Essay on the Book Night

Night Night narrates Ely Wiesel's test of faith and struggle for life through the horrors of the Holocaust. Twelve-year-old Elie and his family are packed into crowded cattle carts and shipped to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. This is where Elie survives tragic events that cause him to question God who could let such suffering occur. In the memoir Night, three events that lead to Elie’s victory over death and questioning of the existence of God are when Elie and all the Jews are separated into different carts, Elie’s struggles in the concentration camps and the final death march.Elie’s former teacher, Moshe the Beadle, comes to warn Elie and his family to not be tricked by the Germans, for they were taking control of trains and transporting them to death camps. Elie’s family doesn’t believe Moshe because his stories seemed exaggerated. Soon after, Elie’s family is forced to live in small ghettos in the center of the town. When the trains pulle d up, there was no turning back. â€Å"The Hungarian police made us climb into the cars eighty persons in each one. They handed us some bread and a few pails of water† (Wiesel 22).Elie realizes he and his family are not going to safety. When the train wheels stopped, there was a wretched stench of corpse bodies. They were in Birkeneau. He was shortly separated from his mother and sisters. This momentous event will forever change his family. His faith is massacred, â€Å"Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes† (Weisel 34). Elie and his father go through many horrific obstacles in the concentration camps.One afternoon, Elie and his father are forced to watch a hanging of three condemned prisoners, two of which were grown men and the other an innocent child. The two men were no longer alive, but the child’s rope was still moving for he was to light and was still breathing. Elie questions himself, â€Å"How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch our fathers, our mothers, our brothers end up in the furnaces† (Weisel 67).After watching thousands of Jews die each day, Elie loses his faith in God completely. Before the war is over, the Germans try to eliminate as many Jews as they can before the Americans invade and free the Jews. Elie has just gotten out of the infirmary because of his infected foot. Elie is about to give up at this point, but he sticks through and survives the death march. After the death march had finally come to a rest, Elie’s father becomes very sick with dysentery.After Elie’s father passes away, Elie is upset but is relieved. Elie is struck with food poisoning and spends weeks in the hospital, deathly ill. When he finally raises himself and looks in the mirror—he has not seen himself in a mirror since leaving Sighet—he is shocked: â€Å"From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. † Elie comes to realize, in the process of separating himself from the corpse, he has become, as a result of his time in the concentration camps, can coexist with faith, both in God and in man.In each of the three events described, Elie must face major traumatic life changes that force him to question his belief in God. Despite these terrible struggles, Elie does not allow himself to be consumed with revenge and evil. He maintains goodness in his spirit. Ellie says, â€Å"And even when we were no longer hungry, not one of us thought of revenge† (Wiesel 115). If God is good and Elie is still (good) inside despite his sufferings, then God must still exist.

Coherence in life Essay

However, Fisher points out that we need specific guidance in the form of features that narratives must display (rather than merely the effects they may have) in order to decide â€Å"whether or not they are deserving of our adherence† (1997:315). This is what coherence and fidelity, the two basic principles that define narrative rationality and that embody the concept of good reasons in Fishers paradigm, allow us to do. Ð  narrative may be â€Å"tested† in relation to three types of coherence: structural or argumentative; material; and characterological. Structural coherence relates to internal consistency whether or not the narrative reveals contradictions within itself. Material coherence is Ð ° question of how Ð ° narrative relates to other narratives that cover the same issue and that we are familiar with. More specifically, Ð ° narrative can be tested with respect to the â€Å"facts† it might downplay or ignore the counterarguments it chooses not to engage with, and so forth. Characterological coherence assumes that the reliability of any narrative depends very largely on the credibility of its main characters as well as the characters narrating it. If the decisions and actions associated with Ð ° character change significantly â€Å"in strange ways† (Fisher 1997:316) or contradict each other, we inevitably question the credibility of the character and hence the narrative in question, Fisher indicates that, â€Å"Coherence in life and literature requires that characters behave characteristically. Without this kind of predictability, there is no trust, no rational order, no community† (1997:316) Hence, once we decide that Ð ° given person is trustworthy, honorable, courageous, and so on, we are prepared to â€Å"overlook and forgive many things: factual errors if not too dramatic, lapses m reasoning, and occasional discrepancies. In addition to testing for coherence, we also test narratives for fidelity, Here, the focus is on assessing (Ð °) the elements of Ð ° narrative that may be regarded as its reasons and (b) the values that the narrative promotes. For Fisher good reasons are â€Å"those elements that provide warrants for accepting or adhering to the advice fostered by any form of communication that can be considered rhetorical. Fisher stresses, however, that the concept of good reasons â€Å"does not imply that every element of rhetorical transaction that warrants Ð ° belief, attitude, or action that any ‘good reason’-is as good as any other. It only signifies that whatever is taken as Ð ° basis for adopting Ð ° rhetorical message is inextricably bound to Ð ° value-to Ð ° conception of the good. Assessing the values explicitly or implicitly promoted by Ð ° narrative means asking what effects adhering to it would have on the world, on our ability to maintain our sense of self respect, and on our relationship to others. As Fisher argues, we ultimately have to ask â€Å"even if Ð ° prima facie case has been made or Ð ° burden of proof has been established, are the values fostered by the story those that would constitute an ideal basis for human conduct? † (1997:317) It is this ability to judge narratives on the basis of their moral implications and the values they promote that ultimately guides human behavior and allows communities to gather around Ð ° given narrative or set of narratives. Fisher’s narrative paradigm has two principal strengths in the current context. First, because it privileges moral values, it explains why activist communities can form across boundaries of nation, color, gender, profession, and almost any other division one can think of, without any motivation of personal gain-indeed, often at great personal risk to individual members of the community. Second, the narrative paradigm goes beyond explaining why communities emerge and unite around narratives, It specifically anchors this process in the notions of narrative rationality and good reasons, which imply considerable agency on the part of individuals and communities. As storytellers we do more than â€Å"choose† from prevalent narratives in our own societies If we judge the moral consequences of these narratives negatively, we can look elsewhere for â€Å"better† narratives or even elaborate narratives of our own. This is precisely what communities of activists, including those forming within the professional world of translation, attempt to do-they organize and select narratives on the basis of â€Å"good reasons†, looking beyond the dominant narratives of their cultures, often selecting counter narratives or elaborating new ones. It is worth pointing out that much of the impetus for narrative research in general, including Fisher’s work, comes from Ð ° belief among theorists working in this area that the unexamined assumptions of narratives â€Å"conceal patterns of domination and submission, which exclude the experience of large sectors of society while legitimating and promoting those of the political, economic, and cultural elite. There is also general agreement in the literature that narrative both reproduces the existing power structures and provides Ð ° means of contesting them: If stories can be constructed to wall off the senses to the dilemmas and contradictions of social life, perhaps they also can be presented in ways that open up the mind to creative possibilities developed in ways that provoke intellectual struggle, the resolution of contradiction, and the creation of Ð ° more workable human order. More specifically, narrative theorists acknowledge that undermining existing patterns of domination cannot be achieved with concrete forms of activism alone (such as demonstrations, sit-ins, and civil disobedience) but must involve Ð ° direct challenge to the stories that sustain these patterns. As language mediators, translators and interpreters are uniquely placed to initiate this type of discursive intervention at Ð ° global level. The narrative paradigm, then, and narrative theory more generally offer Ð ° framework that† generates Ð ° sense of what is good as well as what is strictly logical in the stories that people might adopt, explaining how individuals and communities can exercise sufficient agency to imagine that â€Å"another world is possible†, to use the well known slogan of the World Social Forum, serviced by the translators and interpreters in Babels. І suggest we might rewrite this motto in the present context as â€Å"another narrative is possible†.

Kotler Principles of Marketing Essay

Objective 1: Define marketing and outline the steps in the marketing process. Objective 2: Explain the importance of understanding the marketplace and customers and identify the five core marketplace concepts. Objective 3: Identify the key elements of a customer-driven marketing strategy and discuss the marketing management orientations that guide marketing strategy. Objective 4: Discuss customer relationship management and identify strategies for creating value for customers and capturing value from customers in return. Objective 5: Describe the major trends and forces that are changing the marketing landscape in this age of relationships. Objective 1: Define marketing and outline the steps in the marketing process. Marketing is managing profitable customer relationships. Or: Marketing is the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return. Steps in the marketing process: 1. Understanding customer needs 2. Designing customer-driven marketing strategies 3. Designing integrated marketing programs 4. Building customer relationships 5. Capturing value for the firm Figure 1.1 from page 27Create value for customers and build ‘’relationships final step Objective 2: Explain the importance of understanding the marketplace and customers and identify the five core marketplace concepts. Five core customer and marketplace concepts: 1. Needs, wants, and demands Needs: Physical need like food, clothing, warmth and safety Wants: Human needs shaped by culture: Americans need food (Big Mac) Demands: When wants are backed by buying power they become demands 2. Market offerings (products, services, and experiences) Consumers’ needs and wants are fulfilled through market offerings; Think of products, services or experiences (such as information) Marketing myopia is focusing too much on the specific products a company offers than to the benefits and experiences produced by these products. Example: Railroads assumed themselves to be in the railroad business rather than in the transportation business. Passengers and freight transportation in general grew, but they choose for cars, trucks, airplanes, etc. making railroad transportation declining. The reason they defined their industry incorrectly was that they were railroad oriented instead of transportation oriented; they were product oriented instead of customer oriented. 3. Value and satisfaction Customer value and satisfaction are key blocks for developing and managing customer relationships. The customer is looking for value and satisfaction and will buy accordingly to the company that offers the best. Expectations shouldn’t be too high or too low. 4. Exchanges and relationships Exchange is the act of OBTAINING a desired object from someone by OFFERING something IN RETURN. Examples are [Political candidate: votes] [Church: members] [orchestra: audience]. 5. Market A market is the set of all ACTUAL and POTENTIAL buyers of a product or service. All below are influenced by major environmental forces. Objective 3: Identify the key elements of a customer-driven marketing strategy and discuss the marketing management orientations that guide marketing strategy. –

Analyze jealous husband returns in form of parrot Essay

Analyze jealous husband returns in form of parrot - Essay Example She buys him and takes him back to the house they had once lived in as husband and wife. In spite of the fact that he is physically transformed, he still feels jealous of all the men in his former wife’s life. Every time he sees a man with his former wife, he goes crazy with jealousy, venting his anger on the toys in his bird cage, and insulting the men through his bird talk. However, after a while, the feelings of his new identity overtake those of his past life, and all he wants, is the freedom to fly into the limitless sky. The story is told in the first person and always from the parrot’s point of view, even when he is describing his human life. The tone of the story is one of intense jealousy, that has been carried over from a former existence. Butler begins the story with the feelings of love that the husband felt for his wife in his former life; enjoying the sight of her beauty, and the touch of her fingers as she ruffled his feathers. This is followed immediately by the jealousy and anger displayed by the bird when he sees his former wife with a new man; waiting for him â€Å"to draw close enough for me to take off the tip of his finger.† Butler relates similarities in the two lives of the husband, where he is as helpless, where his wife’s infidelities are concerned, both as a man and as a parrot. His inability to communicate his insecurities to his wife, are likewise not dissimilar in either of his lives. The parallels that the author draws between the two lives of the narrat or are possibly meant to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that a man is as helpless in certain situations, as a bird that flutters helplessly in a cage, beating its wings against it, in its effort to escape. Perhaps Butler’s choice of a parrot as a reincarnation of a human, is related to the fact that parrots have been used as messengers, and can be taught to speak

Principles Of Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Principles Of Management - Essay Example Before delving into the business environment it is imperative to determine why firms engage in international business. The first reason as stipulated by Andexer is to increase market size. Businesses undergo a lifecycle and as they mature, they need to venture into new business or offer different products so as to remain relevant and competitive. Besides, every firm needs to gain a high market share as a growth strategy and also to spread risks of fluctuating economic cycles or currency risks. A business can thus decide to enter international markets depending on the internal and external environment and its resource capabilities.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another reason a firm may wish to enter new markets is a reactionary measure; that is, reacting to information gathered in the market. If a firm gets information of available opportunities in the foreign market that offers future possibilities, internal growth and prospective profitability, it can react by develop ing strategies to enter into that market. Furthermore, firms aim at increasing returns on their investments, and this can be achieved by entering into more profitable segments.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Globalisation and technology advancements have also led firms to venture into new markets. As business environment is very dynamic, organisations need to keep up with the changes so as to satisfy the changing needs of customers. (Cherunilam, 2010). Development of infrastructure and communication has played a great part in enabling firms to expand into other parts of the world. This is enhanced by trade liberalisation which opens borders for doing business and creates a good environment by reducing restrictions that hinder expansion (Lymbersky, 2008). For example, a firm can now produce products where labour is cheap and export to other countries or it can import materials and make finished products in domestic country. This can be done easier by establishing a subsi diary or licensing another firm to do so. After a firm determines the need to enter a new market, that is not the end, but the

History of Capitalism in Japan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

History of Capitalism in Japan - Essay Example An economic arrangement is the amalgamation of the many agencies, which make the economic hierarchy that defines the social world. Trade brings the agencies together. Since no single state has made it to where Japan is, Japan is controlled by capitalists elsewhere seen a country to be emulated. Three decades down the line, its war-shattered economy was a little bit higher compared to a third of Britain's (Ihara, 279). Presently the Japanese Gross National Product is much higher than that of Britain and France when added together, and the gap is expected to become wider in the coming years. The Japanese variation of capitalism cannot be easily or precisely emulated, since it has got its roots in a homogeneous, hierarchical society. A lot of history that translates to the present day Japan dominates capitalism in Japan. Civil war that started majorly because of a single leader owned nearly 25% of the land while the other part belonged to his relative. The King at the present was no mor e than a figurehead. Large populations of civilians were not opulent and did not pursue any form of work. Tokugawa Ieyasu Gains Power The era of the Edo started despite the authorized organization of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603 and concludes with the Meiji refurbishment. Tokugawa Ieyasu's success over daimyo at the struggle of Sekigahara in 1600 gave power over the largest part of Japan. He accumulated his power in Edo, which is now day Tokyo, shielding himself with honored vassals and introducing military campaigns to destroy those who were against him. Tokugawa allies in Osaka demolished the final important to the newly created Tokugawa Shogunate, which is Toyotomi clan, in 1615. The Tokugawa Shogunate created a firm friendship with the Emperor as well as the Imperial Court by assisting to reconstruct its castles and providing more land. Sealed Region Policies Tokugawa Ieyasu become uncomfortable with the foreigners and implemented firm measures to reduce their number and influ ence in Japan. Christianity was forced to abandon their faith and other groups were sending away from Japan. The Shimabara Rebellion in 1637-1638 was composed of mainly ordinary Christians who were irritated with greater than before taxes and harassment of Christians (Harootunian, 367). The Tokugawa Shogunate, through aid from the Dutch who availed gunpowder and cannons, destroyed the rebellion and beheaded about 37,000 opponents. The rebel leader, young Amakura Shiro, was beheaded and his head taken away to Nagasaki to be put on show. The state spearheaded bullying of Christians that went on up to the 1850 is making some to carry out their belief as a kakura kirishitan. The tightened alien policy measures did not end with hounding of believers. In 1635, the Closed Country Edict banned Japanese from exiting Japan and if somebody left, they would not be allowed to come back. Community position was hereditary and the feudalistic social chain of command from previous periods went on to the Edo period. Land was under the ownership of Imperial family, the Shogun, or local daimyo. Beneath this structure, the Shogun was to in a position to manage local daimyo from rising to power. Keeping kin class was of significant, both in public and lawfully. If a person was found culpable of a crime and released, their close relatives could turn out to

Saudi Arabia Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Saudi Arabia Business Ethics - Essay Example It is noteworthy to mention that organisational culture plays a very important role in organisations in the aspect that it can become a strategic resource that leads to sustainable competitive advantage through the promotion of learning, risk taking, and innovation (Blunt, 1991). It is also suggested that organisational culture is linked to performance at the individual level (Scott et al., 2003), thus pointing out on the importance of culture in business transactions. Culture has been described as â€Å"the way of life for an entire society† and includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, and norms of behaviour such as law and morality as well as systems of belief. Hofstede and Hofstede (2005, p. 4) defines culture as â€Å"the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others.† Human behaviour is often characterised as complex and unpredictable, adding to the influence of culture on it, which affects how managers work through and with people. Thus, the tasks of the managers influence individual behaviour. A manager who transacts business in a global manner needs to understand the culture of people with whom business is carried out. This indicates the importance of understanding culture as a key factor in competition that relies on knowledge-based assets and processes and depends heavily on learning and innovation (Levitt, 1983). From this standpoint, it is clear that the main target of the organisation today for sustaining organisational success and competitive advantage includes gaining knowledge, skills, and abilities. Additionally, distinctive elements between successful and unsuccessful firms include crucial factors such as the culture, values, attitudes, and commitments of employees and the organisation itself (Piper, 1990). In today’s era of globalisation, the importance of

Case Study-Sting Ray Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

-Sting Ray - Case Study Example PoolVac also wishes to use its sales data for the last 26 quarters to estimate demand for its Sting Ray.Demand for Sting Rays is specified to be a linear function as the following: 1. Run the appropriate regression to estimate the average variable cost function (AVC) for Sting Rays. Evaluatethe statistical significance of the three estimated parameters using a significance level of 5 percent. Be sure tocomment on the algebraic signs of the three parameter estimates. (30%) At a confidence level of 95% (5% level of significance), all the three parameters are significant, as they have a p-value of less than 0.05. Notably, a (intercept) has a p-value of 1.96*10-17, while the coefficients b and have p –values of 0.000342 and 0.01299, respectively The model implies that average variable costs is a function of both Q and square of Q. the first parameter, intercept is 152, implying that the expected average cost at constant quantity is 152. As quantity varies, average cost will vary directly with Q2 (positive parameter) and inversely with the quantity (negative coefficient). Notably an increase in quantity does not necessarily increase average variable cost, the effect depends on which variable(either Q or Q2 ) has a greater influence. Evaluate the statistical significance of the three estimated slope parameters using a significance level of 5percent. Discuss the appropriateness of the algebraic signs of each of the three slope parameter estimates.(20%) h= 3.166Ph and p-value of 0.027, implies that holding price and income constant, If competitors reduce their prices by a unit, customers shift from sting ray to its substitutes hence demand reduces by 3.166 units and vice versa. 5. The manager at PoolVac, Inc. believes Howard Industries is going to price its automatic pool cleaner at $250,and average household income in the U.S. is expected to be $65,000. Using the regression results from Question 4, write the estimated demand function (with only P as

The Declaration of Independence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Declaration of Independence - Essay Example Regaining the rights as Britishers which were taken from the colonists by the Imperial power of England was not the objective behind the declaration of United States as an independent nation. The document pertinently indicates to this fact. The vision of a new nation that would thrive on the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity inspired the true independence of United States from the colonial regime and this seed of American Dream which was sown in the formative years of the nation building truly inspired the author. With the spreading of education, came The Age of Enlightenment. Philosophers like Locke and Hobbs started challenging the concept for the divinity of Kings and his monarchy. Their thought process enabled the mass to realize that it is the duty of the ruler to look after the subjects and not that the subjects exist with the purpose of serving their monarch. These philosophers had a great influence on the fathers of the United States like Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. But the greatest influenced soul was Thomas Paine. These philosophies inspired the framers of the Declaration of Independence to free them from the regime of Great Britain and stopped their pursuit of only regaining their British status as

Unit 4 db mgmt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Unit 4 db mgmt - Essay Example The DSS has four main components which include: a) User Interface, b) Database, c) Models and Analytical Tools, d) Architecture and network of DSS. The DSS contain a effective user interface, which is generally used by the decision makers to gain complete information from the database to make informed decisions. The database is used to save all the high quality information and to keep track of all the available data. Also, DSS uses mathematical models and tools that mainly relate to the supply chain activities. One of the best examples of the use of the decision support systems include that of Frito Lays, which used the DSS to develop hand held computers which was given to the route sales individuals to collect data from all the sales transactions. Also this helped the company keep a centralized control system although making the decision making decentralized (Power, 2002). This change to the company was a turning point and helped the company improve in the overall

Assignment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Assignment - Research Paper Example The major causes of TBI include head bang, falls, vehicle accidental, construction accidents and sports. Sports have been classified as the most lethal and rampant contributor to the development of head injury. The prevention of the occurrence of this disease depend on the cause of the problem. Reduction of car accidents can result to tremendous decrease in the incidences of TBI. Change in the common practices in sports can also do well in the prevention of its occurrence. Wearing of head gears have statistically proven positive in the prevention. Impact of Traumatic Brain Injury Medical impact The occurrence of traumatic brain injury in individuals at any stage of development has adverse medical impacts. The cost of treating the disease has proven to be one of the most expensive procedures in the world. This means apart from medical covers available in the country one has to deep hands in their pocket and cover for the expense (Finkelstein et al, 2006). The test carried in the diagn osis stage to make a decision on the kind of medical treatment and operation can adversely alter the health of an individual. The prolonged medication applied on the individuals suffering from traumatic brain injury could lead to several side effects on the person undergoing the medical treatment. The complicated surgeries conducted for the recovery of the individuals could be costly as well as critical for patients in case of lapses on the part of the surgeon. The increase in cost of treatment bore by the individual is also an impact of the prolonged medical treatment for recovery from traumatic brain injury. Due to the prevalence of TBI, the disability it causes can cause increased risk of other health conditions. Recent studies show that 1to 3 years post injury, people with TBI are 1.8 more likely to develop epilepsy and new health problem associated with it can develop in the aging process (Ferguson et al, 2005). This includes development of depression, Alzheimers and mental ret ardation. Therefore, the medical impact varies from the cost and the side effect of treatment to the development of other diseases. Physical impact TBI is accompanied by several physical inabilities, the signs and symptoms can vary from total inability to partial one. Headache, change in the sense of taste, dizziness and trouble in balance are some of the minor insistences that results to partial inability. Loss of speech, sight and hearing causes complete impairment on the personnel life. The traumatic brain injury of an individual leads to physical limitations and disabilities. The injury suffered in the brain due to accidental falls, violence or vehicle accidents is causes alteration in the internal functions of the brain that leads to changes in the cerebral blood flow. The injury in the skull also affects the blood pressure in the brain. This could cause partial or complete paralysis over a period of time in the individual who have suffered the traumatic injury. The increase in disability of the individual, therefore, causes limitation to the person’s physical or bodily functions (Mallonee et al, 2006). Educational impact The traumatic brain injury affects the individuals in the course of their educational progress. The effect is on the students learning progress and even the way the tutor has to teach. The alteration in the function of the cerebrum caused due to the traumatic injury could lead to cognitive drawback that pulls back the level of understanding as compared to the

Frederick C Hamilton Essay Example for Free

Frederick C Hamilton Essay The architectural sculptured layout of the Fredrick C Hamilton building is on display at Denver Art Museum. The actual building, named after the CEO of the Petroleum company is near completion. Frederick C Hamilton post modern style designed building is a dome, shell shaped architect, comparable to the Sydney Opera House. (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Architecture) The outside Hamilton building structure is designed using patterns from the expressionism art era. The post modern design is very simplistic, without many intricate details. Anyone viewing the attractive building would be curiously drawn to the building. The Frederick C Hamilton building serves as the main entrance to popular culture and art areas. It is the only dome shaped building in the area, surrounded by buildings with pattern designs from the Renaissance and Romantic art eras. Once inside the building, the person feels transported in totally different planet. The glass ceilings, and skylights allows the sun to shine through, into the building. The creative designed structures portrays a very pleasant atmosphere to everyone entering it. (http://www. designbuild-network. com/projects/dam/) The designer of this coned, alien shaped 350,000 sq ft building is Daniel Libeskined, whom also designed the World Trade Center after the attack. The Frederick C Hamilton building will hold nearly one thousand parking spaces. The construction materials used for the building are titanium, steel, and concrete. The creativity behind the amazing designs centering around romantic style buildings requires real genius imagination.

Formative Role of Video Games

Formative Role of Video Games Introduction As a long time fan of computer games, Ive always wondered how video games have reached this point in time, I wanted to know how Nintendo became Nintendo, how games went from the arcades to home consoles and how games changed from two dimensions to three dimensions. The following was originally planned to be purely a discussion on the development of the games industry however once this project began I soon realised that video games owe most of its early years and breakthrough development to other entertainment industries, particularly film. After much research on the topic I altered my discussions focus away from purely the games industry to the broader entertainment industry, mainly because it is very difficult to separate the two, both now owe each other so much, in video games early years it took much from the entertainment industry but in the last few years things have changed, revolutionary techniques are being developed by the game industry and now are being adapted by the film industry, in this dissertation I wanted to see video games long term effect on the entertainment industry and whether it has been one of a negative or positive effect and my predictions for the future of both mediums. The Birth of the Computer Game The modern video game has evolved much from its very humble and almost accidental beginning in 1958 when William Higinotham a nuclear physicist while working on a small analogue computer in the purpose of describing various curves on a cathode-ray tube noticed the curved and bouncing effect reminded him of tennis(Brookhaven, 2009). He altered the amplifiers of the balls motion so bounding space on the screen could be controlled by the turning knobs on the machine. Higinotham designed the game from first conception in two hours and it took him only a brief few hours over a few days to alter the existing technology. The budget for first game known only as Tennis For Two was almost zero as it was made for existing parts. Too think of a modern game been designed in two hours or completed in a few days is just incomprehensible, not only would it be almost guaranteed to be a terrible game but making it functional to the player would be a impossible task, and the budget would be another imp assable road block. The current generation of video games if they are to be a success spend months in the design and concept phase and take anywhere from 16 months to over four years to finish and have a budget that matches Hollywood blockbusters. The 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV(Rockstar, 2008) spent 6 years in development and the final expenses rose to over  £100 million. However the developers perceived the risk of financial failure if the product did not sell as a necessary risk in order to live up to the fans expectations, this game was a sequel in a long line of a series known for breaking sales records and having a fan base like none other. This game however is not the exception either, many recent games have had budgets of over  £100 million and spent years in production, these high expenses are expected to rise when every generation of consoles are releases not only because of the technology behind them but the players demand for more, including highly designed graphics, unique art design and realistic effects rendered to a quality of CGI films. Hollywood My research is discovering videos games effect on the entertainment industry but more specifically the film industry and the aspect of them competing against one another but also with the rare and generally unsuccessful case of the merger of film and games. When video games first began to sell successfully in the early 1970s film had already been established as the main attraction for visual entertainment with strings of great releases and new releases that broke viewer and financial records one after another, the 1970s seemed an unlikely time for another visual medium to develop however video game managed to do that, by the late 1970s video games seen the releases of many classic games such as Pong (Atari Inc, 1972), Asteroids (Atari Inc, 1979) and Space Invaders (Taito Corporation, 1978). At the time however these releases were still nothing to be recognised by the critics of the entertainment industry, they seen them as nothing but toys, not to be taking seriously. These classic g ames didnt even make a mark on the film industry in regards to financial success, however this was primarily because the home console didnt exist yet and games could only be played in arcades where the owner of the arcades took all profits with only the initial cost of the machine ever to be the income of the early game designer. In the early 1980s arcades changes, they werent now purely for the gaming youth, the non-gamer began to discover this alternate entertainment medium and it became a regular event for them to occasionally visit an arcade, this is when the time began known as the Golden Years particularly in the United States and Japan when teenagers and adults alike would enter the arcade and discover a game that would just entrap them, video games started to become a area to look into for potential designers as games beforehand where only created for the love of it but now as a designer you could now make a living out of designing games, this is mainly because the fans of t he early games where mostly diehard fans where they would enter quarter after quarter to finish the game. Brian Garside (2009) of RadicalHive Remembers putting quarter after quarter, hour after hours into arcade game, and it was for the same reasons as everyone else was there, a very simple attraction, The games were very loud and very bright, and brought one thing most gamers wanted, instant gratification the more quarters you had the longer you had to play, the difficulty level was extreme, there was no lives* or saves* you just tried to get to the finish before you ran out of quarters, and if you did then you became an elite member of the gaming public because you got to put your name on the screen, where it could be seen every day by every gamer, that was the main goal of the early gamer, to say you finished an arcade game, this was something rare because of the difficulty*. Arcades borrowed much from the film world in its early years including the cinema building layout itself, the general arcade includes, the games, popcorn machines, snack and hotdog bars and generally in the centre area would be pool tables, it represented a meeting place, the arcade became a place to hang out, friends would meet up at the arcade and not even play a game, it was almost a staging place, you would go there before heading to the movies or after a movie you would return there for a few minutes to let yourself lose, aside from the games the arcade became a place to just hang around and let loose. The Home Console It wasnt till the home console when games took a firm place in the entertainment industry, the development of the designed home console brought around games that were developed past the loud noises and ghastly lights, the home console brought around the era of the complex stories in games with gripping narratives, moving performances and of course the Pixelated hero*. Fairchild Channel F(Fairchild Semiconductor, 1976), a unknown games company who today if you mentioned them to a gamer most likely you would get a puzzled response and even in the early years of game development they where an unknown company however their games machine left a mark on the industry because they coined a phrase which is used by every single person in the games industry, Console*. Video games now had a place in the 1970s home but they still hadnt changed much form the arcade, bright lights and ghastly sounds where everywhere, game after game were effectively the same but with a different name. This slur of games eventually lead to the great video games crash*of 1983-84 triggered by a non-ending market of low quality games and by far too many overpriced consoles, another involving factor was that the market was considered to be at full saturation, the critically slammed game of the successful film E.T.(Atari, Inc, 1982) was the breaking point, the rising popularity of the home computer(PC) and the personnel computer also was deemed to be part responsible for the crash particular with their aggressive advertising campaigns such as this scrupulous ad by Microsoft Why buy your child a video game and distract them from school when you can buy them a home computer that will prepare them for college?(Global Oneness, 2009). This crash brought an abrupt end to the current generation of video games and almost crippled the new games industry particularly in north America, many games companies collapsed and with the few that survived none maintained any high level of success after the crash. It wasnt till the end of 1985 that the games industry started to recover and that was with the immediate success of the now legendary Nintendo Entertainment System(1985). The 8-bit* generation had begun with a bang with launch games consisting of ExciteBike (1985) and Super Mario Bros.( 1985), gamers could not resist but buy the NES even with doubts after the many years of terrible releases just preceding this new line up and generation. Aside from the games Nintendo also standardised many console features such as controller ports, gun controllers and the Quality seal of approval*. In the early 90s things started to heat up again in the games industry, Nintendo now had a fierce competitor in the industry, SEGA. SEGA (19 90) released its Mega Drive, which they hailed as the first 16-bit gaming console and it proved that by displaying graphics which were unheard of at this time. But Nintendo hit back by releasing their Record breaking Super Nintendo Entertainment System(1990). This fierce competition between the two drove developers to become better designers and it was proved as much with hugely successful and critically acclaimed hits been released for each console, this home console war ended any chance of the arcades recovering, gamers had finalised there move from the arcades back to their homes, the home console had become the core choice by the games and also by the developer. The 3D Generation Video games where successful in their early years but they were never hugely successful, they never get anywhere near close to the popularity of the film industry nor did the game releases of films get anywhere closer and in fact generally sold much worse. Designers made a profit but it was only a sustaining profit, enough to keep the company going, pay the staff and develop future games but they just didnt have the financial backing of the film industry, games were rarely advertised and certainly didnt have any sort of vast marketing displays and if there even was a marketing team at all it would consist of very few people and have a simple budget as can be seen by the low quality of games advertisement in the 1980s, the advertisement stood close to what the game was, bright lights and loud noises. It wasnt till the 5th generation of gaming consoles or the 3d generation as its also known did games reach a level of popularity that could not quite yet match the film industries figures but certainly put a mark against it, their where many success stories but also many failures in this generation, it saw the fall of Atari, the 3DO, SEGA and the rise of Sony with the Playstation(1994). Nintendo where the only existing company to the enter the 3D generation and continue to be successful. Not much changed with the Nintendo strategy and it didnt need to, they released once again hit after hit until the end of this generation when in 1995 the disc based Sony Playstation overtook the Nintendo 64(1996) in terms of sales and it began to build a strong fan base including taking a good portion of Nintendos key market. The Playstation was the first home console to sell more than 100,000 million units worldwide, this is now the time the games industry started to be compared to the film industry in terms of sales and success. Aside from commercial success, the Playstation also changed the console development plan, the success of the disc was the final nail in the coffin on the old cartridge system previously used by Nintendo. The stability of the disc medium, cheap manufacturing expenses in using disc based games where the main reasons for its success. At the end of this gener ation SEGA fans had lost faith in their beloved console with few games being released on the console mainly because developers jumped ship to the more successful Nintendo and Sony and while there was still yet to be another SEGA console in the form of the SEGA Dreamcast(1999), this was the turning point in SEGAs decline and their eventual retreat from console development. Even with the great success of the Playstation, neither Nintendo or Sony ever seemed to publicly announce or display a challenge for financial success against the rest of the entertainment industry, advertisement still stayed low budget and was purely aimed at making existing gamers aware of future products rather than attracting new potential game players. The Changing Generation The following Generation displayed much of the same as the previous generation, The Sony Playstation 2(2000) was effectively the same as the first one just much more advanced with a few new features, the same can be said for the Nintendo GameCube(2001) except now Nintendo had adopted disc based technology. There was a new entry in the market place now, Microsoft seeing the potential of the games industry entered the market in 2001 with the Xbox. The Xbox didnt design its games or console any differently to Nintendo and Sonys consoles however it did add one thing, it is possible the most important new feature to games design since the 3D era took hold, the Xbox introduced online multiplayer through a service known as Xbox LIVE*. This new feature was the only thing that kept the console from complete failure as the games that accompanied the console where of a lower quality and Microsoft struggled to attract a strong fanbase, however though XBOX LIVE proved so successful that online mu ltiplayer is a standard now for most modern games. While this was going on, in the background Nintendo where busy working with the handheld market, before now everyone considered this market purely for kids and only a gimmick at best, Nintendo wanted to change that and they did with the Game Boy Advance(2001). They did this by developing games of a standard of the home consoles and Marketing the device as a independent handheld console separate to that of the home consoles. Because of the new advanced graphics available to developers, a completely realistic game could be made but this lead to huge criticism of the games with releases of ultra graphic Mortal Kombat(Midway Games, multiple) and the portrayal of criminal behaviour seen in Grand Theft Auto series(Rockstar Games, Multiple). These controversial games aloud non-gaming public to become much more aware of the games industry, although this was potentially dangerous criticism against the games industry, it is seen as exactly wh at the games industry was looking for. Sony particularly began marketing mature games for mature audiences, with advertising campaigns aimed purely for the an age group of 18 and above. The content in these games led to the ESRB and PEGI age rating system to inform parents that there are games available in the market that are unsuitable for their children. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time(Nintendo, 1998), Grand Theft Auto 3(, Rockstar Games, 2001), and Halo: Combat Evolved(Bungie, 2001) were the first game in the industry to be marketed in the way of a summer blockbuster, they all sold hugely successful and these games are seen by many as the turning point where games left the old mentality behind of being just for the arcade gamer and now was at a position to enter the next generation as a strong competitor to Hollywood, by the end of this generation in 2006 total film sales reached an estimated $16.6 billion in North America for the film industry compared to the games industries $13.5 Billion (Breckon, 2007). Entering the late 2000s, the still young games industry is nearly as valuable as over 100 year old film industry. The Next-Generation. The 7th Generation seen many advancements, Blu-Ray disc technology, Massively multiplayer games(MMOs), High Definition technology and motion tracking as seen by the Nintendo Wii(2006). Microsofts Xbox 360 launched first into this generation in 2005 and it proved a success, aside from being first into this new generation it fully launched Xbox LIVE and multiplayer as a standard throughout the industry. The Xbox 360 now stands firmly second place in between Sonys Playstation 3(2006) and Nintendos Wii in the console battle. It has a strong game to console attach rate*, with loyal fans and marketing team any Company would want, these factors will guarantee its success into the next console generation. The Sony Playstation 3 launched a full year after the Xbox 360 and some believe this to be the main reason it had poor launch figures as well as the fact that there were a limited supply of Blu-ray diodes for the consoles main feature. The console to date has still struggled to compete with its competition with many of its games selling poorly, Xboxs leading exclusive game Halo 3(2008) sold over 10 million copies as for Sonys PS3 most successful exclusive game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots(2008) sold only a little over 4 million copies, however it has grounded itself, it is now financially a success and has guaranteed a place in the next generation line up. Nintendo on the other hand are on a completely different level compared to its rivals, it sales have been record breaking since its launch two weeks after the PS3. The Wii has sold almost more than both the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined with current sales figures at 52.29 Million units sold for the Nintendo Wii, 31.30 Million units sold for the Xbox 360 and 23.16 Million units sold for the PS3 (VGchartz, 2009). The key to the success of the Wii is the widening of the demographics, Nintendo completely changed their approach to selling and developing games, in previous generation Nintendo only developed games for the hardcore gamer(strict loyal fan) but now they are developing for a mixture of hardcore games and casual games(general public). Nintendos main aim for the Wii was not to beat its rivals but to get new people playing games, Satoru Iwata stated in(2006) at a Press conference in Tokyo that were not thinking about fighting Sony, but about how many people we can get to play games.. This is reflected in Nintendos Advertisement campaigns throughout the world, Nintendo dramatically changed their method of advertising to new much more successful methods such as featuring celebrities and even the advertisement developed by academy award winning directors. Their audience grew hugely with this advertising strategy including a varied assortment of game players including, children, adults and g randparents, their campaign is aimed at people of all ages. The success of these ads can be seen in the wide audience, a 103 year old pensioner was reported to be regularly playing the Wii, the Queen of England is was even reported to have a Nintendo Wii(Rousewell, 2008). With the games industry going from strength to strength it is hard not to see the games industries eventual overtaking of the film industry as the leading section of the entertainment industry. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillermot (2007) expects the games industry to grow an additional 50% in the next four year, casual gaming and the newly introduced in-game advertisement are expected to be the key factors to gamings take over. The gaming industry is also growing in other parts of the world, The Asian market alone is expected to reach $28.8 billion in sales by 2011 with a total sales for the games industry at $65(Breckon, 2007). By then the film industry is only predicted to grow to a total sales of $25.8 billion in sales, less than half of the predicted games sales. However High definition is now becoming a standard in the film industry as well as the re-introduction 3D films, both advancements could bring a new lease of life to the film industry, it can also be considered that at â‚ ¬60 a game compared to the film industries â‚ ¬10 cinema admission or â‚ ¬25-â‚ ¬40 for DVD/Blu-ray income might make up impressive figures however as for the individual customer using each medium the actual numbers of people still lean greatly towards the film industry. It could be questioned why are they seen as competition and not simply compared as separate mediums in the entertainment industry, many game adaptations of films and vice versa have been released mostly with only slight success but all have been critically slammed, ever year the two industries become closer and closer and with that will be massive financial gain, James Camerons Avatar: The Game(Ubisoft, 2009) and film (Cameron, 2009) is seen as the first step towards bringing these two entertainment industries together. Chapter 2: Literature review What is a game? This is a very common question and it is a very important one, I wish to make it clear that the great success of video games in the last few years have mainly due to the changes behind in the design room and in the studios not just in the way games are now being marketed, the general games design theory is seen as a factor in the success. Defining what a game is or a theory behind it is one that you can spend a great deal of time arguing over and even with a set of results it still is a open question. The definition will in general influence how one decides to design a game, so it is critical when designing a game that you completely understand the purpose for it. There are multiple ways we could define a game, with varying ranges of features. Greg Costikyan (1994) states A game is a form of art in which participants, teamed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal. This meaning is questionable, it may of defined what a game wa s back in the early years but because of the constant technology advancements if a designer was to define what a game was it would be more like, a game is a form of art in which participants single or multiple make decisions according to the narrative design in order to resolve game world situations and finish the game as the ultimate goal, this would be my definition of defining the modern computer game. The essential problem with defining a game is that depending on the era a definition will make sense in one decade but not the next because of the rapid growth of the gaming medium. This rapid growth is changing the industry, MIT Professor Henry Jenkins(2008) stated that video games have converged different entertainment platforms that allowed producers of these content to exercise new ways of stretching the viability of their intellectual properties. A single general theory only works when one looks at a genre of game type or who the player of the game will be, at the core reasoning for games, they only exist to be played, it is an interactive medium the only kind which is visual, audibly, interactive and within that a multiplayer component which allows many people to play at once and with the internet the numbers are almost infinite depending on the game. As with the genre and medium some are considered entertaining and some are considered a task, challenge is however a general the me with games design. As with every industry, once games design was established as a valuable medium, competition quickly arose as seen at Quakecon(Nok, 2009) and in a new medium players want quickly to become the best at it or be the first to finish it, to design a game to suit this want is a challenge and that is the general reason a games design theory was sought after in early game development. As the basis of games design is that every game or most games have a beginning, middle and an end, the game starts and ends at your own discretion and with a set of rules for you to manipulate or use to at your means. Playing the game is down to the player, but if there is a desire to understand games and game design, we must first clearly establish the purpose of it. We must determine the characteristics of all games, but discovering that outlines and establish a set of attribute for each game genre rather than what characterised games as a whole. Hoffman (2008) believes that outside of computer games, playing a game in general is an important part of life. I wish to discover does game design need a theory? Other medium generally have some sort of theory behind them but they are much more closely related in their genres as game design is very diverse and has a interactive aspect in design and game playing, what people want, and the level of scale and longevity are maybe too diverse for a game design theory to exist. Changes in games design: For the Better or worse? Defining games design is still widely regarded as a difficult task, what a game is though differs constantly and when it enters production depending on the type of game the design methods behind it are much different from a racing game to a action game. That is the first problem, it is complex to place the games design program in any one meaning. The actual study of engine design, physics and application of games design is much more closely connected to mathematics rather than traditional design practices, if this study was literally taken into practice than it would be a great oversight, designing a game using only mathematics and programmers instead of a blend with designers would only lead to failure. Ideally, a games design studio should be as interdisciplined as any other large field, it should consist of, programmers, designers, artists and engineers. Richard Rouse III(2005) states that the game design is what determines the form of the gameplay, however that is not always so a s seen by top-down or bottom-up design*. The features set in game design determines what choices players will be able to make in the game-world and what consequences those choices will have on the rest of the game. Bernd Kreimeier(2002) states that Games design like any other profession requires a means to document, discuss and plan. In the last few years with the advent of the growing online design community, a designer could refer to the growing online library of previously released games for general ideas and quick inspiration. In the early days of games design, designers generally referred to board games for their inspiration as there was no other means to compare work, without some sort of comparison it would of been very risky to release a game without any sort of knowledge of whether a similar product has been successful in the past. Hoffman (2008) believes that the main problem with game design is deciding where to place it, creating a game through a subset of sociology or a dedicated studio and these decisions are what make defining a game so complex. However while knowledge about games has grown rapidly, it could be said even more so than any other media industry, little progress has been made to document individual experiences to interweave into design practices and theories. Kreimeier (2002) states that on the base line of design theory, games design needs a related library to name the modelling assets been created, designing and a set of rules to express how these design techniques fit together, a case for design patterns could exist. Help from Hollywood? Games design is uniquely many thing, but at the basis of design it comes down to a few little things, coming up with the initial idea through thought and discussing, the idea to see it is not only a workable product but is it actually a good idea and from that point heavily expanding on the original idea until any team of designers could implement the design and achieve a expected result. Evidently if that was all designers had to go on it was be extremely difficult for anything to be created. Since the beginning of games design, games designers have worked around these initial problems by relying on design techniques and theories adapted from other media such as film and storytelling. Noah Falstein (1997) writes that part of the problem with encounters of people from Hollywood was their lack of respect. This problem though has been rid away with over the years but it was a huge problem back in the 1970s and 1980s when young game companies searched for aid in development from Hollywo od studios but received little help. Games are not only a interactive medium but they are a visual medium and game designers have been increasingly relying on design techniques developed from film such as motion capture however this is not to be taken as a side of weakness from game designer and should not question that games are the same as film but the film practices are investigated in an effort to identify methods which are suited in favour of games. Nevertheless this was not always enough, games design theories started to develop solely to do with games and without influence from other medium, Kreimeier (2002) also believes that games as an individual medium needs its own practices and if borrowed techniques were enough then there be no need to develop any practices specific to games design theories. These collective theories are individual but there has been much discussion on them and it could be probable that these individual theories could be developed into one universal ga mes design theory although the most likely result would be a flawed design theory. The open use of gaming terms promotes an over perceived meaning of our own belief of what games are, The academic public overly ignore the uniquely and complexity of game design. Junior designers whose own skill are limited generally embark upon designing games with no further research than their own experience as game players, this methodology is sure to fail, the desire to success, what people in reality like to play can be much different than what the designer actually likes, this is unfortunately a common problem in traditional game design, this is a problem Pederson (2003) states as critical for lead game designers. Those who overrate their own understanding will undercut their own potential from learning and further more it will lead to the same result as failure. Ambiguity and ambiguity of play are a important aspect of design brought up by Smith (1997), applying the principle and concepts to gaming have watered down the original medium and meanings, there is no longer a clear focus to the ideology of game design we desire to understand. This watered effect is creating genres, levels of design, innovativeness, expenses and lastly the technology are effecting this medium more than any other, price ranges in not only the technology but the actual developing of the game can be astronomical, the latest version of Grand Theft Auto(Rockstar Games, 2008) a sandbox* style game cost over $100 million to design and develop included over 1,000 members of staff and took of three years to finish(Linde, 2008). If you were to look for game design theory in this game, after much search you would result with a unanswered question, putting aside the budget and expenses to develop this game the sure scale of this project is enough to put a stop to the idea of needing or there ever existing an underlying games design theory. The style of game for the GTA series is not alone, other genre such as first person shooters(FPS), action based and role playing games(RPG) are also pu t in this bracket, it would be hard pressed to find a game theory where each of these genres could fit in, meet there goals and be overall a success. A Common Design Theory? There are a few genres of games where there is potentially a underlying game design theory that could be developed for any new game yet to be developed and this could exist in the racing genre, it is this genre where the same practices of desig Formative Role of Video Games Formative Role of Video Games Introduction As a long time fan of computer games, Ive always wondered how video games have reached this point in time, I wanted to know how Nintendo became Nintendo, how games went from the arcades to home consoles and how games changed from two dimensions to three dimensions. The following was originally planned to be purely a discussion on the development of the games industry however once this project began I soon realised that video games owe most of its early years and breakthrough development to other entertainment industries, particularly film. After much research on the topic I altered my discussions focus away from purely the games industry to the broader entertainment industry, mainly because it is very difficult to separate the two, both now owe each other so much, in video games early years it took much from the entertainment industry but in the last few years things have changed, revolutionary techniques are being developed by the game industry and now are being adapted by the film industry, in this dissertation I wanted to see video games long term effect on the entertainment industry and whether it has been one of a negative or positive effect and my predictions for the future of both mediums. The Birth of the Computer Game The modern video game has evolved much from its very humble and almost accidental beginning in 1958 when William Higinotham a nuclear physicist while working on a small analogue computer in the purpose of describing various curves on a cathode-ray tube noticed the curved and bouncing effect reminded him of tennis(Brookhaven, 2009). He altered the amplifiers of the balls motion so bounding space on the screen could be controlled by the turning knobs on the machine. Higinotham designed the game from first conception in two hours and it took him only a brief few hours over a few days to alter the existing technology. The budget for first game known only as Tennis For Two was almost zero as it was made for existing parts. Too think of a modern game been designed in two hours or completed in a few days is just incomprehensible, not only would it be almost guaranteed to be a terrible game but making it functional to the player would be a impossible task, and the budget would be another imp assable road block. The current generation of video games if they are to be a success spend months in the design and concept phase and take anywhere from 16 months to over four years to finish and have a budget that matches Hollywood blockbusters. The 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV(Rockstar, 2008) spent 6 years in development and the final expenses rose to over  £100 million. However the developers perceived the risk of financial failure if the product did not sell as a necessary risk in order to live up to the fans expectations, this game was a sequel in a long line of a series known for breaking sales records and having a fan base like none other. This game however is not the exception either, many recent games have had budgets of over  £100 million and spent years in production, these high expenses are expected to rise when every generation of consoles are releases not only because of the technology behind them but the players demand for more, including highly designed graphics, unique art design and realistic effects rendered to a quality of CGI films. Hollywood My research is discovering videos games effect on the entertainment industry but more specifically the film industry and the aspect of them competing against one another but also with the rare and generally unsuccessful case of the merger of film and games. When video games first began to sell successfully in the early 1970s film had already been established as the main attraction for visual entertainment with strings of great releases and new releases that broke viewer and financial records one after another, the 1970s seemed an unlikely time for another visual medium to develop however video game managed to do that, by the late 1970s video games seen the releases of many classic games such as Pong (Atari Inc, 1972), Asteroids (Atari Inc, 1979) and Space Invaders (Taito Corporation, 1978). At the time however these releases were still nothing to be recognised by the critics of the entertainment industry, they seen them as nothing but toys, not to be taking seriously. These classic g ames didnt even make a mark on the film industry in regards to financial success, however this was primarily because the home console didnt exist yet and games could only be played in arcades where the owner of the arcades took all profits with only the initial cost of the machine ever to be the income of the early game designer. In the early 1980s arcades changes, they werent now purely for the gaming youth, the non-gamer began to discover this alternate entertainment medium and it became a regular event for them to occasionally visit an arcade, this is when the time began known as the Golden Years particularly in the United States and Japan when teenagers and adults alike would enter the arcade and discover a game that would just entrap them, video games started to become a area to look into for potential designers as games beforehand where only created for the love of it but now as a designer you could now make a living out of designing games, this is mainly because the fans of t he early games where mostly diehard fans where they would enter quarter after quarter to finish the game. Brian Garside (2009) of RadicalHive Remembers putting quarter after quarter, hour after hours into arcade game, and it was for the same reasons as everyone else was there, a very simple attraction, The games were very loud and very bright, and brought one thing most gamers wanted, instant gratification the more quarters you had the longer you had to play, the difficulty level was extreme, there was no lives* or saves* you just tried to get to the finish before you ran out of quarters, and if you did then you became an elite member of the gaming public because you got to put your name on the screen, where it could be seen every day by every gamer, that was the main goal of the early gamer, to say you finished an arcade game, this was something rare because of the difficulty*. Arcades borrowed much from the film world in its early years including the cinema building layout itself, the general arcade includes, the games, popcorn machines, snack and hotdog bars and generally in the centre area would be pool tables, it represented a meeting place, the arcade became a place to hang out, friends would meet up at the arcade and not even play a game, it was almost a staging place, you would go there before heading to the movies or after a movie you would return there for a few minutes to let yourself lose, aside from the games the arcade became a place to just hang around and let loose. The Home Console It wasnt till the home console when games took a firm place in the entertainment industry, the development of the designed home console brought around games that were developed past the loud noises and ghastly lights, the home console brought around the era of the complex stories in games with gripping narratives, moving performances and of course the Pixelated hero*. Fairchild Channel F(Fairchild Semiconductor, 1976), a unknown games company who today if you mentioned them to a gamer most likely you would get a puzzled response and even in the early years of game development they where an unknown company however their games machine left a mark on the industry because they coined a phrase which is used by every single person in the games industry, Console*. Video games now had a place in the 1970s home but they still hadnt changed much form the arcade, bright lights and ghastly sounds where everywhere, game after game were effectively the same but with a different name. This slur of games eventually lead to the great video games crash*of 1983-84 triggered by a non-ending market of low quality games and by far too many overpriced consoles, another involving factor was that the market was considered to be at full saturation, the critically slammed game of the successful film E.T.(Atari, Inc, 1982) was the breaking point, the rising popularity of the home computer(PC) and the personnel computer also was deemed to be part responsible for the crash particular with their aggressive advertising campaigns such as this scrupulous ad by Microsoft Why buy your child a video game and distract them from school when you can buy them a home computer that will prepare them for college?(Global Oneness, 2009). This crash brought an abrupt end to the current generation of video games and almost crippled the new games industry particularly in north America, many games companies collapsed and with the few that survived none maintained any high level of success after the crash. It wasnt till the end of 1985 that the games industry started to recover and that was with the immediate success of the now legendary Nintendo Entertainment System(1985). The 8-bit* generation had begun with a bang with launch games consisting of ExciteBike (1985) and Super Mario Bros.( 1985), gamers could not resist but buy the NES even with doubts after the many years of terrible releases just preceding this new line up and generation. Aside from the games Nintendo also standardised many console features such as controller ports, gun controllers and the Quality seal of approval*. In the early 90s things started to heat up again in the games industry, Nintendo now had a fierce competitor in the industry, SEGA. SEGA (19 90) released its Mega Drive, which they hailed as the first 16-bit gaming console and it proved that by displaying graphics which were unheard of at this time. But Nintendo hit back by releasing their Record breaking Super Nintendo Entertainment System(1990). This fierce competition between the two drove developers to become better designers and it was proved as much with hugely successful and critically acclaimed hits been released for each console, this home console war ended any chance of the arcades recovering, gamers had finalised there move from the arcades back to their homes, the home console had become the core choice by the games and also by the developer. The 3D Generation Video games where successful in their early years but they were never hugely successful, they never get anywhere near close to the popularity of the film industry nor did the game releases of films get anywhere closer and in fact generally sold much worse. Designers made a profit but it was only a sustaining profit, enough to keep the company going, pay the staff and develop future games but they just didnt have the financial backing of the film industry, games were rarely advertised and certainly didnt have any sort of vast marketing displays and if there even was a marketing team at all it would consist of very few people and have a simple budget as can be seen by the low quality of games advertisement in the 1980s, the advertisement stood close to what the game was, bright lights and loud noises. It wasnt till the 5th generation of gaming consoles or the 3d generation as its also known did games reach a level of popularity that could not quite yet match the film industries figures but certainly put a mark against it, their where many success stories but also many failures in this generation, it saw the fall of Atari, the 3DO, SEGA and the rise of Sony with the Playstation(1994). Nintendo where the only existing company to the enter the 3D generation and continue to be successful. Not much changed with the Nintendo strategy and it didnt need to, they released once again hit after hit until the end of this generation when in 1995 the disc based Sony Playstation overtook the Nintendo 64(1996) in terms of sales and it began to build a strong fan base including taking a good portion of Nintendos key market. The Playstation was the first home console to sell more than 100,000 million units worldwide, this is now the time the games industry started to be compared to the film industry in terms of sales and success. Aside from commercial success, the Playstation also changed the console development plan, the success of the disc was the final nail in the coffin on the old cartridge system previously used by Nintendo. The stability of the disc medium, cheap manufacturing expenses in using disc based games where the main reasons for its success. At the end of this gener ation SEGA fans had lost faith in their beloved console with few games being released on the console mainly because developers jumped ship to the more successful Nintendo and Sony and while there was still yet to be another SEGA console in the form of the SEGA Dreamcast(1999), this was the turning point in SEGAs decline and their eventual retreat from console development. Even with the great success of the Playstation, neither Nintendo or Sony ever seemed to publicly announce or display a challenge for financial success against the rest of the entertainment industry, advertisement still stayed low budget and was purely aimed at making existing gamers aware of future products rather than attracting new potential game players. The Changing Generation The following Generation displayed much of the same as the previous generation, The Sony Playstation 2(2000) was effectively the same as the first one just much more advanced with a few new features, the same can be said for the Nintendo GameCube(2001) except now Nintendo had adopted disc based technology. There was a new entry in the market place now, Microsoft seeing the potential of the games industry entered the market in 2001 with the Xbox. The Xbox didnt design its games or console any differently to Nintendo and Sonys consoles however it did add one thing, it is possible the most important new feature to games design since the 3D era took hold, the Xbox introduced online multiplayer through a service known as Xbox LIVE*. This new feature was the only thing that kept the console from complete failure as the games that accompanied the console where of a lower quality and Microsoft struggled to attract a strong fanbase, however though XBOX LIVE proved so successful that online mu ltiplayer is a standard now for most modern games. While this was going on, in the background Nintendo where busy working with the handheld market, before now everyone considered this market purely for kids and only a gimmick at best, Nintendo wanted to change that and they did with the Game Boy Advance(2001). They did this by developing games of a standard of the home consoles and Marketing the device as a independent handheld console separate to that of the home consoles. Because of the new advanced graphics available to developers, a completely realistic game could be made but this lead to huge criticism of the games with releases of ultra graphic Mortal Kombat(Midway Games, multiple) and the portrayal of criminal behaviour seen in Grand Theft Auto series(Rockstar Games, Multiple). These controversial games aloud non-gaming public to become much more aware of the games industry, although this was potentially dangerous criticism against the games industry, it is seen as exactly wh at the games industry was looking for. Sony particularly began marketing mature games for mature audiences, with advertising campaigns aimed purely for the an age group of 18 and above. The content in these games led to the ESRB and PEGI age rating system to inform parents that there are games available in the market that are unsuitable for their children. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time(Nintendo, 1998), Grand Theft Auto 3(, Rockstar Games, 2001), and Halo: Combat Evolved(Bungie, 2001) were the first game in the industry to be marketed in the way of a summer blockbuster, they all sold hugely successful and these games are seen by many as the turning point where games left the old mentality behind of being just for the arcade gamer and now was at a position to enter the next generation as a strong competitor to Hollywood, by the end of this generation in 2006 total film sales reached an estimated $16.6 billion in North America for the film industry compared to the games industries $13.5 Billion (Breckon, 2007). Entering the late 2000s, the still young games industry is nearly as valuable as over 100 year old film industry. The Next-Generation. The 7th Generation seen many advancements, Blu-Ray disc technology, Massively multiplayer games(MMOs), High Definition technology and motion tracking as seen by the Nintendo Wii(2006). Microsofts Xbox 360 launched first into this generation in 2005 and it proved a success, aside from being first into this new generation it fully launched Xbox LIVE and multiplayer as a standard throughout the industry. The Xbox 360 now stands firmly second place in between Sonys Playstation 3(2006) and Nintendos Wii in the console battle. It has a strong game to console attach rate*, with loyal fans and marketing team any Company would want, these factors will guarantee its success into the next console generation. The Sony Playstation 3 launched a full year after the Xbox 360 and some believe this to be the main reason it had poor launch figures as well as the fact that there were a limited supply of Blu-ray diodes for the consoles main feature. The console to date has still struggled to compete with its competition with many of its games selling poorly, Xboxs leading exclusive game Halo 3(2008) sold over 10 million copies as for Sonys PS3 most successful exclusive game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots(2008) sold only a little over 4 million copies, however it has grounded itself, it is now financially a success and has guaranteed a place in the next generation line up. Nintendo on the other hand are on a completely different level compared to its rivals, it sales have been record breaking since its launch two weeks after the PS3. The Wii has sold almost more than both the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined with current sales figures at 52.29 Million units sold for the Nintendo Wii, 31.30 Million units sold for the Xbox 360 and 23.16 Million units sold for the PS3 (VGchartz, 2009). The key to the success of the Wii is the widening of the demographics, Nintendo completely changed their approach to selling and developing games, in previous generation Nintendo only developed games for the hardcore gamer(strict loyal fan) but now they are developing for a mixture of hardcore games and casual games(general public). Nintendos main aim for the Wii was not to beat its rivals but to get new people playing games, Satoru Iwata stated in(2006) at a Press conference in Tokyo that were not thinking about fighting Sony, but about how many people we can get to play games.. This is reflected in Nintendos Advertisement campaigns throughout the world, Nintendo dramatically changed their method of advertising to new much more successful methods such as featuring celebrities and even the advertisement developed by academy award winning directors. Their audience grew hugely with this advertising strategy including a varied assortment of game players including, children, adults and g randparents, their campaign is aimed at people of all ages. The success of these ads can be seen in the wide audience, a 103 year old pensioner was reported to be regularly playing the Wii, the Queen of England is was even reported to have a Nintendo Wii(Rousewell, 2008). With the games industry going from strength to strength it is hard not to see the games industries eventual overtaking of the film industry as the leading section of the entertainment industry. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillermot (2007) expects the games industry to grow an additional 50% in the next four year, casual gaming and the newly introduced in-game advertisement are expected to be the key factors to gamings take over. The gaming industry is also growing in other parts of the world, The Asian market alone is expected to reach $28.8 billion in sales by 2011 with a total sales for the games industry at $65(Breckon, 2007). By then the film industry is only predicted to grow to a total sales of $25.8 billion in sales, less than half of the predicted games sales. However High definition is now becoming a standard in the film industry as well as the re-introduction 3D films, both advancements could bring a new lease of life to the film industry, it can also be considered that at â‚ ¬60 a game compared to the film industries â‚ ¬10 cinema admission or â‚ ¬25-â‚ ¬40 for DVD/Blu-ray income might make up impressive figures however as for the individual customer using each medium the actual numbers of people still lean greatly towards the film industry. It could be questioned why are they seen as competition and not simply compared as separate mediums in the entertainment industry, many game adaptations of films and vice versa have been released mostly with only slight success but all have been critically slammed, ever year the two industries become closer and closer and with that will be massive financial gain, James Camerons Avatar: The Game(Ubisoft, 2009) and film (Cameron, 2009) is seen as the first step towards bringing these two entertainment industries together. Chapter 2: Literature review What is a game? This is a very common question and it is a very important one, I wish to make it clear that the great success of video games in the last few years have mainly due to the changes behind in the design room and in the studios not just in the way games are now being marketed, the general games design theory is seen as a factor in the success. Defining what a game is or a theory behind it is one that you can spend a great deal of time arguing over and even with a set of results it still is a open question. The definition will in general influence how one decides to design a game, so it is critical when designing a game that you completely understand the purpose for it. There are multiple ways we could define a game, with varying ranges of features. Greg Costikyan (1994) states A game is a form of art in which participants, teamed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal. This meaning is questionable, it may of defined what a game wa s back in the early years but because of the constant technology advancements if a designer was to define what a game was it would be more like, a game is a form of art in which participants single or multiple make decisions according to the narrative design in order to resolve game world situations and finish the game as the ultimate goal, this would be my definition of defining the modern computer game. The essential problem with defining a game is that depending on the era a definition will make sense in one decade but not the next because of the rapid growth of the gaming medium. This rapid growth is changing the industry, MIT Professor Henry Jenkins(2008) stated that video games have converged different entertainment platforms that allowed producers of these content to exercise new ways of stretching the viability of their intellectual properties. A single general theory only works when one looks at a genre of game type or who the player of the game will be, at the core reasoning for games, they only exist to be played, it is an interactive medium the only kind which is visual, audibly, interactive and within that a multiplayer component which allows many people to play at once and with the internet the numbers are almost infinite depending on the game. As with the genre and medium some are considered entertaining and some are considered a task, challenge is however a general the me with games design. As with every industry, once games design was established as a valuable medium, competition quickly arose as seen at Quakecon(Nok, 2009) and in a new medium players want quickly to become the best at it or be the first to finish it, to design a game to suit this want is a challenge and that is the general reason a games design theory was sought after in early game development. As the basis of games design is that every game or most games have a beginning, middle and an end, the game starts and ends at your own discretion and with a set of rules for you to manipulate or use to at your means. Playing the game is down to the player, but if there is a desire to understand games and game design, we must first clearly establish the purpose of it. We must determine the characteristics of all games, but discovering that outlines and establish a set of attribute for each game genre rather than what characterised games as a whole. Hoffman (2008) believes that outside of computer games, playing a game in general is an important part of life. I wish to discover does game design need a theory? Other medium generally have some sort of theory behind them but they are much more closely related in their genres as game design is very diverse and has a interactive aspect in design and game playing, what people want, and the level of scale and longevity are maybe too diverse for a game design theory to exist. Changes in games design: For the Better or worse? Defining games design is still widely regarded as a difficult task, what a game is though differs constantly and when it enters production depending on the type of game the design methods behind it are much different from a racing game to a action game. That is the first problem, it is complex to place the games design program in any one meaning. The actual study of engine design, physics and application of games design is much more closely connected to mathematics rather than traditional design practices, if this study was literally taken into practice than it would be a great oversight, designing a game using only mathematics and programmers instead of a blend with designers would only lead to failure. Ideally, a games design studio should be as interdisciplined as any other large field, it should consist of, programmers, designers, artists and engineers. Richard Rouse III(2005) states that the game design is what determines the form of the gameplay, however that is not always so a s seen by top-down or bottom-up design*. The features set in game design determines what choices players will be able to make in the game-world and what consequences those choices will have on the rest of the game. Bernd Kreimeier(2002) states that Games design like any other profession requires a means to document, discuss and plan. In the last few years with the advent of the growing online design community, a designer could refer to the growing online library of previously released games for general ideas and quick inspiration. In the early days of games design, designers generally referred to board games for their inspiration as there was no other means to compare work, without some sort of comparison it would of been very risky to release a game without any sort of knowledge of whether a similar product has been successful in the past. Hoffman (2008) believes that the main problem with game design is deciding where to place it, creating a game through a subset of sociology or a dedicated studio and these decisions are what make defining a game so complex. However while knowledge about games has grown rapidly, it could be said even more so than any other media industry, little progress has been made to document individual experiences to interweave into design practices and theories. Kreimeier (2002) states that on the base line of design theory, games design needs a related library to name the modelling assets been created, designing and a set of rules to express how these design techniques fit together, a case for design patterns could exist. Help from Hollywood? Games design is uniquely many thing, but at the basis of design it comes down to a few little things, coming up with the initial idea through thought and discussing, the idea to see it is not only a workable product but is it actually a good idea and from that point heavily expanding on the original idea until any team of designers could implement the design and achieve a expected result. Evidently if that was all designers had to go on it was be extremely difficult for anything to be created. Since the beginning of games design, games designers have worked around these initial problems by relying on design techniques and theories adapted from other media such as film and storytelling. Noah Falstein (1997) writes that part of the problem with encounters of people from Hollywood was their lack of respect. This problem though has been rid away with over the years but it was a huge problem back in the 1970s and 1980s when young game companies searched for aid in development from Hollywo od studios but received little help. Games are not only a interactive medium but they are a visual medium and game designers have been increasingly relying on design techniques developed from film such as motion capture however this is not to be taken as a side of weakness from game designer and should not question that games are the same as film but the film practices are investigated in an effort to identify methods which are suited in favour of games. Nevertheless this was not always enough, games design theories started to develop solely to do with games and without influence from other medium, Kreimeier (2002) also believes that games as an individual medium needs its own practices and if borrowed techniques were enough then there be no need to develop any practices specific to games design theories. These collective theories are individual but there has been much discussion on them and it could be probable that these individual theories could be developed into one universal ga mes design theory although the most likely result would be a flawed design theory. The open use of gaming terms promotes an over perceived meaning of our own belief of what games are, The academic public overly ignore the uniquely and complexity of game design. Junior designers whose own skill are limited generally embark upon designing games with no further research than their own experience as game players, this methodology is sure to fail, the desire to success, what people in reality like to play can be much different than what the designer actually likes, this is unfortunately a common problem in traditional game design, this is a problem Pederson (2003) states as critical for lead game designers. Those who overrate their own understanding will undercut their own potential from learning and further more it will lead to the same result as failure. Ambiguity and ambiguity of play are a important aspect of design brought up by Smith (1997), applying the principle and concepts to gaming have watered down the original medium and meanings, there is no longer a clear focus to the ideology of game design we desire to understand. This watered effect is creating genres, levels of design, innovativeness, expenses and lastly the technology are effecting this medium more than any other, price ranges in not only the technology but the actual developing of the game can be astronomical, the latest version of Grand Theft Auto(Rockstar Games, 2008) a sandbox* style game cost over $100 million to design and develop included over 1,000 members of staff and took of three years to finish(Linde, 2008). If you were to look for game design theory in this game, after much search you would result with a unanswered question, putting aside the budget and expenses to develop this game the sure scale of this project is enough to put a stop to the idea of needing or there ever existing an underlying games design theory. The style of game for the GTA series is not alone, other genre such as first person shooters(FPS), action based and role playing games(RPG) are also pu t in this bracket, it would be hard pressed to find a game theory where each of these genres could fit in, meet there goals and be overall a success. A Common Design Theory? There are a few genres of games where there is potentially a underlying game design theory that could be developed for any new game yet to be developed and this could exist in the racing genre, it is this genre where the same practices of desig

Effect of Organisational Culture on Customer Satisfaction

Effect of Organisational Culture on Customer Satisfaction Researches by some academics have made it known that a companys culture is closely linked to its effectiveness and efficiency (Kotter Heskett, 1992). In addition, according to (Morgeson, Krishnan, 2006) customer satisfaction is an increasingly significant factor of an effective organization in todays competitive business setting. Prospects arising from increase in globalization by companies, advancement in technology, and outsourcing have meant that companies are increasingly turning their attention to laying greater emphasis on customer service across national borders in order to reduce costs, while at the same time trying to increase customer user-friendliness through day-to-day activities of the firm. ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE (Shein 1996), defined culture as: a pattern of basic assumptions that a group has invented, discovered or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, and that have worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems. Other shared definitions by learned scholars refer to organisational culture as pattern of shared values and beliefs that help individuals understand organizational functioning and thus provide them with the norms for behavior in the organization(Deshpande and Webster 1989), a set of cognitions shared by members of a social unit (OReilly et al., 1991). According to (Laurie 2008), organisational culture is a combination of traditions, values, policies, beliefs, and attitude that establishes a general framework for everything done in an organisation. It can also refer to the form of beliefs, values, and ways of managing experience that have developed during the course of the organisations history, and becomes noticeable in its material arrangements and the behaviour of its members. (Brown 1998). (Gupta 2009), in his write up, opined that organisational culture is a set of unwritten rules meant to guide the employees towards an standardardised and rewarding behaviour. TYPES AND MODELS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE In order to appreciate the incorporation of organisational culture, it is very important to examine and search for different models to improve the understanding of the concept of organizational culture. I. Scheins Three Layer Organizational Model These three layers as explained by (Shein 1996) below are stages of organisational culture that should be categorized carefully with the purpose of avoiding any theoretical misperception. Artefacts and Creations the Artefact and Creation layer is the observable stage of corporate culture, it includes the social environment. Usually researchers study the artistic productions, technological output, physical space in the artefacts and Creations stage. Values usually values symbolize the significant things for individuals, they are affective wants or needs and conscious. The existence of values is very important for the organization in order to function competently and share ideals among staff. Basic Assumptions a specific group of individuals study how to manage and handle the difficulties of internal integration and external adaptation through developing and discovering the assumptions. II. Denisons Effectiveness and Culture Model The effectiveness and culture model for (Denison 1990) represents the relationship between management, corporate culture, effectiveness and finally the performance of the organization. This model is equipped to stress the important association in management practices with the beliefs and principles when examining the effectiveness and culture of the organization and its performance. Involvement this feature includes constructing the individual ability, responsibility, duty and ownership. Corporate culture is described as highly involved strongly support participation and generate a sense of responsibility. Adaptability the adaptability feature means translating the environmental business demands into action. Consistency is the vital source of power, course, formation and integration. Mission -is the long-term trend for the corporation. According to (Laurie 2008) organisational culture can be grouped into four main classes namely power culture, role culture, task culture, and person culture. Power Culture- entirely dependent on central power source and control is excercised by key individuals. Role Culture this type of culture is characretised by bureacracy and is based on rationalisation of all aspects of the organisation with role and job description more important than the individual. Emphasis is laid on position as the main source of power. Task Culture job or project oriented. Person Culture here, the individual is the central focus and every resource available is there to serve the individuals within it. (Laurie 2008). The type of culture inherent in an organisation may be decisive for organisations ability to serve its customers effectively. For example, organisations with a culture with respect for the interest of people value their members by displaying concern for their well-being, growth, and development and lay emphasis on the need for cooperation. Such a culture is more effective than one that emphasizes power, control. (Gupta 2009) went further by suggest the existence of two levels in organisational culture; The visible aspect of the organization which he said is reflected in artifacts, symbols and visible behavior of employees, and the hidden aspect which is related to fundamental values and assumptions that employees make regarding the acceptable and unacceptable behaviors in the organisation. Organisational culture in its entirety consists of traditions, values, norms and physical signs (artefacts) of organisation members and their activities. Practically speaking, the members of an organisation will eventually come to understand the particular culture of their organisation. Then, although the culture is one of those factors that are difficult to express definitely, nevertheless everyone knows it when they sense it. Hidden rules and assumptions become an organisational culture as these rules are implemented over time. A strong culture shapes the behaviour pattern members of the organisation in the absence of policies, procedures or advice from supervisors and managers. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Satisfaction is a general customer attitude by a consumer towards a service provider and an emotional reaction to the difference between what customers anticipate and what they receive in terms of service and or product. When customers are satisfied, they are more likely to return, while dissatisfied customers are more likely to go elsewhere (Levesque and McDougall, 1996, Zineldin, 2000). Customer satisfaction is an important constituent of a successful and thriving organization and can be directly associated to increased profit margins and greater employee satisfaction, customer retention, and repeat purchases to organisations that consider customer satisfaction a key factor in its marketing strategy. An organizations social setting-whether it is called culture or climate-is an important driver of customer satisfaction. As stated by, (Ferris et al., 1998) organizational climate can facilitate a positive relationship between human resource practices and customer satisfaction, support ing a social context model for predicting customer satisfaction. Against this background, this paper aims to explore the way organisational culture affects customer satisfaction in the automobile industry setting, based on the general perceptions of front-line employees. However, according to Darby et al.s (1997) the customer service positioning show a positive relationship with different procedures of measuring customer satisfaction, and consequently it is assumed in this paper that the degree to which front-line employees are oriented towards customer satisfaction is an revealing measure of customer satisfaction. (Schneider et al., 1998) reiterated that there are different dimensions to employees understanding of the appropriate form of organisational culture, based on whether they are managers or not. Such differences in perception are linked to their different positions within the organisation. In addition, since the front-line employees (managers) deal with more pressure, managerial demands, and are responsible for their subordinates, they will be more likely able to understand the possible effects of organisational culture on customers. RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES After a critical analysis of the research, the following aims and objectives established for this research are: To analyse the effect of organisational culture on the effectiveness of the organisation. To study the organisational culture of Ford Motors. To understand the relationship between Ford Motors organisational culture and customer satisfaction. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Does organisational culture have any effect on customer satisfaction? What sort of corporate culture does Ford Motors possess? What is the effect of Ford Motors organisational culture on customer satisfaction? LITERATURE REVIEW: A number of academic researchers have studied various elements of organizational culture and customers satisfaction. However, only a few experimental studies have studied the link between the characteristics of an organizations work environment (organisational culture) and this important aspect of organizational effectiveness (customer satisfaction) e.g., Conrad, Brown, Harmon, 1997. Most of the studies that have observed this impact have focused on the relationship between service-oriented climates and customer satisfaction. These studies, while making a very important contribution, have lean towards emphasising on the impact of a climate for service or service climate on customer satisfaction. In doing so, they may run the risk of neglecting some general organizational characteristics that can affect a wider range of organizational outcomes. Starkey and Woodcock (2002) opined that organizations that are less customer oriented are more likely to perform poorly in terms of sales output as against those that are customer oriented. To survive in the highly competitive automobile markets, organisations need to provide products and services that will produce highly satisfied and loyal customers (Westbrook and Oliver, 1991). According to (Asif and Sargeant, 2000), several benefits accrue to the organisation via customer loyalty such as generation of profit, costs related to promotions, advertising, start-up costs are limited. More so, chances of increase in customers will be high, as satisfied customers will recommend the organisations products and services to others. As a result, customer satisfaction can be the key factor to the growth of the business, in term of market share and profit. A popular supposition about the role of organizational culture as it relates to customer satisfaction is that if an organization possesses a strong culture by demonstrating that it has a well-integrated and effective set of defined values, beliefs, and behaviors, then it will achieve a higher level of efficiency. Curry and Kkolou (2004) identify customer focus, participation, and teamwork as important cultural issues influencing customer relations outcomes. They suggested that empowering employees to excel at customer service and ensuring their job security also contribute to customer relation success. According to (Deshpandà © 1999), investigation into market orientation suggests that the existence of an innovative and entrepreneurial culture is strongly associated with exceptional business performance. Collectively, these reports suggest that an organizational culture that puts more importance on customer-oriented behaviours, cross-functional teams, performance-based rewards, adjustment and reactive attitudes to change, and a higher degree of risk taking and improvement, is likely to contribute to have successful customer relations management system implementations. Every organisation has to face the task of ascertaining the critical factors in their organisational culture that will ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty (McDougall and Levesque, 1992). For all these reasons, customers perception of the service experience is frequently the only way accurately to estimate quality level of services and product provided. Within many organizations, identifying these issues may be easy or complex depending on the type of culture involved. In either case, the development of a fitting solution is difficult and the application and maintenance on a long run complex, time-consuming and costly. However, an effective organizational culture is one of the key components influencing an organizations capacity to elicit customer satisfaction and to thrive in the long term. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Research methodology is basically the procedures and processes of collecting and analysing data. There are two types of research methodology positivist and interpretive. In this study, we would use positivist approach in order to collect and analyse data. According to Comte (1971), researchers that demonstrate the use of real life, data is known as positivist approach. Conversely, when researchers have a set of assumption about the outcome of the research, it is known to use interpretive approach (Malhotra 2003). As mentioned in the objectives, we aim to find the effect of organisational culture on the effectiveness of the organization and to do so, we would have to use factual data from Ford motors, and therefore, positivist approach will be used in this study. Research Strategy According to Brymen and Bell (2007:135), a researcher can follow five research strategies in conducting his research. They are: 1) longitudinal 2) experimental 3) cross sectional 4) case study and 5) comparative. For this study, case study approach will be used in order to accomplish the research objective. This is because the effect of organisational culture would be analysed in this research in order to figure out its effect on the customer relations of the company. Research Approach A set of methods researchers use in order to achieve the concluding remark on the research objective of the subject matter is known as research approach. According to Saunders (2003), there are two types of research approaches available to conduct a research and they are Inductive and deductive approach Deductive approach is mostly used when researchers needs to find a causal relationship between the variables while inductive approach is a widely used method for qualitative researches. Since the primary aim of this research is to find out the effect of organisational culture on customer satisfaction, the researcher will employ inductive approach for the research. RESEARCH METHOD: Different types of primary and secondary sources would be used in order to collect data regarding organizational culture and customer satisfaction. Primary Data is the vital data gathered by researchers via interviews, surveys or questionnaires (Anderson 2005). In this report, interviews and questionnaire will be used to provide the study a better understanding of corporate culture and the financial performance from all level of employees. The source that will be used in primary data is a survey and separate interview sessions with managers, executives and even temporary employees in Ford Motors. Secondary Data: Secondary data will be collected through researchers who are conducting the research. This data will be sourced from many departments and the web site in Zain Company, along with published and academic journals, articles, books, online resources and many other data from previous authors. Interviews: Interview is one of the most effective ways of conducting qualitative research. In this study, interviewing method will acquire a clear knowledge about the organisational culture of Ford Motors. There are many types of interviews such as structured, semi structured, focused group, in depth and so on. In this study, semi structured interview will be used since it is well known method to clear the doubts and misunderstandings that might arise from the interviews. It should be mentioned here that the primary feature of semi structured interview is flexibility from both interviewees and interviewers side. ANTICIPATED METHOD OF ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS: Data Analyses This study will involve both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques in order to establish its objectives. A qualitative approach will be used while in order to demonstrate the relationship between organisational culture and overall performance of the company. Conversely, quantitative approach will be adopted to create a relationship between organisational culture and customer satisfaction. CONCLUSION: This research will focus on the organisational culture factors inherent in Ford Motors and the individual effects these factors have on customer satisfaction.