theory for validation and therefore susceptible to any objections to this theory. Secondly, a coherence theory does not always follow these premisses. We cannot imply that a proposition that cannot be know to comply with reality does not comply with reality. Even if correspondence theorists agree that we can only know the propositions which fall in line with our beliefs, they can still believe that truth is held within our correspondence; if so then it must be accepted that there a truths which cannot be known. Otherwise, it can be said, that the coherence of a statement with a set of fixed beliefs is is a valid indicator that the statement corresponds to objective facts and we can safely know that propositions correspond. This was the viewpoint of Davidson (1920) It is felt that coherence theorists need to justify that propositions cannot correspond to objective facts, not just that they cannot be known to. As noted, the coherence and correspondence theories have different view about the conditions of truth. One way to help decide which of these accounts is correct is to be aware of the procedure by which propositions are assigned truth conditions. Finally Coherentists can dispute that the lone condition that the speaker can justify his or her own propositions is only in relation to his or her beliefs (Young (1995)). There are many criticisms of the coherence theory of truth; however there are two that will be focused on: the specification objection and the transcendence objection. The specific objection states that coherence theorists have no possible method to identify a set of propositions without contradicting their own. This argument can be first seen in Russell (1907). However there are other uses of truth and the word true, for example, we speak of a true friend however this is often set aside, perhaps derivative but at any rate different. Many views are held about how the content of what we say and think should be specified thus leading us to be concerned with what the bearers of truth are; for Wittgenstein the world consisted of facts. Human beings are made a wear of facts by virtue of our mental representation and thoughts. These thoughts are expressed in propositions, whose form indicates the position of these facts in reality. Everything that is true, that is, all the facts that constitute to the world and which (in principle) can be expressed by atomic sentences. Tautological expression occupy a special role in this language framework because they are true under all conditions, however tautologies are literally nonsense as they convey nothing about what the facts truly are. Despite this, since they are true under all conditions, tautologies provide the underlying structure of all language; this being thought and reality. Fitting with the ideas in Wittgensteins writings, Tractatus (6.1), that the most scientific, logical features of the world are not themselves additional fact about it. Much like beauty propositions are entirely devoid of value. Facts are just facts; everything else that gives the world meaning must reside elsewhere. Wittgenstein was trying to achieve a properly logical language; therefore only dealing with what is true. Aesthetics judgements about what is beautiful and ethical judgments about what is good simply cannot be expressed within logical language, since they transcend what can be pictured in thought. This can be seen as a major problem as this would leave all the major questions in traditional philosophy not only unanswered but also un-askable. It is therefore not unfair to conclude that the Tractatus itself is nothing more than useful nonsense. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. This stark and lone statement renders literally all of human life unspeakable. It was this carefully delineated sense of what logical language can properly express which influenced the ideas of Logical Positivism. Wittgenstein proposed himself that there was nothing left of philosophers to do which is reflected in his abandoment of the discipline for nearly a decade. The problem with Wittgensteins logical analysis is that it demands too much precision, both in the definitions of words and in the representations of their logical structure. In ordinary language, applications of a word often only bear a family resemblance to one another; also there are many grammatical forms of expressing the same basic thought. However, under these conditions.

The Second Noble Truth of Buddhism :: essays research papers fc

The Second Noble Truth - â€Å"Samudaya" The Truth of the Origin or the Cause of Suffering According to the philosophy of Buddhism is the Second Noble Truth : "Samudaya", the truth of the origin or the cause of suffering. Buddhists also believe that the origin of suffering is `attachment'. The Second Noble Truth invites us to understand the principle, that the origin of suffering is attachment to transient things and the ignorance thereof. Transient things do not only include the physical objects that surround us, but it also encompasses ideas, and, in a greater sense, all objects of our perception. Perhaps it could be said that ignorance is the lack of understanding of how our mind is attached to impermanent things. Some of the reasons for suffering are, desire, passion, pursuit of wealth and prestige, striving for fame and popularity, or in short: craving and grasping. We create our own suffering through our egotistical craving and desires. Because the objects of our attachment are impermanent their loss maybe inevitable and so suffering will follow. The Second Noble Truth has three aspects of attachment to desires. These three types of desire are the desire for sensual pleasure (kama tanha), the desire to become (bhava tanha) and the desire to get rid of (vibhava tanha). It is human nature to want more, more of what we like and to have better than what we have. This desire is not just for ourselves but for our children and the people we care about. It is in these desires that we can find the source of our suffering. We crave for the formation of states or realms of being that are not currently happening. As human beings we believe that the way of happiness is through sensual pleasure. We have five senses which respond to the world and through which we enjoy a lot of pleasure. For example we obtain great pleasure from the taste of food, viewing lovely sights, the feeling of a sea breeze or sexual pleasures. It is said that trying to satisfy our craving for pleasant experiences is like drinking saltwater when thirsty: it only increases our thirst. Even by means of the sixth sense in Buddhism, there is great pleasure to be had in fantasies and mental states of excitement, infatuations and so on. Our technological society extends all types of ways to extend our sensual pleasure, from viewing and listening to DVD’s, CDs, TVs and many other high-tech options.

Formal and Informal Communication: an Organizational Approach

Formal and Informal Communication: An Organizational Approach By: Masayu Shahnaz Winarko Student Number: 43005860 Faculty of Economics, Business and Law University of Queensland Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 2012 Abstract This paper concentrates on the discussion of formal and informal communication and its usage in organizational approach. Although both formal and informal communication support the well-Â ­being of organizations, studies suggest that informal communication has taken a big part in determining the productivity in organizations and it has derived many benefits and many challenges. Managers should know how to deal ith such thing and optimize the advantages that will create value added for the company and overcome the obstacles it might create. Many researches have studied and given results on this matter and its application in businesses worldwide. 1. Introduction Communication occurs in every single section in life, from personal to professional issues. It is inevit able that it supports the flow of social life and company’s workflow. It has been taking an important role in organizations; therefore, many studies concentrate in the discussion of organizational communication. It is believed that both formal and informal communication affect rganization’s productivity (Litterst & Eyo). However, unlike formal communication, informal communication is less controllable and unstructured. Informal communication plays a strong role in determining the result of scientific field by generating new ideas or improving the existed idea (Hagstrom). FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 1 APPROACH Since informal communication has a strong impact on organizational performance, managers should be able to manage the flow of not only formal, but also informal communication. As business grows and the requirements needed in surviving within the competition keep adding on, xecutives should make the most effective use of every resource avai lable and by improving the flow of communication is one of the ways. This study will provide an analysis in dealing with managerial challenges regarding controlling the flow of informal communication and what managers should do to make the best of it. 2. Literature Review 2. 1 Communication Communication is the activity to convey messages through different channels, such as words, symbols and signs. Based on Duncan and Moriarty (1998), communication is a human activity that links people together and creates relationship. In order to create a successful communication, t requires three elements; they are the sender, the message and the receiver. Both the sender and the receiver have to share the same understanding so that the message can be fully transmitted. The success of communication is determined by how the message is understood by the receiver. As defined by Gamble and Gamble (2002), communication is the transfer of meaning and there are seven essentials of communication, which are people, message, channels, noise, context, feedback and effect. Although there are 126 different definitions on communication (Ruben & Stewart, 2006), but many scholars defined it as an exchange of information.Ruben & Stewart (2006) also stated that success in one’s career may well depend on communication. Not only in the individual performance, communication also determines organization’s performance. This present study will point out the importance of formal and informal communication and its applications within an organization. 2. 2 Formal Communication Formal communication is an organized and structured communication within an organization. The communication occurs in many flows. Upwards 2 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH communication indicates the communication from employees to executives. Downward ommunication represents the flow of communication from executives to lower level employees. Horizontal communication shows the flow o f communication within the same level of company, for example the communication flow of brand manager and finance manager. The last one is diagonal communication, which represents the communication of the upper level of a particular division with the lower level employees in another division. The types of formal communication within an organization that are commonly used are meetings, conference, phone calls, company bulletin and interview. 2. 3 Informal Communication Informal communication is nevitable in every organizational entity. By communicating with other people, employees can find similarity in hobbies, opinions and experiences, which result in being friends. Informal communication is based on social relationship among people (Litterst & Eyo, 1982). Informal communication is relaxed, casual and spread through word-Â ­? of-Â ­? mouth. Informal networks are communication links between individuals and sections that bypass the formal structures in an organization (Smith, 2011) . There are four flows in communication networks; the first one is single strand in which one person tells another person, the second one is gossip hain in which one person tells the others, the third one is probability chain in which one person tells another person who pass the news to someone else and the fourth one is the cluster chain in which one person tells other two or three people who spread the news to other two or three people as well. There is another important term in informal communication, which is grapevine. Grapevine is best described as the way gossip travels through organizations. Robbins and colleagues (2008) indicate the characteristics of grapevine: it is not controlled by management, it is more believable and reliable for the employees and it serves he self-Â ­? interests of those in the group. 2. 4 Differences between Formal and Informal Communication FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 3 APPROACH No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Elements Definition Fl exibility Degree of control Evidence Discipline Formal Communication Informal Communication Takes place through Passing formal channels Flexible by Cannot be controlled No documentary proof is not followed formal channels Not flexible Controlled management Has documentary proof Official discipline are highly maintained is Discipline Flow of information Flows upwards, Flows freely to all downwards, horizontal directions and iagonal 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 2. 5 Differentiation and Complimentary Studies have attempted to determine which one between formal and informal communication has the most impact in organizations. Research suggest that formal communication takes role in the authority in organizational hierarchy (Dow, 1988; Jablin, 1987), differentiation of labor and specialized tasks (Dow, 1988; Jablin, 1987) and mechanism for coordination of work (Dow, 1988). Meanwhile, business communicators strongly believe that informal 4 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATION AL APPROACH Speed Secrecy Rumor Distortion Time MisunderstandingCost Mistakes Slow Can be maintained occur Not distorted Requires much time misunderstanding Expensive Very low Very fast Difficult to maintain Small chance of rumor to Rumor can occur Can be distorted Less time occur Less expensive Very high Not much chance of Misunderstanding may communication plays an important role in increasing innovations within organizations (Johnson, 1990). Johnson, Donohue, Atkin and Johnson (1994) conducted a study on the means of formal and informal communication within an organization through three main perspectives: salience, channel factors and channel usage. The research suggested that the employees erceive informal communication as more effective and better used in achieving company’s mission. However, in terms of cultural means, formal communication is perceived as a more appropriate way to communicate. 3. Case Study First and Tomic (2011) conducted a research regarding the role of informal communication in creating company brand image and preferences. In this research, the object was an international turnkey contractor specializing in oil and gas industry. This company employed more than 38,000 employees all over the world at the time this research was conducted. This company operates in business market, so not many eople acknowledge this company’s existence. However, this company concerns about its brand image. They use formal approach in spreading its existence to college graduates by coming to the university and do presentations on its company profile. Nevertheless, formal communication only does so much. They also rely heavily on informal communication role to spread the word-Â ­? of-Â ­? mouth on the culture of the company. For example, people know from their acquaintances that this company gives high salary to their employees and this news draws them to working for this company. The second example of case study comes from the research ofAndr ea, Arnaldo and Romano (2011). The case was about Italian leading mineral water and soft drink company. In 2008, the company held 16% of the segment mineral water in Italy, 12% in soft drink and 19% in tea-Â ­? based drink. Its ROE was 18. 1% while its competitor was only 13. 8%. Its inventory turnover was 12. 6 compared to its major competitor whose inventory turnover was only 6. 15. The study focuses on determining the role of formal and informal communication in making this FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 5 APPROACH company a leader in its filed. The study was conducted in three steps. The first one is dentifying the units that engage in the process of purchasing, manufacturing and logistics. The second step is tracing the flow of formal and informal communication during those activities. The final step is to identify how both formal and informal communication improved over time that results in a synchronized workflow of the company. The study suggested that formal communication was highly important in achieving internal integration (Andrea, Arnaldo & Romano, 2011), while informal communication is important in problem solving because it occurs in real time (Pagell). 4. Conclusion Based on the present and former studies conducted y many scholars on various objects (focuses on organizations in this matter), it can be concluded that both formal and informal communication are important in the productivity of the company and its performance as a whole. Managers should identify in which field the communication should be optimized and which way to use. There are several differentiations in the work progress on which it is better to use either formal or informal communication and managers should be well aware of it so they would not imply the wrong method of communication. As in optimizing the informal communication, managers should use personal approach as it ravels fast and is more favorable by the employees. Moreover, informal communication can be used in building company brand and image, so managers should be really careful that only the good values of the company is transmitted through informal communication. 6 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH References Andrea, F, Arnaldo, C & Romando, P 2011, ‘Case study: understanding how formal and informal communication affect purchasing, manufacturing and logistics integration’, Advances In Management, vol. 4, no. 7, pp. 22-Â ­? 32. First, I, Tomic, M 2011, ‘Formal and informal communication channels in creating Formal and Informal Communication: an Organizational Approach Formal and Informal Communication: An Organizational Approach By: Masayu Shahnaz Winarko Student Number: 43005860 Faculty of Economics, Business and Law University of Queensland Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 2012 Abstract This paper concentrates on the discussion of formal and informal communication and its usage in organizational approach. Although both formal and informal communication support the well-Â ­being of organizations, studies suggest that informal communication has taken a big part in determining the productivity in organizations and it has derived many benefits and many challenges. Managers should know how to deal ith such thing and optimize the advantages that will create value added for the company and overcome the obstacles it might create. Many researches have studied and given results on this matter and its application in businesses worldwide. 1. Introduction Communication occurs in every single section in life, from personal to professional issues. It is inevit able that it supports the flow of social life and company’s workflow. It has been taking an important role in organizations; therefore, many studies concentrate in the discussion of organizational communication. It is believed that both formal and informal communication affect rganization’s productivity (Litterst & Eyo). However, unlike formal communication, informal communication is less controllable and unstructured. Informal communication plays a strong role in determining the result of scientific field by generating new ideas or improving the existed idea (Hagstrom). FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 1 APPROACH Since informal communication has a strong impact on organizational performance, managers should be able to manage the flow of not only formal, but also informal communication. As business grows and the requirements needed in surviving within the competition keep adding on, xecutives should make the most effective use of every resource avai lable and by improving the flow of communication is one of the ways. This study will provide an analysis in dealing with managerial challenges regarding controlling the flow of informal communication and what managers should do to make the best of it. 2. Literature Review 2. 1 Communication Communication is the activity to convey messages through different channels, such as words, symbols and signs. Based on Duncan and Moriarty (1998), communication is a human activity that links people together and creates relationship. In order to create a successful communication, t requires three elements; they are the sender, the message and the receiver. Both the sender and the receiver have to share the same understanding so that the message can be fully transmitted. The success of communication is determined by how the message is understood by the receiver. As defined by Gamble and Gamble (2002), communication is the transfer of meaning and there are seven essentials of communication, which are people, message, channels, noise, context, feedback and effect. Although there are 126 different definitions on communication (Ruben & Stewart, 2006), but many scholars defined it as an exchange of information.Ruben & Stewart (2006) also stated that success in one’s career may well depend on communication. Not only in the individual performance, communication also determines organization’s performance. This present study will point out the importance of formal and informal communication and its applications within an organization. 2. 2 Formal Communication Formal communication is an organized and structured communication within an organization. The communication occurs in many flows. Upwards 2 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH communication indicates the communication from employees to executives. Downward ommunication represents the flow of communication from executives to lower level employees. Horizontal communication shows the flow o f communication within the same level of company, for example the communication flow of brand manager and finance manager. The last one is diagonal communication, which represents the communication of the upper level of a particular division with the lower level employees in another division. The types of formal communication within an organization that are commonly used are meetings, conference, phone calls, company bulletin and interview. 2. 3 Informal Communication Informal communication is nevitable in every organizational entity. By communicating with other people, employees can find similarity in hobbies, opinions and experiences, which result in being friends. Informal communication is based on social relationship among people (Litterst & Eyo, 1982). Informal communication is relaxed, casual and spread through word-Â ­? of-Â ­? mouth. Informal networks are communication links between individuals and sections that bypass the formal structures in an organization (Smith, 2011) . There are four flows in communication networks; the first one is single strand in which one person tells another person, the second one is gossip hain in which one person tells the others, the third one is probability chain in which one person tells another person who pass the news to someone else and the fourth one is the cluster chain in which one person tells other two or three people who spread the news to other two or three people as well. There is another important term in informal communication, which is grapevine. Grapevine is best described as the way gossip travels through organizations. Robbins and colleagues (2008) indicate the characteristics of grapevine: it is not controlled by management, it is more believable and reliable for the employees and it serves he self-Â ­? interests of those in the group. 2. 4 Differences between Formal and Informal Communication FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 3 APPROACH No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Elements Definition Fl exibility Degree of control Evidence Discipline Formal Communication Informal Communication Takes place through Passing formal channels Flexible by Cannot be controlled No documentary proof is not followed formal channels Not flexible Controlled management Has documentary proof Official discipline are highly maintained is Discipline Flow of information Flows upwards, Flows freely to all downwards, horizontal directions and iagonal 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 2. 5 Differentiation and Complimentary Studies have attempted to determine which one between formal and informal communication has the most impact in organizations. Research suggest that formal communication takes role in the authority in organizational hierarchy (Dow, 1988; Jablin, 1987), differentiation of labor and specialized tasks (Dow, 1988; Jablin, 1987) and mechanism for coordination of work (Dow, 1988). Meanwhile, business communicators strongly believe that informal 4 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATION AL APPROACH Speed Secrecy Rumor Distortion Time MisunderstandingCost Mistakes Slow Can be maintained occur Not distorted Requires much time misunderstanding Expensive Very low Very fast Difficult to maintain Small chance of rumor to Rumor can occur Can be distorted Less time occur Less expensive Very high Not much chance of Misunderstanding may communication plays an important role in increasing innovations within organizations (Johnson, 1990). Johnson, Donohue, Atkin and Johnson (1994) conducted a study on the means of formal and informal communication within an organization through three main perspectives: salience, channel factors and channel usage. The research suggested that the employees erceive informal communication as more effective and better used in achieving company’s mission. However, in terms of cultural means, formal communication is perceived as a more appropriate way to communicate. 3. Case Study First and Tomic (2011) conducted a research regarding the role of informal communication in creating company brand image and preferences. In this research, the object was an international turnkey contractor specializing in oil and gas industry. This company employed more than 38,000 employees all over the world at the time this research was conducted. This company operates in business market, so not many eople acknowledge this company’s existence. However, this company concerns about its brand image. They use formal approach in spreading its existence to college graduates by coming to the university and do presentations on its company profile. Nevertheless, formal communication only does so much. They also rely heavily on informal communication role to spread the word-Â ­? of-Â ­? mouth on the culture of the company. For example, people know from their acquaintances that this company gives high salary to their employees and this news draws them to working for this company. The second example of case study comes from the research ofAndr ea, Arnaldo and Romano (2011). The case was about Italian leading mineral water and soft drink company. In 2008, the company held 16% of the segment mineral water in Italy, 12% in soft drink and 19% in tea-Â ­? based drink. Its ROE was 18. 1% while its competitor was only 13. 8%. Its inventory turnover was 12. 6 compared to its major competitor whose inventory turnover was only 6. 15. The study focuses on determining the role of formal and informal communication in making this FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 5 APPROACH company a leader in its filed. The study was conducted in three steps. The first one is dentifying the units that engage in the process of purchasing, manufacturing and logistics. The second step is tracing the flow of formal and informal communication during those activities. The final step is to identify how both formal and informal communication improved over time that results in a synchronized workflow of the company. The study suggested that formal communication was highly important in achieving internal integration (Andrea, Arnaldo & Romano, 2011), while informal communication is important in problem solving because it occurs in real time (Pagell). 4. Conclusion Based on the present and former studies conducted y many scholars on various objects (focuses on organizations in this matter), it can be concluded that both formal and informal communication are important in the productivity of the company and its performance as a whole. Managers should identify in which field the communication should be optimized and which way to use. There are several differentiations in the work progress on which it is better to use either formal or informal communication and managers should be well aware of it so they would not imply the wrong method of communication. As in optimizing the informal communication, managers should use personal approach as it ravels fast and is more favorable by the employees. Moreover, informal communication can be used in building company brand and image, so managers should be really careful that only the good values of the company is transmitted through informal communication. 6 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH References Andrea, F, Arnaldo, C & Romando, P 2011, ‘Case study: understanding how formal and informal communication affect purchasing, manufacturing and logistics integration’, Advances In Management, vol. 4, no. 7, pp. 22-Â ­? 32. First, I, Tomic, M 2011, ‘Formal and informal communication channels in creating

GCSE media studies coursework Essay

In this essay I will be comparing two articles taken from local newspapers in different areas. I will be looking at the techniques used in each article and their effectiveness. I will use this comparison to eventually decide which article is the more effective of the two. The two headlines from the articles are quite different. ‘Inches from tragedy’ is a large, bold headline written in a way that makes you want to see what the headline is talking about, as it sounds serious. ‘Firemen free bathroom tot’ on the other hand is quite small for a headline and only really uses one emotive word, free, making it sound like the child was imprisoned, which is worse than what actually happened. I think that ‘Inches from tragedy’ is the more effective of the two headlines because it grabs the readers attention and uses a lot of emotive language in such a short space to make the reader carry on reading. The language used in these articles is quite emotive in both cases. Both articles use exaggeration to tell you what they are trying to say. This is especially evident from quotes like â€Å"escaped death by inches† and â€Å"impossible for him to get out† as they are telling the truth about the events that occurred in each case, but are blatantly over-emotive to make the article more interesting. The firemen free bathroom tot article especially exagerrates the situation as it makes a toddler stuck in a bathroom sound like a major rescue attempt, whereas the other article Inches from tragedy features a very serious situation anyway. I think that both articles use emotive language very well, and that they are equally good at getting there point across through using language. Both of the articles feature one long, main interview and one shorter interview towards the end of the article. The interviews have been included in each case to give the reader an account of the events in the article from one of the people involved. This is a good idea as people who were actually involved in the events of the article will be able to give more information on what actually happened, and will probably know things that no-one else does. Having interviews also makes the reader sympathise with the people involved, especially if it is coming from one of the people mentioned in the main first paragraph of the article. The people who put together the articles must make sure that everything they include in the interviews is relevant and that they are not too long. I think that the article that uses interviews and quotes better is probably Inches from tragedy, because all the information given is relevant to and informative about what happened. I also think this because the interviews featured are not too long and leave room in the article for other information. Having a picture in an article is a good idea, because it lets the reader see exactly who was involved and let them see what effect the events of the article have had on them if at all. It can also give extra visual information to back up what is said in the article. This is especially evident in the picture from Inches from tragedy as it not only gives a picture of the avalanche victims, but also diagrams and labelled photos to show exactly what happened and where and when it happened. Journalists may also include pictures in their articles because it breaks it up and makes it seem like less to read. An article consisting entirely of text can seem quite daunting. Again Firemen free bathroom tot is nicely done with a good picture of the firemen and the child they ‘rescued’, but Inches from tragedy uses it’s picture better because as well as a photo of the two brothers caught in the avalanche, it has informative and interesting diagrams as backup to the article. Using fact and opinion in an article is good because it lets the reader compare an outside factual account of what happened with an opinion given from a reliable source. These two things will probably differ from each other, so it is good to give the reader both so that they can compare the two to see what actually happened. As well as differing from each other fact and opinion also back each other up on certain points of the article, such as the effect something has had on certain people. Fact and opinion can add drama to a piece, but the journalist would be better off making sure that they tie in with one-another, rather than being totally different. This would give well backed up accounts of what happened, adding a sense of drama to the article. Both articles use fact and opinion very well and I think are equally successful at giving well backed up information about what happened in each. These articles are obviously aimed at different audiences. Inches from Tragedy is found in the Metro, a newspaper which is probably aimed at city types and people who live in places dominated by big news. Firemen free bathroom tot on the other hand is found in the Bury St. Edmunds Citizen which is probably aimed at the people who live in the town of Bury St. Edmunds where news like that in this article would probably be big in the town, but not many other places. This means that the article from the Metro has been written in an interesting and emotive style, but is condensed to a size that can be read quite quickly. It also contains just the basic facts about what happened, backed up by good interviews. The other article on the other hand is about the same length, but contains a lot of information on what happened, backed up by fairly short interviews with the people involved. This more long-winded style is probably better suited to an article of this nature. The final effect on the articles is that Inches from tragedy is interesting to anyone because of the use of language and pictures, but Firemen free bathroom tot would only be found interesting by the people of Bury St. Edmunds. However, this is probably what both articles wanted to achieve anyway, so they are both quite effective at reaching their target audience. Overall, I think that both articles are effective at getting their story across to the people intended. They both feature emotive language, a large headline, interviews and a picture. Inches from tragedy was very well put together and extremely informative. The language used and the picture are two of this article’s main strong points, but it could do with more information on what happened and how instead of the excess of interviews. Firemen free bathroom tot is also very well written and is probably aimed at being something of a comedy article. It makes the situation sound major by using lots of exagerration and emotive language. However, sometimes the language used is a bit too much for the situation, as it isn’t anywhere near as serious as the article makes out. There is also quite a bit of irrelevant information in the article, such as the child looking at the fire engine. I think the most successful of these two articles has to be Inches from  Tragedy, because it is interesting, informative and not too long. It also backs up the information given in the articles by picking out relevant quotes and sections from interviews. The other article I feel doesn’t do this as well and so it just loses out.