Beverly Cleary Childrens Book Author of Ramona Quimby

Beverly Cleary, who turned 100 years old on April 12, 2016, is the beloved author of 30 childrens books, some published more than 60 years ago, all still in print, along with two autobiographies. She was honored by the Library of Congress in 2000 as a Living Legend and has won numerous awards for her childrens books, including the John Newbery Medal and the National Book Award. Childrens books by Beverly Cleary have delighted children, particularly 8 to 12-year-olds, for several generations. Her humorous, yet realistic, childrens books about the ordinary lives of children, along with such appealing characters as Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins, have captured the interest of children around the world. Beverly Cleary has written 30-plus books, including three about a feisty mouse. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. In addition, Ramona and Beezus, a movie based on Clearys Ramona Quimby and her older sister, Beatrice Beezus Quimby, was released in 2010. Beverly Cleary and Her Award-Winning Childrens Books Beverly Bunn was born April 12, 1916, in McMinnville, Oregon and spent her early years in Yamhill where her mother started a small library. Thus began the authors lifelong love of books. Her family moved to Portland when Beverly was six years old; she was delighted to find a large public library. Beverly went on to study library science at the University of Washington in Seattle and became a childrens librarian. In 1940, she married Clarence Cleary. Beverly Clearys first book, Henry Huggins was published in 1950 and was inspired by a boy who complained to the librarian that there werent any books about kids like him. It, and the other books about Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy remain popular today. Her most recent book, Ramonas World, was published in 1999 and features one of her most beloved characters, Ramona Quimby. The first movie based on Clearys Ramona Quimby, Ramona and Beezus, centers on grade schooler Ramonas relationship with her older sister, Beatrice. This relationship is a part of all of the Ramona books, but most particularly in the book Beezus and Ramona. Beverly Cleary has won numerous awards, including the John Newbery Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw.   Two of her books about Ramona Quimby, Ramona and Her Father and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 were designated Newbery Honor Books. Cleary also received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in honor of her contributions to childrens literature. If thats not enough, her books have also won about three dozen statewide childrens choice awards and she won the National Book Award for  Ramona and Her Mother. The Klickitat Street Books of Beverly Cleary When she was a child, Cleary noticed that there didnt seem to be any books about children like the ones who lived in her neighborhood. When Beverly Cleary began writing childrens books, she created her own version of Klickitat Street, a real street near her childhood neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. The children who live on Klickitat Street are based on the children she grew up with. Fourteen of Clearys books are set on Klickitat Street, beginning with her first book, Henry Huggins. While Henry was the focus of the first books, a number of Beverly Clearys books also highlighted Beatrice Beezus Quimby and Beezus little sister, Ramona. In fact, Ramona has been the title character in the last seven of the Klickitat Street books. The most recent Ramona book, Ramonas World, came out in 1999. HarperCollins published a paperback version in 2001. With a fifteen-year break between Ramonas World and the last previous Ramona book, you might be a little apprehensive about a lack of continuity.  But in ​Ramonas World, as in her other books featuring Ramona Quimby, Cleary is right on target as she addresses, in typically humorous fashion, the vicissitudes of the life of Ramona Quimby, now a fourth grader. Beverly Clearys books have remained popular because of characters like Ramona. If your children havent read any of her books, nows the time to introduce them to Clearys books.   They might also enjoy the movie version, Ramona and Beezus.

Analysis of Travis Perkins plc Essay - 4115 Words

Analysis of Travis Perkins plc Executive summary This report intends to analysis the macro and internal environments and financial position of the Travis Perkins plc by conducting the PESTLE and SWOT analysis. In the beginning of this report, it introduces the mission of Travis Perkins plc. After that, this report presents the PESTLE analysis to show the company’s external environment. Then, it depicts the SWOT analysis of Travis Perkins plc to show the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of this company. It follows by the financial strategy analysis and results of Travis Perkins. The balance sheet analysis will be presented in the appendix. In conclusion, the comprehensive environments are favorable to Travis†¦show more content†¦2.3 Value of Travis Perkins plc The value of Travis Perkins plc can be described from the following aspects: First, from the aspect of the relationship with consumers, the company understands the expectations and needs of consumers, respecting them and responding them in time. Second, from the aspect of the group itself, the company works together as a united family to solve problems first when faced problems instead of criticizing someone first. Third, from the aspect of development, the company has a deep understanding of what they do now and what they are going to do next, pursuing being the best (Travis Perkins plc,2011, p10). 3.0 PESTLE analysis Macro environment is crucial to the development of a company. All the external factors can have huge positive or negative influences on Travis Perkins plc, therefore a better understanding of the environment of the company is of supreme significance (Peng Nunes, 2007). Among all the analysis tools, PEST analysis is one of the most effective tools to analyze the external environment of a company (Riley, 2012). This part will demonstrate PESTLE analysis of Travis Perkins plc below. The result of PESTLE analysis can be demonstrated in the following table 1. Table PESTLE analysis of Travis Perkins plc Political(-) Economical(-) Social(+) The raise of theShow MoreRelatedManaging Information Technology (7th Edition)239873 Words   |  960 PagesInstitute of Technology Daniel W. DeHayes Kelley School of Business, Indiana University Jeffrey A. Hoffer School of Business Administration, The University of Dayton E. Wainright Martin Kelley School of Business, Indiana University William C. Perkins Kelley School of Business, Indiana University Prentice Hall Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney

The Management of Cross-Cultural Teams in Multinational Organizations

Question: Describe about the Cross Cultural Management and the management of cross-cultural teams in Multinational organizations? Answer: Cross Cultural Management: Introduction: Culture is the outcome of ones heritage, it passes from generation to generations. It is the idea that is believed by a group of people. Every ethnic group in this world has its own culture. Their values are shaped by their culture. In this report all, the issues that arise because of differences in culture in multinational corporations are carefully examined. The report is based on the study done by Rodrigues and Sbragia on The cultural challenges of managing global project. The report examines the managerial implications while expatriating employees on global projects. A brief understanding is done on the issues that the personnel face when they travel outside their respective countries and cultures (Heine, 2008). The study is divided into four sections; the first section is a brief introduction of the topic. All the issues are that arise in cross cultural work groups are briefly discussed. The second section discusses the competencies of the personnel, whom the organization should select, and the duties and responsibilities of the Project managers and the organization (Haghirian, 2011). The third section talks about managing the groups and turning them to a competitive advantage of the organization. Lastly, the reviews that the researchers have made in the journal are discussed. The management of cross-cultural teams in Multinational organizations: The study talks about the hitches that the multinational organizations face in managing the work groups of various cultures. The study is a careful examination of the study done by Ivete Rodrigues and Roberto Sbragia on The cultural challenges of managing Global project Teams: a study of Brazilian Nationals. The study is done to understand how the difficulties in managing these work groups can be solved. An organization works towards many goals, out of which its major goal is to maximize its profit. If the work groups do not tend to work in coordination with each other, then attaining such goals is not possible. The management of such work group is difficult because the variation is too high (Heagney, 2012). People tend to behave in a way, which reflects their cultures and customs. The behaviour of employees does not match each other. The ability of the organizations to integrate these cross culture groups efficiently gives them a competitive edge over the employees. This ability to incorporate the resources, assets and knowledge of the employees make huge differences in the success graph of the company. The cultural beliefs of the teams can cause impacts and can lead to huge success and failures of the company. Such an impact the cultural difference has. Regardless of such importance, a very little attention has been paid on this topic by the researchers. The impacts of cultures: Through the analysis of cultural differences management styles, motivation of team members can be identified. This also tells how the organizations perform all round the globe. The behaviour of the teams can be analysed. However, in individualism, the researchers have chalked out that individualistic cultures it looks good, but in collectivist cultures, the people are more likely to lose their identity (Guo, 2009). They feel a loss in identity. In case of expatriation, the cultures with individualistic orientation have more cultural clashes within a country. The hierarchy decides the level of proximities. In companies with low hierarchy, arrange their projects more casually, whereas the companies with huge hierarchies have very formal relationships during projects. In individualistic countries, the communication that takes place is closed ended and in countries with collectivist approach, the countries are multiple and open ended (Rodrigues, 1998). The Challenges: The challenge that a cross-cultural team faces can be explained through an example. There is a huge difference in the working procedures. The Japanese are very humble in their workplace and they do not deny on the face. The Japanese do not like to uncover or discuss organizational issues openly; they believe there is a process of doing everything. The reaction process of the Japanese is slow. On the other hand, people on the west are open in speech and they tend to discuss the problems and resolve them. Management of inter culture competence: The inter culture talent should be selected keeping in view a few aspects. These aspects are prior experiences of living in a collectivist environment, interest of travelling globally, experience of working on off shore projects and openness to new experiences. More the familiarity with the host country less is the cultural differences (Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2015). The individual competence is very important to acclimatize according to the cultural norms of other countries to survive in the global projects. To do so one needs to know thoroughly the values of cultures and learn to compare various cultures. Intermingling with other cultures with an open mind does not mean forgetting one`s own individuality and culture (Heine, 2008). Managing Global Teams: In their study, Rodrigues and Sbargia reviewed that the manger`s role is confined to the process of recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation and other HR activities with a little attention to issues like cultural management (Project and program management, 2013).The intricacy to work abroad with multicultural people is a great difficulty. Modern Human resource management has started the analysis of this and this is what differentiates it from the traditional human resource management (ZajaÃÅ' ¨c, 2013). The study suggests the best way to manage these intercultural differences is to acclimatize the organizational policies and to mend them according to a common culture of the organization culture (Livermore, 2011). There are policies that may work in one country but not in another country, so policies can be liberalised as per the need of the countries. Nothing rigid is followed. This might hurt the sentiments of any work group. The policies should be able t o deal with the differences (Zhang, 2009). The engagement of employees on global projects has strategic value that can affect the ability of an organization to retain them in the organization with same enthusiasm. Their allocation on various projects must be done after the assessment of their previous works (Rodrigues, 2009). Not just the availability they must also assess the precise development, needs, knowledge should be assessed. The developmental teams usually doe the review of the projects and gives feedbacks. Only few managers are able to cater the needs of other professional on issues like support for career management (Velo, 2011). Demobilization of the global teams: Demobilization of the team members is a very important task of the Project manager. Once the project work is finish, the teams have to be relocated. The routine operations have to be carried out. In the global projects, there are functional activities and the use of a matrix structure in the organization is always seen (King, 2011). Once the projects are over the team members expatriated are repatriated again; and those who were professionals hired from outside are laid off to minimize the extra costs that would incur after retaining them unnecessarily (Taylor and Lennon, 2012). The data below indicates the significance of intercultural ability of the individuals to retain in the global projects (Rodrigues, 1998). Source: (Roberto Sbragia, 2011) It is the responsibility of the project manager to plan the constituency of a team, and it is the responsibility of the organization to retain them. The project manager settles the best human resource available, in the project (Pyndt and Pedersen, 2006). It is the duty of the organization to incorporate such selection process and consider the cultural issues. So that issues do not arise creating differences between the employees. It came out during the research that only cultural differences were not responsible for the performances of the teams. Cultural differences only affected the performances of the teams. There are various other reasons for the overall development of an organization. The factors like political geographical, and economical should also be considered. Literature Review: Cultural management is an important issue that has been researched by many authors. This issue has a major impact on the success of multinational organizations. The organizations hire personnel who are bright but the issue arises when they are expatriated to other countries on projects. These individuals are facing the problem of coping with other cultures. The differences in cultures affect the mind set and ultimately the work is hampered. People with open mind can adapt themselves to those cultures but the people from countries of individualistic culture face the problem of working together in other cultured countries. Prior to this study, a lot of research is done in this regard. The present report incorporates the research, writing and intellectual opinions to cross cultural management and the influence of the issue in global projects of the multinational companies. Various studies have a reference to this study. The article on cross culture management by N.J Adler talks of all t he issues that we have discussed here. In the year 2004, Daniels, lee, and Sullivan also discussed on the same issue on their journal of cross-cultural management. Research methodology: The report is an exploratory qualitative research and the search is based on case study (Dane, 2011). The sample size of the project was six global projects in six different companies. The analysis was done on global projects. The researcher personally collected the data within duration of 120 minutes. The key format of the study was the managers of the global projects (Bell, 2010). The treatment of the data that was used listening and transcribing of the interviews of the employees. The analysis has used various others reports propounded by various other authors. Findings and conclusions of the researcher: On the research on Brazilian multinationals, the research has thrown light on the key elements of the issue of multiculturalism. The cultural differences that the personnel face have been brought up. Because of internationalization, Strategies are needed to manage people. The researchers have used definitions like expatriation policy, training the personnel and developing them into a part of collective society. It is up to the Project manager to distinguish qualified professionals. The knowledge beyond technical skills should go so that the professionals become competent to face such issues. The project manager has to build a team of qualified professional with collective approach but the organization should retain them. Therefore, the management of such teams needs a leader who would be able to access and transfer between the respective departments. Personal Reflection: The authors above have mentioned many valid points to support their research. The authors have argument of the management of cross culture multinational Organization. The organizations in order to enhance the functioning of the organization should look upon the various issues that happen because of cross-cultural misunderstandings. This recent phenomenon has taken place recently in the Brazil. The global project managers have to understand the rapport between cultural characteristics and management teams. The study has taken six cases of Brazilian multinational companies to understand the management of such teams and deepen the concepts including planning, deployment, development, and management of the human resources. In the study, it came out as a result that a little attention has been paid to the issue of multiculturalism and the inter-cultural enticement that should be given to the team members for their development. This is little ignored but the impact is huge in hampering the construction of a global approach and functioning of the Brazilian multinationals to work outside the Nation. The study helps to find out the various ways to handle such situation. This was suggested in three different dimensions; the project itself, the organization and the global environment. The work has the aim to maximise the benefits of global teams by increasing their creativity and innovation in their capacity to deliver. The avoidance of these issues of multiculturalism can bring ranging from divergence between labour and project failure. The national cultures and intercultural competence has been discussed. The author has rightly said that culture has an impact on humans as a metal programming comprised of the pattern of thoughts. These patterns of thoughts shape the behaviour of every individual. It is an outcome of constant learning and determines partially the behaviour of human beings. The authors also talk about the upbringing of human beings in individualistic and c ollectivistic environment. This environment affects a lot on the behaviours of individuals. The people born in collectivistic environment are more positive towards interacting with people of other communities. These people can easily intermingle and do not show negative attitude towards the behaviours of people of other communities. On the other hand, the people of individualistic culture are very rigid in nature and they never look forward to learn or behave in integrity with the people of other cultures. The diversity of minds is necessary to deal with a common culture of an organization and there are more praising points than contradictions in the study. The task of recruiting people of various nationals involves risks but the best way to conduct such recruitments is that organizations should acclimatize itself in such an environment, which has a common behaviour towards all the employees. The common organizational culture would help all the employees to integrate themselves with fellow employees and the organization. The performance of the teams can be improved when the multicultural teams will learn to act as a team and develop various strategies to overcome the linguistic and cultural obstructions. Conclusion: The cross-cultural issues arise in every multinational corporation but there are certain ways to eliminate these issues. Adaptation is the first approach that should be adopted by the employees. They have to acclimatize themselves in new environment with new people. This would help them to enhance their own growth too. Structural intervention is necessary where the ion organization can adopt reorganization or reassignment to reduce the interpersonal rasping. Managerial intervention should be avoided and all the employees of the group should be allowed to come up with their thoughts to the company. References: Bell, J. (2010).Doing your research project. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open University Press. Dane, F. (2011).Evaluating research. Los Angeles: Sage. Guo, R. (2009).Cross-cultural economic management. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Haghirian, P. (2011).Multinationals and cross-cultural management. London: Routledge. Heagney, J. (2012).Fundamentals of project management. New York: American Management Association. Heine, S. (2008).Cultural psychology. New York: W.W. Norton. King, T. (2011).A companion to cultural resource management. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Livermore, D. (2011).The cultural intelligence difference. New York: American Management Association. Understanding Cross-Cultural Management. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/8169389/Understanding_Cross-Cultural_Management [Accessed 21 Feb. 2015]. Peterson, M. and Sndergaard, M. (2008).Foundations of cross cultural management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Pyndt, J. and Pedersen, T. (2006).Managing global offshoring strategies. Kge, Denmark: Copenhagen Business School Press. Rodrigues, C. (1998). Cultural classifications of societies and how they affect crossà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ cultural management.Cross Cultural Management, 5(3), pp.31-41. Rodrigues, C. (2009).International management. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. Roberto Sbragia, I. (2011). 1st ed. Project and program management. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press (2013). Taylor, K. and Lennon, J. (2012).Managing cultural landscapes. London: Routledge. Velo, V. (2011).Cross-cultural management. New York: Business Expert Press. ZajaÃÅ' ¨c, J. (2013).Communication in global corporations. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Zhang, X. (2009).Values, expectations, ad hoc rules, and culture emergence in international cross-cultural management contexts. New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Sense And Sensibility Research Paper Essays - Literature

Sense And Sensibility Research Paper Having a strong heart like Elinor and a latent sense similar to Marianne, Jane Austen displayed her characteristics through her characters. Elinor and Marianne were two main characters that Jane Austen used to display her true character. Elinor is very devoted to her family and tries to do everything she can to support them. Every now and then, when the family is in need of advice, they would all look to Elinor. Marianne was the younger daughter in the family of three sisters and she is always caught up in romantic poetry. At one time in the novel, Marianne went through a catastrophe because the love of her life had left her. Marianne tries to hide her fear to avoid all her distress. (Austen 288) Both of the character's lifestyle reflected that of Jane Austens'. In the writing of the novel Sense and Sensibility, Austen wrote the novel according to her own passionate feelings. People began to notice her writings towards the end of her life. Jane Austen's lifestyle and characteristics were revealed through her characters Marianne and Elinor in her novel Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen began writing novels when she was in her early twenties, she was a very intellectual women. She enjoyed reading many books in her life that gave her an advantage in writing great novels. When Austen wrote the novel Sense and Sensibility, much of her characteristics were seen through the novel. ?Jane Austen is thus a mistress of much deeper emotion than appears upon the surface. She stimulates us to supply what is not there.? (Woolf 19) After Willouby's sudden break up with Marianne, many deep vivid emotions are shown to the reader. Austen lived in a society where women mostly worked on farms. Agriculture was the largest employment for women. (Weldon 36) While other women were out working on the fields, Austen would be at home diligently thinking about more ideas for her novels. Later as the years passed, Jane Austen became an author for writing novels. From then on, her occupation was to be a magnificent writer. She wrote many books that dealt with her very own lifestyles and emotions. It was not until her death when she began to notice her success in writing novels. One important thing that she could put before her writing was her family. Austen, the seventh of eight children and was ardent towards her family. Her family needed all the help they could receive because her father had passed away. In the beginning of the novel Sense and Sensibility, Mr. Dashwood died and had no choice but to give his will to his first son and nothing to the rest of the family. Although Jane Austen was not married, she had great romantic feelings and ideas. Austen used Marianne as a character in her novel Sense and Sensibility, to present her feelings of romanticism. Through out the novel, Marianne usually spoke of Shakespeare's poetry. Marianne is a lady who is very imaginary and superficial about her dreams. She is all caught up on the romantic part of life. (Austen 311) Always being caught up in poetry or another romantic thought, Marianne rarely becomes inconsiderate about what is happening around her. Marianne cares about her family a lot and does not become selfish when there is a problem. The resemblance of Austen and Marianne was that the two of them had romantic feelings and dreams. They also lived their lives as being poor. Both Austen and Marianne are very dedicated to their family. Happiness will come to the ones who wait patiently for their dreams or goals. Marianne fell deeply in love with a man named John Willoughby. She looked at John like h e was the guy of her dreams because he shared the same interest as she did. During the time the two were together, everything was very merry. But as soon as John's family discovered he was going out with a woman who was without a dowry, they threaten to take his wealth away if he sees her again. After this occurred, Marianne began to go in the state of depression. Being broken hearted for the rest of her life, she thought,