Essay --

Kierra Spaulding Media Criticism 3/11/2014 Professor Seong Min Reaction Paper: Killing Us Softly 4 I agree a great deal with the films idea of the media distorting the images of women. In the beginning of the film Jean Kilbourne states that, â€Å"the average American is exposed to over 3,000 ads every single day†. Thus, the advertising industry has the power to impact our outlook on many things in society including women. The issue is that advertisers are not looking out for our best interest; their main goal is to increase profit. As a result, individuals are physically, mentally, and emotionally affected by our culture’s unrealistic ideal image of beauty. I believe that we are constantly presented with this falsehood in the media about loving our bodies; only if our bodies are conveniently situated in what society finds attractive. For example, back in 2010, Victoria’s Secret launched the â€Å"Love Your Body† campaign. While it is very important to encourage everyone to love their body, the women depicted in the campaign all have the same body type. There is nothing wrong with their body type which is considered very slender, tall, long legs, and toned. The issue is that this is the only body presented in the campaign which makes women with other body types feel inferior and not of value. To this day, Victoria’s Secret still chooses to use this particularly slender body type to advertise their lingerie and such. Contrary to Victoria’s Secret, Dove started â€Å"The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty† in 2004. The campaign was started due to the fact that it was necessary to broaden the idea of beauty because it had become limiting and unattainable. The campaign included women of all different sizes as opposed to Victor... ...le more aware of these issues. However, the problems are still not being fixed. In fact, due to the unrealistic ideals of what a women’s body should look like, there are an enormous number of girls starting as young as 6 who hate their bodies to the extent of skipping dinner. Females are driven to the point of anorexia, bulimia, as well as binge eating. Women go on extreme diets that are not realistic to stay healthy causing them to go on excessive binges which in return are even worse. The statement â€Å"If looks could kill† can actually be taken literally because women are trying to â€Å"look† the part while unfortunately killing themselves emotionally, mentally, and physically. Sources Dove Campaign http://www.dove.us/social-mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx Victoria’s Secret Campaign http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/victorias-secret-launches_n_480435.html

Organizational Culture Essay

Organizational Culture has been described as the shared values, principles, traditions, and ways of doing things that influence the way organizational members act. In most organizations, these shared values and practices have evolved over time and determine, toa a large extent, how things are done in the organization. This definition continues to explain organizational values, described as â€Å"beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals members of an organization should pursue and ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior organizational members should use to achieve these goals. From organizational values develop organizational norms, guidelines, or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of behavior by employees in particular situations and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another. † The definition of culture implies three things. The culture is ‘perspective’, ‘descriptive’ and finally ‘shared’ within the organization. Research suggests that there are seven dimensions that describe and organization’s culture. Each of the seven dimensions (shown in exhibit 1) ranges from low to high, meaning it is not very typical of the culture (low) or is very typical of the culture (high). The seven dimensions of culture are: Attention to Detail. Outcome Orientation. People Orientation. Team Orientation. Aggressiveness. Stability. Innovation and Risk Taking. The culture of an organization can either be Strong or Weak. It is the culture, that sometimes influence the employees’ behaviors and actions. Strong Culture is said to exist where staff respond to stimulus because of their alignment to organizational values. In such environments, strong cultures help firms operate like well oiled machines, cruising along with outstanding execution and perhaps minor tweaking of existing procedures here and there. Research shows that strong cultures are those in which the key values are deeply held and widely shared and have a greater influence on employees than do weaker cultures. A â€Å"Strong† culture may be especially beneficial to firms operating in the service sector since members of these organizations are responsible for delivering the service and for evaluations important constituents make about firms. Research indicates that organizations may derive the following benefits from developing strong and productive cultures: †¢Better aligning the company towards achieving its vision, mission, and goals †¢High employee motivation and loyalty †¢Increased team cohesiveness among the company’s various departments and divisions. †¢Promoting consistency and encouraging coordination and control within the company †¢Shaping employee behavior at work, enabling the organization to be more efficient. However, in a strong culture, people do things because they believe it is the right thing to do, this often creates a state where people, even if they have different ideas, do not challenge organizational thinking, therefore, resulting in a reduced capacity for innovative thoughts. Most organizations have moderate to strong cultures; that is, there is relatively high agreement on what’s important, what defines â€Å"good† employee behavior, what it takes to get ahead, and so forth. However, it is also important to view what a weaker culture in an organization may yield at: An organization’s culture is often established by its top managers and it starts at the selection process. For instance, during the employee selection process, managers typically judge job candidates not only on the job requirements but also on how well they might fit into the organization. Further to that, the risk-taking appetite and irreverence to its competitors by the top managers paves the growth and action of an organization.

Definition and Examples of Spacing in Composition