Position of women in 16 and 17 century Essay

Women were challenged with expressing themselves in a patriarchal system that generally refused to grant merit to women’s views. Cultural and political events during these centuries increased attention to women’s issues such as education reform. Though modern feminism was non-existent. The social structure women limited opportunities for involvement; they served largely as managers of their households. Women were expected to focus on practical domestic pursuits and activities that encouraged the betterment of their families, and more particularly, their husbands. Education for women was not supported—harmful to the traditional female virtues of innocence and morality. Women who spoke out against the patriarchal system of gender roles, or any injustice, ran the risk of being exiled from their communities, or worse; vocal unmarried women in particular were the targets of witch-hunts. The seventeenth century women continued to play a significant, though not acknowledged, role in economic and political structures through their primarily domestic activities.They often acted as counselors in the home, â€Å"tempering† their husbands’ words and actions. Women were discouraged from directly expressing political views counter to their husbands’ or to broadly condemn established systems; nevertheless, many women were able to make public their private views through the veil of personal, religious writings. Marriage: The seventeenth century represents a fascinating period of English history, drawing the attention of whole generations of historians. This turbulent age saw three major events that had a deep impact on England’ s political as well as social life—the English Revolution, the Restoration of the Stuarts in 1660 and the Glorious Revolution in 1688. Amidst the turmoil of the events, people’s everyday lives unfolded. While it was men’s preoccupation to keep the country’s political and economic affairs going, women had an indispensable, though far less public, part to play. This paper aims at providing an outline of the seventeenth-century English marriage, viewed from the woman’s perspective. It touches upon topics such as concluding marriages, basic marriage values, duties of a married woman and possibilities of divorce. Attention is paid to the areas in which the  seventeenth-century reality was different from today’s. In seventeenth-century England, marriage and sexual morals played a far more important social role than nowadays. A family centred around a married couple represented the basic social, economic and political unit. In the Stuart period, a husband’s â€Å"rule† over his wife, children and servants was seen as an analogy to the king’s reign over his people—a manifestation of a hierarchy constituted by God. A woman was regarded as the ‘weaker vessel’ (a phrase taken from the New Testament)—a creature physically, intellectually, morally and even spiritually inferior to a man; therefore, the man had a right to dominate her (Fraser 1981: 1). In a society strongly influenced by Puritan values, sexual integrity and the status of a married person gave a woman respectability and social prestige. This, together with the fact that it was very difficult for women to find ways of making an independent living, meant that securing a husband was a matter of great importance. Theoretically, it was possible for two people to marry very young. The minimum legal age was 12 years for women and 14 years for men. In addition, it was possible for the couple to get engaged at the age of 7, with the right to break off the engagement on reaching the minimum age of consent (Stone 1965: 652). However, early marriages were rather rare—the average age of the newlyweds was about 25 years. Interestingly, the basic requirement for a legally valid marriage was not a formal consecration in a church, but the completion of a marriage contract, commonly called ‘spousals’. Spousals were an act in which the bride and groom said their vows in the present tense—‘per verba de prasenti’ (Ingram 1987: 126). In a majority of cases, this procedure was accompanied by a church ceremony (banns). Yet if the marriage was concluded without witnesses and not consecrated in a church, it had the same legal validity. This practice had existed in England since the twelfth century and lasted till 1753. Not having to go through a church ceremony made it possible for lovers to marry secretly, without the knowledge of their parents. In this way, they could escape the dynastic scheming of their families.

Why I deserve to live essays

Why I deserve to live essays What we fear is not suffering or even death What we fear is that we have wasted life That our highest calling will go unanswered In a dream I met the most beautiful soul She whispered do you know what your purpose is? Than you must breath the love back into the world Becomes the consciousness of another. So fill the world with your awareness Of each and every soul you meet I remember thinking not too terribly long ago that I knew everything and I had it all figured out. I have traveled to many different places around the world. A couple of years ago I began to realize the world is not all about me and my life, and what mood I happen to be in at the time. I became aware that not only was I thankful to be here, alive, on this earth; but just how truly lucky I am that all of the circumstances aligned that I grew up in such a prosperous country, in a wonderful family, with the opportunity to fulfill my dreams. I feel I have an obligation to give back everything I have been given. The small box I was living in became opened. Opportunity and existence go hand in had. I have been placed on this earth with an incredible opportunity to leave a mark. I have been blessed with a wonderful family. The time I was little they instilled in me to achieve my goals, dreams, and passions I possessed. I realize now what a blessing that is to have such a support group that ha ...

Getting Published on Kindle

Getting Published on Kindle Getting Published on Kindle Getting Published on Kindle By Simon Kewin Getting your work published onto Amazon’s Kindle eReader is really very easy.   Perhaps you’re a writer interested in self-publishing some of your work. Or you might simply want to learn more about the ePublishing revolution and how to get involved. In either case, doing so is actually very straightforward. Since January this year, Amazon’s Digital Text Platform (DTP) has been available in all countries, allowing you to upload your work and publish it in Amazon’s Kindle store. And since there are estimated to be 1.5 million Kindles in use, this represents a large potential market.   To get started you just need a standard customer Amazon account. You sign in with this at the DTP site and from there start uploading. You provide your manuscript in Microsoft Word or HTML format and Amazon will automatically convert it into the format used by the Kindle. You also need to provide some extra information about your work : title, description, language, keywords, categories, price, publishing date   and so forth. You also have the option of providing some cover artwork, which is recommended as it will make your published work much more eye-catching.   The whole process of providing these details is slick and friendly. There is also a lot of help available if you get stuck, in the form of FAQs and forums. You don’t have to get everything right first time. You can preview what you’ve uploaded, tweak things and then, when you’re happy with everything, click Publish. Doing so costs you nothing – although Amazon will take a cut of any sales you make.   It can take a day or two for your work to finally appear in the Amazon store, but once it’s there customers can start buying it for their Kindles. Each work gets its own page on the Amazon site, complete with all the usual options such as reader reviews and ratings.   In fact, publishing your work onto the Kindle is the easy part. The hard part is attracting potential readers to your work. Amazon’s system helps in that the description and categories you provide make it easier for potential readers to find you. However, to attract many readers, you will have to put effort into publicizing your work yourself.   Whether or not â€Å"self-publishing† (or, as some prefer to call it, â€Å"indie publishing†) like this is a sensible move for you as a writer is something only you can decide. You should be aware that a conventional publisher probably wouldn’t be interested in handling a book that has already been self-published in this way as first publication rights wouldn’t be available. But you might think it’s worthwhile to self-publish some pieces of work in the hope of building up a readership interested in finding out more about you and your other work.    This article only covers the Amazon Kindle and there are, of course, other eReaders out there (the iPhone, for instance). There are other services on the web, similar to Amazon’s, that allow you to self-publish your work for these other devices. But Amazon’s DTP provides a good place to start if you’re interested in exploring the world of ePublishing. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:English Grammar 101: All You Need to KnowHow to spell "in lieu of"Kn- Words in English

Teaching as an art and science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Teaching as an art and science - Essay Example Most schools and colleges run for only nine months in the year altogether, and there is seldom any necessity for a teacher to be on call every hour of the working day. Of course there is a great deal to be done outside teaching hours. Some of it is routine -- preparing examinations, reading papers, interviewing pupils. Some of it is research and preparation. But much of this kind of work can be done in one's own time, at one's own home, or in the quiet of a book-room. The great advantage of this is that comparatively few teachers are tied to the desk, chained to the telephone which begins to ring at nine on Monday morning and is still chattering at noon on Saturday, or limited for vacations to a fortnight in July among the millions of exhausted factory-workers (Highet, 1950). Teaching is an art form. The educator is an artist and, as artist, aims at creating an experience of enduring meaning. Varieties of techniques are developed to generate this extraordinary experience. Success is measured in the degree that students and educator have this experience. Sharing in or participating in the development and enhancement of knowledge is one of the richest of aesthetic moments. The rare teacher who understands and creates the conditions for such moments becomes a seminal image in student memories. Students who participate in a magic moment of learning become and remain a source of delight and pride for the artist - they become, with reverence, his or her students. But, if education does have an aesthetic dimension, what is it and what is its connection with the ethical constituents of teaching and learning The answer is found when learning is conceived of as a shared experience given form by a most special aim or end. The point at which the tensions of struggling individual selves, the distinctions of rank and function flower into a unity of shared meanings that enhance the experience of teacher and student constitutes the end, the target, the bull's eye of the academic process. An understanding of what shared meanings enhance our lives indicates how they are to be shared, that is, what the ethics of teaching are (Hook, Kurtz, & Todorovich, 1977). Teacher and learner strive to know how the social, biological, and physical processes that constitute existence can be unified in ways that render our lives more wondrous, more humane, more gratifying - that is, more wise. This communal process, the communal development of wisdom itself, becomes the criterion, the aesthetic measure of the quality of teaching and learning. To repeat, the aesthetic objective - the sharing of meanings in ways that promote mutual growth - serves as the criterion to evaluate the worth of the means employed to teach. Are the means employed conducive to developing habits that constitute intelligence and confidence in judgment Do the means render one more sensitive to the beauty of learning from and teaching others Do we gain a growing appreciation of what actions establish connections with the social, biological, and physical world that sustain becoming The "ethics of teaching" is quite clearly, then, the effort to understand and implement those actions that stimulate

Spotify Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Spotify - Essay Example The strategic framework of SpotifyTM will help to implement technology to sustain competitive advantage in terms of cost and efficiency. Formulating other forms of strategies such as e-marketing, CRM, or SCM as part of organisation’s strategy helps a company to mange and utilise their resources optimally. Introduction SpotifyTM provides cloud based music streaming service delivered via internet mobile phones. Through cloud computing it offers subscribers access to its vast database of music. To maintain such large database the company would require effective managing of its information system. The information system is not isolated and constitutes interaction between hardware, software, data, people, and telecommunication. These components of an information system are built to create, assemble, and distribute important data and information to people across the globe (Lucey, 2004, p.31). From the information system hierarchy model it can be said that the strategic development i s a top down approach and it flows downwards from the top level management of organisation. The information system connects the top level management with people and process (Doyle, 2001, pp.2-14). ... he business strategy of SpotifyTM is to adapt to new technology of cloud computing and generate revenues through cloud based business model which will allow subscribers unlimited access to music database at least cost and shortest time. Using the five forces model, the relative attractiveness of cloud based technology industry can be analysed as follows: Threat of New Entrants - SpotifyTM offers its subscribers a vast database of music via cloud computing technology. As a result the subscribers will have faster access to music more conveniently and even from their mobile sets, at any place any time without having them to carry memory devices. At the same time multi-user interface will not slow down the server. The users will also get unlimited storage space and remote access even if their hard disk may have limited space. All these features and facilities provided by SpotifyTM are unlikely to face threat from the new entrants. Bargaining Power of Suppliers - The cost of cloud computi ng is economical since the database is centralised. It also requires less space, bandwidth and power. Thus, suppliers will have limited influence over SpotifyTM business model. Bargaining Power of Buyers - Cloud computing is very cost effective as it do not require subscribers to invest extra time and money to use standalone servers. Using cloud based computing the subscriber will get the opportunity to save money on data storage cost, management cost, and software updates. Threat of Substitutes – The only threat to cloud based technology is open source computing but it is much slower and requires the subscriber to have physical memory in order to store data which makes it more expensive compared to cloud based technology. Rivalry among Existing Competitors - SpotifyTM offers cloud based

Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech 2 Research Paper

Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech 2 - Research Paper Example Knowing these accomplishments of Martin Luther King, I was awed by him more especially when I knew that he was a pious man, being a Christian pastor. Further research however revealed that Martin Luther King is also a man just like everyone else except of course that he has lofty ideals. The speech â€Å"I Have a Dream† whom we consider as a masterpiece was even written with uncertainty for two reasons; first, King was advised by his aides not to use it anymore because he had been delivering it and it may sound like a cliche. Second, it was not a prepared speech but was only written the night before and up to the delivery of the speech, it underwent rigorous editing that its delivery may have been the first that the final version was completed. These information were of course not immediately associated with the speech of King but it was a good idea that Martin Luther King is also man, subject to its own insecurities but managed to overcome it by his lofty ideals that is rever ed by generations after him. I. Picture and description of historical event (Source: Historywired) This is a picture Martin Luther King delivering the legendary â€Å"I have a dream speech† from the steps of Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Looking at the picture alone, it looked like everything went perfect for the organizers of the march as well as the crowd. King was on a stage delivering his speech as intended while the audiences as shown in the background were intently listening as expected. The outcome was so successful that we are tempted to think that there were no issues during the preparation of this speech. Until of course when we dig deeper that we realize that such event was just like any other event where the organizers were jittery and unsure of what will be the outcome. For instance, attempting to stage a march of a projected number of 100,000 people (around 250,000 showed up) is unprecedented and they we re not sure if they can reach that number (Younge). Just when we thought that the â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech itself was a perfectly prepared speech as depicted in the picture that was customized for the occasion, it was actually the opposite. Readers may be blown away with the fact that the â€Å"I Have a Dream Speech† was nearly not delivered because Martin Luther King was discouraged by aides for delivering a speech that has that theme cautioning him that it may already be an overuse and already a cliche. Younge narrated that â€Å"the night before the March on Washington, on 28 August 1963, Martin Luther King asked his aides for advice about the next day's speech. "Don't use the lines about 'I have a dream', his adviser Wyatt Walker told him. "It's trite, it's cliche. You've used it too many times already." This meant that up to the last moment of the march, King did not even have a speech yet. The night before when his aide checked him in his room, he was still writing it and the paper had many erasures. Even the final speech itself had many corrections indicating that up to the last moment, King had been editing his speech and the delivered speech may be the first recitation of the repeatedly edited speech. This apparent cramming in preparation of the speech was

Corporate Restructuring As A Strategic Decision Management Essay

Corporate Restructuring As A Strategic Decision Management Essay The interrelationships between organisation, strategic management and business environmental conditions have been enduring themes of organisation and management theory over the last 4 decades, and restructuring has emerged as a significant mechanism in the successful adaptation of organisations to environmental influences (Clark, 2004). The 1980s were characterised by a wave of important restructuring activities, this wave has become increasingly common during the 1990s (Lin, Lee Peterson, 2006; Park Kim, 2008). The concept of restructuring is still a matter of debate and controversy because of the modernity of the subject. Bowman and Singh (1993) described restructuring as change aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of management teams performance through considerable changes in organisational structure. Staniforth (1994) defined restructuring as opportunities for change, improvements in the organisation, and to achieve the benefits of cost, the benefits of strategic d ecision-making, the benefits of communication, and other benefits to the organisation. Restructuring is a fundamental change that significantly affects the organisation, and takes place either at the organisational level or radically reorganising activities and relationships at the business unit level (Alkhafaji, 2001). Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson (2001) argued that restructuring is a strategy through which the organisation can change its financial or commercial position. Stevenson, Bartunek and Borgatti (2003) described restructuring as attempts to get people within the organisation to work more closely together. Restructuring is a purposeful strategic option for organisation renewal (Brauer, 2006), typically includes a set of activities such as downsizing, sale of a business line, closures or consolidation of facilities, business relocation, or changes in management structure, which often occur as part of organisational strategies intended to improve efficiency, control costs, and adapt to an ever changing business environment (Lin, Lee Peterson, 2006). Thus, modifications of the organisations assets, capital structure, and organisational structure fall into the general concept of corporate restructuring (Singh, 1993; Bowman et al., 1999). Restructuring refers to the transformation of corporate structure (Bowman Singh, 1990), organisational re-configuration (Bowman Singh, 1993), refocusing (Markides, 1995), down scoping (Hitt et al., 1994; Johnson, 1996), and patching (Eisenhardt Brown, 1999; Siggelkow, 2002). The term restructuring is mainly used to denote considerable changes in the assets and structural components of organisations through conscious managerial actions. Bowman and Singh (1990) claimed that restructuring is aimed at achieving individual, financial, strategic, and/or operational goals and objectives. Bowman et al. (1999), differentiate three key forms of restructuring: portfolio restructuring, related to the changes in the portfolios of businesses held by diversified organisations, including acquisitions, mergers, divestitures etc. ; financial restructuring, which includes considerable changes in the capital structure of an organisation, and organisational restructuring, which includes significant changes in the organisational structure of the organisation, including divisional redesign and downsizing. Advocates of corporate restructuring argue that the result of restructuring activities is a leaner and more efficient corporate (Singh, 1993). Critics, however, contend that restructuring damages the organisation and its internal and external stakeholders (Seth Easterwood, 1993). 2.2.4.2 Key Drivers of Restructuring: In the 1960s and 1970s, several organisations diversified their business predominantly via the acquisition of businesses unrelated to their core activities, thus frequently realising conglomerate status (Shleifer Vishny, 1991; Hoskisson Hitt, 1994; Davis, Diekmann, Tinsley, 1994; Servaes, 1996; Johnson, 1996; Bergh, 2001). During the 1980s and 1990s, many diversified organisations were reorganised as a result of organisational refocusing initiatives intended to cut down both the breath of organisation portfolios (i.e., lower levels of diversification) and overall organisation size, thus eventually translating into organisations holding more related diversified activities (Williams, Paez Sanders, 1988; Markides, 1992; Davis, Diekmann, Tinsley, 1994; Kose Ofek, 1995; Comment Jarrell, 1995; Berger Ofek, 1995; Johnson, 1996, Cascio, 2002, Park Kim, 2008). A related diversified business is one in which the company controls businesses that share similarities in markets, products, and/or technologies with the intent of allowing organisation management to take advantage of the interrelationships between the related businesses (Rumelt, 1974; Palepu, 1985; Hoskisson Hitt, 1990; Hoskisson Hitt, 1994). As already mentioned, a multitude of theoretical and empirical investigations into the antecedents of restructuring have shown that different factors precipitate corporate restructuring. Restructuring literature reveals that there are four key drivers of restructuring. 2.2.4.2.1 The Agency justification: The premier justification as to why companies engage in restructuring is in response to less than acceptable performance (Montgomery, Thomas Kamath, 1984; Duhaime Grant, 1984; Hoskisson, Johnson Moesel, 1994; Hoskisson Hitt, 1994; Markides, 1995; Johnson, 1996; Markides Singh, 1997, Filatotchev, Buck, Zhukov, 2000, Love Nohria, 2005; Perry Shivdasani, 2005; DSouza, Megginson, Nash, 2007; Hsieh, 2010). In other words, a company divests organisational assets with the intent of improving organisational performance, whether it is their organisational performance in respect to competitors, the overall industry, or a predetermined objective (Greve, 1998). Research has undoubtedly demonstrated that organisations engaged in restructuring often are performing unsatisfactorily prior to the initiation of corporate restructuring (Duhaime Grant, 1984; Montgomery, Thomas Kamath, 1984; Sicherman Pettway, 1987; Duhaime Baird, 1987; Ravenscraft Scherer, 1987; Montgomery Thomas, 1988; H oskisson Johnson, 1992; Markides, 1992; Hoskisson Hitt, 1994; Hoskisson, Johnson Moesel, 1994; Lang, Poulson Stulz, 1995; Markides, 1995; Johnson, 1996; Markides Singh, 1997; Bowman et al., 1999; Bergh, 2001; Love Nohria, 2005; Perry Shivdasani, 2005; DSouza, Megginson, Nash, 2007; Hsieh, 2010). The majority of large organisations exhibit periodic corporate restructuring involving simultaneous changes in strategy, organisational structure, management systems, and corporate top management members. Such corporate restructuring usually follows declining organisational performance (Grant, 2008). Jain (1985), for example, found that organisation performance began to suffer nearly a year prior to restructuring and caused negative excess stock return of 10.8% within the period of one year prior to the restructuring. Such evaluations of ones own organisational performance are considerable since sound organisational performance is required to ensure the sustenance and survival of the corporate (Child, 1972), as well as offering feedback to the organisations as to the viability of their plans (Cyert March, 1963). Thompson (1967) notes that publicly traded organisations closely monitor changes in the value of their stock since the market exhibits a visible social judgment about the organisations fitness for the organisational future. The agency justification of restructuring, poor organisational performance as an antecedent of restructuring (Ravenscraft Scherer, 1987; Hoskisson Turk, 1990; Hoskisson Hitt, 1994; Markides Singh, 1997; Filatotchev, Buck, Zhukov, 2000) has become the leading justification in the literature to account for the corporate restructuring wave of the 1980s. Mainly, this rationale claims that organisation performance needs to be improved as a direct outcome of past managerial incompetence, which includes excessive levels of diversification, inappropriate diversification, unprofitable investments, and substandard investments in RD. For example, it is argued that decision makers frequently increased organisation size and levels of diversification without comparable increases in organisation value (Jensen, 1986; Hoskisson Turk, 1990; Jensen, 1993; Johnson, 1996). Moreover, it is argued that strategic decision makers have the opportunity to diversify their firms even when doing so does not enhance the market value of the organisation because their personal wealth is associated more with organisation size than to organisation performance (Jensen Meckling, 1976; Amihud Lev, 1981; Bethel Liebeskind, 1993). Grant, Jammine and Thomas (1988) found that increased degrees of diversification gave rise to decreased organisations returns, thus implying that, over time, strategic decision makers sacrificed performance for diversification and growth. Empirical studies (e.g., Rumelt, 1974; Wernerfelt Montgomery, 1988; Lubatkin Chatterjee, 1991; Palich, Cardinal, Miller, 2000; Bergh, 2001; Mayer Whittington, 2003) have substantiated such a conclusion by arguing that organisations pursuing a organisational strategy of unrelated diversification possess lower market returns than organisations pursuing related diversification and growth strategies. Supporter of the agency justification suggest that such managerial inefficiencies occur considerably as a consequence of agency costs (i.e., enlarged managerial consumption of organisational resources resulting from poor, or ineffective governance systems). Essentially, this perspective argues that the board of directors, ownership concentration, and decision makers incentives were inefficient and led to the failure of organisational governance as a mechanism (Hoskisson Turk, 1990; Jensen, 1993; Bethel Liebeskind, 1993; Gibbs, 1993; Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994; Johnson, Daily, Ellstrand, 1996; Johnson, 1996; Chatterjee Harrison, 2001). Although never clearly clarified in the literature, poor governance is believed to be identified by diffusion of shareholdings among foreign owners, certain characteristics of strategic decision makers (e.g., insignificant equity ownership by strategic decision makers and board members or an insignificant number of outsiders sitting on the bo ard), and decision makers and board members passivity (Johnson, Hoskisson, Hitt, 1993; Bethel Liebeskind, 1993; Gibbs, 1993; Johnson, 1996; Westphal Fredrickson, 2001; Dalton et al, 2003). Thus, the agency perspective has made restructuring synonymous with poor corporate governance (Hoskisson Turk, 1990; Bethel Liebeskind, 1993; Markides Singh, 1997). 2.2.4.2.2 The Mimicry Justification: It is argued that organisations restructure as a consequence of mimicking the behaviour of other firms that are engaged in the divestiture activities (Markides Singh, 1997). In line with mimetic isomorphism (DiMaggio Powell, 1983; Oliver, 1991), this perspective claims that organisations, either intentionally or unintentionally, engage in mimicry of organisational patterns of other actors in their networks who are realised as more successful or legitimate. Strategic decision makers engaged in such imitation consider that their actions will be perceived as rational (Meyer Rowan, 1977; DiMaggio Powell, 1983). Such claims were adopt by Davis, Diekmann, and Tinsley (1994) in their justification of the decline of the conglomerate organisation in the United States of America during the period of 1980s. 2.2.4.2.3 The Environmental Justification: Scholars (e.g., Meyer, Brooks, Goes, 1990; Grinyer McKiernan, 1990; Hoskisson Hitt, 1990; Shleifer Vishny, 1991; Kose, Lang Netter, 1992; Chatterjee, 1992; Johnson, 1996; Bergh Lawless, 1998; Robinson Shimizu, 2006; Park, 2007; Park Kim, 2008; Nag Pathak, 2009) have suggested that environmental circumstances serve as antecedents to increased corporate restructuring. It is argued that antitrust policy shifts, tax rationales, junk bond financing, intense competition, deregulation, technology developments and changes, and takeover activities through the market for organisational control are reasons for the significant increase in corporate restructuring activity in the 1980s (Johnson, 1996). A synthesis of studies exploring such associations suggests that changes in the environmental conditions, which increase environmental uncertainty or turbulence, result in a greater likelihood of corporate restructuring. Grinyer McKiernan (1990), for example, suggested that corporate restructuring may result from changes in the industrial sector that create an aspiration-induced crisis built on the current organisational performance or market share and where strategic decision makers believe the firm ought to be. Further support of the environmental conditions argument was conducted by Meyer, Brooks and Goes (1990) who explored organisational strategic responses to discontinuous change at the industrial sector level. They explored the hospital industry in San Francisco state, which was facing considerable environmental turbulence, which led to excess capacity, regulatory changes, and resource scarcity. To deal with these environmental changes the hospital industry engaged in spin-of fs of unnecessary areas, underwent divestitures of peripheral activities, and created networks among the hospitals to respond to the need for managed health care in the San Francisco state. Moreover, a third study to justify the environmental conditions perspective was offered by Bergh and Lawless (1998), who explored external uncertainty and its influence on the strategic decisions the organisation makes. Their study suggested that organisations experienced with highly uncertain circumstances engage in divestitures to cut down the expenses of managing a diverse portfolio. Scholars (e.g., Garvin, 1983; Ito, 1995, Campa Kedia, 2002; Rose Ito, 2005) have contended that restructuring can be a reaction to shocks in the external environment. Dodonova and Khoroshilov (2006) found that divestiture activities tend to occur during economic booms, whereas Campa and Kedia (2002) suggested the opposite. Divestiture activities seem more likely to occur in ever-changing business environments and highly competitive markets (Ito, 1995; Eisenhardt Brown, 1999). Because large organisations form significant parts of the task environments of other firms, one organisations restructuring may tend to create environmental instability for other firms, particularly those in the same industrial sector. Such claim is explicit in Brown and Eisenhardts (1998) perspective of strategy as structured chaos. They argue that the best-performing organisations consistently lead change in their industrial sectors. According to Brown and Eisenhardts (1998) theory, such organisations dominate their markets. In fact, these organisations become the environment for others. Not only do they lead environmental change, but these organisations also set the rhythm and pace of that environmental change within their industrial sectors (Brown Eisenhardt , 1998). The role of restructuring in creating environmental turbulence and change is also implicit in the stream of research based on the hyper-competition concept (e.g., DAveni, 1994; Young, Smith, Grimm, 1998; Thomas, 19 98). The primary idea of hyper-competition is that competing firms engage in a continuous series of strategic actions that undercut the key advantages acquired by their competitors (DAveni, 1994; Smith Zeithaml, 1998). Such process is interchangeable, as objectives of competitive initiatives respond to those initiatives with actions of their own, their goals counter-respond, and so on. Therefore, changes in competition are among the most significant environmental factors for strategic decision makers to consider in corporate restructuring (Johnson, 1996). Competition may intensify because of the diversity of strategies by organisations in an industrial sector, a change in the power balance of organisations, and shifts in market demand (Porter, 1980). To cope with the challenges of increasing competition, strategic decision makers of organisations are usually encouraged to take further risk and often respond by corporate restructuring (Cool, Dierickx, Jemison, 1989). According to G rinyer and McKiernan (1990), competitive changes tend to an aspiration-induced crisis. When the competitive environment changes, corporate restructuring helps organisations to realise synergies, allocate resources, and improve organisational performance (Chatterjee, 1986; Hoskisson Hitt, 1988; Bergh, 1995; Bergh 1998). Another significant environmental antecedent of restructuring, the degree of government regulation, is a tool to control high risk-taking at the organisation level: when an economy is greatly regulated, firms are faced with bounded discretion in their strategic decisions (Wiseman Catanach, 1997). The reduction of governmental involvement increases the strategic decision-making discretion of organisations, improves the effectiveness of governance systems, and decreases the barriers to investments (Ramamurti, 2000). On the other hand, reduced governmental intervention increases the degree of uncertainty for organisations due to the increase in the variety of stakeholders, the rise of newly privatised organisation, and a concomitant increase in the probability of bankruptcy (Megginson Netter, 2001). Moreover, regulatory changes are positively associated with changes in organisation risk-taking strategies and behaviour, such as acquisitions (Ginsberg Buchholtz, 1990; Datta, Narayanan, Pinches, 1992). Under deregulation, according to Rajagopalan and Spreitzer (1997), less-focused, defender-like organisations tend to shift to greater focused, prospector-like strategies. 2.2.4.2.4 The Strategic Justification: Scholars suggest that organisation strategy is a driver of restructuring (Montgomery, Thomas, Kamath, 1984; Duhaime Grant, 1984; Baysinger Hoskisson, 1989; Markides, 1992; Markides, 1995; Johnson, 1996). In other words, restructuring may be associated with an organisations corporate or business level strategy. The strategic perspective claims that organisations decide to restructure for either corrective or proactive goals. Corrective divestiture activities are intended to make up for former strategic mistakes (Porter, 1987; Hitt et al, 1996), to reduce exaggerated diversification (Markides, 1992; Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994), to refocus on core activities and businesses (Markides, 1992; Seth Easterwood, 1993), to react to an increase in industrial sector competition (Aron, 1991), to realign organisation strategy with the organisations identity (Mitchell, 1994; Zuckerman, 2000), to eliminate negative alliances (Miles Rosenfeld, 1983; Rosenfeld, 1984), or to deal with organ isational problems such as bad organisational governance (Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994). On the other hand, the target of proactive divestitures is to restructure the organisational portfolio (Hitt et al., 1996; Bowman et al., 1999) by routinely redesigning, splitting, changing or exiting activities and businesses to cope with changing environment opportunities (Eisenhardt Brown, 1999; Siggelkow, 2002). This restructuring is aimed at creating a more efficient organisational governance system ( Seward Walsh, 1996), improving organisational profitability and performance (Woo, Willard, Daellenbach, 1992; Mitchell, 1994; Fluck Lynch, 1999; Haynes, Thompson, Wright, 2002), obtaining more cash flow (Jensen, 1989; Hitt et al., 1996), decreasing high level of debit (Montgomery, Thomas, Kamath, 1984; Hitt et al, 1996; Allen McConnell, 1998) or tax payments (Schipper Smith, 1986; John, 1993; Vijh, 2002), acquiring better business contracts from regulators (Schipper Smith, 1986; Woo, Willard, Daellenbach, 1992), or enhancing organisational entrepreneurship and innovativeness (Garvin, 1983; Cassiman Ueda, 2006). From a strategic view, most divesting organisations seem to be more diversified than their industrial sector counterparts (Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994; Haynes, Thompson, Wright, 2003). Over-diversification pushes an organisation toward de-conglomeration and de-diversification as a correction of its strategic decisions and choices. Nevertheless, in very specific contexts, divestiture processes are also used to improve diversification (such as spin-offs processes in Japan) (Ito, 1995). Over-diversification decreases innovation and entrepreneurial spirit within organisations. Extremely diversified organisations tend to give priority to financial controls, to ignore strategic controls and therefore create less organisational innovation (Hitt et al., 1996), and to enlarge managerial risk aversion (Hoskisson, Johnson, Moesel, 1994). Thus, according to Garvin (1983), an organisation may engage in unbundling processes to enhance its entrepreneurial spirit and its organisational innov ation, or to enter technology-based and immature activities. Spin-offs processes, for example, can be used to encourage entrepreneurial spirit and organisational innovation in the divested business unit, while the parent gains some advantages from the new product, service, or technology developed in the independent organisation (Garvin, 1983). 2.2.5 Linkage Between Environmental Conditions, Decision Makers, and Restructuring as a Strategic Decision: The antecedents of restructuring show that restructuring is a strategic phenomenon. There are several postulates underlie such a perspective. The first postulate is that strategic restructuring decision is typically an organisational response to changing internal and/or external conditions. The second postulate is that internal and external pressures and influences are largely, but not totally, clear and identifiable in initiating such strategic restructuring. The third postulate is that numerous organisations currently experience these clear pressures and influences for a strategic adaptive response, and that large numbers of these firms seek to respond by strategic restructuring. A fourth and final postulate is that corporate restructuring generally improves organisation performance. Taken together, these postulates form the basis for a strategic view on corporate restructuring; in other words, that there are forces, pressures, and influences that provide a stimulus for strategic r estructuring, that these pressures affect several organisations, large numbers of whom respond by corporate restructuring, which improves organisational performance. However, two important questions should be raised: how do you decide which restructuring strategy to apply to which organisation? And what are the key factors affecting the strategic decision-making process and consequently restructuring decision as strategic choice? Although external environment has been identified as a significant variable in explaining numerous organisational phenomena (Jones, Jacobs, Spijker, 1992), scholars (Hitt Tyler, 1991; Eisenhardt Zbaracki, 1992; Dean Sharfman, 1993; Rajagopalan, Rasheed Datta, 1993, Papadakis Barwise, 1997; Brouthers, Brouthers, Werner, 2000; Hough White, 2003) realise that an organisations economic environment and competitive circumstances alone cannot clearly explain the nature of strategic decisions and its performance outcomes. So, to enhance the performance of their patterns, strategists have begun to focus on the behavioural factors of organisational strategic decision-making. This growing recognition to the significance of the behavioural element has naturally a focus on the individuals characteristics responsible for making these organisational strategic decisions. In public sector organisations the top managers are considered to be responsible for achieving the alignment of the organi sation with its environmental conditions (Andrews, 1971; Child, 1972). These decision makers must gather the significant information by which to make strategic decisions, analyse this input, deduce alternative approaches of action for the organisation, and finally choose and implement a particular strategic action for the organisation. The relationships between strategic decision makers, strategic decision-making processes, and organisational outcomes have been the key focus of top management research. Strategic decision makers, according to this research, do make a difference in the matter of organisation outcomes such as innovation strategies (Bantel Jackson, 1989; Camelo-Ordaz, Hernandez-Lara, Valle-Cabrera, 2005); organisational strategic change (Wiersema Bantel, 1992); and organisational performance (Hambrick Mason, 1984; Murray, 1989; Michel Hambrick, 1992; Peterson et al., 2003; Dwyer, Richard, Chadwick, 2003; Carpenter, Geletkanycz, Sanders, 2004). Such research suggested that certain demographic characteristics of the strategic decision makers (e.g., age, educational level, and tenure) were associated with organisational outcomes. Other scholars (Hitt, Ireland, Palia, 1982; Gupta Govindarajan, 1984; Walsh Seward, 1990; Davis Thompson, 1994; Westphal Fredrickson, 2001) have found that decision m akers characteristics such as experience are linked to the organisational strategic orientations. The empirical relations found between demographic characteristics of decision makers and organisational outcomes suggest that functional backgrounds might have significant ramifications for organisational strategic decision-making. Scholars have found that functional experience tends to restrict the areas to which strategic decision makers pay attention and may lead them to neglect certain stimuli (Beyer et al., 1997). Moreover, managerial experience affects the types of changes that decision makers perceive in the effectiveness of their firm, but not its environment (Waller, Huber, Glick, 1995) Managerial experiences shape the cognitive perspective of strategic decision makers (Hambrick Mason, 1984). The upper echelons theory claims that the strategic decision makers observable experiences affect their orientation and that strategic choice (Hambrick Mason, 1984; Finkelstein Hambrick, 1996; Pansiri, 2007). Therefore, according to Gupta (1984), decision makers differ in the sets of abilities, skills, and views that they bring to a company. Managerial skills, abilities, and perspectives are largely a function of previous functional backgrounds, personal backgrounds, and educational level. In other words, cognitive perspectives brought to bear on strategic decisions are a result of the various experiences that strategic decision makers acquire during their organisational careers (Schwenk, 1988). Research on organisational strategic issue diagnosis has drew attention to how decision makers cognitions can affect several aspects of the organisational strategic decision-making process from environmental scanning (Daft, Sormunen, Parks, 1988; Milliken, 1990; Abiodun, 2009), processing and analysis (Gioia, 1986; Dutton Duncan, 1987; Herrmann Datta, 2005), the evaluation of alternative approaches, and implementation of selected strategic decision (Dutton Jackson, 1987; Ganster, 2005; Kauer, Waldeck, Scha ¨ffer, 2007). Strategic decision makers cognitive perspectives or mental maps represent experientially acquired reference frames which involve sets of different criteria, standards of evaluation, and strategic decision rules that can restrict as well as facilitate the organisational ability to change. While strategic decision makers cognitive perspectives or mental frameworks provide a significant reference point for strategic decision-making, they can also extremely constrain the ability of the organisation to adapt to changing environmental demands. Weick (1979) argued that decision makers act on impoverished perspectives of the world. According to Schwenk (1988) cognitive limitations can thus provide biases into managerial schemata which can negatively influence the nature of strategic decision-making. The experientially acquired nature of strategic decision makers cognitive views makes them probably to be more reflective of previous organisational scenarios and strategic decisions than of present ones. By depending on past images of historical environmental conditions and competitive circumstances, strategic decision makers may not be able to realise or adequately define the need for organisational change. Thus strategic decision makers cognitive perspectives can determine the ability of the firm to cope with changing requirements and times and therefore decision makers can act as a stabilizing power on the organisation. Scholars (e.g. Schwenk, 1984; Wiersema Bantel, 1992; Eisenhardt Zbaracki, 1992; Waller, Huber Glick, 1995; Tyler Steensma, 1998) have argued that strategic decision makers characteristics might limit information search, processing, and/or retrieval in spite of decision makers desire to make strategic decisions according to the environmental requirements and conditions. As stated in social motivation perspective, managers may remain committed to specific courses of action based on their need to sustain consistency (Staw, 1981; Brockner, et al., 1986; Taylor Brown, 1988; Brockner, 1992; Keil, Mann, Rai, 2000; Biyalogorsky, Boulding, Staelin, 2006; Keil, Depledge, Rai, 2007). The incentives and needs that drive managers have significant ramification for strategic decisions: First, strategic decision makers who encounter information consistent with their cognitive perspectives or sets of beliefs will support that information. Second, strategic decision makers who are heavily inve sted in or committed to a specific approach of action are more likely to ignore information that does not consistent with their previous strategic decisions. Finally, only strategic decision makers who are committed to performing under scenarios of change will be willing and receptive to incorporate inconsistent information. Accordingly, research on social motivation argues that strategic decision makers are best at being receptive and willing to information that only marginally deviates from their sets of beliefs, while key changes are more unlikely to be easily incorporated. Moreover, strategic decision makers will probably ignore information that considerably deviates from their cognitive perspectives or sets of beliefs. Finally, Strategic decision makers can become embedded within the corporate routines and organisational processes that contribute to sustaining the status quo (Pfeffer Salancik, 1978; Staw Ross, 1980; Daft Weick, 1984; Tushman Romanelli, 1985). With growing organisational tenure and function experience and considerable familiarity with organisational processes and routines, strategic decision makers become susceptible to the organisational inertias factors. Miller (1991) argued that increasing managerial tenure results in corporate insularity. Over time, corporate exposure tends to lead to consistency to organisational norms and values (Kanter, 1977). Strategic decision makers may act as a stable governance system that determines the organisations ability to change. Decision makers experiences and perspectives reinforce prior courses of organisational strategic decision-making (Staw Ross, 1980). Therefore, managerial turnover provides an important mechanism by which firms can re align themselves with external environmental circumstances (Thompson, 1967; Katz Kahn, 1978; Perrow, 1986). By changing the power distribution within the firm, thus influencing the dynamics of strategic decision-making processes (Pfeffer Salancik, 1978), managerial turnover serves as a key force to overcome organisational resistance and inertia (Tushman Romanelli, 1985). Moreover, managerial turnover, according to Wiersema and Bantel (1993), may help the organisation to cope with radical changes in its external environment by introducing new values, beliefs, and knowledge ba