Friday Night Lights - Just Read It ! :: friday

Friday Night Lights - Just Read It ! Meat head, dumb jock. These are just two of the many derogatory labels given to football players. Is it possible for me, a meat head, to hear the criticisms dealt to the sport of football? Is it possible for me, a dumb football jock, to understand and be objective about the issues raised in the book, Friday Night Lights? Yes, because I'm not the stereotypical football player like those described of Odessa, Texas. The football players in Odessa were generally a wild party crowd. It was typical that late in the fourth quarter, when the game was in the bag, the players would begin talking on the sidelines about what parties they were going to after the game, what girls they were going to try to pick up, and laughing about how drunk they were going to get. They cared nothing for academics. The senior star running back, Boobie Miles, was taking a math course that most students took as freshmen. Many of the senior players' schedules consisted of nothing but electives. For the Oddesa footbal players, school was nothing more than a social get-to-gether, served up to them as a chance to flirt with girls and hand out with their friends. They knew that their performance in class didn't matter; the teacher would provide the needed grade to stay on the team. It wasn't uncommon for players to receive answer keys for a test or simply to be exempt from taking the test at all. Some didn't know how they would cope without football after the season was over. They ate, drank, and slept it. On the whole, these 16 and 17-year-old boys' identity was wrapped up in a pigskin. The Odessa football players couldn't be objective about criticisms of football. Their total self-esteem depended on how they did on Friday night. This was the glorified culmination of their football career: wearing the black MoJo uniform in the stadium under the big lights. Football was more than just a game to them; it was a religion. It "made them seem like boys going off to fight a war for the benefit of someone else, unwitting sacrifices to a strange and powerful god" (Bissinger, p.11). Because football was so meaningful in their lives, to criticize it was to criticize everything they'd worked so hard for and lived for.

Company specific problems that lead to the failure of the implementation Essay

Internal constraints that lead failure in implementing the BSC system in Tian-an Car Insurance Company were brought out when the following research question was posed: â€Å"Why did you stop to use it, is there any disadvantages you can find? † Following is a raft of company specific difficulties that the company faced during implementation as per the responses of managers S, H, F and O. †¢ An excess of indicators: poor design of the BSC resulted to so many â€Å"indicators† that others were left unaccounted for. †¢ Due to inability to synchronize available resources with demand the company could not sufficiently satisfy the requirements of all the four perspectives. That is why one manager said:† We can not spend too much time on customers and employees’ investigation. † †¢ The fear that questionnaire data collected by company employees from clients would be biased and not the true picture of the BSC perspective â€Å"how our Customers view us. † †¢ A completed balanced scorecard model for the business took too long. †¢ Expectation of Instant results: â€Å"The agent told us that it need spend some time to see the effect, I think BSC can not help in short-run decision making. † A manager said. The BSC is a performance measurement system that directs decision makers toward long-term value creating activities. It is not meant be a measure of dealing with emergencies. †¢ The problem of size: â€Å"our branch is not large enough, so the advantages were not clearly identified† Said F. â€Å"Comparing benefits against costs (to the agent fee), there was no â€Å"good value for money. † A unified approach would have given better results. The company has eight branches! †¢ Resistance: â€Å"I found that there were many complaints from our employees. Someone felt it waste their time to response each indicator† said H. A change management process would have sufficed. †¢ SBC used as a control tool: management’s lack of knowledge on how to use the BSC led to strictly following â€Å"targets†, and decreasing staff bonuses. This made â€Å"others to doubt their ability† and increased complaints. This was a case of managing staff instead of managing processes. †¢ After applying the BSC manager O could not fins any noticeable â€Å"good performance in the period† 4. 3. 8. Communication is the life blood of a successful BSC system: That poor communication contributed to the failure to implement the BSC system in Tian-an Car Insurance Company is revealed by responses obtained from the question: â€Å"Do the managers and employees communicate regularly? † The Car insurance sales manager (S) said: â€Å"Not really, because our employees are really busy. But we have employees’ meeting in each Wednesday, we could communicate at that time. † The Car insurance financial manager (F) said: No, unless at employees’ meeting, but I just report some targets and requires. Comments will not be reflected to me. † While the Human resources manager (H) said: â€Å"Yes, I communicate with employees regularly and they will have some complaints and suggestions. † This finding suggests that the communications structure in this company is flawed. It could just be that the company has a top-bottom but no bottom up, horizontal and diagonal communication. Additionally it is evident that complaints are only directed towards the human resource manager. 4. 3. 9. Tian-an Car Insurance Company management have no regrets and would consider implementing the system if given a second chance: The whole rounded nature of the BSC serves as an eye opener to any one who gets a chance to experience it. When a manager was asked: â€Å"After you quitted using the BSC, have you tried other performance measurement systems? † He answered: â€Å"No, I think BSC [introduced us to the world of] performance measurement systems. Our employees have increased their knowledge about management performance and when our company becomes large enough, we will consider using it again. † 4. 3. 10. Lessons Learnt: To appreciate the impact of implementing the BSC, Tian-an Car Insurance Company managers gave a raft of lessons learnt that shows the true extend of their new understanding of performance measurement. This was in response to the following question: â€Å"Any possible suggestions for using the balanced scorecard in your branch? † †¢ The Car insurance sales manager (S) said that: â€Å"I think each level of a company should understand their Key Performance Indicators and Targets. The training of balanced scorecard should not be neglected. †¢ Company Car insurance financial manager (F) responded: â€Å"Key Performance Indicators and Targets should be set properly† †¢ The Human resources manager (H) advised: â€Å"I think [a good] training on the balanced scorecard is more important than the other [aspects of the system]. Companies should let their employees understand the whole [BSC] process first. They should [establish] a feedback [feature to facilitate communication from all directions] so that management and employees can discuss and adjust the targets immediately. † A proper appraisal mechanism should also be in place. † The above lessons learnt are excellent and are important ingredients for best practices in the implementation of the BSC system in any company. 4. 4. Conclusion What you measure is what you get. (Kaplan and Norton 1992) Effective managers understand that performance measurement systems that focus on only one aspect like finance and production are not good enough. They realize that no single measure can provide a clear performance target or focus attention on the critical areas of the business. The balanced score card allows managers to look at the business from four important perspectives: the customer, internal, innovation and learning and financial perspectives. This checks the company from having too many or too few measures. It is a superior system. It is recommended that the Tian-an car insurance company adopts the balanced Score Card system. Tian-an Car Insurance Company structure. References: Francesco, A. M. , and Gold, B. A. (2005) International Organizational Behavior Pearson Education Inc. One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, NJ USA. Kaplan, R. , S. , Norton, David, P. , (1992). ‘The Balanced Score Card – Measures that Drive Performance’, Harvard Business Review, and Reprint 92105.

Eliezer Wiesels Relationships - 1270 Words

Elie Wiesel was a young boy, when his life changed drastically. He was born in Sighet, Transylvania, which is now Romania. He was born to Shlomo and Sarah, which they had four children, Hilda, Bea, Tsiporah, and Eliezer. Wiesel and his family practiced the Jewish religion, before he was forced into the concentration camps. In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel had a strong belief in God. When Elie and his family were sent off to the concentration camps, he tested his belief in God. In the novel Night, â€Å"Wiesels childhood faith in the goodness and promise of God was forever shattered when as a young boy he was deported along with his family from their native Transylvania to Auschwitz. Arriving at Auschwitz Wiesel learned what Dostoevsky in†¦show more content†¦He was taken away on a train and witness, children and adults being beaten and dehumanized. Moche the Beatle told everyone in the ghetto his story but no one believed him. They all questioned how he escaped and returned back to the ghetto. As time went on the SS officers came and took over the ghettos, and everyone was speechless. Elie had witnessed children his age and adults being tortured, beaten, and killed. In the novel, Elie viewed, â€Å"Not far from us, flames were leaping up from a ditch, gigantic flames. They were burning something. A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered it load, little children. Babies! Yes, I saw it, saw it with my own eyes. . . those children in the flames† (Wiesel 41). During the novel, Night, Elie tries to understand the meaning of why God would want humans to treat other humans in this manner. For example, â€Å"When the narrator, Eliezer, sees a lorry filled with children who are dumped into a fiery ditch, he cannot believe what he has seen: â€Å"I pinched my face. Was I alive? Was I awake? I could not believe it. How could it be possible for them to burn people, children, and for the world to keep silent? No, none of this could be true. It was a nightmare† (Hamaoui). Wiesel was living in a nightmare; he could not get out of. He is in a state of shock that he cannot believe this is happening. In the novel, â€Å"Eliezer cannot believe what is before his eyes. His disbelief seems to numbShow MoreRelatedNight by Elie Wiesel646 Words   |  3 PagesTen years after WWII, Elie Wiesel’s novel Night was published in 1955. Night describes â€Å"his memories of life inside four different Nazi death camps,† as he was one of the few Jews to survive the Holocaust during WWII (Sanderson). Wiesel’s autobiographical novel makes him â€Å"the best-known contemporary Holocaust writer and novelist,† and reveals the impact of the concentration camps on humanity and for the individual (Sibelman).As a negative Bildungsroman, Night depicts â€Å"a coming of age story in whichRead MoreRelationship between Father and Son in Elie Wiesels Night972 Words   |  4 PagesElie Wiesels Night: Fathers and sons Over the course of Elie Wiesels novel Night, the protagonist Eliezer gradually begins to lose his faith in God. He sinks deeper and deeper into the evils of the Holocaust, first in the ghetto, then in the Nazi concentration camp. As Eliezers views on religion begin to change, so does his relationship with his father. He begins the novel still a young boy, and regards his father as powerful and full of strength. Gradually, he is stripped of his boyhood illusionsRead MoreAnalysis Of Eliezer Wiesel s Night1480 Words   |  6 PagesEliezer Wiesel is a Nobel-Prize winning writer, teacher and activist known for the novel Night, in which he recounts his experiences surviving the Holocaust. After he was freed from Buchenwald in 1945, Wiesel went on to study at the Sorbonne in France from 1948-1951 and took up journalism, writing for the French and the Israeli publications. His friend, Francois Mauriac encouraged him to write about his experiences in the camps; Wiesel then published in Yiddi sh the memoir And the World Would RemainRead MoreNight, By Elie Wiesel1083 Words   |  5 Pagesmonstrosities that went on during this time. In the 1960 novel, Night, Elie Wiesel utilizes several literary devices, including the symbology of nighttime, motif of religious practices, and theme of father-son relationships, in order to emphasize the atrocities of the Holocaust specifically for Jews. Wiesel’s first hand experience in concentration camps allows for a vivid retelling of what many people had to endure. The symbolic portrayal of the nighttime helps to add a deeper meaning to the text. The titleRead MoreDehumanization1208 Words   |  5 PagesThe Dehumanizing Effects of Trauma in Elie Wiesel’s â€Å"Night† In the memoir â€Å"Night† by Elie Wiesel, experiences of trauma and dehumanization are vividly portrayed. This text explores the idea that dehumanization is (quite often) a result of trauma as it can cause a sense of detachment between the perpetrator and the victim. Perpetrators are led to feel as if they are causing harm towards insignificant or inanimate objects rather than towards other human beings while victims are made to feel as ifRead MoreFather Son Relationship In The Novel Night831 Words   |  4 Pagesfather-son relationship in the text is a strength? In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel is transparent and honest towards the audience about his father-son relationship experience in Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of Hitler’s concentration camps. Ellie Wiesel provides the reader with an insight of the incessantly instinctive unconditional loving bond of the father-son relationship between Eliezer and his father, which develops throughout the novel. Towards the beginning of the novel, the relationship between theRead MoreSilence, By Elie Wiesel1799 Words   |  8 PagesIn Night by Elie Wiesel, silence is a reoccurring theme that represents many aspects of Wiesel’s struggle during the most coldblooded massacre in the history of the world. Although silence may seem unimportant, Wiesel’s remarks about this theme symbolizes far more. He believes it is silence that allows the Nazis to takeover and begin the slaughtering. Wiesel emphasizes that silence is the only appropriate response to the Holocaust because the events that took place at Auschwitz have caused languageRead MoreAnalysis Of Eliezer Wiesels Novel Night920 Words   |  4 Pagesoptions: hard work or the crematorium. When Eliezer Wiesel’s father asks for the bathroom, he is beaten by the Kapo. A Kapo is a head prisoner: that is in charge of the other inmates. Eliezer is appalled at his own failure to defend his father from getting beat. Eliezer Wiesel is a famous Holocaust survivor, a political activist, professor, and a novelist. He is the recipient of many different accomplishments and achievements throughout his life. Eliezer was born on September 30, 1928; he lived inRead MoreAn Everlasting Relationship in Elie Wiesel ´s Night1237 Words   |  5 Pagesthan being hated by the Nazis for who they are. In Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, he tells the petrifying experiences he suffered through that scarred him forever. Some things can never be unseen, and this was the case for Wiesel. If it were not for his father, his last bit of hope for life would have been shattered, and he would not have survived. As each horrifying event unfolds at the concentration camps, the true strength of the relationship between Elie Wiesel and his father shows and progressivelyRead MoreTheme Of Father And Son Relationships In Night By Elie Wiesel1212 Words   |  5 PagesOne of the major themes that can be found in Night, by Elie Wiesel, is one of father/son relationships. To quote a father from the book, Stein, â€Å"The only thing that keeps me alive is knowing that Reizel and the little ones are still alive.† Not all father/son relationships are as good however. Another part of the book reads, â€Å"I once saw. . . a boy of thirteen, beat his father for not making his bed properly. As the old man quietly wept, the boy was yelling, ‘If you don’t stop crying instantly, I