Performance Management at Jet Food Services Essay Example for Free

Performance Management at Jet Food Services Essay It is now the end of Sampada’s first year as regional manager for Jet Food Services. As regional manager, Sampada supervises a total of ten districts, each of which has a manager responsible for sales and service to customers in that area. Jet Food provides contract food services for hospitals, schools, colleges, business firms, and other institutions that need meals prepared on site but that do not wish to be responsible for operating such services. Jet Food Services hires all necessary kitchen employees, purchases all supplies, and prepares meals in accordance with specifications agreed on with customers. The district manager is responsible for coordinating all customer activities. This includes planning, budgeting, hiring and supervising Jet`s on-site representative (customer service manager), customer satisfaction, and contract renegotiations. Sampada was recruited after years of experience as director of food services for a multicampus university. In that job, she had oversight responsibility for the food services at several campuses. The Jet Food position offered an opportunity for continued growth and advancement. In her first year, Sampada has concentrated on getting to know the district managers and the customers with whom they work. She spent more than a week with each district manager and visited each customer with him or her. At this point, she feels comfortable with her job and the knowledge she has gained of both operations and personnel, and it is time to appraise the performance of the district managers and to schedule review meetings with these employees. Sampada`s assessment of Ranjan: Ranjan is the longest term district manager in Sampada’sregion. He completed less than one year of college, held several short term jobs, and then joined Jet as a shift supervisor of the company`s services at a large college. At present, he is completing twelve years of employment with Jet. He has been a district manager for three years. In working with Ranjan, Sampadahas observed his strengths, along with some problems. Ranjan has a talent for working with people, Jet employees and customers alike. In fact, in his years with Jet, no customer he worked with has ever switched to a competitor. Many on-site supervisors recruited, trained, and supervised by Ranjan have gone on to become managers of other districts.On the other hand, Ranjan’s unhealthy eating habits – despite doctors` warnings – have contributed to some serious medical difficulties. During the past year, Ranjan was out of work for three months with gallbladder and heart problems, attributable in part to obesity. And Ranjan’s behaviour towards others can be overbearing. Sampada kept track of her phone calls from district managers during the year, and there were more calls (or messages) from Ranjan than from the other nine district managers taken together – calls to promote or advertise his own efforts. Although Ranjan can be charming, he has started to be loud and rude with regional personnel whom he perceives as excessively rule – oriented. All in all, Ranjan’s style and appearance have become entirely different from what Sampada is accustomed to in colleagues and employees.Further, it has been announced that Sampada’s region is going to be expanded and that a new position, that of assistant regional manager will be created. Ranjan has made it clear that as Jet`s longest tenured district manager in the region, he feels entitled to this promotion. However, Sampada does not feel she could work with Ranjan as the assistant regional manager. She feels that their management styles are too different and that Ranjan’s behaviour might irritate regional and corporate personnel. As Sampada looks over Jet`s performance assessment and management instrument, she realises that her honest assessment of Ranjan’s performance in his current job is generally excellent. She glances at the last page of the assessment and management form and the overall ratings from which she will have to choose. Jet`s overall rating system is on a 1-10 scale, with 10 as outstanding; 7-9, different degrees of excellent performance; 5-6, satisfactory; 3-4, below average; and 1-2, unacceptable. Sampada is uncertain as to what overall rating to assign. If she gives Ranjan too high a rating, he will expect to be promoted. If the rating is too low, Ranjan will doubtless be angry, feeling that an injustice has been done. Ranjan`s Self-Assessment and Management: Ranjan sees himself as different from the other district managers. An outgoing, gregarious type, he loves to visit his customer locations and work with his company`s personnel. His idea of a successful day is one spent teaching a customer service manager a new operating procedure or management technique. In fact, Ranjan is known to roll up his sleeves and teach Jet employees a new recipe or how to improve an existing dish.Ranjan has worked for several district managers and has always liked to keep them informed about his activities, sometimes phoning two or three times a day. From discussions with Sampada, he is aware that she thinks many of these calls are not necessary, but he wants her to know how things are going with his employees and customers. He is also aware of Sampada’s views regarding his ignoring medical advice. Ranjan is proud of his career and of what he has been able to do without much higher education. He feels he is qualified to become a regional manager, and he looks forward to the possibility of promotion to the new assistant regional manager position as a step toward this ultimate goal. Ranjan’s Assessment Rating: In reviewing the situation, Sampada decides to give Ranjan an overall rating of 6. She feels justified, given that Ranjan did miss months of work as a result of neglecting his health. She knows that Ranjan will expect a higher overall rating, but she is prepared to stand behind her evaluation. Sampada then goes back to considering the separate ratings she will assign and to making plans for their feedback review. Questions:1 How would you describe Sampada’s approach to the assessment and management of Ranjan’s performance? 2 Are Sampada`s concerns with Ranjan’s performance legitimate? Will Ranjan have justifiable reasons for feeling dissatisfied with the assessment and management results?

William Shakespeares Hamlet and Sophocles Oedipus the King Essay

William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Sophocles' Oedipus the King   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Though Shakespeares’ Hamlet and Sophocles’ Oedipus the King were written in two different eras, echoes of the latter can be found in the former. The common theme of Hamlet and Oedipus the King is regicide. Also, like in Oedipus the King, there is a direct relationship between the state of the state and the state of their kings. Furthermore, there is also a relationship between Oedipus’ armed entrance into the bedroom in which Jocasta hanged herself, and Hamlet’s confrontation of Gertrude in her bedroom. Both plays share the emphasis on a tragic irony in the chain of events that lead up to ritual of catharsis, but the plot of Hamlet makes a much more complicated character than that of the classic Greek tragedy of Oedipus the King.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sophocles’ Oedipus King and Shakespeare's Hamlet both contain the basic elements of tragedy, although the Shakespearean tragedy expanded its setting far beyond that of the ancient Greek tragedy. The tragic hero of Hamlet finds himself burdened with the task of avenging his father's death from the start of the play, and is not himself the source of the pollution of regicide, while Oedipus is of course the unwitting fashioner of his own doom, which is unveiled to him through recognition and repentance. Sophocles has Oedipus foretelling his own tragedy when speaking to the people of Thebes. The city suffers as a result of Oedipus’pride, and irony is shown when Oedipus suggest that by avenging Laius he will protect himself, or that by getting children upon Jocasta, the dead king's wife, he will be taking the place of the son of Laius, which, unknowingly, is himself. â€Å"I will bring it all to light... I shall rid us of this pollution, not for the sake of a distant relative, but for my own sake (Knox, 10).† The irony reaches its peak when Oedipus calls on the prophet Tiresias to help uncover the murder of Laius and seek an cure to the plague; the metaphor of vision is ironic in that the blind Tiresias can see what the seemingly brilliant Oedipus has overlooked, namely the king's crimes of incest and murder. â€Å"You are the murderer, you are the unholy defilement of this land(Knox, 23).† Tiresias goes on to say â€Å"I say that without knowing it you are living in shameful intimacy with your nearest and dearest. You do not see th e evil in which you live (K... ....† It was Gertrude’s subsequent reaction that led to the pivotal moment when Hamlet kills Polonius. The murder of Polonius was completely impetuous. Hamlet went from pondering murder to actually committing murder. When he does so it is not the actual act that is insane, but his lack of emotion which is. Scarcely acknowledging what he has just done, he continues preaching to Gertrude, and accuses her of plotting to murder his father. â€Å"With tristful visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act (Act 3, Scene 4).† After an elongated interrogation which sounded more like an S&M chat, we begin to realize Gertrude’s’s guilt for marrying Claudius, as well as her innocence in the actual plot to murder the King. It is only after the reappearance of the apparition that Hamlet begins to ease up on his mother.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hamlet and Oedipus the King though quite different, have a lot in common. They are the similar from an oedipal perspective, as well as having in common the element of madness. Though many would have a problem putting Shakespeare in the same category as Sophocles, it is not difficult to place their works, Hamlet Oedipus the King respectively, in the same category.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Franz Kafka the Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis is arguably Franz Kafkas best works of literature where author, Franz Kafka, directly casts upon the negative aspects of his life both mentally and physically. Franz Kafka was a visionary, whose works contained the secret to the future. Kafka’s world is one of a kind. To Kafka popular culture portrays contrast between functional and dysfunctional families to frame the elements that contribute to their formation. In similar pursuit, Kafka recognizes one significant aspect in the establishment of a healthy and stable family.In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka applies symbols, imagery, and settings to impress that a family organization where equally shared responsibilities prevail is more effective in keeping a positive domestic atmosphere. Also Kafka demonstrates the absurdity of human life and the sense of alienation of human existence, a reflection of Kafka’s own life. â€Å"Because the notion of bug aptly characterized his sense of worthlessness and pa rasitism before his father. † (Neider 262). When Franz Kafka was a boy his father abused him.Whenever Kafka disagreed with his father or told his father that he wanted to be a writer, his father got very upset with him. Franz was expected to follow the course his father planned out for him. â€Å"But from his childhood he considered himself a disappointment to his authoritarian figure parent and inadequate when compared with him. † (Czech 255). Kafka’s father viewed Franz as a failure and disapproved of his writing because he wanted Franz to become a businessman like him. This obsession with wanting Franz to become a businessman led his father Herrman to beat his son.There was always a great tension between Kafka and his father; Kafka always had strong mixed feelings toward him. Franz had other siblings but he was left all alone to struggle with the mantle of his father's expectations and frustrations. The relationship between Gregor and his father is in many way s were similar to Franz and his father Herrman. The emotional and physical abuse Gregor goes through is reciprocal to what Kafka went through in real life. They were both abused and neglected by their fathers when they were disappointed with them.â€Å"The mother and sister almost survive the test, but the father rejects him from the start. (Angus 264). The relationship with his father was reflected in Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis. In the book, Mr. Samsa displayed a violent temper from the very first encounter with the transformed Gregor. â€Å"When he chased Greggor back into the room, he kicked him in the back as he reached for the door. † (Kafka). Kafka illustrates that imbalance in family responsibility results in resentment and hatred. â€Å"All our knowledge of Kafka’s life and story technique suggests that it is a precipitation in fantasy of his lifelong sense of loneliness and exclusion. † (Angus 264).Quite apart from his isolation within his famil y, Kafka also felt isolated from the rest of society. Both Samsa and Kafka experienced the difficulties of living in a modern society and the struggle for acceptance of others when in a time of need. Also the lack of affection in Kafka’s childhood is a cause of feeling isolation that both Samsa and Kafka felt. Kafka never seemed to keep a wife. He was engaged twice but both times he was the one that ended the engagement. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa says â€Å"Constantly seeing new faces, no relationships that last or get more intimate. (Kafka).Gregor Samsa was a character that endured seclusion and exile like no other. Gregor adopts the precaution â€Å"of locking all the doors during the night even at home. † (Kafka). In this quote, the lock symbolizes Gregor’s wish to isolate himself from his family and society due to his anger. â€Å"Into a room in which Gregor ruled the bare walls all alone, no human being inside Grete was ever likely to set foot. à ¢â‚¬  (Kafka 34). The way Samsa was portrayed by his own family was the main cause of the feelings in which Gregor felt.His family purely the basis of the isolationism. Throughout the book, The Metamorphosis, Kafka creates Gregor to express his own feelings of isolation and alienation. â€Å"Reminded even his father that Gregor was a member of the family, in spite contrary, it was the commandment of family duty to swallow their disgust and endure him, endure him and nothing more. † (Kafka). Kafka, in a similar situation, uses Gregor transforming into a bug as a way of exaggerating himself, trying to express his feelings and point of view.Kafka saw the world much as he describes in his novels, just as a man who feels himself to be persecuted sees reality fitting into a system, which is really of a spiritual order, to persecute him. † (Spender 257). Kafka who had the pressure of his father forcing his own occupation on him resulted in a negative way. It was the main reas on that caused Kafka’s animosity towards his father. Kafka’s father already forced him to do what he wanted and not what Kafka wanted. This is similar to Gregor’s work life as a salesman. Gregor is not working for himself but to pay the family’s debt; he is unsatisfied with his occupation.Gregor Samsa is the only provider in the family he gives his family a nice atmosphere making them all feel economic security. Gregor’s atmosphere is one his family wouldn’t understand. He has the burden of finance on just him, only a single person results and this results in bitterness and anger. Kafka implies that in order to achieve a healthy family atmosphere, all members must contribute equally to common causes. Kafka uses symbols to contrast the difference in mood between the unequal and equal shares in financial responsibility of the Samsa’s family.He also uses imagery and settings to provide a transition between positive and negative oppositio n as a result of the shift towards balance and evenness of responsibility. His message is about domestic stability. The first page of The Metamorphosis is Gregor’s transformation. This tends to leave many readers confused at what’s actually going on. â€Å"Kafka states in the first sentence that Gregor wakes up to find himself changed into a giant kind of vermin (â€Å"Ungeziefer†). The term â€Å"vermin† holds the key to the double aspect of The Metamorphosis. † (Sokel 267). When you think vermin you think, bug.According to the dictionary a vermin is â€Å"noxious, objectionable, or disgusting animals collectively, especially those of small size that appear commonly and are difficult to control. † You think its just something that lives off human beings and maybe sucks their blood. However in context to The Metamorphosis â€Å"On the other hand, it connotes something defenseless, something that can be stepped upon and crushed. † (Sok el 267). These words are proven to be a correlation to how Gregor Samsa felt in The Metamorphosis. This is how Kafka felt about himself. He uses Gregor to expand upon what and how he felt.He felt this way relating back to his father. Kafka’s father viewed him as a vermin. â€Å"Kafka’s famous letter to his father would give support to such a view since Kafka has his father refer to him as a blood-sucking type of vermin, a bedbug or a louse. † (Sokel 267). Franz Kafka channels his real insecurities into his writing by attributing them to his protagonist, Gregor. The transformation from human to insect depicted in his novel represents the author’s childhood loss of confidence and self-esteem. The Kafkaesque nightmare of The Metamorphosis mimics the authors own life.

Essay on The Role of the Chorus in Ancient Greek Tragedies

The chorus’s perspective of justice works differently in Euripides’ Medea and Aeschylus’ The Libation Bearers. In both The Libation Bearers and Medea, the driving force of vengeance links the chorus to each of the play’s protagonists. For both plays, the choruses begin with a strong support of their heroes with a belief that the course of action that those characters are pursuing for the sake of avenging the wrongs done to them or their families is just and right. The chorus of Medea, however, moves away from that original conviction in the moral justification of revenge. Over the course of The Libation Bearers, the chorus also begins to express doubt in the validity of the true value in the cycle of deaths that the system of revenge†¦show more content†¦The chorus supports Orestes’ revenge against his mother Clytemnestra for killing his father primarily because a successful outcome of an action against Clytemnestra and Aegisthus would eliminate some of their cause for suffering. However, Orestes’ revenge against his mother and Aegisthus also meets the justice of the law of retribution, which the chorus defines: Justice turns the wheel. ‘Word for word, curse for curse be born now,’ Justice thunders, hungry for retribution, ‘stroke for bloody stroke be paid. The one who acts must suffer.’ (Libation Bearers 192) The law of retribution describes true justice as revenge, without very much in the way of logical moderation or consideration. This concept of justice shows the reasoning of Medea’s actions. By this system, the pain that Jason’s betrayal gave her necessarily must be repaid by an equal or greater pain that Medea would inflict on Jason. The chorus of both The Libation Bearers and Medea experience similar shifts in perspective once their protagonists have properly decided to take action against those characters who have wronged them in some manner. Directly following the prayers of Orestes and Electra in The Libation Bearers, the chorus says, â€Å"The flesh crawls to hear them pray./ The hour of doom has waited long† (Libation Bearers 197), clearly showing that the chorus, despite having urged Orestes on in takingShow MoreRelatedThe Impact Of Ancient Greek Theater And Tragedy1703 Words   |  7 PagesImpact of Ancient Greek Theater and Tragedy Ancient Greek culture has influenced our modern culture in many ways from philosophy to medicine to government. We still use many of their concepts, technology, and even alphabet system. Without ancient Greece, our modern world would not have advanced as far. A significant contribution of the ancient Greek culture to the world today is the Greek theater, more specifically the structure of tragedy. 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