Monday, May 25, 2020
The Great Escape of World War II
Located at Sagan, Germany (now Poland), Stalag Luft III opened in April 1942, though construction was not complete at the time. Designed to deter inmates from tunneling, the camp featured raised barracks and was situated in an area with yellow, sandy subsoil. The bright color of the dirt made it easily detected if dumped on the surface and guards were instructed to watch for it on inmates clothing. The sandy nature of subsoil also ensured that any tunnel would have weak structural integrity and be prone to collapse. Additional defensive measures included seismograph microphones placed around the camps perimeter, a 10-ft. double fence, and numerous guard towers. The initial inmates were largely composed of Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm flyers who had been downed by the Germans. In October 1943, they were joined by increasing numbers of US Army Air Force prisoners. With the population growing, German officials began work to expand the camp with two additional compounds, ultimately covering around 60 acres. At its peak, Stalag Luft III housed around 2,500 British, 7,500 American, and 900 additional Allied prisoners. The Wooden Horse Despite the German precautions, an Escape Committee, known as the X Organization, was quickly formed under the guidance of Squadron Leader Roger Bushell (Big X). As the camps barracks had been deliberately built 50 to 100 meters from the fence to deter tunneling, X initially was concerned about the length of any escape tunnel. While several tunneling attempts were made during the camps early days, all were detected. In mid-1943, Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams conceived an idea for starting a tunnel closer to the fence line. Utilizing a Trojan Horse concept, Williams oversaw the construction of a wooden vaulting horse that was designed to conceal men and containers of dirt. Each day the horse, with a digging team inside, was carried to the same spot in the compound. While the prisoners conducted gymnastics exercises, the men in the horse commenced digging an escape tunnel. At the end of each days exercises, a wooden board was placed over the tunnel entrance and covered with surface dirt. Using bowls for shovels, Williams, Lieutenant Michael Codner, and Flight Lieutenant Oliver Philpot dug for three months before finishing the 100-ft tunnel. On the evening of October 29, 1943, the three men made their escape. Traveling north, Williams and Codner reached Stettin where they stowed away on a ship to neutral Sweden. Philpot, posing as a Norwegian businessman, took the train to Danzig and stowed away on a ship to Stockholm. The three men were the only prisoners to successfully escape from the camps eastern compound. The Great Escape With the opening of the camps northern compound in April 1943, many of the British prisoners were moved to new quarters. Among those transferred were Bushell and the majority of the X Organization. Immediately upon arriving, Bushell began planning for a massive 200-man escape utilizing three tunnels designated Tom, Dick, and Harry. Carefully selecting concealed locations for the tunnel entrances, work quickly began and the entry shafts were completed in May. To avoid detection by the seismograph microphones, each tunnel was dug 30 ft. below the surface. Pushing outward, the prisoners constructed tunnels that were only 2 ft. by 2 ft. and supported with wood taken from beds and other camp furniture. Digging was largely done using Klim powdered milk cans. As the tunnels grew in length, scratch-built air pumps were built to supply the diggers with air and a system of trolley carts installed to speed the movement of dirt. For disposing of the yellow dirt, small pouches constructed from old socks were attached inside the prisoners pants allowing them to discreetly scatter it on the surface as they walked. In June 1943, X decided to suspend work on Dick and Harry and focus solely on completing Tom. Concerned that their dirt disposal methods were no longer working as the guards were increasingly catching men during distribution, X ordered that Dick be backfilled with the dirt from Tom. Just short of the fence line, all work came to a sudden halt on September 8, when the Germans discovered Tom. Pausing for several weeks, X ordered work to resume on Harry in January 1944. As digging continued, prisoners also worked on obtaining German and civilian clothing, as well as forging travel papers and identifications. During the tunneling process, X had been assisted by several American prisoners. Unfortunately, by the time the tunnel was completed in March, they had been transferred to another compound. Waiting a week for a moonless night, the escape commenced after dark on March 24, 1944. Breaking through the surface, the first escapee was stunned to find that the tunnel had come up short of the woods adjacent to the camp. Despite this, 76 men successfully transited the tunnel without detection, despite the fact that an air raid occurred during the escape which cut off power to the tunnels lights. Around 5:00 AM on March 25, the 77th man was spotted by the guards as he emerged from the tunnel. Conducting a roll call, the Germans quickly learned the scope of the escape. When news of the escape reached Hitler, the irate German leader initially ordered that all of the recaptured prisoners should be shot. Convinced by Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler that this would irreparably damage Germanys relations with neutral countries, Hitler rescinded his order and directed that only 50 be killed. As they fled through eastern Germany, all but three (Norwegians Per Bergsland and Jens Mà ¼ller, and Dutchman Bram van der Stok) of the escapees were recaptured. Between March 29 and April 13, fifty were shot by the German authorities who claimed that the prisoners were trying to escape again. The remaining prisoners were returned to camps around Germany. In canvassing Stalag Luft III, the Germans found that the prisoners had used wood from 4,000 bed boards, 90 beds, 62 tables, 34 chairs, and 76 benches in building their tunnels. In the wake of the escape, the camp commandant, Fritz von Lindeiner, was removed and replaced with Oberst Braune. Angered by the killing of the escapees, Braune permitted the prisoners to build a memorial to their memory. Upon learning of the murders, the British government was incensed and the killing of the 50 was among the war crimes charged at ââ¬â¹Ã¢â¬â¹Nuremberg after the war.ââ¬â¹Ã¢â¬â¹ Selected Sources PBS: The Great EscapeImperial War Museum: Great Escapes
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Examples Of Social Stratification In The Outsiders
In the novel The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, the author depicts a story about a young boy named Ponyboy, finding out the rights and wrongs in society and the struggle to survive. S.E Hinton brings up the meat and potatoes of the novel, that is social mobility. According to Dictionary.com social mobility is defined as ââ¬Å" the movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories of people within or between layers or tiers in an open system of social stratification. Open stratification systems are those in which at least some value is given to achieved status characteristics in a society.â⬠Three main points that will be brought up about social mobility , are living conditions, power of wealth and education. Household expenditure ,â⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦This displays that the greasers and their living conditions are totally different from the Socs. I can make a connection, some people that I know have these same living conditions banged up car old tattered clothes and just barely struggling to survive. Social status, what is it? It is ââ¬Å"a persons standing or importance in relation to other people within a society.â⬠( according to dictionary.com) The social status between the socs and the Greasers are different the socs are above middle class, otherwise known as the upper class. the social status of the Socs gives them the opportunity to get away with more things, for example, the Greasers would not get away as quickly then with the Socs. For the Greasers their social status is the bottom lower than middle class to. This inequality for the greasers and the socs are unfair the fact that the Greasers are in a lower class then the Greaser gives them a disadvantage for social mobility.Although it does not really talk about the middle class in the novel, Ponyboy does mention that he does not want his ââ¬Å" middle class ââ¬Å" friends to see his house. The social status for the middle class people and the Greasers does not have as much of a drastic kind of difference with t he Socs. I can relate that having money and no money is really hard. By having no money it leaves you at a disadvantage to have some enjoyment in life. Even for parents, when they canââ¬â¢t by their kids the thing that they need and having no moneyShow MoreRelatedSocial Stratification, Class System And Ethnocentrism703 Words à |à 3 PagesSocial stratification, class systems, and ethnocentrism are all parts of our society that influence our thoughts of what is normal and what is outlandish. 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There is a huge connection between the two because deviance varies with cultural norms, people become deviant when others define them as such and both norms and the definition given involve social power. Lets take the example of Brent Staple; new to New York, and was a graduate student who had been an avid nightwalkerRead MoreWealth and Power of The Upper Class: An Organized Elite Essay1111 Words à |à 5 Pagesand power. (Domhoff 2005) This class is a minority in terms of population, in particular the 5% of this social class who possess the majority of wealth in this nation. They have ââ¬Å"the ability to set the terms under which other groups and classes must operateâ⬠(Domhoff 2005). To demonstrate the existence of an institutional American upper class it must first be defined. Most people think of social class as distinctions between income, occupations, and education. They view the upper class as those whoRead MoreEssay on Exploring Race and Challenging Privilege1610 Words à |à 7 Pageslead the Pride Alliance, and attend Shabbat services without feeling like I have to be loyal only to one community. In my hometown in South Carolina, where racial self-segregation persists decades after legal desegregation, I would be treated as an outsider in many black establishments, and many whites would scorn me if they knew I left their community for a black one. That being said, there are several communities formed by priorities that transcend race in which blacks and whites join together, suchRead MoreReligion And The American Colonies2143 Words à |à 9 Pagesto the northern colonies, more than an isolated backwater on the fringe of the British Empire, and more t han a prelude to the evangelicals. Taking this thought into account, one can see how the proliferation of various religions not only affected social change, but the differences in religious worship between various groups would have also served to create varying levels of dissent amongst various populations within the South itself, between the regional divisions of North and South, as well as with
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
My Passion For The Sport Essay - 1509 Words
There is always that one nagging problem in your life that always goes undervalued in the minds of others. The institution of going outside your boundaries, also known as high school, is where free time, which previously went to studying, is now coexisting with athletic activities. In high school, I was informally recruited to the basketball team by an upperclassman and that is where my passion for the sport began. The sport manifested itself into my life from television to practice, then to finding any opportunity to go out and play. Optimism for my new found passion and the school year increased, but that does not stop getting hurt in the process. Weakness in my wrist permeated my life and attacked both my education and basketball season. Experiencing injuries is a common occurrence to players and provides a time of reflection during rehabilitation. Any sort of injury is never predetermined by your personal diagnosis and should be observed by a professional. High school had just be gun and the basketball players waited patiently for the upcoming season. In the catacombs, I gravitated towards the table of my teammates. The chatter was filled with potential starting line-ups, new things they worked on over the summer, point per game projections, and the occasional supportive trash talk. Talks occurred that simultaneously became plans to play in the local park. Day after day going to play wore my body down, but the mind knows the goal of the training: to play with teammatesShow MoreRelatedThe Natural, Because My Passion Is Sports1291 Words à |à 6 PagesI chose the book, The Natural, because my passion is sports. I also heard that The Natural was a blockbuster in the cinemas so I decided this had to be my choice. This book did not completely match my expectations. Before I started reading I expected that The Natural would tell the story of a baseball legendââ¬â¢s career and achievements. The story was almost the exact opposite. Roy Hobbs, a young, talented, and ambitious baseball player goes to Chicago to try out for the Cubs. He meets a girl, HarrietRead MoreReflection Paper On Flying High Performance Jets1157 Words à |à 5 Pagescentral to sport psychologyâ⬠(Cashmore, p. 175). Iââ¬â¢ll be honest. Iââ¬â¢m fascinated by the study of motivation and I often reflect wondering why I do the things I do today and what drove me in the past to do what I did. I figured that if I could discover what drove me then, perhaps I could establish a more efficient and productive path to my future and also help others do the same. I lost a lot of friends in the business of flying high performance jets. 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Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Cultural Diversity and Organizational Commitment â⬠MyAssignmenthelp
Question: Discuss about the Cultural Diversity and Organizational Commitment. Answer: Introduction The global teams are located in diverse geographical locations owing to the needs of the modern business (Nordbck and Espinosa 2015). In order to succeed in this competitive world, the organizations are increasingly opting for international business expansions. This requires them to set up offices at different parts of the world for greater business success. However, the managers of the cross-border teams often face difficulties in managing the global teams. They often find it difficult to manage the disperse teams. The managers of the multinational firms realize that there are a wide number of issues that they face during the management of the cross-cultural teams. This paper would analyze the different challenges of managing global teams and explore the various aspects of this topic. The objective of this project would be to understand the aspect of difficulties faced by multinational companies when they have to manage overseas team (Gibson et al. 2014). This project would strive to explore the concerns of the multinational managers in their day to day functioning of the business. The aims of the project are to understand the conceptual framework of different issues faced in a multi-cultural team. The different aspects of the cross-cultural teams need to be understood. The various kind of the management practices in global teams need to be understood in order to understand the different challenges. This project also aims to identify the different challenges that are being faced by the global teams which prevent them from achieving operational excellence. The scope of the project considers the offices of the multinational companies which are located in diverse geographical locations. The companies are located in diverse areas and they are separated from each other by national borders. The teams that are located in the same time zones, country and same locations are outside the project scope. As opined by Luo and Shenkar (2017), there are a variety of organizational mechanisms that the multinational corporations used to integrate their dispersed operations in a global marketplace. The competitive ability of the organization depends on the effective utilization of the critical resources of the organization. It is a difficult task to manage a team with individuals belonging from different nationalities and working in diverse functions, business entities and cultures (Nordbck and Espinosa 2015). The basic purpose of a culturally diverse team is to act in coordination so that their overall organizational; mission is fulfilled. Chou and Liao (2017) argue that it is not possible for the global firms to exploit different economies of scale and ensure maximum transfer of knowledge in a global scenario. It is important that the global managers grasp the different obstacles that are needed to be successful in the global teams (Nordbck and Espinosa 2015). According to Dunning (2014), the global teams and their supervisors need to formulate judicious strategic measures so that the level of challenges is being reduced considerably (Nordbck and Espinosa 2015). The virtual teams operate in a challenging environment in which there are short durations of interaction in which they are supposed to handle difficult tasks (Gibbs and Boyraz 2015). The establishment of the virtual teams requires excellent leadership, team training, easy access to technology and understanding of different time zones, cultures and languages. It is also important to implement open lines of communication in which the team members are motivated for team success (Chou and Liao 2017). It is possible to achieve organizational success of virtual teams if the managers are well aware of the different challenges and how to handle them well. The managers should find a common communication ground in which they would be able to understand the work patterns of each other. As stated by Charlier et al.(2016), the onset of the internet and the variety of communication tools have lead to the greater disperse of the teams and they have become more diverse. It is important that the organizational supervisors demonstrate adequate amount of leadership, which would help the team to function smoothly (Rao 2015). The managers should be competent enough so that they can understand the various difficulties of the global teams. A global mindset would help in finding solutions to critical problems so that the cross border employees face least resistance and hindrances from achieving their full organizational potential (Chou and Liao 2017). The findings of Morgan, Paucar-Caceres and Wright (2014) reveals that the remote location of the employees are becoming a trends these days as they are more opted by the employees. The reason for the preference of the remote location of work is the greater savings on the costs as well as increased prevalence of the remote employees (Morgan, Paucar-Caceres and Wright 2014). The various kinds of telecommuters working for an organization are usually satisfied with the different work-life balances as well as there are lower instances of job burnout in such cases (Wildman and Griffith 2015). The employers view telecommuting as the way for ensuring recruitment of the best people who would be best fit for the various types of job roles. But, the process of development of the remote employees requires constant monitoring as well as constant support (Morgan, Paucar-Caceres and Wright 2014). The remote working options should be used to attract as well as retain the employees and well as to enh ance the project decision quality which rises from the firms ability to place different individuals in distant locations (Morgan, Paucar-Caceres and Wright 2014). The diverse teams ensure that the employees are able to contact the customers of the company on a global basis, which would improve the customer satisfaction rates. As commented by Maldonado and Vera (2014), there are varieties of structural powers as well as functional powers that are enjoyed by the members working in the headquarters of a firm. There are issues with the perception of organizational powers between the employees of the organization, which often leads to conflict in the teams. There are challenges with the monitoring as well as evaluation of the virtual teams. There are also difficulties with the measurement of performance of the virtual teams located on different geographical territories. This is because of the fact that the supervisors are not able to come face to face with the team everyday and monitor their performances on a daily basis. The findings of Morgan, Paucar-Caceres and Wright (2014) reveal that the perception of power is among one of the most important reasons of cross cultural difficulties in management. The more powerful members are likely to exploit the less powerful ones and also the vice-versa case happens in the organizations. Thomas and Peterson (2017) states that it is natural for the cross-cultural teams to have certain differences between them. There are often indifferences between the employees of different nations, which becomes it difficult to work together. There is often high degree of stereotypes which makes the employees gives poor performance. There are often instances when there is indifferent perception of each others cultural attributes. For example, the employees of America may have different perception of the cultural beliefs, languages, rituals and local perceptions of the people of Asian countries (Thomas and Peterson 2017). The American employees may not gel well with their Asian counterparts as they feel that the latter would be dirty, shabby and lack basic etiquettes. There are often instances of cultural insensitivity in which the employees belonging to one culture may not be able to respect the cultural attributes of other teams located overseas (Thomas and Peterson 2017). This may create a strong hostility between the cross cultural teams, which may affect the overall organizational performances. It is often a challenge to implement employee engagement measures for the cross-cultural teams. The employees working in the off-shore tasks may lack motivation as the employees located in the home countries (Wood and Wilberger 2015). This is because of the fact that the employees located in the hometown have the privilege of visiting office everyday, which the offshore members are unable to do. They often find it useless to do official work while staying in a foreign land. This often reduces their work output and the projects witness failure. The face-to-face communication cannot be substituted and the distant employees may feel that they have the power to do anything as they would not be monitored constantly (Thomas and Peterson 2017). The workers who are located in a distant location may find it difficult to attend the mid-night meetings and conferences as their supervisors may be located in a different time zone. The time zones pose several risk factors for the managers and they might find it difficult to manage the same (Thomas and Peterson 2017). Another key challenge of the global teams is the linguistic barriers that are often responsible for the creation of misunderstanding in between the team. The managers of the firm often fail to address the language issues of the employees and this reduces the performance of the employees as they often feel demotivated to work in these cultures (Thomas and Peterson 2017). If there is not enriching organizational culture, then the productivity of the employees would reduce to great extent. The global teams often fail in the coordination between the cross culture teams and this reduces the pace of the decision making process. The managers often find it difficult to organize and manage the reviews, meeting, seminars and interaction between the cross border employees (Gelfand et al. 2017). The employees who have their immediate supervisors and their team working abroad may feel left out and hence they may not be able to participate fully in the organizational decisions (Brantley et al. 2015). There can be slow pace of grasping of the major job responsibilities in the organization. There are certain benefits of the cross cultural teams, however, there is more number of challenges that are faced by the cross-border managers. The basis of the cross-border teams is the computer mediated communication (Brantley et al. 2015). In this kind of communication, there is absence of the non-verbal cues as well as there is indirect communication transfer that often poses difficulty for the employees (Brantley et al. 2015). There are high instances of misunderstandings that lead to low levels of trust and cohesion in the team. There may be incorrect assumptions and there are instances when the virtual team members may not be able to understand the intentions of the other team mates located in distant locations (Brantley et al. 2015). There may be misinterpretation of the facts and there are instances of incorrect assumptions that may cause interpersonal struggles (Brantley et al. 2015). The viewpoints of Lilian (2014) states that the virtual teams may lack the vision and mission as there is flexible space, time and also there are lack of visual cues. The knowledge sharing becomes a difficult job and there are possibilities of information overload (Brantley et al. 2015). There are also issues with the training of the manpower who would be using the telecommunication processes for contacting the members located in overseas location (Brantley et al. 2015). The technical glitch of the communication tools may hamper the connectivity and the cross border team may have issues contacting with the teams located in distant locations. In the event of a technical snag in the absence of technical team, then it is possible that the interruption may continue for several weeks (Brantley et al. 2015). This often hampers the team productivity and hence the employees or the team would not be able to meet organizational objectives. The management of the global teams is not only the sole responsibility of the department managers, but it is also the responsibility of the human resource managers (Brantley et al. 2015). There is often lack of participation of the human resource managers, which leads to failure of the overseas project (Germain and McGuire 2014). The HR personnel may be too busy in the office work, that they are unable to focus on the overseas employees. There are often trust issues with the foreign team members and those employees who are working in remote locations. This often ruins the interpersonal relationships and affects the team output. Conclusion There are several challenges that the international managers face while managing global teams. There are several different kinds of problems that are faced by the global teams. This review analyzed some of the main challenges and discussed major concepts. In spite of the steps taken towards reducing these differences, this is a common problem and continues to haunt the global managers. The various aspects of the cross-cultural conflicts are being explored in detail and the related concepts of the global team management are discussed. References Bower, G.H. and Cohen, P.R., 2014. Emotional influences in memory and thinking: Brantley, H., Henry, M., Sabo, S. and Young, N., 2015. Promoting Globalization: Cross-Cultural Teaching and 21st Century Learning Experiences.Promoting Global Literacy Skills through Technology-Infused Teaching and Learning, pp.147-165. Charlier, S.D., Stewart, G.L., Greco, L.M. and Reeves, C.J., 2016. Emergent leadership in virtual teams: A multilevel investigation of individual communication and team dispersion antecedents.The Leadership Quarterly,27(5), pp.745-764. Chou, T.C. and Liao, J.L., 2017. IT governance balancing global integration and local responsiveness for multinational companies.Total Quality Management Business Excellence,28(1-2), pp.32-46. Dunning, J.H., 2014.The Globalization of Business (Routledge Revivals): The Challenge of the 1990s. Routledge. Gelfand, M.J., Aycan, Z., Erez, M. and Leung, K., 2017. Cross-cultural industrial organizational psychology and organizational behavior: A hundred-year journey.Journal of Applied Psychology,102(3), p.514. Germain, M.L. and McGuire, D., 2014. The role of swift trust in virtual teams and implications for human resource development.Advances in Developing Human Resources,16(3), pp.356-370. Gibbs, J.L. and Boyraz, M., 2015. International HRMs role in managing global teams.The Routledge companion to international human resource management, pp.532-551. Gibson, C.B., Huang, L., Kirkman, B.L. and Shapiro, D.L., 2014. Where global and virtual meet: The value of examining the intersection of these elements in twenty-first-century teams.Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav.,1(1), pp.217-244. Lilian, S.C., 2014. Virtual teams: Opportunities and challenges for e-leaders.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,110, pp.1251-1261. Luo, Y. and Shenkar, O., 2017. The Multinational Corporation as a Multilingual Community: Language and Organization in a Global Context. InLanguage in International Business(pp. 59-92). Springer International Publishing. Maldonado, T. and Vera, D., 2014. Leadership skills for international crises: The role of cultural intelligence and improvisation.Organizational Dynamics,43(4), pp.257-265. Morgan, L., Paucar-Caceres, A. and Wright, G., 2014. Leading effective global virtual teams: The consequences of methods of communication.Systemic Practice and Action Research,27(6), pp.607-624. Nordbck, E. and Espinosa, A., 2015, January. Cognitive and Behavioral Leadership Coordination: Linking Shared Leadership to High Performance in Global Teams. InSystem Sciences (HICSS), 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on(pp. 402-411). IEEE. Rao, A.N., 2015. Trust and Team Performance: Assessing the Moderating Role of Risk in Global Outsourcing Teams.International Management Review,11(1), p.5. Thomas, D.C. and Peterson, M.F., 2017.Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. Sage Publications. Wildman, J.L. and Griffith, R.L., 2015. Leading global teams means dealing with different. InLeading Global Teams(pp. 1-10). Springer New York. Wood, V.R. and Wilberger, J.S., 2015. Globalization, cultural diversity and organizational commitment: Theoretical underpinnings.World,6(2), pp.154-171.
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