Essay on The Wife of Bath Illustrating Courtly Love

In the Middle Ages, when The Canterbury Tales was written, society became captivated by love and the thought of courtly and debonair love was the governing part of all relationships and commanded how love should be conducted. These principles changed literature completely and created a new genre dedicated to brave, valorous knights embarking on noble quests with the intention of some reward, whether that be their life, lover, or any other want. The Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer, accurately portrays and depicts this type of genre. Containing a collection of stories within the main novel, only one of those stories, entitled â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale†, truly outlines the 14th century community beliefs on†¦show more content†¦Opposers to that belief state that love has always been in literature throughout all eras and a distinction between typical love and courtly love is ridiculous. However, while this may be true, if one wa s to read a tale with courtly love they would be able to instantly recognize the uncommon behaviors of the characters that are in love and that the experience of feeling love is taken to the extreme, beyond other literature’s definitions of common love. Geoffrey Chaucer, being a writer during the age when courtly love was popular, was influenced by this type of literature and used the techniques of courtly love in many of the conversations and plot lines within the Canterbury Tales. In this tale, the reader is introduced to a belligerent knight in King Arthur’s court who defiles a woman of royalty. This reprehensible act by the knight entirely differs from the actions of a virtuous and respectable knight, consequently suggesting that ethics are not inherited like affluence or one’s last name. Instead of being punished by death, the knight is sent out by the queen on a quest to find what women really want and love, with the agreement that he has one year and a day to return and only the right answer will spare his life. This is where the expression and meaning of love begins to show divides between separate communities. Along the knight’s quest for the answer he comesShow MoreRelatedThe Variety of Ways in Which Chaucer Treats the Subject of Love1450 Words   |  6 PagesWrite an essay on the variety of ways in which Chaucer treats the subject of love. Within ten stories in the Canterbury Tales, men and women on the way to, or in marriage provide the ostensible subject, with six tales expounding largely on love and its counterpart in marriage. In comic tales, sexual activity is constantly relished, especially in the Miller’s Tale and the Reeve’s Tale, where love is defined and motivated by animalistic physical desire and relationships clouded with lies

A History Of Religion In Africa Essay free essay sample

, Research Paper Religion in Africa My assignment is to compose about the assorted faiths that are situated in Africa and faiths African-Americans preach. There are many different faiths in Africa because there are assorted parts and states in Africa. Besides Africa and its dwellers have been around for many, many old ages. One ground that there are so many different faiths. The first and most widespread faith I am traveling to speak about is Christianity. Christianity was introduced into Northern Africa in the first century. It subsequently spread to the parts of Ethiopia and Sudan around the 4th century. Christianity was able to last in Ethiopia because of the Coptic Church but in other countries, Islam became more popular. Christian religion was introduced back into Africa with the rise of European abroad enlargement in the 15th century. Christian religion penetrated into Africa on two different channels, the first by the Evangelist St. Mark to Alexandria. From there it spread to take down Egypt and so to Theibad, Upper Egypt and Nubia. It besides penetrated b Roman soldiers and merchandisers. These people brought the Gospel to Carthage where it shortly spread to Proconsular Africa, the Byzacene state and Numidia. Unfortunately, Christianity in Africa was invariably under the onslaught of split and unorthodoxy. Many groups who did this were the Gnostics, Monophysites, Arians, Pelegians, Manicheans, Novatians, and Donatists. These groups divided and enfeebled Christianity. Protestantism has, and still makes considerable attempts to foster their faith in Africa. Almost every state where there is a major Protestant population has taken portion in missional work in Africa. These states are Germany, Norway, Sweden, England, Holland, Switzerland, France, and The United States of America. From Germany, many people of the Berlin Missions traveled to the Orange River Colony, Griqualand, the Transvaal and many other topographic points including the Togoland, the Goldcoast and besides the Zulus. The Swedish are established in the Italian settlement of Erythracea and the Norwegians have an of import mission in Betsileo. The English though, have had a long history of missions in Africa. Some of the more of import 1s are: The London Missionary Society, which was established in 1795. This church was chiefly felt in South Africa with Moffat and Dr. Livingstone. Besides was the Universities Mission Society, which was based in Zanzibar. The Gallic Protestants were successful in the Northeastern Cape Colony, and in the Gallic Congo where the replaced the American Presbyterians in 1892. Lets non bury America though ; the Methodist Episcopal Church, The Baptist church and the Presbyterian Church are all in Africa from America. The Methodists began the settlement of Liberia in 1820 but was merely able to set up a lasting Bishopric there until 1858. The Baptist churchs have missions in Monrovia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Lagos. Presbyterians are really influential besides. In Egypt about every small town on the Nile is non without one of their schools. In visible radiation of this, you can see that Christian Religions from all parts of the universe flourished in Africa. The 2nd most widespread faith in Africa is Islam. Islam was introduced to Northern Africa in the 7th century. In the undermentioned centuries it spread along the eastern African seashore and into the grasslands of Western Africa. By the twentieth though, Islam had penetrated into the staying parts of Africa. Today, a Mussulman is able to go from Monrovia to Batavia without puting pes on # 8220 ; heathen # 8221 ; dirt. Three stages of Islam enlargement into Africa may be distinguished. The first subdivision is between 638-1050. Between these times, the Arabs spread Islam along the whole Mediterranean seashore, from Egypt to Morocco. In the 9th and 10th centuries though, the enlargement started to hold. Besides there were still Bishops at Carthage, Hippo and Constantine in the 11th century. The 2nd stage was between 1050-1750. One of import thing to cognize from Thursday is stage is that the population of Northern Africa was forced 14 times with force to encompass Islamism and it returned 14 times to its ain faith. The last subdivision of the expansionism of Islam in Africa day of the months to the present clip. Here is an estimation of the figure of Islamic people in different parts of Africa. 4,070,000 in Algeria, 1,500,000 in Tunis, 10,000,000 in Morocco, 6,800,000 in Gallic Western Africa, and 3,000,000 in the Wadai and Sudan. Nudism, Animism and Fetishism are three more faiths found in Africa. Nudism is the worship paid to body natural objects such as the sky, the Moon, the mountains etc. The Hottentots and the Bantu are two such African groups who gave worship to the Moon, the Sun and assorted other objects. Animism is the belief that natural objects, natural phenomena, and the universe itself possess psyches. It can be said that Animism is the faith of a great portion of Africa. The Negritos, Hottentots, Bantus of the South and E, many of the Nigritians and most of the Hamites are said to be Animists. They worship neither fetishes, graven images, nor material images. They believe in the endurance of the liquors of the asleep and the demand of honouring them. Fetishism is the belief that an object has cryptic, charming power and has unquestioning fear or devotedness. Anything may go a fetish such as images, castanetss, figures etc. Fetishism is chiefly found in the West. Livingstone one pointed out that it seems that the Africans seem to go more superstitious as you go deeper into the forest state. Fetishism is practically non-existent among the Hottentots, the Nigritians, The Bantus of the E, The Negritos and the Hamites. Another less well-known faith that originated in Africa is Rastafarian. The major belief for Rastafarians is that Haile Selassie is the life God for the black race. Ras Tafari was the old name of Selassie when he was the Emperor of Ethiopia. Selassie was non a Rastafarian but instead a Christian. Although Haile Selassie was reported dead, the Rastafarians do non believe it. The Lion of Judah represents Haile Selassie because the king of beasts is king of all animals as Selassie was the male monarch of all male monarchs to them. Rastafarians do non believe in an hereafter but Africa, Ethiopia specifically is considered Rasta # 8217 ; s heaven on Earth. Rastafarians are vegetarians and wear # 8217 ; t eat anything that has touched chemicals or comes from a can. A Rasta # 8217 ; s hair ( dreadlocks ) symbolizes their roots, contrasting the blond expression of the white adult male. Although there are more faiths present in Africa, we are traveling to look at a subdivision of African and interrupt down its spiritual population. The Ivory Coast is a really profoundly spiritual country. Muslims represent 23 per centum of the population, Christians represent twelve per centum and Animists boast a bulk of 65 per centum of the population. Thirteen per centum of the Ivorian population doesn # 8217 ; t belong to a faith. In Nigeria, about fourty-eight per centum of Nigerias dwellers pattern the Muslim religion and 34 per centum of Nigerians are Christians. The staying 18 per centum of the Nigerian population pattern assorted traditional faiths. In Liberia, approximately 10 per centum of the population are Christians, chiefly Protestant. Twenty per centum of Liberia is Muslim and about 70 per centum follow traditional faiths. In decision, many different types of faith inhabit Africa. Many of these faiths day of the month back far in history and have a widely respected forthcoming. Much of the African population is really spiritual and few do non pattern a belief. Although many faiths, rather a few of the African population still stays with some of its original faiths such as animism, nudism, and fetichism. Although I did non cover all of the faiths I covered a bulk of the chief 1s and saw that Africans, have been profoundly spiritual for many, many centuries. I am happy to state I learned rather a few things about faith in Africa.

About the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

About the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Created under the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) functions as a regulatory agency under the U.S. Department of Transportation with a primary mission of ensuring the safety of civil aviation. Civil aviation includes all non-military, private and commercial aviation activities, including aerospace activities. The FAA also works closely with the U.S. military to ensure the safe operation of military aircraft in public airspace across the nation. Primary Responsibilities of the FAA Include: Regulating civil aviation to promote safety within the U.S. and abroad. The FAA exchanges information with foreign aviation authorities; certifies foreign aviation repair shops, air crews, and mechanics; provides technical aid and training; negotiates bilateral airworthiness agreements with other countries; and takes part in international conferences.Encouraging and developing civil aeronautics, including new aviation technology.Developing and operating a system of air traffic control and navigation for both civil and military aircraft.Researching and developing the National Airspace System and civil aeronautics.Developing and carrying out programs to control aircraft noise and other environmental effects of civil aviation,Regulating U.S. commercial space transportation. The FAA licenses commercial space launch facilities and private launches of space payloads on expendable launch vehicles. Investigation of aviation incidents, accidents and disasters is conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent government agency. Organization of the FAAAn administrator manages FAA, assisted by a Deputy Administrator. Five Associate Administrators report to the Administrator and direct the line-of-business organizations that carry out the agencys principle functions. The Chief Counsel and nine Assistant Administrators also report to the Administrator. The Assistant Administrators oversee other key programs such as Human Resources, Budget, and System Safety. We also have nine geographical regions and two major centers, the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center and the William J. Hughes Technical Center. FAA History What would become the FAA was born in 1926 with passage of the Air Commerce Act. The law established the framework of the modern FAA by directing the Cabinet-level Department of Commerce with promoting commercial aviation, issuing and enforcing air traffic rules, licensing pilots, certifying aircraft, establishing airways, and operating and maintaining systems to help pilots navigate the skies. The Commerce Department’s new Aeronautics Branch took off, overseeing U.S. aviation for the next eight years. In 1934, the former Aeronautics Branch was renamed the Bureau of Air Commerce. In one of its first acts the Bureau worked with a group of airlines to set up the nation’s first air traffic control centers in Newark, New Jersey, Cleveland, Ohio, and Chicago, Illinois. In 1936, the Bureau assumed control of the three centers, thus establishing the concept of federal control over air traffic control operations at major airports. Focus Shifts to Safety In 1938, after a series of high-profile fatal accidents, the federal emphasis shifted to aviation safety with passage of the Civil Aeronautics Act. The law created the politically-independent Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA), with a three-member Air Safety Board. As a forerunner of today’s National Transportation Safety Board, the Air Safety Board began investigating accidents and recommending how they could be prevented. As a pre-World War II defense measure, the CAA assumed control over air traffic control systems at all airports, including towers at small airports. In the post-war years, the federal government assumed responsibility for air traffic control systems at most airports. On June 30, 1956, a Trans World Airlines Super Constellation and a United Air Lines DC-7 collided over the Grand Canyon killing all 128 people on the two planes. The crash happened on a sunny day with no other air traffic in the area. The disaster, along with the growing use of jet airliners capable of speeds nearing 500 miles per hour, drove a demand for a more unified federal effort to ensure the safety of the flying public. Birth of the FAA On August 23, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aviation Act, which transferred the old Civil Aeronautics Authoritys functions to a new independent, regulatory Federal Aviation Agency responsible for ensuring the safety of all aspects of non-military aviation. On December 31, 1958, the Federal Aviation Agency began operations with retired Air Force General Elwood Pete Quesada serving as its first administrator. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson, believing a single coordinated system for federal regulation of all modes of land, sea and air transportation was needed, directed Congress to create the cabinet-level Department of Transportation (DOT). On April 1, 1967, the DOT began full operation and immediately changed the name of the old Federal Aviation Agency to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). On the same day, the accident investigation function of the old Air Safety Board was transferred to the new National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Longfellows The Rainy Day

Longfellow's 'The Rainy Day' Children across New England are familiar with the works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose Paul Reveres Ride has been recited at many a grade school pageant. Longfellow, born in Maine in 1807, became an epic poet of sorts for American history, writing about the American Revolution in the way bards of old wrote about conquests across Europe. The Life of Longfellow Longfellow the second-oldest in a family of eight children, was a teacher at Bowdoin College in Maine, and later at Harvard University. Longfellows first wife Mary died in 1831 following a miscarriage, while they were traveling in Europe. The couple had been married for only four years. He did not write for several years following her death, but she inspired his poem Footsteps of Angels. In 1843, after years of trying to win her over for nearly a decade, Longfellow married his second wife Frances. The two had six children together. During their courtship, Longfellow often walked from his home in Cambridge, crossing the Charles River, to Frances family home in Boston. The bridge he crossed during those walks is now officially known as the Longfellow Bridge. But his second marriage ended in tragedy as well; in 1861 Frances died of burns she suffered after her dress caught fire. Longfellow was himself burned trying to save her  and grew his famous beard to cover the scars left behind on his face. He died in 1882, a month after people around the country celebrated his 75th birthday. Body of Work Longfellows best-known works include epic poems such as The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline, and poetry collections such as Tales of a Wayside Inn. He also wrote well-known ballad-style poems such as The Wreck of the Hesperus, and Endymion. He was the first American writer to translate Dantes Divine Comedy.  Longfellows admirers included President Abraham Lincoln, and fellow writers Charles Dickens and Walt Whitman. Analysis of The Rainy Day This 1842 poem has the famous line Into each life some rain must fall, meaning that everyone will experience difficulty and heartache at some point. The day is a metaphor for life. Written after the death of his first wife and before he married his second wife, The Rainy Day has been interpreted as a deeply personal look into Longfellows psyche and state of mind. Here is the complete text of Henry Wadsworth Longfellows The Rainy Day. The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;It rains, and the wind is never weary;The vine still clings to the moldering wall,But at every gust the dead leaves fall,And the day is dark and dreary.My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;It rains, and the wind is never weary;My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past,But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blastAnd the days are dark and dreary.Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;Thy fate is the common fate of all,Into each life some rain must fall,Some days must be dark and dreary.

Short Report on Current Information Technology (management information Essay

Short Report on Current Information Technology (management information system) - Essay Example Discussion of Key Points in the Two Articles, Comparison and Contrast The two articles both make good exposition of the business and technical promises and challenges of cloud computing both for the providers of cloud computing services and infrastructures, such as the Amazon cloud computing offerings, and those of Microsoft. The first article makes a point about the business promise of Amazon cloud services in the long term, pointing out that although the services rack relatively lower sales compared to the more mainstream businesses of Amazon, cloud computing services benefit from having higher profit margins as compared to Amazon’s other offerings. This translates to higher profitability for Amazon and an area that the company can exploit, given that there are few companies with the scale and the customer base, and the necessary long-term vision to execute on a cloud computing strategy and infrastructure, as Amazon does (Oursler, 2013). The second article on the other hand complements the discussion on the more business aspects of cloud computing that the first article focused on, to undertake a more technical discussion on what the components of a cloud computing architecture are, and what the key issues and challenges are relating to the way customers make use and leverage cloud computing for their own particular purposes (Sleit et al., 2013, pp. 35-44). ... While the first article is more oriented towards finance and business types, the second article focuses on the more technical and CIO-type issues relating to cloud computing (Oursler, 2013; Sleit et al., 2013). Going into the details, the first article notes that in reality, of the $61 billion dollars in business that Amazon generates as a whole from all of its businesses, cloud computing revenues is a small part, about five percent of the total revenues of the firm. This means that in all there is a small importance placed right now on the weighting given to the cloud business of the company relative to its other businesses when it comes to putting valuations on the Amazon stock price. These are financial considerations to be sure, but underneath these figures is a vote for Amazon’s technological prowess in the cloud. The article notes too that in a sector that is poised for dramatic growth in the coming years, from a base of $131 billion dollars this year. Amazon has a leadi ng position in this growing sector, with a number of notable accounts that have come to include the CIA. The CIA account for Amazon, in particular, is a vote for the technological capacity of the Amazon cloud services to take on the most complex and the most security-intensive activities. Moreover, given the leading position of Amazon, the article notes that it is in a position to capitalize on its growing technological capabilities to continue to lead the industry in the middle of sustained competition from the likes of Oracle and Hewlett-Packard. To be sure, at present, Amazon’s market share in cloud computing services is said to dwarf the combined shares of the next 14 competitors in the space by a factor of 5. Beyond the numbers, this overwhelming early lead and the quality

Earthquakes at Home Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Earthquakes at Home - Essay Example There are also some degrees of distribution in the mid-South region, but the principal areas of high risk, which show up red on the map, tend to be located in the equivalent of the states of California, Oregon, and Washington (Science, 2010). These areas also appear to extend into the nation of Mexico. #2 Where I live, in Erie, Pennsylvania, is gray on the map of earthquake risk, meaning it has a low risk (Science, 2010). It is not near any major fault lines, so it is relatively safe from earthquakes. There are occasionally small earthquakes around Erie, but they only extremely rarely get above 3 magnitude, cause any damage, or result in any injury or destruction. #3 The earthquakes around the world seem unevenly distributed according to the map of the last week’s earthquakes. The predominant amount of earthquakes have occurred in the Pacific Rim; many of these are in East Asia and Southeast Asia (Latest, 2010). This is not surprising to me, because these areas are known to have a high earthquake risk. I have heard a lot about very bad earthquakes happening in Japan and China. #5 I have visited some of the red areas on the map, including spots in California and Mexico. In California, the real estate where I was, is too expensive for me to consider living there. I also do not want to move to Mexico, because I don’t speak fluent Spanish. However, I would be willing to live in a red earthquake risk area, if I had enough income to do so in California or, if I learned Spanish and also had a better job and income, in Mexico. I would assume that especially in the US, architects would have earthquake proofed many buildings. I would be more hesitant in living in a red zone in some country with less advanced building standards. Generally, though, I am a risk taker as a person. I think that no one lives forever, and that none of us are

Critically review the situation at RestaurantCo Essay Example for Free

Critically review the situation at RestaurantCo Essay This essay analyses the case of RestaurantCo, a large non-unionised restaurant company with over 300 branches across the UK, and more than 7000 employed staff members (Suter Marchington 2011). According to Brad and Gold (2012, p.401) the term non-unionised is a ‘workplace, where managers have flexibility in designing work, selecting, promotion and training people, and determining rewards and other human resources (HR) practices.’ As briefly defined managers carry out many duties and responsibilities for the business. In order to have a better understanding of the role of line managers and employee relations at RestaurantCo it would be necessary to explore and outline the strengths and weaknesses of the company. To be more specific, this essay will explore and outline the main strengths and weaknesses in the working style of branch managers and the structural centralisation within the organisation, the formal and informal employee involvement and participation (EIP) practices, the working relationships between front line managers and employees, and the competitive effectiveness of the organisational HRM system and capability framework for branch managers. This case study of RestaurantCo focuses on the organisational problems that stems from the centralisation of corporate decision making and monitoring. The company regarded itself as a high quality restaurant business with a strong focus on positive employee relations thus reflected in their history of informal employment relations approach (Suter Marchington 2011). However, since the change in ownership the company had to implement new business strategies and HR practices as well as make further enhancements to the restaurant environment. For instance, the changes in the restaurant environment included refurbishments, expanded food and drinks menus, and cost savings by integrating the supply chain with other  restaurants owned by the group (Suter Marchington 2011). Consequently, some of these changes were seen as quite extensive and problematic for restaurant managers. For instance, some of these organisational changes were somewhat inefficient and costly in terms of deliveries and that mistakes were frequently made in the order and supply of ingredients (Suter Marchington 2011). Managers were no longer able to order directly from suppliers but instead were instructed to direct their orders through the supply chain department, whose understanding of the needs of individual branches were seen as limited (Suter Marchington 2011). There were also additional changes in improving customer service such as the introduction to the ‘Mystery Customer’ initiative (Suter Marchington 2011, p.213). This program initiative was seen as a form of corporate centralised monitoring and control of service, which somewhat contradicts the supposed given autonomy to branch managers. This demonstrates senior management distrust in its branch managers’ abilities to meet or fulfil their duties and responsibilities. This form of control violates the ‘psychological contract’ between the branch managers and employers which is also known as a ‘two-way exchanged of perceived promises and obligations between employees and their employer’ (Bratton Gold, 2012, p. 12). In this case, senior management had infringed on the trust between its branch managers by having a ‘centralised monitoring system’ in placed to gather customer information and business performance, thus in turn violat ing their psychological contract (Suter Marchington 2011). Consequently, creating a negative ‘low-trust and low-commitment’ relationship compared to a ‘high-trust and high-commitment’ participatory relationship between senior management and branch managers (Bratton Gold, 2012, p. 160). Nevertheless, control is seen as somewhat necessary by senior management, but ‘too much control might be counterproductive’ (Dant Nasr, 1998, p. 7). Hence, ‘excessive levels of control’ should be carefully considered as it will ‘impact on business performance levels’ (Dant Nasr, 1998, p. 7). As stated in Dant and Nasr (1998, p.7) tight control is generally not perceived well by managers who are driven by a strong desire for ‘independence and autonomy’, they may withheld ‘authentic and helpful information’ from senior management or employers in order to preserve some indirect form of control as they might believe that their input would not be valued or validated. In th is particular case, tight control would lead to less cooperation between branch managers and senior management. Furthermore, feedback from mystery customers to senior management may not be as useful or informative compared to the managers’ vast degree of knowledge and experience regarding its local business restaurant market environment and business performance levels. Rather than just rewarding ‘performance related bonus’ to managers who receive an overall satisfactory rating from mystery customers there should also be incentives or reward schemes in placed for managers who actually provide ‘authentic and helpful information’ to senior management (Michael, 2002, p. 329). This sort of privileged information could further enhance the organisation’s productivity and performance. For instance, the organisation would have a greater competitive advantage through new strategic opportunities and awareness of new threats as mentioned by its’ branch managers (Michael, 2002, p. 329). This ‘upward’ flow of information decentralises the tight monitoring and control of senior management but more importantly strengthens the communication, commitment, trust and employee relations between senior management and its branch managers through reciprocal cooperation and reward schemes (Michael, 2002, p. 329). It is crucial in service industries that branch managers be given more autonomy to make operational decisions as their understanding of the business environment surrounding their individual branches is relatively more extensive compare to senior management and management support, who have limited understanding of the business environment. This process is referred to as ‘decentralisation’ (Dant Nasr, 1998). According to Suter and Marchington (2011), each restaurant establishment was usually run by a branch manager and two assistants. The role of supervisory responsibilities was shared between the branch manager and assistant manager due to the long operating hours and the shift system, hence, the manager on duty would take on the role of supervising employees (Suter Marchington 2011). The manager on duty dealt primarily with problems and issues in regards to employees, and that wider issues were assigned to the branch manager. The branch managers in addition carried out a number of HR functions such as employment appraisals, pay reviews, and personal development plans (Suter Marchington 2011). These branch managers had described their work as being more intensified and that the HR policies had become more sophisticated and  formalised (Suter Marchington 2011). Branch managers were supposedly allowed a fair degree of autonomy in how they could manage the restaurant. A key element of the capability framework enabled branch managers to take charge of their own delivery and performance. However, managers experienced great difficulty in making operational decisions regarding their restaurant. Some of the reasons were due to the fact that the management support team were not always readily available to branch managers but also that company-wide operational decisions were being implemented at branch levels, in turn conflicting with branch managers’ operational decisions (Suter Marchington 2011). Branch managers should be provided with support throughout the restaurant operational hours from the management support office except, the restaurant support team operates on a 9-5 office-based workplace arrangement (Suter Marchington 2011). This would lead to significant problems when the restaurant requires assistance after the support office ends operation, therefore causing an inconvenience when decision and support is needed. It might also affect the organisation’s reputation if issues are not promptly resolved. Without proper support and facilitation from the support management team, branch managers are unable to perform their role efficiently. Under the influence of senior management, branch managers were pressured into implementing formal relationship practices with their employees (Suter Marchington 2011). However, one of the core components of a psychological contract is ‘workplace communication’ which will generally help to minimize the ‘false consensus effect,’ meaning that people assume that they share the same perceptions (Bratton Gold, 2012, p. 433). For instance, branch managers perceived the restaurant and its employment relations as informal whereas head office had expressed the need for more professional management and more importantly had over-rated the formality of policy implementation at branch level (Suter Marchington 2011). Notably, communication is a significant component of a psychological contrast as it is quite evident that branch managers and senior management had conflicting views on how the restaurant business needed to be operated. Alternatively, It would be beneficial for senior management and branch managers to effectively communicate their views across to one another in order to minimize the ‘false consensus effect’ (Bratton Gold, 2012, p. 433). Again, to ensure that this can actually happen, senior management  would need to be more readily available to branch managers and vice versa in order to strengthen the psychological contract between them. According to the branch managers the organisational change brought about more job responsibilities, intensified workload and more expectations from senior management (Suter Marchington 2011). Whilst handling their ‘supervisory responsibilities’, the day–to-day HR functions and operational responsibilities such as ordering and control of stock/supplies, forecasting labour budgets and marketing initiatives were devolved into the roles of branch managers (Suter Marchington 2011). This devolvement of HR functions into the role of branch managers goes beyond the parameters of what is required of branch managers. Despite this, senior management have not provided their branch manager with further additional training in their new responsibilities and duties neither has it been outlined in their legal binding contract. Even though the assistant managers and branch managers shared the same responsibilities of supervising the employees, employees still reported directly to the branch managers (Suter Marchington 2011). Instead of sharing this supervisory responsibility of employees, it would be more efficient and productive to delegate this responsibility to the assistant manager so that branch managers can focus more on the operational responsibilities and HR functions. Another obstacle branch managers had identified was their inability to make operational decisions regarding the day-to-day running of the branch due to the lack of coordination or collaboration in the senior management company-wide operational decision-making process (Suter Marchington 2011). This in effect reinforces senior management distrust in its branch managers’ ability to fulfil their role and therefore, causing resentment and animosity towards senior management from its branch managers. According to Dant and Gundlach (1998, p.37) ‘excessive controls aimed at monitoring’ employees can be costly as it can generate ‘motivational and morale problems’ among employees. It is important from a management perspective to ‘balance the forces of dependence and autonomy’ within the business in order to maintain ‘the long run viability’ of the business organisation (Dant Gundlach, 1998, p. 37). In terms of achieving overall effectiveness senior management need to contribute to a more productive relationship between branch managers and employees in their organisation. Another important aspect to consider is  that the company and branch units have ‘contrasting economic and managerial characteristics’ (Bradach, 1997, p. 276) whereby, the senior management of the company must meet two key management challenges: ‘maintaining uniformity and system-wide adaptability’ (Bradach, 1997, p. 277). With reference to RestaurantCo, units in a chain share a common identity by operating under the RestaurantCo trademark (Bradach, 1997, p. 277). There are five underlying categories of uniformity in an organisation and they are, ‘the line manager, organisational systems, learning culture, role and responsibility and HR department and professionalism’ (Harrison, 2011, p. 921). In order to ‘preserve the integrity and value’, the company must enforce uniformity across these five underlying categories through bureaucratic control and standardisation (Bradach, 1997, p. 277). Furthermore, in order to ensure the sustainability of the company, it must be able to adapt to the ‘opportunities and threats’ (Bradach, 1997, p. 282). In addition, senior managers must identify and implement system-wide adaptation processes and practices that will fit to some extent across all of the individual branches, except the main challenge of this is to ensure that all the branches move in the same direction. The ‘plural form’ model of management proposed by Bradach (1997) can be used to effectively a ddress the uniformity and system-wide adaptability problems. The ‘plural form’ consists of four processes which are as followed: ‘modelling process, ratcheting process, socialisation process and mutual learning process’ (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). Through these processes the company can pursue greater uniformity and improve system-wide adaptation across the restaurant chains (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). The modelling process is focused on the structural element of the management by increasing the use of common practices across the organisation and the restaurant chains (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). The ratcheting process is part of the control system of management which enables both branch managers and senior managers to influence each other as well as increase the level of uniformity and performance of the chain overall (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). The socialisation process reflects the career path aspect of management, which essentially helps to create a shared understanding of what is required to operate a restaurant, thus will increase the uniformity across the chain (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). Lastly, the mutual learning process is also referred to as the strategy making  process, which focuses on improving the system-wide adaptability by providing ‘performance data and demonstrating new ideas to help persuade branch managers to adopt the proposed system-wide adaptations’ (Bradach, 1997, p. 283). Overall the ‘plural form’ is used to overcome some of the control problems associated with managing restaurant branches and maintaining uniformity across the chain (Bradach, 1997). Another important key issue highlighted from this case study is how formal and informal employee involvement and participation (EIP) practices are implemented by management. According to the RestaurantCo capability framework which consisted of eight capabilities, four related specifically to informal EIP (Suter Marchington 2011). EIP is influenced or shaped by four dimensional factors which are, the two type of ‘forms of EIP’ (formal and informal EIP), ‘degree of involvement of the employees’ (ranged from very little to a considerable amount), ‘different levels of EIP within the organisation’ (head office to branch level) and ‘scope of subject matter’ (long term plans that are central to the organisation and short term issues regarding the restaurant) (Marchington Kynighou, 2012, p. 3338). RestaurantCo depend heavily on their employees’ interaction with customers, for this reason it is noticeably best to implement informal EIP because their engagement with customers is instrumental to the organisational performance levels and profitability. By using informal EIP branch managers are able to gain employees’ affective commitment to the organisation (Rodrigues, 1994). Although, branch managers must take into consideration the contextual circumstances in relation to the restaurant and the four contingencies outlined above to assist in determining the appropriate EIP to implement for their given work situation (Rodrigues, 1994). More specifically, formal EIP was utilised in the larger and busier restaurant branches as branch managers had less time to involve employees informally and formal EIP was the most effective way of bringing staff members up to date with important information and news (Suter Marchington 2011). On the other hand, informal EIP was utilised or practised more predominately in the smaller branch restaurants (Suter Marchington 2011). However, effective co-existence of formal and informal EIP is essential for the organisation’s long term sustainability (Denton, 1994). Informality at RestaurantCo is an effective instrument of recognising and managing employee voice (Denton, 1994). The  role of informality is to give employees an open channel for informal communications with managers, so that they can address their concerns and to give informative feedback on work related issues (Beattie, 2006). The constant changeability and flexibility of the workplace environment, illustrates the need for informal day-to-day communications in comparison to official formalised meetings with employees, which can be more costly and time consuming. Above all, the flexibility and diversity of organisational arrangements in the service industry reinforces the need for the implementation of informal EIP practices (Beattie, 2006). In summary, the RestaurantCo case study illustrated some important strengths and weaknesses in the HR management practices and organisational frameworks. Overall, several weaknesses were identified such as the need for informal relations between line managers and employees, the importance of decentralisation to enable cooperation and collaboration between branch managers and senior management through the ‘plural form’ model. Furthermore, it was exemplified that there should be a co-existence and implementation of both formal and informal EIP in the workplace. Evidently, business performance levels can be improved by balancing the dependency and autonomy of branch managers, so that they can efficiently perform to their capabilities. In conclusion, this essay highlighted some positive and negative issues regarding operational responsibilities of senior management and branch managers. References Beattie, RS 2006, Line Managers and Workplace Learning: Learning from the voluntary sector,Human Resource Developmental International, vol.9, no.1, pp. 99-119, viewed 2 Setptember 2013, Ebsco database. 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