The existence of high commitment management in unionized workplaces Essay Example for Free

The existence of high commitment management in unionized workplaces Essay The existence of high commitment management in unionized workplaces suggests that such management is compatible with trade unionism. Discuss The relationship between workers and management has historically been an adversarial one. In the process of fighting for employee right and benefits, unions have traditionally created a them and us atmosphere between employees and managers. On the other hand, high commitment management tries to eliminate the them and us atmosphere and instead attempts to replace it with one of partnership where both employees and management work together for the benefit of the firm. Thus, the respective natures of high commitment establishments and unions would imply incompatibility. It is due to this belief that some high commitment firms devote enormous resources to strategies aimed to keep unions away from their firms such as hiring lawyers who specialize in union avoidance and implementing high commitment work practices such as grievance systems and work teams. However, there is a paradox to this belief as studies show that as compared with non-unionized firms, unionized firms in high commitment establishments provide more rights and benefits to workers, give more opportunities to employees to give and receive information, and give a greater voice to employees to voice either constructive suggestion or dissent (WERS 1992). Furthermore, union presence is increasingly popular in HRM organizations, as union density is 47% in organizations which employ at least half of the identified high commitment management practices. In this paper, I will use evidence from various studies to show why high commitment firms and unions are indeed compatible. High commitment management is based on the theory that firms who give more High commitment management is based on the theory that firms who give more to their workforce get back more from it in return. This requires a cooperative relationship based on trust and reciprocity between labor and management. Unions can help in solidifying a high commitment environment by policing management to ensure that certain high commitment goals are met. Unions in high commitment work environments fight to give employees a collective voice in decision making as well as enhancing distributive and procedural justice while in return improving workforce solidarity and aiding in legitimizing change. Thus, the compatibility between management and unions can increase the payoffs of both management and labor while allowing the firm to firm to be driven forward. In the fast pace, ever changing corporate world, responsiveness to change and flexibility within firms are oftentimes required so that firm can readily adapt to ever-changing times. Recent times have seen an increasing amount of firms moving away from traditional authoritarian ways of management towards that of high commitment human resource management. Such drastic changes in work practicess however, are not always easily implemented because a lack of communication between the workforce and managers makes it hard to change the character of employment relationships. Unions however, can aid in making such changes by allowing firms to communicate to the entire workforce quickly and efficiently while giving the workforce the opportunity to respond with input or inquiries. This increases the workforces knowledge and understanding of the new direction that their firm is taking and improves the probability that they will facilitate rather than resist future changes. Such was the case with Tesco, who realized that its inflexible employee involvement structure, as well as its high turnover, relatively low pay and a hands on directive management style were inconsistent with achieving enhanced levels of service to advance in competitive strategy. 1 Tesco wanted their employees to identify with and commit themselves to the company, and it saw the union Usdaw as the means for cultivating and realizing this goal. As a result a partnership between Tesco and Usdaw was formed where Usdaw gave up their strike threat in return for a greater union input to secure improved policy implementations. As a result, employee wages rose, terms and working conditions were improved and staff turnover dropped significantly.2 . Thus, this partnership took a step away from an us and them environment and took one towards unions working with management as team for the benefit of the entire firm. High commitment management is greatly dependent on a partnership between employees and management. This assumes that there arent agency problems because it is expected that employees have a deep understanding of the firms interests and that they go about their job as if those interests were their own. In order for the partnership between employees and management to flourish however, a workforce must have a collective voice in decision-making. Firms encounter many problems when trying to give individual workers decision-making authority. For instance, there is always the fear that a worker will abuse his decision-making authority by using it to further his own ends rather than to help the entire firm advance. Another problem is that it is extremely difficult to have a partnership between management and a fragmented workforce. Unions however facilitate a partnership by providing a channel of communication between management and the entire workforce. 3 This enhanced communication is made possible by unions because just as management speaks with single voice, having a union allows the employees it represents to speak to management with a unified voice. Thus unions give their members decision making authority by taking into account the needs of the workforce and communicating it to managers. As a result, there is an improved match between what employees want and what they get from management and this is an important ingredient in high commitment environments. Allowing workers to have a say in how their firm is managed increases their job satisfaction and is a major reason why on average, turnover is lower in union settings.4 In addition, unions tend to fight more for the benefits of employees with longer tenures in firms. This gives union members an increased incentive to commit themselves to their firm in the long term and also may be a factor contributing to lower turnover. This is compatible with high commitment management strategy in many occupations such as teaching and nursing where goals such as low turnover and worker longevity are important. However, any high commitment based partnership can break down if there is a lack of trust and accountability. Unions though can be trusted by management to act cooperatively because managers know that union officials want to protect their unions reputation with a particular firm and oftentimes this concern for its reputation can be the guarantee that management needs of good, constructive behavior5. In addition, a long-term partnership between unions and management can permit a greater degree of trust and objectivity than can the partnership between management and individual workers. This is because there is a greater frequency of interactions between management and a union. The partnerships experience in collectively dealing with past disputes makes it possible for future disputes to be settled in a promptly in a way that doesnt disturb work practices. This partnership also presents a checks and balance system to ensure that both parties act cooperatively. Just as a union is a party that can be held accountable for the actions of its members6, management can also be held responsible for bad behavior of any single manager. For instance, if a manager is engaging in an activity that the workforce views unfavorably, a union representative can give notice to management to put an end it before it goes too far. One of the biggest obstacles not permitting employees from fully committing themselves to a high commitment firm is if they perceive there to be unjustified unequal treatment. This can decrease employee performance incentives as well as hurt the morale of a high commitment firm. Unions however, have a sword of justice effect and are successful in eliminating many of the adverse affects that occur because of unequal employment opportunities. A major reason for this is that unionized can better monitor firm practices to ensure fairness because they are much more likely to have managers and supervisors who are trained in people management skills and in addition, managers in unionized firms put a greater emphasis on ensuring that there is equal treatment among their employees. Studies indicate that when taking into account workplaces where all the supervisors are required to have training in people management skills, 20% of those in unionized environments, [as] compared with only 12% of those in non-unionized places, have responsibility for equal opportunities.7 Two of the most common and documented forms of unequal opportunities are employee promotions and employee selection. When compared to non-unionized firms, firms with a union presence are four times as likely to monitor promotions by gender and three times as likely to review selection procedures to identify indirect discrimination.8. There is also evidence that the increased monitoring in unionized firms has helped reduce sexual discrimination as it regards to promotions and this has thus helped women advance up firms hierarchy. Studies indicate that about one in seven managers in the union sector reported that the proportion of women in the managerial post had risen markedly in the last 5 years; [while] only one in ten managers in the non-union sector reported this. 9 Furthermore, unions have also traditionally been seen as defenders of an egalitarian pay structure. High commitment work environments value and oftentimes even require worker solidarity. However, when some workers are paid more than others for essentially the same job, the existence of this solidarity is difficult to maintain. A union presence in a high commitment work environments facilitates the presence of solidarity as they prefer to pay each occupational group a single rate. This takes the wages out of competition among co-workers, and ensures that the high-commitment working environment wont be harmed due to ruthless competition practices such as undercutting between co-workers. Thus unionized workers have less wage inequality than their non-unionized counterparts. Studies indicate that the standard deviation is .457 in unionized setting [while it is] .592 in a non-union setting.10 Furthermore, unions help decrease wage inequality by 2.6% between males and females, 1.4% between blacks and whites, .6% between the healthy and those with health problems, and 3.1% between non-manual and manual employees.11. Thus by ensuring that firms pay equal wages for equal work, unions help maintain workforce solidarity which aids firms in maintaining high commitment work environments. In recent years, it had become apparent that the relationship between firms and unions doesnt necessarily have to be an adversarial one. In fact, the popularity of partnerships in high commitment firms indicates that the two institutions are indeed compatible. The evidence stated above indicates that when this partnership is properly utilized, unions can be a great asset to a high commitment management work design. This is because unions facilitate the existence of many of the necessary ingredients that go into high commitment work environments such as flexibility, increased employee voice in decision making, distributive justice, and worker solidarity. Major firms such as Tesco have recently taken advantage of this compatibility and are now realizing the formerly untapped benefits that a partnership between unions and high commitment management schemes can bring about. 1 Industrial Relations Services Partnership delivers the goods at Tesco, IRS Employment Review, August 1999, No. 662 2 Industrial Relations Services Partnership delivers the goods at Tesco, IRS Employment Review, August 1999, No. 662 3 Fernie, Sue. HRM Lecture on 29/01/02 : London: London School of Economics, 2001 4 Baron, James N. , Kreps David M. Strategic Human Resources: Frameworks for General Managers. (New York: John Wiley Sons, Inc., 1999), 127 5 Baron, James N. , Kreps David M. Strategic Human Resources: Frameworks for General Managers. (New York: John Wiley Sons, Inc., 1999), 134 6 Baron, James N. , Kreps David M. Strategic Human Resources: Frameworks for General Managers. (New York: John Wiley Sons, Inc., 1999), 134 7 Fernie, Sue Gray, Helen Women what unions can do for you CentrePiece Summer 2000 8 Fernie, Sue Gray, Helen Women what unions can do for you CentrePiece Summer 2000 9 Fernie, Sue Gray, Helen Women what unions can do for you CentrePiece Summer 2000 10 Metcalf, David Fighting for equality CentrePiece Summer 2000 11 Metcalf, David Fighting for equality CentrePiece Summer 2000

The Ute Indians :: essays research papers

The Ute Indians The Ute Indians were a group of Indians that lived mostly around the mountainous area of Utah and Colorado near the Colorado River. But they sometimes lived in dessert areas also. The word Ute comes from the word eutaw or yuta which means dwellers on the top of mountains. Although it is not certain where they originated but it is assumed that they arrived to the Colorado and Utah area around 1000 A.D. The Ute Indians spoke a part of the Uto-Aztecan language called Numic. The Utes were divided into bands or a subdivision of a tribe. There were at one time eleven different bands of Ute Indians. The type of housing in each band depended on the material available. They lived in teepees, lodges, and domed shaped structures. The lodge shaped structure was the Ute's traditional mean of shelter. These home were temporary because the Utes moved every season to hunt. The dome shelters were built out of willow branches over a pole frame. They were eight feet high and fifteen feet in diameter. They usually built their homes on a river or stream valley and were scattered to take advantage of wood, shade and other resources. In the winter they moved into lower elevations for the milder weather there.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Children were very important in the Ute Indian tribe. Every member was responsible for caring and the education of the youth. Babies were held in cradle boards that were either made of willow branches bundled together or a solid piece of wood. Willow bark was often used as diapers. Babies were cared for by girls nine and up. The babies were delivered in a special shelter that was set aside for giving birth. During the birth the mother is usually assisted by another female tribe member. The husband was expected to help the wife by keeping her warm by bringing lots of firewood. The umbilical cord was cut off with a stone knife. When the remaining part fell off the mother always saved it in a special pouch that was attached to the babies cradle board. When the baby learned to walk the mother placed the umbilical cord on a red ant hill. They thought that would help the ants industrious ways to rub off. The children were given many names and nicknames in their life. These names were given to them during various occasions during their life, like when they were born and when they learned how to walk. The children were educated by watching and helping their elders.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Everything that the Ute needed could be found in their territory.

Meaning of life †Existentialism Essay

? Throughout the story, Grendel is trying to find the meaning of life. He is trying to understand the purpose of living, and was looking for something to steer him in the right direction. In Chapter five, when Grendel finally meets the dragon, he finally believes that he has found the meaning of life. Grendel begins his life by being an existentialist. He was basically alone when he was young, and was left to figure out the world around him with no help. It was confusing to him, and that is how he developed the idea of existentialism. He believed that he alone existed. Existentialism stresses freedom of choice, and he had the power to do whatever he wanted to do, so it made sense. He eventually realizes that he does not control the world when he says, â€Å"I think, trying to suck in breath, and all that I do not see is useless, void. (Pg. 29)† After coming to this realization, Grendel looks for a different meaning to life. He then listens to the Shaper, who tells lies to make the Danes feel better about themselves and have a meaning to life. As much as he wants to believe the Shaper and live his life according to what he says, Grendel felt too ashamed believing in lies to do so. He decided that he would rather be an outcast if that was what it took to find the truth. He believed that he had found truth after talking to the dragon. The dragon is a nihilist. He sees no purpose in life. He claims to know everything, â€Å"the beginning, the present, and the end. (Pg. 62)† His basis behind nihilism is that everything eventually comes to an end, even himself. He thinks that there is no point in trying to better mankind because in the end it won’t matter. In the dragon’s mind, we are all fighting a lost cause, and there so there is no point in trying. He puts down humans, and especially the Shaper. He says that the shaper is just giving the Danes an illusion, and does not know any more than they do. The only important thing for the dragon is finding gold. The dragon tells all of this to Grendel, who is at first skeptical of what he is hearing. He began to take the dragon more seriously when the dragon says that humans needed him in order to think and scheme and that Grendel caused humans to have science and religion. This gave Grendel the identity that he had been looking for: â€Å"I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings. (Pg. 80)† Grendel became on board with nihilism. He now became â€Å"enraged† when he heard the Shaper tell his lies and felt like he was giving the Danes a purpose when he killed them, which only caused him to kill more. Grendel thought that he had found his purpose in life, although it ended up leading to his death. His belief in nihilism made him not stop killing, and also believe that he was important to the Danes. He believed that him killing Beowulf would be good for the Danes, and that is why he tried to kill him. Beowulf ended up killing Grendel. Had Grendel changed his views he would not have gotten killed by Beowulf and everyone would have been better off.

Johnny Cupcakes Essay

Johnny Cupcakes is a multi-million dollar clothing brand. The brand was founded in 2001 by Johnny Earle. One of Johnny’s acquired nicknames was Johnny cupcakes. He â€Å"thought it would be funny to make a couple random shirts that said ‘Johnny Cupcakes’ on them for the fun of it† (Earle, 2012). After massive interest in these shirts, he decided to continue to make more and change up the designs. In 2001, Johnny stated, â€Å"the band I was in, On Broken Wings, finally got signed to a record label and we began to tour full time† (Earle, 2012). This opened up Johnny and his t-shirts to a larger crowd of customers in different parts of the country. This boosted the brand’s popularity and Johnny decided to quit the band and focus all of his time, effort, and attention on his t-shirts. Johnny ended up going to trade shows in Las Vegas and eventually â€Å"ended up getting carried by shops in Japan, Europe, and Canada in addition to a few other US locations† (Earle, 2012). Johnny had a turning point moment at that very same trade show later on that year. He realized people didn’t like having the same things as others and that they enjoyed uniqueness. At this point Johnny made the decision to pull all his shirts from retail stores. Earle 2012 stated that he â€Å"decided to make all of his t-shirts limited edition and exclusive, only selling them through his website† and later on in his own retail stores. As the Johnny Cupcakes brand grew, Johnny opened up stores in Hull, MA; Boston, MA; Las Angeles, CA; and London, England. Johnny states that â€Å"Above all, I’ll continue to focus on enhancing my customers’ experiences through my stores, events, website, designs, and packaging. I will never ever sell my brand to investors for all the money in the world. I think you’ll find that things will only get more interesting from here†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Earle, 2012). The Johnny Cupcakes brand to some can be described as streetwear. Hundreds, 2011 defines streetwear as â€Å"a genre of contemporary apparel, united between sportswear and military looks, and is one that speaks to a spectrum of subcultures (skateboarding and hip-hop mostly).† Some of Johnny Cupcakes major competitors are also streetwear brands such as Us Versus Them, Reason, Benny Gold, Situationormal, Flying Coffin, Clot, Diamond, Fuct, Alife, The Hundreds, A Bathing Ape, Supreme, and Rebel8 among others. These companies not only produce unique designs and clothing, they have a fan base, and what some might call a cult following. They represent more than just a t-shirt. They differentiate themselves by their designs, material, limited edition collections, and the customer experience. Johnny Cupcakes top products are his limited edition t-shirts, but the company also sells sweatshirts, hats and accessories. One of the things that make JC stand out is their packaging. The suppl ies the company needs and uses are not just clothing/accessory based, but just as important is their packaging. Johnny Cupcakes uses bakery style boxes with their cupcake and crossbones logo on it. The company also uses specially made tissue paper to wrap the bought goodies up in. The tissue paper is also marked with the JC logo. The are two major external factors that greatly influence Johnny Cupcakes as a company and those are the economy and trends. Since Johnny Cupcakes offers â€Å"luxury† items (those items that consumers don’t need, but rather want), the economy can play a significant role in their profits. When times are tough, like in an economic recession, the majority of people watch their money more closely. These people may choose to only buy things out of necessity rather than splurge on things they want. Another big obstacle that JC has to stay on top of is the trends of their market. Clothing styles and designs come and go, therefore, Johnny Cupcakes needs to stay at the forefront of what their target market likes otherwise they could easily become extinct. One way JC battles these two external factors is making every shirt limited edition. The limited edition status gives the feel of exclusiveness. People not only crave exclusiveness, but will pay top dollar for it. â€Å"Because they’re collectibles and not just apparel, customers are willing to pay $60 for a Johnny Cupcakes shirt–and even stand in line for a new release like kids waiting for concert tickets† (Spaeder 2007). This exclusiveness plays off of our cultures social classes. Most Americans want to be in a better social class. Exclusiveness is a trait that is common in the highest of classes. The limited edition shirts not only sets the standards for someone’s social status, but also keeps inventory at a low, making sure the products that are produced are sold. Having limited edition shirts erases much of the risks and fears of the changing trends of JC’s market. Since there are only a handful of the shirts available, they are long gone befo re the design and style gets soggy. Also, this allows the company to be very flexible with the changing market. The two major internal factors that impact the organization are how they enhance the customer experience and their product packaging. These are two very important factors that help create the Johnny Cupcakes brand. They are part of the JC culture and without them, the brand wouldn’t be what it is today. Part of the customer experience lies in JC’s three retail store locations. â€Å"They’re set up just like bakeries, complete with glass display shelves, employees wearing aprons and the smell of vanilla frosting in the air† (Spaeder 2001). During big releases or setting up weekend pop-up stores, Johnny himself will be there to greet and talk with everyone of the customers that walk through his store. This again is part of the experience and connection he wants his fans to feel when they think of the Johnny Cupcakes brand. Johnny thinks â€Å"nice packaging sets an experience, a memory, or a safe-keeping that is sometimes just as important as the product it self. I’m a sucker for nice packaging† (Earle, 2012). When conducting a SWOT analysis of Johnny Cupcakes, some of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats have already been discussed. JC’s major strengths are the exclusiveness it personifies by selling limited edition shirts and the customer experience it provides. One of its major weaknesses is the fact that it only has three retail stores and an online store. If it were to grow (and being a multi-million dollar business it has the resources to do this) it could reach more of a customer base and increase not only its fan following, but its sales as well. A huge opportunity that Johnny Cupcakes has is the fact that it has done several successful collaborations with other companies including Nickelodeon and Hello Kitty, which expands its customer and fan base. As with all companies, a threat is competition. If JC can stay authentic to its audience then it will overcome the competition. As stated earlier, since JC is a luxury brand, the economy and trends are another threat. Listening to their market will definitely help subdue these threats. One of Johnny Cupcakes biggest resources and assets are its customers. Johnny Cupcakes has not only been able to acquire customers, but also fans and audiences (which is much more powerful). The reason the JC brand has been able to do this is because of the experience a customer gets when going into a store or a pop-up shop. When a customer sees their Johnny Cupcakes shirt they remember an experience they had when purchasing the shirt. I personally have two JC shirts (one was given as a gift so I don’t have an experience to associate with that but my parents, who bought the shirt for me do). I do have a vivid recollection of an experience I had when purchasing my first Johnny Cupcakes t-shirt at a pop-up shop on Martha’s Vineyard. There was a line of people waiting at a small bakery for it to open its doors. Everyone was unsure of what the t-shirts would look like because the designs had not yet been released. Not knowing what shirts will be sold definitely gives a little sense of excitement and surprise; and being excited about a brand goes a long way with customer loyalty. The waiting fans were given diner-like menus to see what shirts would be available. This definitely embodies the Johnny Cupcakes culture and experience. Once the doors were open to the bakery only a few people were allowed in at a time. This also gave the impression of exclusiveness. The limited edition shirts available were all Martha’s Vineyard related. Not only is MV a huge tourist location, but being a resident of the island I had a sense of pride and being able to wear something relating to the island meant something to me, as I am sure it did to others, whether they were residents or tourists gaining a unique souvenir. After purchasing the shirt and leaving the bakery, I was greeting outside by Johnny Earle himself who not only took a picture with me, but also signed my shirt. My parents had a similar experience, telling me what a meaningful conversation they had with Johnny. Every time I pull out my JC t-shirt, I remember my unique experience of t-shirt buying. Johnny Cupcakes is a differentiation strategy user that sells an experience, along with his products. The way the business is run creates fans. JC leverages the company’s resources, the customer experience, to create fans and a following of the brand. There are a handful of such loyal fans that fly out to all his releases to be able to experience them and not miss out on any product or â€Å"show.† JC, on a smaller scale, reminds me of the cult following of The Grateful Dead. Deadheads knew each show was unique and didn’t want to miss out on any one of them. There are many Johnny Cupcakers who feel the same way. On March 24 of 2011, Johnny Cupcakes went international and opened up a store in London. Johnny had previously tested the waters in London by way of pop-up stores. His store in London was a huge hit, and he plans on a huge one-year celebration. Johnny opened up his store in London the same way he started is brand and opened up his other stores in the USA, with no investors, partnerships, or alliances. He started off small and threw his profits right back into his brand. One of the things Johnny Cupcakes prides itself on is not having to use investors or other companies to grow their brand. Part of this is what makes the brand who and what they are today. By staying authentic and listening to their market, Johnny Cupcakes will be continue to be successful in the years to come. With more years of success under his belt, Johnny may want to fur ther expand his brand in the global market. References Earle, J. (2012). Story. Retrieved from: http://www.johnnycupcakes.com Hundreds, B (2011). The 50 Greatest Streetwear Brands. Retrieved from: http://http://www.complex.com/style/2011/06/the-50-greatest-streetwear-brands Spaeder, K. (2007). By Popular Demand. Retrieved From: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/177912

Sample Questions on Management Essay Example

Sample Questions on Management Essay Example Sample Questions on Management Essay Sample Questions on Management Essay SOM 306 Sample Midterm Questions 1 . Operations management is the business function that plans, coordinates, and controls the resources needed to produce a companys a. Services and information b. Information and financial statements c. Financial statements and products d. Products and information e. Products and services 2. What is the Hawthorne effect? a. Workers responding to the attention they are given b. Stop watch time studies leading to time standards c. The use of quantitative methods for solving management problems f interchangeable parts e. More lighting increases pproduactivity d. The use 3. Which of the following is not considered one of the four broad categories of competitive priorities? a. Technology b. Cost c. Quality d. Flexibility e. Time 4. Suppose that in week 1 a company produced 1000 units using 60 labor hours. which of the following values in week 2 would labor pproduactivity decrease? = 2000, hours = 120 b. Units = 1500, hours c. Units = 1000, hours d. Units = 500, hours = 2000, hours = 100 For a. Units e. Units = 95 = 58 = 30 . I ne ease witn wnlcn a. Manufacturability b. Repeatability tne proa uct can De mace Is Its c. Readiness for manufacturing d. Reliability e. Accountability 6. Buying a competitors new product and studying its design features by disassembling it and analyzing its parts and features is a. Reengineering b. Disaggregation c. Redesign d. Benchmarking e. Reverse engineering 7. Birdie Par owns a company that makes golf gloves. She is thinking about introducing a new glove, which would require an additional fixed cost of $20,000 per ear. The variable costs for the new glove have been estimated to be $5 per glove. If she sells the new glove for $15, how many must she sell to break even? a. 1,000 gloves b. 2,000 gloves c. 3,000 gloves d. 4,000 gloves e. 5,000 gloves 8. Employees of the organization who receive goods or services from others in the company are a. Internal customers b. Ultimate customers c. Downstream customers d. Operators e. External customers 9. Under TQM, if suppliers meet preset quality standards a. They are given a bonus b.

Definition and Examples of Headlinese

Definition and Examples of Headlinese Headlinese is an informal term for the abbreviated style of newspaper headlines - a register characterized by short words, abbreviations, cliches, noun stacking,  word play,  present-tense verbs,  and ellipsis.   Headlinese combinations are not in themselves sentences, said linguist  Otto Jespersen, and often cannot be directly supplemented so as to form articulate sentences: they move, as it were, on the fringe of ordinary grammar (A Modern English Grammar, Vol. 7, 1949). Nonetheless, says British journalist Andy Bodle, [m]ost of the time the meaning of headlines is quite clear (to native English speakers, anyway). They generally achieve their aim of provoking interest without misrepresenting the facts too grievously (The Guardian [UK], December 4, 2014). Examples and Observations Perhaps a copy editors best test for headlinese is the question: How often do I hear this word used in ordinary conversation with its headline meaning? If hardly ever, the word is headlinese.(John Bremner, Words on Words. Columbia University  Press, 1980)In their quest for concision, writers of newspaper headlines are . . . inveterate sweepers away of little words, and the dust they kick up can lead to some amusing ambiguities. Legendary headlines from years past (some of which verge on the mythical) include Giant Waves Down Queen Mary’s Funnel, MacArthur Flies Back to Front and Eighth Army Push Bottles Up Germans. The Columbia Journalism Review even published two anthologies of ambiguous headlinese in the 1980s, with the classic titles Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim and Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge.(Ben Zimmer, Crash Blossoms. The New York Times, January 10, 2010)[W]hen the folks at Variety toss around insider lingo and cryptic headlinese like B.O. Sweet for Chocolat and Helmi ng Double for Soderbergh its hard to tell what the heck theyre talking about.(Scott Veale, Word for Word/Variety Slanguage. The New York Times, Feb. 25, 2001) Plane Too Low to the Ground, Crash Probe Told(Headline quoted by John Russial in Strategic Copy Editing. Guilford, 2004)Police: Middletown Man Hides Crack In His Buttocks(Headline in the Hartford Courant, March 8, 2013)Man Shoots Pictures of Wolf Chasing Him on Motorcycle in CanadaBANF, Alberta – A Canadian man says he was chased by a gray wolf while he was riding a motorcycle in British Columbia. . . .(Headline and lead at FoxNews.com, June 21, 2013)Short Words in Headlinese: Thinnernyms- Headlinese  might be defined as words that no human being would utter in context but that headline writers use because they fit into tight spaces.(John Russial,  Strategic Copy Editing. Guilford Press, 2004)- The grandest, oldest and arguably finest headline tradition of all, of course, is the use of short words. Instead of disagreeing, people clash. Rather than competing, they vie. Instead of divisions, we have rifts. And instead of a Mexico president promising reforms of the policing s ystem in an effort to mollify people’s anger over the murder of 43 students, we get Mexico president vows police reform in bid to quell massacre rage. I was inordinately pleased with myself for coining the word thinnernym to describe these short words, although I’ve since been informed that I’m not the first to do so.(Andy Bodle, Sub Ire as Hacks Slash Word Length: Getting the Skinny on Thinnernyms. The Guardian [UK], December 4, 2014)- [B]revity is a whip-bearing  dominatrix in the discipline of headline writing.(William Safire, Hotting Up. The New York Times Magazine, June 10, 2007) Life on Mars- War of the WordsThis is a headline from The Friday Review Section of The Independent of 21 August 1998. It introduces an article reviewing a fierce scientific debate about the possibility of life on Mars. Headline writers use a wide range of devices to create a very specific style, which is sometimes called headlinese. Their one-liners must put in a nutshell the main point of the news story they relate to and at the same time capture the readers attention. . . . [I]f we pad out the above headline, we might get something like The life on Mars debate remains a war of words. It will be noticed that the headline as it stands contains no verbs: this is replaced by the dash (- ). The structure has the effect of all the focus being on the balanced phrases, Life on Mars and War of the Words.(Peter Verdonk, Stylistics. Oxford University  Press, 2002)Telegraphic EllipsisA form of written language which typically uses telegraphic ellipsis is the newspaper headline. . . .Grammati cal clues present in  the headlines themselves . . . interact with contextual information from the setting to encode retrievable meaning; This process is essentially cataphoric in that headlines refer forward to the main body of the text, a fact exploited by editors and sub-editors on a daily basis to encourage headline-spotters to read on.(Peter Wilson, Mind The Gap: Ellipsis and Stylistic Variation in Spoken and Written English., 2000. Rpt. Routledge, 2014) Noun Stacking in HeadlinesA string of unleavened nouns will form a whole headline. Three nouns stuck cheek by jowl was once the limit, but now four is standard. Some months ago two tabloids gave their front pages to SCHOOL COACH CRASH DRAMA and SCHOOL OUTING COACH HORROR and a week or two later one of them achieved five with SCHOOL BUS BELTS SAFETY VICTORY. There is some loss of seriousness here, as if anyone cared.(Kingsley Amis, The Kings English: A Guide to Modern Usage. HarperCollins, 1997)A colleague points out: It sometimes seems that any time anyone writes a piece about Africa (or, in fact, dark-skinned people), the first (and usually last) headline everyone comes up with is Heart of Darkness. Its unimaginative, and boring, but more importantly perpetuates lazy colonial attitudes, ideas of ignorance and benightedness, etc.(David Marsh, Mind Your Language. The Guardian, February  14, 2010) See Examples and Observations below. Also see: Block LanguageCopyeditingCrash BlossomJargonJournaleseTelegraphic Speech

Rhetoric of the Image Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Rhetoric of the Image - Essay Example The image may be frank or empathetic depending on the user and the message needed to be passed across (269). To understand and get the meaning of the image in a piece of work, knowledge of signs is important especially in the advertising field. Any image may denote a coded message, a linguistic message, or a non-coded iconic message and require a lot of reading to separate the meaning. The image may contain a cultural and a perpetual message in which the image has the literal meaning as depicted by the symbols. The linguistic message forms images that do not contain any words, and one would need to revisit illiterate societies to get the pictographic meaning of the image. For example, the appearance of a book cover is an image with a lot of meanings and may depict some of the information contained in the book (273). The linguistic message is present in almost all the images especially in the field of mass communication such as the title, caption, and comic strip. There are two functions of the linguistic message in the iconic message, which are the anchorage and the relay. All images contain signs that the reader need to choose while ignoring others as in every society there are various techniques to resolve various signs. The linguistic message is one of the techniques to counter the challenge. For symbolic messages, linguistic does not play any part in the identification but can aid in the interpretation to give a meaning of the image. In other cases, the anchorage may be ideological suc h as in Advertisements and its purpose is to direct the readers and enable them to avoid some and receive other through dispatching them. Anchorage is very common in press photographs and advertisements in which the function of the relay is not common such as in cartoons and comic strips (274). The denoted image allows for the distinction between the literal message and the symbolic