Bamboozled: Black People and White Man Essay

In 2000, Spike Lee wrote and directed the film Bamboozled. When discussing his satirical film, Spike Lee claimed, â€Å"I want people to think about the power of images, not just in terms of race, but how imagery is used and what sort of social impact it has – how it influences how we talk, how we think, how we view one another[. . . ]how film and television have historically[. . . ]produced and perpetuated distorted images. † Spike Lee certainly conveyed this message in Bamboozled. Images are powerful and carry massive social impact. They should never be misrepresented. Are all African Americans either lazy or dim-witted or â€Å"happy servants†, always ready and willing to please the White Man? The short answer is, no. However, throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, many people believed this. The ultimate question is, why? As explained in the film Ethnic Notions, this false perception grew and grew, even past the time of slavery, due to images. Derogatory images of African Americans as â€Å"happy servants† or â€Å"savages,† were everywhere; they were published in children’s books and slapped on cans of food to be used as a marketing tool. People bought into this perception of African Americans, as they became acclimatized to it. Today, our society likes to believe that times have changed and there is no longer an issue of race or false perception of African Americans in the media. However, Spike Lee argues, â€Å"A new â€Å"phenomenon† has emerged in film in recent years, in which an African-American character is imbued with special powers, filmmaker Spike Lee told a student audience ? This new image is just a reincarnation of â€Å"the same old† stereotype or caricature of African Americans ? Lee cited four recent films in which there is a â€Å"magical, mystical Negro† character ? in â€Å"The Legend of Bagger Vance,† a black man â€Å"with all these powers,† teaches a young white male ? how to golf like a champion ? â€Å"How is it that black people have these powers but they use them for the benefit of white people? † Spike Lee seems to be under the impression that African Americans are still misrepresented in the media. They have only improved their ability to mask the fact. False image is still there, but it is subtle. His film Bamboozled ripped viewers’ eyes wide open. The film explored and demonstrated two images of African Americans. The first image, is the Black Man who is just like the White Man or the Asian Man or the Middle-Eastern Man; a man who can be rich and successful like Pierre Delacroix in Bamboozled; a man who can be poor and when without money will do almost anything for it like Manray and Womack. However, when Pierre Delacroix pitched television shows about a Black Man living in an upper-middle-class white, suburban neighborhood, his superior, Thomas Dunwitty turned them down, â€Å"they definitely don’t want to see dignified black people [on television]. † However, the network would allow Pierre Delacroix to create a show which blatantly degrades African Americans; a show which goes back to the 1900s, to the time of black face and minstrel shows; a time when black people were considered subhuman. This is where Spike Lee demonstrates the other image of the African American; an image that the media has gently forced down viewer’s throats. Spike Lee, however, did not do so gently. The fictional television show in Bamboozled, â€Å"Mantan’s New Millennium Minstrel Show†, starred African Americans in â€Å"black face† acting like buffoons. It might as well have been an authentic minstrel show in the 1900s. There was dancing and singing. The two main characters hid from the White Man in a chicken coup, saying â€Å"ain’t nobody in here but us chickens! â€Å"4 The creator, Pierre Delacroix’s initial intention with this show was not to degrade his own race. It was to â€Å"break the stereotypes. â€Å"5 He figured the nation would be shocked and outraged! Instead they ate it up. The studio audience dressed in black face. Children trick-or-treated in black face. It was the latest craze of the nation. Black face is an act which digs back to a time of slavery, a time where African Americans were considered inferior. It was now socially acceptable to publicly highlight a moment in history that pained African Americans. People figured it’s on TV, it’s OK! The black man was degraded, as he has always been, but in Bamboozled no mercy was spared. Spike Lee used the film in a variety of ways. He attacked today’s media and the way in which it portrays African Americans. He explored the wide scope of African American’s lives, which is no different than the lives of any other race. He demonstrated the consequences of greed and sacrificing one’s dignity. Furthermore, he exposed society for what it really is: mindless. The majority of a population does not question the media. Instead it swallows images whole, even if those images are as false and misleading as a painted black face.

Bolman and Deal

Nur Aiysha Ghazali ENGM 264 Paper #1-Bolman & Deal Bolman and Deal discuss about for frames; structural, human resource, political and symbolic. Each frame has its own characteristics, where and how the situation is applied in organization. A leader or authority of companies sometimes would apply these frames in their organization in order to tackle their employees. However, I will only discuss about 3 frames that most gave the impact to me when I read this book. The first frame that is valuable is human resources. The human resource frame talks about how organizations and people do to and for one another.Family is the suitable metaphor for organization to describe the situation. The example given in the book was about three Nucor Corp electricians who flew and drove to Arkansas and spent 24 hours to fix the failed electric grid. This example shows that they do not need their boss to tell them to go and fix it. As soon as they heard the bad news, they promptly caught a flight and arr ived there even though it was already past midnight. That action deserves some compliments-; if it happened to me, I would rather have a good sleep first and then we will see tomorrow how we are going to deal with that.The weird thing is, on what basis they made such a sacrifice for their company? This is how the human resource frame applies. Their company invests in their employees’ workforce in order to maintain their success. The Nucor Corp pays big bonuses to their employees based on their output and company’s success, thus to catch a flight to Arkansas is just a piece of cake, considering the big gain they would get. Pareto Principle stated that 80% of the profit is made by 20% of the effective employees of an organization.What Nucor Corp did was to make the 20% effective employees stay to work for them and they will only stay if the work they did worth the money they will get. However, not all companies behave just like Nucor does. â€Å"The Company Men† m ovie is a good example of how opposite they are from Nucor. The GTX authority chose to spend the money on new building and new executive offices instead of their employees. They fired their employees, including Bobby (Ben Affleck) who has quite a position in the company. Business still is all that matters to them, not charity. The human resource frame was not applied in this movie.The human resource frame in a company applies when the authority shows appreciation towards their employee, not just giving them paycheck, but keeping their job also shows gratitude from the company. The fired employees only have one of these skills: business, administration or secretariat. Just imagine how they could survive in the real world competition and what’s worse their age usually makes it harder to apply for jobs where thousands of fresh graduates can do the same thing. Watching this movie, I have realized that my decision to take Engineering Management as a minor is a good decision.I may graduate with Mechanical Engineering degree, but who knows there might be conflict later in my life, and the minor would actually help me get a job again. If the company that I work with does not apply human resource frame, just like the GTX, it is not a bad idea to have few different skills to survive in this concrete jungle. If I get fired in my forties, by then it should be okay to start doing consulting job, as I have gained many experiences from my previous work before. Backup plan is essential to avoid being a jobless.If someday I have the chance to have my own company, I would try my best to apply human resource in the management, such as scholarship for the employees’ children in order to improve the mutual relationship between the authority and employees. The second frame is political frame. The political frame sees an organization as a jungle — an arena of enduring differences, scarce resources, power negotiations and conflict. For example, theory in Cyert an d March book stated that small firms operate with the guide of the  entrepreneur, but larger corporation has bigger responsibilities, hence they operate in another way.These larger firms are coalitions of individuals or groups, which may include managers, stockholders, workers, suppliers and so on. It is crucial to realize that the political frame does not attribute politics to individual selfishness or incompetence. But it attributes it to the fundamental organizational properties of interdependence, enduring differences and scarcity. Bolman and Deal claimed that US space shuttles: Columbia and Challenger were brought down by politics.A day before the launch, NASA and the Morton Thiokol Corporation, the contractor for the shuttle’s solid- fuel rocket motor made emergency conference and Thiokol engineers requested to superiors and NASA to delay the launch. However, Thiokol’s monopoly was under attack, and the corporation’s executives were not confident to risk their billion-dollar contract by cancelling shuttle flight operations long enough just to correct insignificant flaws in the booster joint design. NASA’s schedule also was falling behind, and they needed money from the Congress if the shuttle was delayed again.Hence, to avoid all the consequences, they still launched the shuttle and it exploded right a few minutes after the take-off. The example that I can see is when we watched the downfall of Enron interview video, where one of the possible reasons of the bankruptcy point to former president, George Bush. The Enron scandal, which has laid waste to thousands of employees' life savings and revealed questionable ties to the Bush White House and members of Congress, spotlights a conflict of interest in government and shouts the need for campaign finance reform.While Congress battles over campaign finance reform, the political parties are actually raising more soft money contributions than ever before. Soft money allows unlimit ed contributions to political parties from corporations, labor unions and rich individuals to national, state and local political parties. As we can see here is that the political frame applies where some bargaining must have been done between Enron and political party in order to obtain power, if the accusation is true though. If not, the greedy Enron executives must have formed coalition and made some high-risk deals and manipulation to achieve their goals.On the surface, the downfall of Enroll in one night is due to the motives and greed attitudes behind decisions made by the executives. The company failed to report its financial affairs fully, followed by financial restatements disclosing billions of dollars of omitted liabilities and losses, leading to its collapse. It was the first time in history where a huge company like Enron can go down just in a blink of eyes, which people could have never imagined that could happen. Furthermore, strategic leaders can form coalitions with others, network informally, and negotiate and bargain to achieve agreement on certain plans of action.Someday, if I will be a leader in an oil and gas company, even with a structure of advisors and officers, a budget and other resources, I may not be able to achieve as much success as I wish, despite having the legal power. Others are able to utilize other forms of power, including public opinion and political influence to achieve what they might want, which could be contrary to what I desire. For example, if I decide to build new factory to expand the company, the public would go mad saying how it would create air and noise pollution in their residences.But, the thing is the land does not belong to the public. If the coalition can be made between the land owners and the authorities, then the project is possible despite the conflict arises from the public. Conflict would always arise if it is about political frame. If the conflict does not disturb the main goal of the coalition, th en just let it be. The third concept is about symbolic frame. Stories and fairy tales are one of the organization symbols, for example how the leader of the company worked hard during his youth to be who he is today.Stories carry values and serve as powerful modes of communication and instruction. Furthermore, the stories got passed down from one generation to next one, and that distinguishes the company from other companies. There can be various stories though, where it can be about the employees’ loyalty or other values related to the company. Bolman and Deal uses the example of ex-chancellor of Vanderbilt University, which John Wyatt told a very simple story that gave emphasis to the sacred side of teaching, one of the university’s core values, in an unusually dramatic way.Also from what I have observed, Prof Jordan uses a lot of his own experience to tell stories in class. One of the stories that he told in our class last year was about one of his friend’s f riend, who was a billionaire, got bankrupt and he was already old that time, what was worse, his wife left him. He quoted â€Å"There are three things you do not want to happen to you at the same time; old, broke and alone. † I still remember it until now because it happens to society nowadays and it is indeed very true. His stories are not comforting, but the reality really hits you big time if they are based on true stories.Just like what he did, effective organizations are full of good stories, and good stories stuck in your brain forever. Another real life example I found in a movie is where it often happens in a divorced family. The mother would usually talk about how the jobless father always gets drunk every night to the children, and eventually that leads to their divorce. The main point is not about how she bad-mouths her ex-husband, but it is more likely she is giving advice to his son to not be like that, or for the girl to not choose guys like that when she grows up.I can see the symbolic assumption in here; what is most important is not what happens but what it means. This will be useful in my future because even though you have died, good stories about you stay. For instance, if I invent some technology to help people, the stories about how workaholic I was to serve the community, or how modest I was would go around for ages. Just imagine how many people would be inspired by those stories and more updated and advanced technology would be continued by these people. The stories would be continued generation to generation, and that is one of the ways for long-term company development.The real life example for the statements would be the late Steve Jobs. As discussed above, all these frames are important in every aspects of life. Everyone would have to deal with these things since we all need to work in an organization after graduating. We have to know the skills to reframe the organizations where it fits in order to be an effective leader or manager. I think most successful companies applied these frames in their management to develop their company. It may seem insignificant, but Enron had its lesson, so it is not possible to happen to other organization.

Lecture Summaries #5 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Lecture Summaries #5 - Coursework Example However, upon assuming his position as the president, Franklin Roosevelt’s determination to make effective changes to the economy led him into developing a program identified as the New Deal. This program was a representation of the culmination of long-term trends towards abandoning the â€Å"laissez-faire† capitalism to regulating the railroads, as well as the introduction of a number of reform legislations. The main aim of the program was to rid the nation from the financial illness that was paralyzing it. Some of the changes realized after the introduction of the New Deal are inclusive of the adoption of a program advocating for cooperation between the government and private businesses. On the other hand, President Roosevelt established a central economic planning in order to rescue capitalism as well as guarantee that the government was democratically representative. He used funds from the government to uplift the economy (America in the 20th Century, 10). Conversely, the New Deal utilized government policies for the redistribution of wealth from the wealthy individuals in the country, to the individuals in need. One of the causes leading to the economic crisis during the great depression was the heavy loans the banks gave to investors for stock purchases. The second New deal led to the introduction of social reform programs that would strengthen the commitment of the nation to create jobs and provide security against unemployment, illnesses and old age. The articles on the Second World War provide a revelation of some of the factors that led to its commencement as well as the way Americans responded to the war. Some of the factors leading to the commencement of the war include the fact that there were a number of unresolved issues from the First World War, outbursts from the worldwide economic depression and the stock crash in the year 1929, and American isolationism among other factors. One of the causes leading to

Chinas Geography, Agriculture, and Industry Distribution Assignment

Chinas Geography, Agriculture, and Industry Distribution - Assignment Example The western part of China, the Frontier consists mainly of mountain ranges and deserts, and the quantity of rainfall it receives is low (Fairbank and Goldman, 14). China’s physical geography has very large extremes, but the land is divided into three tiers. The two highest tiers are in the Frontier, whereas the lowest tier makes up China Proper. The highest tier in west China consists of high mountain ranges. The land in West China has an elevation ranging from 6,000 to 29,029 feet (1,829 to 8,848 meters). At the southern end of this mountain system is the Himalaya range, made up of the world’s highest mountains, including Mount Everest. The mountains ranges of west China serve as the source of all of China’s principal rivers, including the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers (Gamer, 16). The eastern parts of the west China contain the second highest tier which consists of broad basins, plateaus, and hills, with an elevation ranging from 600 to 6,000 feet (183 to 1,829 met ers). The Mongolian Plateau, Tarim and Junggar basins, occupy most of the northern part of this tier. The population here is low because the amount of rainfall is very little. Agricultural output is low also low, and the main agricultural produce is potatoes, yak, and raisin. The southern part of the tier consists of the Loess Plateau, the Yunnan Plateau, and the Sichuan Basin, with relatively higher rainfall and, consequently, a dense population. Here, potatoes and rice are produced extensively. Cotton is the main cash crop of west China (LaFleur, 8). The people of west China were traditionally nomads, who undertook little farming in oases. As a result, livestock farming is a key component of western China’s agriculture. The main animals reared are pigs, goats, sheep, fowls, cattle and yak. East China or China Proper consists mainly of the lowest tier and a small portion of the middle tier. The land here consists mainly of lowlands and floodplains with the lowest elevation i n the country, which lies below 600 feet (Gamer, 17). The rainfall here is very high, and the land supports roughly three-quarters of China’s population of 1.3 billion people. Therefore, the population density is also high. The North China Plain, which contains the Yellow river, is in this region. These lowland plains form the heart of China’s agricultural and industrial output. China’s climate is monsoon-controlled. East China is warm and wet, whereas west China is cold and dry. This is because the summer monsoon blows hot and warm air masses over east China from the East and South China seas. On the other hand, most of west China is under the influence of the winter monsoon which blows dry, cold air masses from the northern Siberian steppe resulting in a cold and dry climate (Zhao, 45). China Proper consists of northern and southern regions demarcated by a line running just north of the Yangtze River. Significant agricultural and industrial difference exists b etween the northeastern and the southeastern regions of China Proper. The geography is generally similar since both regions occur within the lowest tier of China’s geography, which is characterized by low-lying plains, but southeastern China Proper has a slightly higher elevation and rainfall than northeastern China Proper. The Yellow River waters the plains of northeastern China Proper and the rainfall is quite high leading to a prosperous agriculture. Wheat is the staple food in this region, where it is grown in small scale on small tracts of land. The people eat it in the form of steamed bread or noodles. China’s heavy industry occurs mostly in northeastern China Proper because of the availability of large reserves of oil and coil in

NO TOPIC JUST DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

NO TOPIC JUST DISCUSSION QUESTIONS - Dissertation Example It is one’s contention that the change was managed successfully paving the way for various suppliers and customers to take advantage of advanced communication, computer, and mobile services at increasing volume and decreasing costs. Despite the efficiency and success of contemporary organizations in the industry, future challenges come in terms of continued reliability and sustainability of the system as well as controls in costs of both telecommunications equipment and services. Discussion Question 2: The force field analysis is a viable tool to initiate changes at work through the identification and evaluation of both driving forces and forces of resistance. As indicated, through brainstorming, one is made to clearly itemize these forces and determine which force/s have greater intensities that could assist in the accomplishment of identified change goals.

Integrated emergency management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Integrated emergency management - Essay Example What is the aim of Disaster risk reduction? It has an intention to reduce economic and social hazards vulnerabilities to emergency disasters. In empirical terms when managing a disaster its always right to apply professionalism, embrace the use of technology, good planning and proper management to avert a risk that can kill or rather injure large number of people and animal .The effects of disasters goes beyond loss of lives but also property worth of millions is destroyed and the community life disrupted(Kassim 890) The emergency managers should indentify and prepare adequately to mitigate the catastrophe when they occur. Businesses are starting to realize the need for disaster management because when the hazards occur the business community losses major stakes in investments (Howari 1090).Emergency management in the recent past event management has been a collaborative effort by all stakeholders both the government and the nongovernmental organisations. There have been major factors that have led to increase of awareness for establishment of disaster management in the U.A.E .There have been a principle of autonomous imm unity at all state levels in the 25 years. Furthermore legal provision such as the tort of liability for state and local government has led to more emphasis o disaster risk management. The government or individual person can be sued if convicted with tort of negligence .There are some situations some disasters can be avoided such as leakages in chemical plant. The chemical fumes may adversely affect the surrounding population and the person who is assigned the duty of being the custodian is liable for negligence. Another school of thought suggest that it’s the professionalization of the emergency managers have developed the urge to have integrated system to manage disasters(Roger Bird 48) The need to manage emergency was developed because of the adverse effects realize when these

Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 9

Statistics Project Example In this case, a description of the length of labor could have been initiated whereby the length of labor of one works would be considered as a random variable. A probability distribution that provides a description to such a random variable would them be initiated. 4. The distributions of scores for the experimental and control groups were not similar for the length of labor because the two means were different. The mean of the experimental group was 14.63 while that of the control group was 12.79, portraying a mean difference of 1.84 (Troy & Dalgas-Pelish, 2003). 5. The experimental and control groups were slightly in their type of feeding since in all types of feeding such as bottle feeding, breast feeding, as well as the combination of the two modes of feeding depicted a difference in their mode, as a measure of central tendency (Mann, 1995). Breast-feeding was found to have a mode of 40.6% for the experiment group against 41.7% for the control group, while bottle-feeding had a mode of 53.1% against 50.0% for the experimental group and control group respectively. On the other hand, the combination of both the breast and bottle-feeding showed a mode of 6.3 and 5.6 for the experimental group and the control group respectively (Troy & Dalgas-Pelish, 2003). 6. The marital status mode for the subjects in the experimental and control groups included 78.1% for the married subject in the experimental group, against 86.1% for the control group. The mode also included 3.1% for the separated/divorced subjects in the experimental group against 2.1% in the control group, and 18.8% for the single subjects in the experimental group, against 8.3 in the control group (Troy & Dalgas-Pelish, 2003). The frequencies for these three subject categories for the experimental groups against the control groups were 0.781 vs. 0.861, 0.031 vs. 0.021, and 0.188 vs. 0.083 for the married, separated/divorced, and single subjects respectively. 7. The median for the education data cannot be

History of the International Association of Fire Fighters and their Research Paper

History of the International Association of Fire Fighters and their influence today - Research Paper Example IAFF has played a crucial role in managing human resources in the fire fighting industry. The union has managed to improve the working conditions of fire fighters to an extent that it is a reliable and dependable profession. The safety of the fire fighters has been at the fore of the objectives of the union. It has focused on fighting for better wages, compensation benefits for occupational deaths and enhancing fire fighters’ skills in fighting fires. IAFF has elevated itself to a position of great influence in today’s society. This report will cover the progress made by the union since its inception in 1918 and show how such progress has changed the fire fighting profession for better. In this report, two major issues are discussed – the history of IAFF and its influence today. In discussing the history of IAFF, the milestones the union has made since its inception are highlighted. The union has been quite active and has succeeded in making great achievements. This report only highlights a handful of the achievements. On the second section, the influence of IAFF is discussed. IAFF’s influence is discussed from two perspectives – the policies it has necessitated to be enacted, and the programs and services it offers to its membership. These two have greatly changed the face of fire fighting profession and made it an integral part of the society. The history of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) is long and one that bears witness to the benefits of a continuous improvement of human resources. This association has its headquarters in Washington, DC. The association membership is more than 300, 000. The association has greatly influenced advances in the fire fighting industry and is highly credited for tremendously securing the working conditions of fire fighters. It has continuously done this by lobbying the legislature to pass laws that protect fire fighters and developing training for the fire fighters (IAFF,

Reaction Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 8

Reaction Paper - Essay Example Einstein then concludes that scientific discovery invokes a high-leveled religious awareness that is above the religion that other people understand (Letters, p. 1). After reading the letter, I imagined a persuasive, sensitive, and informed communicator. He uses a neutral and impersonal approach to judge the scientists’ idea about religion. He does not criticize opinions of the scientists. He also does not directly agree with them but says that the scientists’ opinions on religion do not agree with that of the common people. The scientists however know that religious power is present. This idea is true because scientists have not succeeded in explaining all occurrences. The failure therefore shows that there are some forces, beyond scientific knowledge, and the scientists know it. I also liked his neutral approach that is sensitive to the children who are still immature in thinking. This is because he succeeds to eliminating possible dilemma that could disturb the children’s

Comparative Literature Translation St Essay Example for Free

Comparative Literature Translation St Essay 452? F 132 Abstract || The link between Comparative Literature and translation creates a new reading framework that challenges the classic approach to translation, and allows the widening of the scope of the translated text. This paper explores this relationship through the analysis of two versions of Charles Baudelaire’s Les ? eurs du mal published in Argentina during the 20th century, stressing the nature of translation as an act of rewriting. Keywords || Comparative literature | Translation | Rewriting | Charles Baudelaire 133 Comparative literature and translation: two Argentinean versions of the Baudelairean spleen Santiago Venturini  452? F. #04 (2011). 131-141. 0. Comparative literature and translation: a reading framework There are at least two ways to conceive the link between comparative literature and translation studies. Exchanging the terms in the framework of an inclusion relationship, it is possible to consider two differentiated series of questions and to assign different scopes to the link. This exchange appears basically related to the two possible answers to the question about the limits of these disciplines, that are traditionally linked: so, it is possible to consider translation studies asâ€Å"one of the traditional areas of comparatism† (Gramuglio,   2006) or to support, as Susan Bassnett did more than a decade ago (1993), the need for a reversal to happen –similar to the one Roland Barthes established between semiology and linguistics–, to make translation studies stop constituting a minor ? eld of comparative literature in order to be the major discipline that shelters it (solution through which Bassnett tried to put an end to what he de? ned as the â€Å"un? nished long debate† on the status of the discipline of comparative literature, empowered by the criticism blow that Rene Wellek gave to the discipline in 1958)1. Beyond this ambiguity, what is important to underline is the existence of this consolidated link between two disciplines, or I should rather say, between the discipline of comparative literature(s) and the phenomenon of translation –which, on the other hand, de? ned itself as the object of a speci? c discipline barely some decades ago–. In this sense, there is a spontaneous way of thinking about the link between comparative literature and translation: the one that de? nes translation as an event and a central practice for comparatism, since it locates itself at the meeting point of different languages, literatures  and cultures. From this point of view, translation is the activity which is â€Å"synthetic† par excellence, the one that operates at the very intersection of languages and poetics, and the one that makes possible, because of its ful? lment, the ful? lment of other analytic approaches to the texts relating to each other. Nevertheless, this has not always been this way. In an article devoted to the vicissitudes of this link, Andre Lefevere pointed out that, in the beginning, comparative literature had to face a double competence: the study of classical literatures and the study of national literatures,  and that it chose to sacri? ce ranslation â€Å"on the altar of academic respectability, as it was de? ned at the moment of its origin†2. And, although translation became necessary for the discipline, it hardly tried to move beyond the comparison between European literatures, all the translations were made, criticized and judged, adopting the inde? nable parameter of â€Å"accuracy†, that â€Å"corresponds to the use made of translation in education, of classical literatures as well as of NOTES 1 | Bassnett asserts that: â€Å"The ? eld of comparative literature has always claimed the studies on translation as a sub? eld, but now, when the  last ones are establishing themselves, for their part, ?rmly as a discipline based on the intercultural study, offering as well a methodology of a certain rigor, both in connection with the theoretical work and with the descriptive one, the moment has come in which comparative literature has not such an appearance to be a discipline on its own, but rather to constitute a branch of something else† (Bassnett, 1998: 101). 2 | â€Å"In order to establish the right to its own academic territory, comparative literature abdicated the study of what it should have been, precisely, an important part of its effort†Ã‚  (Lefevere, 1995: 3). 134 Comparative literature and translation: two Argentinean versions of the Baudelairean spleen Santiago Venturini 452? F. #04 (2011) 131-141. national literatures† (Lefevere, 1995: 4). The critical thinking of the XXth century conferred translation the transcendence it had not had historically and postulated it as a clearly- de? ned object of study. Although this emancipation was achieved already in the second half of the century, it is clear that there are crucial contemporary texts about practices previous to this period. In this sense, the preface by Walter Benjamin to his German translation  of the Tableaux Parisiens by Charles Baudelaire, entitled â€Å"The Task of the Translator† (1923), constitutes an unavoidable contribution that, nevertheless, has not always been appraised. A lot has been said on this text –let’s remind the readings, canonical, by Paul De Man (1983) and by Jacques Derrida (1985)–, whose formulations were decisive for a conceptualization of translation the way it was presented some decades later by post-structuralism. Let’s recover, at least, one of the ideas that organize this document: â€Å"No translation would be possible if its supreme aspiration would be similarity with the original. Because in its survival –that should not be called this way unless it means the evolution and the renovation all living things have to go through– the original is modi? ed† (Benjamin, 2007: 81). Through this proposition, that can seem obvious to the contemporary reader, Benjamin emphasizes, in the twenties, the inevitable inventive nature of any translation and destroys the conception of the translated text as a copy or a reproduction of the original, although without attacking the dichotomical pair original/translation, â€Å"distinction that Benjamin will never renounce nor devote some questions to† (Derrida, 1985). A renunciation that will be carried out, as Lawrence Venuti points out, by the poststructuralist thought –especially deconstruction–,that again raised the question in a radical way of the traditional topics of the theory of translation through the dismantling of the hierarchical relationship between the â€Å"original† and the â€Å"translation† through notions such as â€Å"text†. In the poststructuralist thought â€Å"original† and â€Å"translation† become equals, they hold the same heterogeneous and unstable nature of any text, and they organize themselves from several linguistic and cultural materials that destabilize the work of signi?  cation (Venuti, 1992: 7). From this acknowledgment, we recover a synthetic Derridean formula: â€Å"There is nothing else but original text† (1997: 533). Thus, translation stopped being an operation of transcription in order to be an operation of productive writing, of re-writing in which what is written is not anymore the weight of the foreign text as a monumental structure, but a representation of this text: that is, an invention. It is not anymore a question of transferring a linguistic and cultural con? guration to another one a stable meaning –as happens with the platonic and positivist conceptions of the meaning that,  according to Maria Tymoczko, are still operating in the education and 135 Comparative literature and translation: two Argentinean versions of the Baudelairean spleen Santiago Venturini 452? F. #04 (2011) 131-141. training of translators in the West (Tymoczko, 2008: 287-288)–, but a practice of creation that writes a reading, an ideological practice accomplished not only by the translator –that becomes now an active agent and not a mere â€Å"passer of sense† (Meschonnic, 2007)–, but by a whole machinery of importation that covers outlines, comments, preliminary studies, criticism, etc.  , and in which a variety of ? gures are involved. In these new coordinates, translation can be de? ned as a practice that is â€Å"manipulative†, if it models an image of the authors and of the foreign texts from patterns of their own: â€Å"Translation is, of course, a rewriting of an original text. Any rewriting, whatever its intention, re? ects a particular ideology and particular poetics, and as such, they manipulate literature in order to make it work in a particular society, in a particular way† (Lefevere and Bassnett in Gentlzer, 1993: IX). This quote reproduces the already famous assertion by Theo Hermans: â€Å"From the point of view of the target literature, any translation implies a degree of manipulation of the source text with a particular purpose. Besides, translation represents a crucial example of what happens in the relationship between different linguistic, literary and cultural codes† (1985: 11-12). To assume the status that we have just conferred to translation implies to re-shape the link between this later and comparative literature. Because when it stops being de? ned in the restrictive terms of mediation or transfer of the stable meaning of an â€Å"original† text, and when it attains the autonomy of an act of rewriting of another  text according to an ideology, a series of aesthetic guidelines and of representations on otherness, translation gives up its role of instrumental practice and appears as the privileged practice that condenses a rank of questions and problematic issues related to the articulations greater than what is national and transnational, vernacular and foreign. Translation becomes the event related to contrastive linguistics par excellence; the key practice of what Nicolas Rosa calls the â€Å"comparative semiosis†: La relacion entre lo nacional y lo transnacional, y la implicacion subversiva  entre lo local y lo global pasa por un contacto de lenguas, y por ende, por el fenomeno de la traduccion en sus formas de transliteracion, transcripcion y reformulacion de  «lenguas » y  «estilos ». La traduccion, en todas sus formas, de signo a signo, de las relaciones inter-signos, o de universo de discurso a universo de discurso es el fenomeno mas relevante de lo que podriamos llamar una  «semiosis comparativa » (Rosa, 2006: 60-61). 1. Two Argentinean versions of the spleen by Baudelaire Once the approach to translation that we favour in this work is speci? ed, what we intend now is to re? ect on the particular case of  136 Comparative literature and translation: two Argentinean versions of the Baudelairean spleen Santiago Venturini 452? F. #04 (2011) 131-141. the Argentinean translations of Les ? eurs du mal (1857) by Charles Baudelaire. We will focus on two comprehensive translations of Les ?eurs du mal, and two very different publications: the one that can be de? ned as the inaugural translation of Baudelaire in Argentina, carried out by the female poet Nydia Lamarque –published by the publishing house Losada in 1948 and reprinted numerous times to date–, and the one signed by Americo Cristofalo for the Colihue  Clasica collection from the publishing house Colihue, published originally in 2006, and that appears as the last link of the chain of Argentinean translations. The difference between the date of publication of the translation by Nydia Lamarque –belated, if we take into account that a ? rst translation to Spanish, incomplete, came out in 19053– and the one by Americo Cristofalo, reports the currency of the name of Charles Baudelaire along the lines of translations of French poetry in Argentina; name that, next to the names of Stephane Mallarme and Arthur Rimbaud – the founder triad of modern French poetry– survives through different  decades4. What interests us now is to try out a cross-reading of the poems by Baudelaire and the rewritings by Nydia Lamarque and Americo Cristofalo. We will not use the comparison according to the frequent use that has been given to it in the study of translations, that is, as a method to reveal a collection of translation strategies implemented in each case with the purpose of identifying â€Å"diversions† with regard to the original. As Andre Lefevere has pointed out, to think about a new relationship between comparative literature and translation implies to set aside the approach with regulations, the one that pretends to  differentiate between â€Å"good† translations and â€Å"bad† translations, to concentrate on other questions, such as the search of the reasons that make some translations having been or being very in? uential in the development of certain cultures and literatures (Lefevere, 1995: 9). In this sense, what we intend is to read the sequence of these texts, with the purpose of demonstrating dissimilar ways of articulation with the Baudelairean poetics, two rewritings that take shape as different forms of literary writing in which the vernacular and the foreign are linked, and that are backed up by an ideology. In order to do this, we are going to con? ne our analysis to one of the poems entitled â€Å"Spleen† that is included in one of the ? ve sections that structure Les ? eurs du mal: â€Å"Spleen and Ideal†. Walter Benjamin pointed out that the Baudelairean spleen â€Å"shows life experience in its nakedness. The melancholic sees with terror that the earth relapses into a merely natural state. It does not exhale any halo of prehistory. Nor any aura† (1999: 160). In this sense, the spleen marks the death of the character of idealism â€Å"either of enlightened or NOTES 3 | We are talking about the translation by the Spaniard. Eduardo Marquina, a version marked by modernist aesthetic conventions. As Antonio Bueno Garcia has pointed out, the translation of the works by Charles Baudelaire in Spain is a fact that takes place belatedly, not due to ignorance of the writers of that period –for whom Baudelaire was a recognized in? uence– but for â€Å"the censorship problems of the second half of the XIXth century†. Garcia gets even to declare that, over and above the translation by Marquina at the beginning of the XXth century and two more versions published in the forties, â€Å"the restoration of Baudelaire’s spirit and therefore of his works  does not take place until after the Second World War, and in Spain until well into the seventies† (Bueno Garcia, 1995). 4 | Besides the two translations that we tackle in this work, we can take again the prose translation of Las ? ores del mal signed by Ulises Petit de Murat (1961) and the presence of Baudelaire in anthologies like Poetas franceses contemporaneos (Ediciones Buenos Aires: Librerias Fausto, 1974) or Poesia francesa del siglo XIX: Baudelaire, Mallarme, Rimbaud (Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de America Latina, 1978), both of them prepared by the poet Raul Gustavo Aguirre. 137 Comparative literature and translation: two Argentinean versions of the Baudelairean spleen Santiago Venturini 452? F. #04 (2011) 131-141. lyrical and romantic education† (Cristofalo in Baudelaire, 2005: 15), and exposes him to emptiness. In the framework of Baudelairean poetics, ideal and spleen appear as two values which ubiquity has a profound impact both on the sphere of an ideology of poetry, and on the verbalization and the textual organization –as long as both have a clear linguistic scope–: â€Å"Sometimes he believes, and sometimes he does not; sometimes he rises with the ideal, and sometimes hefalls to piec es into the spleen [†¦] It is easy to observe the poems that come from these two opposite perspectives† (Balakian, 1967: 50). In the chain of the poem, ideal and spleen mark, respectively, the victory of what Bonnefoy calls â€Å"poetic alchemy†, of its dynamics, of its operation, but also the movement of its withdrawal or its retreat, the contradiction of the poetic rhetoric with what is perceived further away: it is the meeting of poetry with nothingness, that happens, nevertheless, inside the corroborated possibility of the poem –there is no material failure of poetry in Baudelaire–. De Campos points  out that: el rasgo estilisticamente revolucionario de esos poemas estaria en el dispositivo de choque engendrado por el uso de la palabra prosaica y urbana [†¦] en ? n, por el desenmascaramiento critico que senala la  «sensacion de modernidad » como perdida de la  «aureola » del poeta,  «disolucion del aura en la vivencia del choque » (De Campos, 2000: 36). So, the usual lyrical vocabulary faces up to unusual â€Å"allegorical† quotes, which burst in the text in the style of an â€Å"act of violence† (2000: 36). Ideal and spleen mark the comparison of the consonant and the dissonance, of the romantic poetical rhetoric, of its power of evocation and transcendence, with a more austere rhetoric, of prosaic nature, that undermines the poetization through the imposition in the text of another movement, negative (the negative is read in terms of the contesting of a consolidated representation of the poetic). A ? rst reading of the translations by Nydia Lamarque and Americo Cristofalo makes it possible to observe that we are talking about writings ruled by two completely different â€Å"poetic rhetorics†5, which in the translation framework are based on a combination of decisions that determine the rewriting of the source-language text. These  rhetorics are assumed and stated explicitly by each of the translators in this paratextual mechanism that is relevant to any translation, set up in order to justify what has been carried out, to try and specify its exact sense, to protect it: the introduction. So, in her introduction, Nydia Lamarque, in order to explain her actions, turns to two masters: Holderlin and Chateaubriand. From the second one –translator of Paradise Lost by Milton into French–, the female translator extracts her translation methodology, that she summarizes in one precise formula: â€Å"To trace Baudelaire’s poems NOTES 5 | As Noe Jitrik points out, the  poem is a place, a material support on which certain operations are carried out that are â€Å"governed by rhetoric, in both a limited sense of rhetoric –strict rules and conventions– as in a wide sense –the obedience to or the subversion to the rules– and even pretentions or attempts of â€Å"non-rhetoric†, which effect, operatively speaking, is, nevertheless, the identi? cation of a text as a poem† (Jitrik, 2008: 63). 138 Comparative literature and translation: two Argentinean versions of the Baudelairean spleen Santiago Venturini 452? F. #04 (2011) 131-141. on a glass† (in Baudelaire, 1947: 39), which implies the search for  an isomorphism between the original and the translation, the lexical, syntactic, metrical isomorphism. More than a half century later, after the pioneering translation by Lamarque, Americo Cristofalo builds an academic reading and develops more complex hypotheses. He maintains that his translation is built up on the basis of two conjectures: the ? rst one, that metrics and rhyme â€Å"are not strictly bearers of sense† (Cristofalo in Baudelaire, 2006: XXVI) and the second one, the exposition of the double con? ict about the Baudelairean rhythms: Del lado del Ideal: la retorica poetizante, los mecanismos prosodicos, la  desustanciacion adjetiva, los hechizos de la lirica. Del lado del Spleen: tension hacia la prosa, aliento sustantivo, una corriente baja, material, de choque critico (2006: XXVII). Taking into account these positions, we can get back the ? rst verses of one of the poems of â€Å"Spleen† to know what we are talking about: 1. J’ai plus de souvenirs que si j’avais mille ans. 2. Un gros meuble a tiroirs encombre de bilans, 3. De vers, de billets doux, de proces, de romances, 4. Avec de lourds cheveux roules dans des quittances, 5. Cache moins de secrets que mon triste cerveau. 6. C’est un pyramide, un immense caveau, 7.  qui contient plus de morts que la fosse commune. (Charles Baudelaire) 1. Yo tengo mas recuerdos que si tuviera mil anos. 2. Un arcon atestado de papeles extranos, 3. de cartas de amor, versos, procesos y romances, 4. con pesados cabellos envueltos en balances, 5. menos secretos guarda que mi triste cabeza. 6. Es como una piramide, como una enorme huesa, 7. con mas muertos que la comun fosa apetece. (Nydia Lamarque) 139 Comparative literature and translation: two Argentinean versions of the Baudelairean spleen Santiago Venturini 452? F. #04 (2011) 131-141. 1. Tengo mas recuerdos que si hubiera vivido mil anos. 2. Un gran mueble con cajones llenos de cuentas, 3. versos, cartitas de amor, procesos, romances, 4. sucios pelos enredados en recibos, 5. guarda menos secretos que mi triste cabeza. 6. Es una piramide, una sepultura inmensa 7. que contiene mas muertos que una fosa comun. (Americo Cristofalo) The comparison allows us to notice the distinctive characteristics of each translation. In the case of Lamarque, the metrical imperative is conditional on all the other choices and has a direct impact on the intelligibility of the verses. The syntax gets more complicated – hyperbatons predominate–, the organization of the sense of the verse is compromised, new lexemes are added and some are suppressed in order to hold the rhyme patterns. We are not trying to cast a shadow on this translation –to which we have to admit its statute of inaugural work–, but we are interested in showing its contradiction, since the translation by Lamarque ends up obtaining quite the opposite of what he enunciated as his mandate: â€Å"Each word has to be respected and reproduced as things that do not belong to us† (Lamarque in Baudelaire, 1947: 39). As far as he is concerned, Americo Cristofalo, who in the introduction to his translation goes through the previous versions –among them is  the translation by Lamarque6–, gives up the rhyme, which allows him to carry out a work of rewriting closer to the French text: the verses are, syntactically, less complex than those in Lamarque version, clearer. Cristofalo builds a poem governed by another rhetoric, stripped of all those â€Å"processes of poetization† that appear in the translation by Lamarque, although someone could wonder if the elimination of rhyme in his translation does not imply, partly, the loss of this tension between ideal and spleen that characterizes Baudelairean poetics. But in order to appreciate what Lamarque and Cristofalo do with the  Baudelairean spleen (tedium, for Cristofalo; weariness, for Lamarque), it is enough to concentrate on only one of the aforementioned verses, the fourth one, which we mention now isolated: †¦Avec de lourds cheveux roules dans des quittances (Baudelaire) †¦con pesados cabellos envueltos en balances (Lamarque) †¦sucios pelos enredados en recibos (Cristofalo) A metonymic verse that with its minimum length shows the best of each translation. The lexical selection displays two completely different records: Lamarque produces a more solemn verse, leant NOTES 6 | Cristofalo maintains that the translation by Nydia Lamarque resembles the one  by Eduardo Marquina, whom she condemns: â€Å"Lamarque [†¦] bitterly complains about the unfaithfulness of Marquina, who chooses symmetrical poetic measures –otherwise he thinks he would not respect the original–, she says she maintains the prosody, the rhyme, she says she is scrupulous about the adjectivation. However, the effect of pomp, of conceit and affectation in the tone is the same, the same dominion of procedures of poetization, and of confused articulation of a meaning† (Cristofalo in Baudelaire, 2006: XXV). 140 Comparative literature and translation: two Argentinean versions of the Baudelairean spleen Santiago Venturini  452? F. #04 (2011) 131-141. on a delicate, subtle image, a verse with a modernist ? avour (â€Å"heavy hair wrapped in accounts†); whereas Cristofalo destroys any effect of poeticity in this direction. He simpli? es the lexical selection (â€Å"dirty hairs† instead of â€Å"heavy hair†) and he builds a harsher image, in a realist style. Both translations strengthen the Baudelairean image, but in opposite directions: Lamarque leads it towards a lyrical intensity, Cristofalo makes it more prosaic. There are other questions that can be appreciated in the cross-reading of these poems, for example the presence of a repeated pattern in the  version by Lamarque, boudoir, (that Cristofalo translates as tocador or dressing table), which expresses a whole attitude towards the foreign language; we see the same contrast in the lexical choices, that apart from being bound to the aesthetic reconstruction of the poem, marks re-elaborations that are different from the Baudelairean images, as in the case of this verse: †¦un granit entoure d’une vague epouvante (Baudelaire) †¦una granito rodeado de un espanto inconsciente (Lamarque) †¦una piedra rodeada por una ola de espanto (Cristofalo) Here, Nydia Lamarque and Americo Cristofalo carry out a grammatical  reading that is different from the alliance â€Å"vague epouvante†: Lamarque inclines herself towards an abstract image (she interprets vague as an adjective of epouvante), whereas the image on which Cristofalo bases himself has something of a maritime snapshot (he interprets vague as a noun: wave), it is more referential. Both these works of rewriting grant to the Baudelairean text a different scope; they assemble two images by Baudelaire that respond to conventions and aesthetic values that are also differentiated. In this way, they do nothing but demonstrating the true nature of the translative act. Even if it is true and undeniable that we are talking, all the time, about the translation of a previous text, pre-existing –of an â€Å"original†Ã¢â‚¬â€œ, it is also true and undeniable that translation is a deeply critical and creative practice, that exceeds the borders of the reproduction of a text –its forms move from appropriation to subversion–, a practice that in the passage of a text to another shows all the thickness of its power. . 141 Comparative literature and translation: two Argentinean versions of the Baudelairean spleen Santiago Venturini 452? F. #04 (2011) 131-141. Works cited BALAKIAN, A.  (1969): El movimiento simbolista. Juicio critico. Trad. de Jose Miguel Velloso, Madrid: Guardarrama. BASSNETT, S. (1998):  «? Que signi? ca Literatura Comparada hoy?  » en Romero Lopez, D. (comp. ), Orientaciones en Literatura Comparada. Trad. de Cistina Naupert, Madrid: Arco, 87- 101. BAUDELAIRE, Ch. (1999): Las ? ores del mal. Trad. de Eduardo Marquina, Madrid: JM ediciones. BAUDELAIRE, Ch. (2006): Las ? ores del mal. Trad. y prologo de Nydia Lamarque, Buenos Aires: Losada. BAUDELAIRE, Ch. (1980): Les ? eurs du mal. Ed. de Vincenette Pichois, Paris: Union Generale d’Editions. BAUDELAIRE, Ch. (2006): Las ?  ores del mal. Trad. , prologo y notas de Americo Cristofalo, Buenos Aires: Colihue. BAUDELAIRE, Ch. (2005): Correspondencia General. Traduccion y notas de Americo Cristofalo y Hugo Savino, Buenos Aires: Paradiso. BENJAMIN, W. (1999): Iluminaciones II. Poesia y capitalismo. Traduccion y prologo de Jesus Aguirre, Madrid: Taurus. BENJAMIN, W. (2007): Conceptos de ? losofia de la historia. Trad. de Hector Murena, La Plata: Terramar. BONNEFOY, Y. (2007): Lugares y destinos de la imagen. Un curso de poetica en el College de France (1981-1993). Trad. de Silvio Mattoni, Buenos Aires: El cuenco de Plata. BUENO GARCIA, A. (1995):  «Les ? eurs du mal de Baudelaire: historia de su traduccion, historia de la estetica », en Lafarga et. al. (coords. ), Actas del III Coloquio de la Asociacion de Profesores de Filologia Francesa de la Universidad Espanola (APFFUE), Barcelona: Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias: 263-272 DE CAMPOS, H. (2000): De la razon antropofagica (y otros ensayos). Trad. y prologo de Rodolfo Mata, Mexico: Siglo XXI. DERRIDA, J. (1997): La diseminacion. Trad. de Jose Martin Arancibia), Madrid: Espiral. DERRIDA, J. (1985):  «Des tours de Babel », Derrida en castellano, [13/08/2010], http://www. jacquesderrida. com. ar/frances/tours_babel. htm GENTZLER, E. (1993): Contemporary Translation Theories, New York: Routledge. GRAMUGLIO, M. T. (2006):  «Tres problemas para el comparatismo », Orbis Tertius, [04/08/2010], http://www. orbistertius. unlp. edu. ar/numeros/numero-12/2-gramuglio. pdf HERMANS, T. (1985): The Manipulation of Literature, London Sidney: Croom Helm. JITRIK, N. (2008): Conocimiento, retorica, procesos. Campos discursivos, Buenos Aires: Eudeba. LEFEVERE, A. (1995):  «Comparative Literature and Translation », Comparative Literature, 1, vol. XLVII, 1-10 MESCHONNIC, H.(2007): La poetica como critica del sentido. Trad. de Hugo Savino, Buenos Aires: Marmol/Izquierdo. ROSA, N. (2006): Relatos Criticos. Cosas animales discursos, Buenos Aires: Santiago Arcos. TYMOCZKO, M. (2008):  «Translation, ethics and ideology in the age of globalization » en Camps, A. y Zybatow, L. (eds. ), Traduccion e interculturalidad, Bruselas: Peter Lang, 285-302. VENUTI, L. (1992): Rethinking Translation, USA y Canada: Routledge. WILFERT, B.  «Cosmopolis et l’homme invisible. Les importateurs de literature etrangere en France, 1885-1914 », Actes de la Recherche Sociale, 144, 33-46.

The Effect Of Using The Balanced Scorecard Information Technology Essay

The Effect Of Using The Balanced Scorecard Information Technology Essay This research is basically to access and analyse the effect of the use of balanced scorecard as a strategic management system in an organisation. In the course of this research, extensive literature review of the balanced scorecard will be made. However, this research will run in the confines of a case study. Since the aim of this research is to analyse the effect of using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system, ASDA/WALMART SUPERSTORES will be used as a case study. ASDA/WALMART is the second largest retailer in the United Kingdom and the use of the balanced scored card as a strategic management system will help them align their vision with set objectives of the organisation. After much research consideration of this subject matter, it can be established that this approach can work for any organisation in the retail industry. CHAPTER ONE 1.0 INTRODUCTION The balanced scorecard (BSC) model was developed by US academics Robert Kaplan and David Norton in response to the shortcomings of traditional financial measures. The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a management tool that helps to align behaviour of all employees to the organisations strategy (Marr, B. Neely, A, 2003) Tuan, L.T and Venkatesh, S. supported that the balanced scorecard (BSC) provides a framework which encourages the use of financial and non-financial measures of performance. This also will allow organisation to identify its strategic object. This can be achieved by balancing four core perspectives- Financial perspective, customer perspective, internal business process perspective and learning and growth perspective to measure performance (Kaplan and Norton 1992) BACKGROUND Source: www.theagileexecutive.com CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH OBJECTIVES To carry out a critical literature review to identify and assess the role of the use of balanced scorecard performance appraisal system To examine the criticism of the balanced scorecard as against the traditional methods of performance measurements. To carry out an empirical research to establish the opinions of the top Management team of ASDA/WALMART about the use of the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system. To find out whether the middle managers in ASDA/WALMART support the use of the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system and if they find it effective? To come to a conclusion on the extent to which the use of the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system is effective. 3.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES After carrying out a literature review to collate data on the views of different authors on the use of balanced scorecard as a strategic management system, a set of questions will be prepared. This is necessary so as to be able to have a wide range of top management and middle managers view on the subject matter. In order to obtain relevant information needed to achieve the objectives stated below; questionnaires will be sent and delivered to top management team and middle managers of ASDA/WALMART for the following reasons: To examine the controversies of the use of the balance scorecard as a strategic management system. To analyse and establish the opinions of top management team and middle managers on the effectiveness of the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system. To draw a conclusion on the extent to which the balanced scorecard model is more effective than traditional methods of performance appraisal. 3.3 RESEARCH APPROACH 3.3.1 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY Blaikie, N. (2003) defined positivism as the research that assumes that social reality is external to people involved and only the aspect that can be measured are regarded as relevant to research. Jackson, W. (1995) stated that research just like positivism relies on experiments, survey and secondary data, therefore, according to the research onion model, my research philosophy is positivism based. The author will be using questionnaire which comes under the Survey category. 3.4 RESEARCH STRATEGY The deductive approach research strategy will be used for this research because; sufficient materials like journals, articles and periodicals are available to carry out a test on how effective is the use of the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system. This research approach will involve different researches strategies ranging from Experiment Survey, Case Study, Ethnography and action Research but the Survey strategy will be used for this research. Survey strategy and questionnaire option are chosen under this category leaving behind the structured interview and observation. Kumar, R (1999, p.104) stated that sometimes information required to carry out a research are readily available but needed to be gathered or collected from different sources to get the clue to what one is trying to find out or achieve. To achieve the objective of this research as earlier stated above, questions will be tailored to answer the Research Objectives. Questionnaire was chosen because it allows the collection of data from a sizeable population i.e. the top management team and middle managers of ASDA/WALMART. The delivery and collection questionnaire method is considered appropriate for this research. The questionnaire will be delivered in person to selected top management team and middle managers, asking them of a possible date of collection. This is chosen to be the best form of questionnaire method necessary to achieve the aim of the research, Saunders et al (2009) The author considered interview as another option to this research, but realised that time may be a limiting factor. It may be impossible to interview all the top management team/middle managers of ASDA/WALMART. The author also considered the convenience of answering the structured interview as respondents may be busy with other business matters on the day of interview. This may cause lack of concentration or simply not getting the best from the person interviewed. If time permits, additional information through interview would be gathered. This will be done by carefully selecting respondents from the questionnaire who are willing to supply more information on the subject matter and are ready to be interviewed, to assist in achieving the objective of the research. A question will be in the questionnaire asking whether respondent are willing to give further information to help achieve the research objective (Interview). Other research strategy or methods are considered inappropriate for this kind of research. ADVANTAGES OF QUESTIONNAIRE Questionnaires are generally seen as been cheaper to administer compared to interviews. Researchers and authors believe that questionnaire saves time, human and financial resources. Bryman, A. (2004, p. 133) added that, the reduction in cost of carrying out a research is an advantage considering a sample that is geographically widely dispersed. Questionnaires are also quicker to administer as they can be sent out through the post, distributed in an office, school or working place etc. It also offer greater anonymity as some questions are sensitive and are best asked without face to face interaction, Kumar R. added. This allows the respondent to freely express his/her opinion on the topic of research. According to Bryman, A. (2004), it has been argued that the characteristics of the interviewers (and respondents) do affect the answers that people give. It was discovered that characteristics like ethnicity, gender, social background of the interviewer may combine to bias the answers that the respondent provides. This is also part of the reason why questionnaire was chosen to be the most appropriate method of data collection. DISADVANTAGES OF QUESTIONNAIRE Despite all these advantages, questionnaire also has its own disadvantages and these are discussed below: Questionnaire can only be applied to a population that can read and write. This does not provide opportunity for the population sector that is part of the research that is illiterate, very young or old, or handicapped, Kumar R. stated. A low response rate or low feedback from the distributed questionnaire is a major disadvantage of the use of questionnaire. Some of the distributed questionnaires are thrown in the waste bin, some are forgotten where they are kept by the respondent; these do not make the researcher to get a perfect picture on the subject matter and conclusion may be drawn from few respondent who returned the questionnaire. Kumar, R. (1999), stated factors that can contribute to low response of the questionnaire as follows: The interest of the sample population on the topic of study; the layout and length of the questionnaire; the methodology used to deliver the questionnaire. In tackling these factors for the purpose of this research, I have carefully selected auditing firms that are directly involved in provision of non audit services. I have also considered the small business entities that desire the use of auditors for both auditing purposes and non audit services. Gill, J. and Johnson, P. (1997, p.89), stated that all questions in the questionnaire should be really relevant to the research question, therefore I have handled the issue of relevance, layout and length of question with care. I have also made up my mind to deliver the questionnaires in person to the sample of population selected and asking a convenient day and time for collection of the questionnaire. This approach will assist to reduce the problem of low response rate experienced using questionnaires. Another disadvantage of questionnaire is that respondent does not have the opportunity to ask for clarification on issues. This does affect the quality of information supplied by respondent. The may also cause collation problem for the researcher, if different respondent interpret same question differently. In handling this, the questions in the questionnaire will be set in a simple and unambiguous manner. The questions will be stated in clear terms for all to understand. Questionnaire cannot probe, stated Bryman, A. (2004). The researcher cannot probe further on an issue apart from that which is in the questionnaire. The only way that questionnaire can be made to probe is by asking an open-ended question. In Open- ended questions possible responses are not given to the respondent. The respondent write down the answers in his/her words, Kumar, R. (1999, p.116) The disadvantage of open ended questions is that it may be difficult for the research to summarise his find as opinion of respondent may be far apart/ different from each other making it difficult for researcher to summarise and conclude. Kumar, R. (1999), gave another disadvantage of questionnaire as its inability to be supplemented with other information like interview which can be supplemented with observation. To handle this, if time permit as earlier stated an interview will be conducted to supplement (additional information) the information gathered through questionnaire. CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Conduct a review of literature on the use of balanced scorecard as a strategic management system in order to develop research question. A case study methodology will be used as the primary research method A questionnaire will be developed with question based on the background and objective of the research. The questions in the questionnaire will seek to test the research question; does the use of the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system have any effect on performance? The questionnaire will be distributed to the corporate directors and also Middle Managers of ASDA. Data analysis that will be used is percentage method and chart, to evaluate the effect of non audit service on auditors independence. 4. If required, conduct interviews with some auditors after the collation of Questionnaire. RESEARCH DESIGN DATA REQUIRED The Data required are data that will give information about the effects of the use of the balanced scorecard. Also data that will give information about how middle managers find the implementation and what their opinion will be is very essential too. SOURCE OF DATA Textbooks, journals, online and articles will be consulted. Information will also be gathered through questionnaires. SAMPLE PLANNING/SAMPLE SIZE DATA ANALYSIS Charts and graphs and grant chart will be used to analyse findings. HYPOTHESIS TESTING Hypothesis drawn on this research will be tested and the most appropriate will be considered in the course of this project. CHAPTER FIVE EXPECTED RESULTS/FINDINGS It is expected that the response that will be gathered from the ASDA/WALMART will be the secondary data that will be analysed to help us come to a conclusion on the research. RESOURCES I have access to finances that can sustain the research program. I have access to libraries, books, journals, online e-books and organisations. CONTINGENCY PLAN Plans are in place to continue with this research in case the current methodology fails. Structured interview will be used, however this approach may be time consuming and respondents too may not be readily available. We will need to have this approach as a backup plan.