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Chapter 2: Understanding Management’s Context:
Constraints and Challenges

The components of an organization’s culture are as complex as the different aspects of


an individual’s personality. Today’s managers must understand how the force of an
organization’s internal and external environments may influence, and sometimes
constrain, its productivity.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

2.1 Contrast the actions of managers according to the omnipotent and symbolic views.
2.2 Describe the constraints and challenges facing managers in today’s external
environment.
2.3 Discuss the characteristics and importance of organizational culture.
2.4 Describe current issues in organizational culture.

Spotlight: Manager at Work

The events that occured at Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai exemplify the worst case
scenario for a manager. Jagad, just 24 years old, faced a terrorist situation during a
dinner event she was managing. The guest and the employees were in serious danger
from both gunfire and later a fire in the hotel. Jagad, and other employees, responded
to this demanding situation by putting the lives of guests above their own. It is clear

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that the employees at Taj Mahal Palace went above and beyond what was required.
The question for students to address is, ‘How do organizations get such enduring
attitudes and behaviors from employees?’
This is a difficult question and could bring up multiple student responses. First, do
organizations want employees to put themselves at risk in this type of situation? There
are liability issues to employees taking such actions and most employees in the United
States are not trained in how to handle terrorist situations. Second, looking at this
question in a more mundane context, most managers would be happy if employees
would simply fulfill their regular job duties without complaints.
Ultimately, the answer to this question lies in an understanding of organizational culture
and the external environment. This chapter addresses how to create a culture based
on the values of employee commitment and sacrifice. There is also a section on how to
create a customer-responsive culture. The last half of the chapter addresses how the
external environment defines a manager’s job. Hopefully not everyone will face a
terrorist situation at work, like Jagad, but managers should understand the demands
imposed by multiple stakeholders and the situation.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION
Managers must realize that organizational culture and organizational
environment have important implications for the way an organization is
managed. Both organizational culture and external forces that can shape an
organization are explored in order to gain a better understanding of the
complexities presented by internal and external environments.

2.1 THE MANAGER: OMNIPOTENT OR SYMBOLIC?


Two perspectives concerning the role that managers play in an organization’s
success or failure have been proposed.
A. The Omnipotent View. This maintains that managers are directly
responsible for the success or failure of an organization.
1. This view of managers as being omnipotent is consistent with the
stereotypical picture of the “take-charge” executive who can
overcome any obstacle in carrying out the organization’s
objectives.
2. When organizations perform poorly, someone must be held
accountable. According to the omnipotent view, that “someone” is
the manager.

B. The Symbolic View. This view of management upholds the view that
much of an organization’s success or failure is due to external forces
outside managers’ control.
1. The influence that managers do have is seen mainly as a
symbolic outcome.
2. Organizational results are influenced by factors outside of the
control of managers, including the economy, customers,
governmental policies, competitors’ actions, the state of the

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particular industry, the control of proprietary technology, and
decisions made by previous managers in the organization.
3. The manager’s role is to create meaning out of randomness,
confusion, and ambiguity.
4. According to the symbolic view, the actual part that management
plays in the success or failure of an organization is minimal.

C. Reality suggests a synthesis. Managers are neither helpless nor all


powerful. Instead, the more logical approach is to see the manager as
operating within constraints imposed by the organization’s culture and
environment (see Exhibit 2-1).

2.2 THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT


The impact of the external environment on a manager’s actions and behaviors
cannot be overemphasized. Forces in the external environment play a major role
in shaping managers’ endeavors. The external environment consists of those
factors and forces outside the organization that affect the organization’s
performance (See Exhibit 2-2). The external environment includes these broad
external conditions that may affect the organization: economic, political/legal,
sociocultural, demographic, technological, and global conditions. Political/legal
conditions include the general political stability of countries in which an
organization does business and the specific attitudes that elected officials have
toward business. Federal, state, and local governments can influence what
organizations can and cannot do. Sociocultural conditions include the changing
expectations of society. Societal values, customs, and tastes can change, and
managers must be aware of these changes. Technological conditions, which
have changed more rapidly than any other element of the general environment.
Global factors include global competitors and global consumer markets.

FUTURE VISION: The Working World in 2025


Demographic projections for the United States point to two major changes in the next
twelve years: an increase in Hispanics and senior citizens. The growing number of
Hispanics will be more evident in the southern part of the country. This could entail work
force changes including a growing of younger workers and an increasing use of Spanish
in the work place. The graying of society, a term used to describe the growing number
of retired workers, and will have a strong impact on Social Security and other retirement
funds. Ask students if they see other effects of these two changes. How do they view
the future demographic composition of the United States? Will greater diversity be an
advantage or disadvantage?

A. The Economic Environment


1. Global Economic Recession and the Economic Context
a. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development predicted some 25 million unemployed
individuals globally; 8.4 million jobs in the United States
vanished.
b. Experts predict the current economic crisis, called the
“Great Recession”, began with the home mortgage
markets in the United States.

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c. The World Economic Forum, identified two significant risks
facing business leaders and policy makers over the next
decade: "severe income disparity and chronic fiscal
imbalances."
2. Economic Inequality and the Economic Context
a. A Harris survey showed that 10 percent of adults think that
economic inequality is ‘not a problem at all.’
b. The Occupy Wall Street protestors in 2011 focused
attention on the social and economic inequality, greed,
corruption, and the undue influence of corporations on
government.
c. Business leaders need to recognize how societal attitudes
in the economic context also may create constraints as
they make decisions and manage their businesses.
b.

B. The Demographic Environment


1. Demographic conditions, including physical characteristics of a
population (e.g., gender, age, level of education, geographic loca-
tion, income, composition of family) can change, and managers
must adapt to these changes. Common terms used to describe
demographic groups include Baby Boomers, Gen Y, and Post
Millenials
2. Baby Boomers. Born between 1946 and 1964, the sheer numbers
of people in that cohort means they’ve significantly affected every
aspect of the external environment.
3. Gen Y (or the “Millennials”) Born between 1978 and 1994, this
age group is also large in number and making its imprint on
external environmental conditions from technology to clothing
styles to work attitudes.
4. Post-Millennials The youngest identified age group has also been
called the iGeneration, primarily because they’ve grown up with
technology that customizes everything to the individual.

C. How the External Environment Affects Managers


1. One of the important organizational factors affected by changes in
the external environment is jobs and employment. For example,
economic downturns result in higher unemployment and place
constraints on staffing and production quotas for managers. Not
only does the external environment affect the number of jobs
available, but it also impacts how jobs are managed and created.
Changing conditions can create demands for more temporary
work and alternative work arrangements
2. Environments differ in their amount of environmental
uncertainty, which relates to (1) the degree of change in an
organization’s environment and (2) the degree of complexity in
that environment (see Exhibit 2-3).
a. Degree of change is characterized as being dynamic or
stable.
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b. In a dynamic environment, components of the environment
change frequently. If change is minimal, the environment
is called a stable environment.
c. The degree of environmental complexity is the number
of components in an organization’s environment and the
extent of an organization’s knowledge about those
components.
d. If the number of components and the need for
sophisticated knowledge is minimal, the environment is
classified as simple. If a number of dissimilar components
and a high need for sophisticated knowledge exist, the
environment is complex.
e. Because uncertainty is a threat to organizational
effectiveness, managers try to minimize environmental
uncertainty.

Leader Who Made A Difference


Akio Toyoda faced a difficult first three years as the President of Toyota. In 2009, the
company experienced their first operating loss in 70 years; in 2010, the company’s
image was damaged by recalls; and in 2011, the tsunami in Japan damaged Toyota’s
global supply chain. Akio was not deterred and sought to make the company react
faster and be more flexible. This meant changing management and refocusing on key
stakeholders. Students are asked what they can learn from Mr. Toyoda. Responses
should include his quick response during a time of crisis and his willingness to adapt
to a changing environment.

2. The more obvious and secure an organization’s relationships are


with external stakeholders, the more influence managers have
over organizational controls.
a. Stakeholders are any constituencies in the organization’s
external environment that are affected by the
organization’s decisions and actions. (See Exhibit 2-4 for
an identification of some of the most common
stakeholders.)
b. Stakeholder relationship management is important for two
reasons:
1) It can lead to improved predictability of
environmental changes, more successful
innovation, greater degrees of trust among
stakeholders, and greater organizational flexibility
to reduce the impact of change.
2) It is the “right” thing to do, because organizations
are dependent on external stakeholders as sources
of inputs and outlets for outputs and the interest of
these stakeholders should be considered when
making and implementing decisions.
3. Stakeholder relationships are managed using four steps:
a. Identify external stakeholders.

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b. Determine the specific interests of each stakeholder
group.
c. Decide how critical these interests are to the organization. d.
Determine what specific approach managers should use to
manage each relationship, based on environmental
uncertainty and importance of the external stakeholder to
the organization.

2.3 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE: CONSTRAINTS AND CHALLENGES


Just as individuals have a personality, so, too, do organizations. We refer to an
organization’s personality as its culture.
A. What is Organizational Culture? Organizational culture is the shared
values, principles, traditions, and ways of doing things that influence the
way organizational members act. This definition implies:
1. Individuals perceive organizational culture based on what they
see, hear, or experience within the organization.
2. Organizational culture is shared by individuals within the
organization.
3. Organizational culture is a descriptive term. It describes, rather
than evaluates.
4. Seven dimensions of an organization’s culture have been
proposed (see Exhibit 2-5):
a. Innovation and risk taking (the degree to which employees
are encouraged to be innovative and take risks)
b. Attention to detail (the degree to which employees are
expected to exhibit precision, analysis, and attention to
detail)
c. Outcome orientation (the degree to which managers focus
on results or outcomes rather than on the techniques and
processes used to achieve those outcomes)
d. People orientation (the degree to which management
decisions take into consideration the effect on people
within the organization)
e. Team orientation (the degree to which work activities are
organized around teams rather than individuals)
f. Aggressiveness (the degree to which employees are
aggressive and competitive rather than cooperative)
g. Stability (the degree to which organizational activities
emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to
growth)
5. Exhibit 2-6 describes how the cultural dimensions can be
combined to create organizations that are significantly different.
B. Strong Cultures
1. Strong cultures are found in organizations where key values are
intensely held and widely shared.
2. Whether a company’s culture is strong, weak, or somewhere in
between depends on organizational factors such as size, age,
employee turnover rate, and intensity of original culture.

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3. A culture has increasing impact on what managers do as the
culture becomes stronger.
4. Most organizations have moderate-to-strong cultures. In these
organizations, high agreement exists about what is important and
what defines “good” employee behavior, for example.
5. Studies of organizational culture have yielded various results. One
study found that employees in firms with strong cultures were
more committed to their firm than were employees in firms with
weak cultures. Organizations with strong cultures also used their
recruitment efforts and socialization practices to build employee
commitment. An increasing body of research suggests that strong
cultures are associated with high organizational performance.
C. Where Culture Comes From and How it Continues.
1. The original source of an organization’s culture is usually a
reflection of the vision or mission of the organization’s founders.
The culture is a result of the interaction between the founders’
biases and assumptions and what the first employees
subsequently learned from their own experiences.
2. An organization’s culture continues when:
a. When a culture is in place, practices help to maintain it.
b. Hiring practices reflect the culture in terms of “fit.”
c. Actions of top executives help to maintain the culture.
d. New employees learn the organization’s way of doing things
through socialization—the process that helps employees
adapt to the organization’s culture.

D. How Employees Learn Culture


1. Culture is transmitted principally through stories, rituals, material
symbols, and language.
2. Organizational stories are one way that employees learn the
culture. These stories typically involve a narrative of significant
events or people.
3. Rituals are repetitive sequences of activities that express and
reinforce the key values of the organization, which goals are most
important, and which people are important or expendable.
4. The use of material symbols and artifacts is another way in
which employees learn the culture, learn the degree of equality
desired by top management, discover which employees are most
important, and learn the kinds of behavior that are expected and
appropriate.
5. Language is often used to identify members of a culture.
Learning this language indicates members’ willingness to accept
and preserve the culture. This special lingo acts as a common
denominator to unite members of a particular culture.

E. How Culture Affects Managers. An organization’s culture is important


because it establishes constraints on what managers can do.

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1. The link between corporate values and managerial behavior is
fairly straightforward.
2. The culture conveys to managers what is appropriate behavior.
3. An organization’s culture, particularly a strong one, constrains a
manager’s decision-making options in all managerial functions
(see Exhibit 2-9).

2.4 CULTURE ISSUES IN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE


Four current cultural issues managers should consider:
A. Creating an Innovative Culture
1. What does an innovative culture look like? Swedish researcher
Goran Ekvall provides these characteristics:
Challenge and involvement
Freedom
Trust and openness
Idea time
Playfulness/humor
Conflict resolution
Debates
Risk taking

B. Creating a Customer-Responsive Culture


1. What does a customer-responsive culture look like? Research
shows the following six characteristics routinely present in a
customer-responsive culture. (See Exhibit 2-10 for actions
managers can take to make their cultures more customer
responsive.)
Type of employee
Type of job environment
Widespread use of empowerment
Role clarity
Employees who are conscientious in desire to please
customers
C. Spirituality and Organizational
1. Workplace Spirituality is a culture in which organizational values
promote a sense of purpose through meaningful work taking place in
the context of community.
2. This movement is important for several reasons: employees are
looking for ways to cope with the stresses of a turbulent pace of life,
contemporary life styles have shown the lack of community many
employees feel, and baby boomers are looking for something
meaningful beyond their work.
3. Research shows that spiritual organizations tend to have five cultural
characteristics:
a. Strong sense of purpose
b. Focus on spiritual development
c. Trust and openness
d. Employee empowerment
e. Toleration of employee expression

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4. Critics of spiritual workplaces focus on its legitimacy and economics.
5. Another criticism surrounds the misinterpretation that spiritualism
denotes religion. However, as long as the search for spiritualism
focuses on finding meaning at work and not a company endorsed
religion, there is value in having employees pursue a greater purpose
for their work and a sense of community.

Answers to Review and Discussion Questions

1. Describe the two perspectives on how much impact managers have on an


organization’s success or failure.

In section 1 of chapter 2, the omnipotent and symbolic views of management are


presented. The omnipotent view supports the idea that a manager is directly
responsible for the success and failure of the organization. Top CEO’s (and
head football coaches) would be more likely to be held accountable for the entire
organization’s outcomes while lower level managers would be held responsible
for the outcomes in their respective departments. This view adopts the premise
that managers set the priorities/goals of the organization and are responsible for
making major success oriented decisions. If the goals and decisions managers
choose are correct, then the organization should thrive. The symbolic view is a
counterpart to the omnipotent view and asserts that much of an organization’s
success or failure can be attributed to factors in the external environment, such
as competition, economic conditions, or governmental influences. According to
this view, management decisions are often flawed and poorly implemented due
to factors beyond their direct control. Considering the random and ambiguous
situations manager’s face, they should not be held responsible for organizational
performance. (LO:1, Contrast the actions of managers according to the
omnipotent and symbolic views, AACSB: Analytic skills)

2. “Businesses are built on relationships.” What do you think this statement means?
What are implications for managing the external environment?

Organizations depend on their environment and their stakeholders as a source


of inputs and a recipient of outputs. Good relationships can lead to
organizational outcomes such as improved predictability of environmental
changes, more successful innovations, greater degrees of trust among
stakeholders, and greater flexibility in acting to reduce the impact of change. In
addition, relationship management and maintaining good relationships have
been proven by many researchers to have an effect on organizational
performance. High-performing companies tend to consider the interests of all
major stakeholder groups as they make decisions. (LO:4, Describe current
issues in organizational culture, AACSB: Reflective thinking skills)

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3. Refer to Exhibit 2-6. How would a first-line manager’s job differ in these two
organizations? How about a top-level manager’s job?

In Organization A, strong attention would be given to detail, with little innovation


and risk taking. Teamwork would not be encouraged, and employees would be
viewed as a means to an end. Strict controls would be placed on workers, and
task achievement would be most important. The supervisor would have little
latitude and would do things “by the book.” In Organization B, innovation and
risk taking would be highly encouraged. The supervisor would have more
autonomy in how to achieve goals. Employees would be given the opportunity to
provide input, and a team approach would be used. People would be viewed as
important contributors. The supervisor’s job would be more like that of a coach,
encourager, and facilitator. (LO:4, Describe current issues in organizational
culture, AACSB: Reflective thinking skills)

4. Classrooms have cultures. Describe your class culture using the seven
dimensions of organizational culture. Does the culture constrain your instructor?
How?

Answers to this question will vary. Have students look at the seven dimensions
of organizational culture described in the text and rate them from high to low for
the class. One point you might want to explore: What role does your instructor
play in establishing the culture of the classroom? Ask students to relate this
information to the role a manager might play in establishing the culture of a
business organization. (LO:3, Discuss the characteristics and importance of
organizational culture, AACSB: Analytic skills)

5. Can culture be a liability to an organization? Explain.

In some cases, organizational culture could be a liability. In the global


environment, a society that discriminates on the basis of ethnicity or gender or in
the exploitation of workers could experience a backlash from the reactions of
consumers in other nations. (See, for example, Reebok’s and Nike’s problems
regarding manufacturing in emerging nations. (LO:4, Describe current issues in
organizational culture, AACSB: Analytic skills)

6. Discuss the impact of a strong culture on organizations and managers.

At one time, researchers supported a direct connection between the strength of


an organizations culture and its performance. Today, we know that the strength
of an organization’s culture is more closely tied to acceptance of an
organization’s values. Exhibit 2-7, gives five employee related outcomes of
strong vs. weak cultures. In the end, strong cultures aid a manager in fulfilling
their functions: planning, organizing, leading and controlling. (LO:3, Discuss the
characteristics and importance of organizational culture, AACSB: Analytic skills)

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7. Using Exhibit 2-8, explain how a culture is formed and maintained.

Culture is established and maintained through the transmission and adoption of


values. Following the figure from left to right, we see that the founder, through
the values they choose for the organization, is the person most responsible for
setting the organizational culture. The strength of founder values is then
reinforced by the employees chosen for the organization. Employees who are
selected for their fit with the founder’s values will carry on the culture better than
those who do not adopt his/her values. As the time increases from the start of
the organization by the founder, top management values become important.
Top management may attempt to modify or significantly change the values of the
company. Socialization is the process by which employees learn the culture.
They do this from learning the company’s philosophy, artifacts, ceremonies, and
language. (LO:3, Discuss the characteristics and importance of organizational
culture, AACSB: Analytic skills)

8. Explain why workplace spirituality seems to be an important concern.

This movement is important for several reasons. First, as work becomes more
hectic and jobs uncertain, employees are looking for ways to cope with the
stresses of a turbulent pace of life. Second, contemporary life styles have
shown the lack of community many employees feel, and baby boomers are
looking for something meaningful beyond their work. (LO:2, Describe the
constraints and challenges facing managers in today’s external environment,
AACSB: Analytic skills)

Ethics Dilemma

The field of sports has seen many technological advancements – new training methods,
food supplements, equipment, clothing. In this case, students are asked to give their
opinion on the ethical use of technology in sporting events. Have students discuss the
concept of fairness with regard to the use of this new technology. Does it take away
from the competition where it becomes a game of who has the most money to buy the
technology? Encourage students to think about a point where it the use of technology
crosses the line in competition. LO:2, Describe the constraints and challenges facing
managers in today’s external environment, AACSB: Ethical understanding and
reasoning abilities)

Skills Exercise

Environmental scanning is an important managerial skill. In this exercise, students are


asked to practice this skill using five suggestions:
Decide which type of environmental information is important to your work.
Regularly read and monitor pertinent information.
Incorporate the information that you get from your environmental scanning into
your decisions and actions.
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Regularly review your environmental scanning activities.
Encourage your subordinates to be alert to information that is important.
Students are then given two scenarios to these skills into action. (LO:2, Describe the
constraints and challenges facing managers in today’s external environment, AACSB:
Analytic skills)

Team Exercise

Have students work in teams of three or four. Students may want to refer to the
following sites for help in selecting two companies:

Aerospace
Boeing—www.boeing.com
Lockheed Martin—www.lockheedmartin.com/
Automotive
Ford—www.ford.com
General Motors—www.gm.com
Athletic Wear
Nike—www.nike.com
Reebok—www.reebok.com
Beverages
Coca-Cola—www.cocacola.com
PepsiCo—www.pepsico.com
Electronics
Panasonic—www.panasonic.com
Sony—www.sony.com
Golf Equipment
Maxfli—www.maxfli.com
Titleist—www.titleist.com
Mail, Package, and Freight Delivery
Federal Express—www.fedex.com
United Parcel Service—www.ups.com
United States Postal Service—www.usps.com

Have students use the form below to identify the environmental factors for the
two companies they have selected. How are these components similar and different for
each company? Using the same two companies, get students to think about who are
the important stakeholders for each company.

General
Environmental Company 1 Company 2
Force/Factor

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Economic Conditions

Political/Legal
Conditions

Sociocultural

Global

Technological
Conditions

(LO:2, Describe the constraints and challenges facing managers in today’s external
environment, AACSB: Analytic skills)

Learning to be a Manager

Find two current examples in any of the popular business periodicals of the
omnipotent and symbolic views of management. Write a paper describing what
you found and how the two examples you found represent the views of
management. (LO:1, Contrast the actions of managers according to the
omnipotent and symbolic views, AACSB: Reflective thinking skills)

Choose an organization with which you’re familiar or one that you would like to
know more about. Create a table identifying potential stakeholders of this
organization. Then, indicate what particular interests or concerns these
stakeholders might have. (LO:4, Describe current issues in organizational
culture, AACSB: Reflective thinking skills)

Pick two organizations that you interact with frequently (as an employee or as a
customer) and assess their culture by looking at the following aspects:
Physical design (buildings, furnishings, parking lot, office or store design)—
Where are they located and why? Where do customers and employees park?
What does the office/store layout look like? What activities are encouraged or
discouraged by the physical layout? What do these things say about what the
organization values?

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Symbols (logos, dress codes, slogans, philosophy statements)—What values
are highlighted? Where are logos displayed? Whose needs are emphasized?
What concepts are emphasized? What actions are prohibited? What actions are
encouraged? Are any artifacts prominently displayed? What do those artifacts
symbolize? What do these things say about what the organization values?
Words (stories, language, job titles)—What stories are repeated? How are
employees addressed? What do job titles say about the organization? Are
jokes/anecdotes used in conversation? What do these things say about what the
organization values?
Policies and activities (rituals, ceremonies, financial rewards, policies for how
customers or employees are treated)—(Note: You may be able to assess this
one only if you’re an employee or know the organization well.) What activities are
rewarded? Ignored? What kinds of people succeed? Fail? What rituals are
important? Why? What events get commemorated? Why? What do these things
say about what the organization values?
(LO:3, Discuss the characteristics and importance of organizational culture,
AACSB: Analytic skills)

If you belong to a student organization, evaluate its culture. How would you
describe the culture? How do new members learn the culture? How is the
culture maintained? If you don’t belong to a student organization, talk to another
student who does and evaluate it using the same questions.
(LO:3, Discuss the characteristics and importance of organizational culture,
AACSB: Analytic skills)

Steve’s and Mary’s suggested readings: Terrence E. Deal and Allan A. Kennedy,
Corporate Culture: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life (Perseus Books
Group, 2000); Edgar H. Schein, The Corporate Culture Survival Guide (Jossey-
Bass, 1999); and Kim S. Cameron and Robert E. Quinn, Diagnosing and
Changing Organizational Culture (Jossey-Bass, 2005).
(LO:4, Describe current issues in organizational culture, AACSB: Reflective
thinking skills)

Find one example of a company that represents each of the current issues in
organizational culture. Describe what the company is doing that reflects its
commitment to this culture.
(LO:4, Describe current issues in organizational culture, AACSB:)

In your own words, write down three things you learned in this chapter about
being a good manager.
(LO:1, Contrast the actions of managers according to the omnipotent and
symbolic views, AACSB: Reflective thinking skills)
(LO:2, Describe the constraints and challenges facing managers in today’s
external environment, AACSB: Reflective thinking skills)
(LO:3, Discuss the characteristics and importance of organizational culture,
AACSB: Reflective thinking skills)
(LO:4, Describe current issues in organizational culture, AACSB: Reflective
thinking skills)

14
Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Self-knowledge can be a powerful learning tool. Go to mymanagementlab and
complete any of these self-assessment exercises: What’s the Right
Organizational Culture for Me? How Well Do I Respond to Turbulent Change?
and Am I Experiencing Work/Family Conflict? Using the results of our
assessments, identify personal strengths and weaknesses. What will you do to
reinforce your strengths and improve your weaknesses?
(LO:4, Describe current issues in organizational culture, AACSB: Reflective
thinking skills)

Answers to Case Application Questions

Going to Extremes
1. Find a list of all 10 of Zappos corporate values. Pick two of the values and
explain how you think those values would influence the way employees do their
work.

Zappo’s values are now called ‘Family Core Values’ and are posted on their
website. Use the following URL to go directly to the 10 values:
http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values.
To address this question, students should look at how values affect employee
performance and behavior. Some of these values promote organizational
citizenship while others foster higher levels of commitment and job satisfaction.
The most beneficial values are linked to some affective response that people
have toward the organization. If employees feel that the company is looking for
the same thing out of employees that they want for their own life, then there is a
better match between the employee and the organization. (LO:3, Discuss the
characteristics and importance of organizational culture, AACSB: Analytic skills)

2. Using this list of corporate values and Exhibit 2-5, describe Zappos
organizational culture. In which areas would you say that Zappos culture is very
high (or typical)? Explain.

Students should answer that Zappos is culture is higher on people and team
orientation. These are obvious by looking at the CEO’s family values and the
humor he brings to the company. But, if students dig deeper into the case, then
innovation, orientation, and attention to detail are also present. Being an internet
company that processes millions of orders from around the world, Zappos needs
to be customer focused and provide the most up to date products and technical
capabilities to their customers. (LO:3, Discuss the characteristics and importance
of organizational culture, AACSB: Analytic skills)

3. How did Zappos' corporate culture begin? How is Zappos' corporate culture
maintained?

Most corporate cultures in the beginning are strongly influenced by the


founder(s). In this case, Tony Hseih, the CEO of Zappos was a strong influence.
Hired one year after the company began online operations. Hsieh had a strong

15
Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
opinion of what he wanted the company to be and instituted policies and
procedures early on to facilitate his vision.

Part of how Zappos maintains its culture lies in the development and use of its
core values. These values are clearly listed on the website and integrated
throughout he organization. According to the case, “The culture has to be
"lived." And Zappos does this by maintaining a "complex web of human
interactions.” This is done through social media and a monthly cultural survey to
gauge the pulse of the company. The company also maintains its culture by
creating and maintaining rituals, ceremonies and stories that exemplify the
company’s values. (LO:3, Discuss the characteristics and importance of
organizational culture, AACSB: Analytic skills)

4. The right culture with the right values will always produce the best organizational
performance. What do you think of this statement? Do you agree? Why or why
not?

The use of the word ‘right’ in this question is subjective and students should note
that the rightness of a culture depends both upon its strength and its ability to fit
into the environment. Some companies have tried to copy the culture of
exemplary organizations and have failed because they did not recognize that
culture is unique to the setting and history of the place where it was formed.
(LO:4, Describe current issues in organizational culture, AACSB: Reflective
thinking skills)

5. What could other companies learn from Tony Hsieh and Zappos' experiences?

Students answers may vary, but most will focus on the fun atmosphere that the
CEO has created. However, the use of humor and togetherness is part of the
organizational culture that does not happen by accident. Tony has worked hard
to build a strong sense of belonging for his employees and a brand image for his
customers. Through establishing a strong organizational culture and reinforcing
that culture, employees and customers understand what the company stands for
and its purpose. (LO:4, Describe current issues in organizational culture,
AACSB: Reflective thinking skills)

Not Sold Out

1. Using Exhibit 2-2, what external components might be most important for
managers in movie theater chains to know about? Why?

Traditionally, movie theaters have done well during poor economic conditions.
However, as this case points out, there are many factors that may be the cause
of a general depression in movie ticket sales. Students may choose several of
the components of the external environment as important. All of these factors,
even the political/legal, play a part in declining sales. Encourage students to see
how the open systems view of management applies to the environment and
organizational performance. (LO:2, Describe the constraints and challenges
facing managers in today’s external environment, AACSB: Analytic skills)

16
Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
2. According to the case, what external trends do managers at the movie theater
chains have to deal with?

The trends in this case revolve around changing technology involved in


downloading and watching movies at home. Students will probably be more
familiar than faculty regarding the latest websites that offer ‘free’ downloads of
movies and other forms of entertainment. The ability to download movies
coupled with the decreasing prices of home entertainment systems that take
advantage of high definition screens and digital sound will have an effect on
theater sales for years to come as these trends are not likely to reverse. (LO:2,
Describe the constraints and challenges facing managers in today’s external
environment, AACSB: Analytic skills)

3. How do you think these trends might constrain decisions made by managers at
the movie theater chains?

Movie theater managers could react in a variety of ways to decreasing sales.


Managers could decide to invest more money in state of the art technology to
provide movie goers with experiences that are not easily replicated at home.
This would increase cost, but may attract customers willing to pay for extra
money for blockbuster movies. Managers could also move another direction and
cut cost in order to attract more customers – cost being a major dislike for
consumers. Finally, managers could try to exploit niche markets and seek to
attract customers by providing movies not available on cable channels or DVD
rentals. (LO:2, Describe the constraints and challenges facing managers in
today’s external environment, AACSB: Analytic skills)

4. What stakeholders do you think might be most important to movie theater


chains? What interests might these stakeholders might have?

Students could potentially make a case for all of the eleven stakeholders listed in
Exhibit 2-4. However, the groups that are the most influential to their immediate
situation are customers, suppliers, the media, and competitors. With regard to
customers, movie theaters ultimately depend upon their dollars to keep the
theater solvent. Suppliers are important as the quality of movies and the number
of releases have an impact on the number of ticket sales. Media outlets are also
playing a big part in ticket sales. Many movie goers regularly check reviews on
websites such as RottenTomatoes.com. If movie reviews point to a flop, many
consumers will simply stay away from a movie. Finally, competitors are a major
concern as they seek to go against the theaters and the other ways that movies
can be viewed create more competition. (LO:2, Describe the constraints and
challenges facing managers in today’s external environment, AACSB: Analytic
skills)

ADDITIONAL CHAPTER INFORMATION

Ask students to look for different examples of organizational culture in business


publications such as Wall Street Journal (“Marketplace” section). Students could

17
Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
research Forbes, Fortune, Working Woman, and BusinessWeek for current information.
You might have students choose either one of the companies to study in depth or look
at a number of different companies. Tie this material into your discussion of organ-
izational personalities. Ask students what they expect from an organization and whether
organizations that they have researched are consistent with their expectations. You
might want to ask students whether they would like to work for the company
(companies) they studied, and to tell why or why not.

18
Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
BRICK HORIZONS

Here the old map a woodland marks,


With rivers winding through the hills;
And prints remain of spacious parks,
And gabled farms and watermills.

But now we see no fields to reap,


No flowers to welcome sun and rain:
The hillside is a cinder heap,
The river is an inky drain.

The modern town of red brick streets,


Row beyond row, and shelf on shelf,
On one side spreads until it meets
A town as dreary as itself;
And on the other side its arms
Of road and tramway are out-thrust,
And mutilate the fields and farms,
And shame the woods with noise and dust.

Here, from the scenes we love remote,


Dwell half the toilers of the land,—
The soul we think of as a vote,
The heart we speak of as a hand.

Dull sons of a mechanic age


Who claim but miss the rights of man,—
They have no dreams beyond their cage,
They know not of the haunts of Pan.

Here, wandering through mills and mines


And dreary streets each like the last,
Enclosed by brick horizon lines,
I found an island of the past.
A few sad fields, a few old trees,
In that new world of grime and smoke
Told me the time was springtime; these
Alone remembered and awoke.

And in the grass were stars and bells,


The immemorial blossomings
That spring to greet us from the wells
Of Beauty at the heart of things.

A lark sang overhead, its note


Had the same joy with which it fills
The morning, when we hear it float
Through crystal air on thymy hills.

We mar the earth, our modern toil


Defaces old and lovely things;
We soil the stream, we cannot soil
The brightness of Life’s fountain springs.

Here where man’s last progressive aim


Has stamped the green earth with the brand
Of want and greed, and put to shame
Her beauty, and we see the land

With mine and factory and street


Deformed, and filled with dreary lives,—
Here, too, Life’s fountain springs are sweet:
Our venture fails, God’s hope survives.

And in the heart of every child


Born in this brick horizon ring
The flowers of wonderland grow wild,
The birds of El Dorado sing.
FIRST PATHWAYS

Where were the pathways that your childhood knew?—


In mountain glens? or by the ocean strands?
Or where, beyond the ripening harvest land,
The distant hills were blue?

Where evening sunlight threw a golden haze


Over a mellow city’s walls and towers?
Or where the fields and lanes were bright with flowers,
In quiet woodland ways?

And whether here or there, or east or west,


That place you dwelt in first was holy ground;
Its shelter was the kindest you have found,
Its pathways were the best.

And even in the city’s smoke and mire


I doubt not that a golden light was shed
On those first paths, and that they also led
To lands of heart’s desire.

And where the children in dark alleys penned,


Heard the caged lark sing of the April hills,
Or where they dammed the muddy gutter rills,
Or made a dog their friend;
Or where they gathered, dancing hand in hand,
About the organ man, for them, too, lay
Beyond the dismal alley’s entrance way,
The gates of wonderland.

For ’tis my faith that Earth’s first words are sweet


To all her children,—never a rebuff;
And that we only saw, where ways were rough,
The flowers about our feet.
HIDDEN PATHS

You see a house of weathered stone,


A pillared gate, a courtyard wide,
And ancient trees that almost hide
The garden wild and overgrown;
You see the sheltering screen of pines
Beyond the farmyard and the fold,
And upland cornfields waving gold
Against the blue horizon lines;
But we of every field and wall
And room are now so much a part,
We seem to touch a living heart
And rather feel than see it all.

You pass the broken arch that spanned


The garden walk,—you note the weeds,
But miss our secret path that leads
To hidden nooks of wonderland;
And, where the faded rooms you mark,
You know not of the ancient spell
That o’er them in the firelight fell
When all the world outside was dark.

Elsewhere is your enchanted ground,


Your secret path, your treasure store;
And those who sojourned here before
Saw marvels we have never found.
For Earth is full of hidden ways
More wondrous than the ways it shows,
And treasures that outnumber those
For which men labour all their days.
THE PATHS OF THE INFINITE

Have we not marked Earth’s limits, followed its long ways round,
Charted our island world, and seen how the measureless deep
Sunders it, holds it remote, that still in our hearts we keep
A faith in a path that links our shores with a shore unfound?

No quest the venturer waits, no world have we to explore;


But still the voices that called us far over the lands and seas
Whisper of stranger countries and lonelier deeps than these,
In the wind on the hill, and the reeds on the lake, and the wave on the shore.

Never beyond our Earth shall the venturer find a guide:


From the golden light of the stars, but not from the stars, a clue
May fall to the Earth; and the rose of eve and the noonday blue
Veil with celestial beauty the fathomless deeps they hide.

They have their bounds those deeps, and the ways that end are long;
But the soul seeks not for an end,—its infinite paths are near;
Over its unknown seas by the light of a dream we steer,
Through its enchanted isles we sail on an ancient song.

Here, where a man and a maid in the dusk of the evening meet,
Here, where a grave is green and the larks are singing above,
The secret of life everlasting is held in a name that we love,
And the paths of the infinite gleam through the flowers that grow at our
feet.
A DESERTED HOME

Here where the fields lie lonely and untended,


Once stood the old house grey among the trees,
Once to the hills rolled the waves of the cornland—
Long waves and golden, softer than the sea’s.

Long, long ago has the ploughshare rusted,


Long has the barn stood roofless and forlorn;
But oh! far away are some who still remember
The songs of the young girls binding up the corn.

Here where the windows shone across the darkness,


Here where the stars once watched above the fold,
Still watch the stars, but the sheepfold is empty;
Falls now the rain where the hearth glowed of old.

Here where the leagues of melancholy loughsedge


Moan in the wind round the grey forsaken shore,
Once waved the corn in the mid-month of autumn,
Once sped the dance when the corn was on the floor.
BEYOND THE FARTHEST HORIZON

We have dreamed dreams beyond our comprehending,


Visions too beautiful to be untrue;
We have seen mysteries that yield no clue,
And sought our goals on ways that have no ending.
We, creatures of the earth,
The lowly born, the mortal, the foredoomed
To spend our fleeting moments on the spot
Wherein to-morrow we shall be entombed,
And hideously rot,—
We have seen loveliness that shall not pass;
We have beheld immortal destinies;
We have seen Heaven and Hell and joined their strife;
Ay, we whose flesh shall perish as the grass
Have flung the passion of the heart that dies
Into the hope of everlasting life.

Oh, miracle of human sight!


That leaps beyond our earthly prison bars
To wander in the pathways of the stars
Across the lone abysses of the night.
Oh, miracle of thought! that still outsweeps
Our vision, and beyond its range surveys
The vistas of interminable ways,
The chasms of unfathomable deeps,
Renewed forevermore, until at last
The endless and the ended alike seem
Impossible, and all becomes a dream;
And from their crazy watch-tower in the vast
Those wild-winged thoughts again to earth descend
To hide from the unfathomed and unknown,
And seek the shelter love has made our own
On homely paths that in a graveyard end.
Oh, miracles of sight and thought and dream!
Y d b t l d t f th t
You do but lead us to a farther gate,
A higher window in the prison wall
That bounds our mortal state:
However far you lift us we must fall.
But lo! remains the miracle supreme,—
That we, whom Death and Change have shown our fate,
We, the chance progeny of Earth and Time,
Should ask for more than Earth and Time create,
And, goalless and without the strength to climb,
Should dare to climb where we were born to grope;
That we the lowly could conceive the great,
Dream in our dust of destinies sublime,
And link our moments to immortal hope.

No lesson of the brain can teach the soul


That ’twas not born to share
A nobler purpose, a sublimer care
Than those which end in paths without a goal;
No disenchantment turn it from the quest
Of something unfulfilled and unpossessed
O’er which no waters of oblivion roll.
But not in flight of thought beyond the stars
Can we escape our mortal prison bars:
There the unfathomable depths remain
Blind alleys of the brain:
The sources of those sudden gleams of light
That merge our finite in the infinite,
We look for there in vain;
For not upon the pathways that are barred
But those left open,—not where the unknown quest
Dismays the soul, but where it offers rest,
Are set those lights that point us heavenward.

So, let us turn to the unfinished task


That earth demands, strive for one hour to keep
A watch with God, nor watching fall asleep,
Before immortal destinies we ask.
Before we seek to share
A larger purpose, a sublimer care,
Let us o’ercome the bondage of our fears,
And fit ourselves to bear
The burden of our few and sinful years.
Ere we would claim a right to comprehend
The meaning of the life that has no end
Let us be faithful to our passing hours,
And read their beauty, and that light pursue
Which gives the dawn its rose, the noon its blue,
And tells its secret to the wayside flowers.

Our eyes that roam the heavens are too dim,


Our faithless hearts too cumbered with our cares
To reach that light; but whoso sees and dares
To follow, we must also follow him.
Our heroes have beheld it and our seers,
Who in the darkest hours foretold the dawn.
It flashes on the sword for freedom drawn:
It makes a rainbow of a people’s tears.
The vast, the infinite, no more appal
Him who on homely ways has seen it fall:
He trusts the far, he dowers the unknown
With all the love that Earth has made our own,
And all the beauty that his dreams recall:
For him the loneliest deeps of night it cheers;
It gathers in its fold the countless spheres,
And makes a constant homelight for them all.
A HALT ON THE WAY

A pause, a halt upon the way!


A time for dreaming and recalling;
We bore the burden of the day,
And now the autumn night is falling.

A halt in life! a little while


In which to be but a beholder,
And think not of the coming mile
And feel not, “I am growing older.”

A stern old man with wrinkled brow,


Urging us on with beckoning finger,
Time seems no longer—rather now
A sweetheart who would make us linger.

Old times are with us,—long ago;


Upon the wall familiar shadows;
We find again the haunts we know,
The pleasant pathways through the meadows.

And as we turn and look ahead,


Seeking beyond for things departed,
And dream of pathways we must tread
In days to come through lands uncharted,

Old faiths still light us on our way,


Old love and laughter, hope and sorrow,—
As evening of the Northern day
Becomes the morning of to-morrow.
OLD LANDMARKS

The log flames, as they leap and fall,


Cast ancient shadows on the wall;
Again I hear the south-west blow
About the house, as long ago
We heard it, when we gathered round
The hearth made homelier by the sound
That in the chimney caverns keened
And told of things the darkness screened.
Dim in their panels round the room
The old unchanging faces loom;
And soft upon the crimson robe,
The hand that rests upon a globe,
The dusky frames, the faded tints,
The flicker of the hearth-light glints.
Out in the yard familiar tones
Of voices reach me; on the stones
A waggon rumbles, and a bark
Welcomes an inmate from the dark.
It might be twenty years ago,
So much of all we used to know
Remains unchanged; and yet I feel
Some want that makes it half unreal.
For we who long ago were part
Of all we knew, the very heart
Of all we loved, let somewhere slip
The bonds of that old comradeship.
The past awakes; but while I muse
Here in the same old scenes, I lose
The paths to which we once had clues.
Along familiar ways we went
All day, at every turn intent
To mark where Time had made a theft,
Or undisturbed our treasure left.
H ld d d h
Here an old tree was down, and there
A roof had fallen, a hearth was bare,
Where once we saw amid the smoke
The glowing turf, the kindly folk.
Here one we had watched beside the plough
Stride with his horses, hobbled now;
And here there strode a full-grown man
Where once a bare-legged urchin ran.
And where was now that girl whose feet
Once made yon mountain path so sweet?
Whose shyness flushed her cheek, the while
The mischief hidden in her smile
Belied it? I behold the spot
Where once she passed but now is not,
The grey rocks, where the mountain breeze
Fluttered the skirts about her knees.
We passed beside the wheelwright’s door
Where, as it used to be, the floor
Was piled with shavings, and a haze
Of dusty motes made dim the rays
Of sunlight, and the air was sweet
With smell of new-sawn wood and peat.
We heard the smithy anvil clink,
And saw the fire grow bright and sink
In answer to the bellows’ wheeze,
While, as of old, between his knees
The smith a horse’s fetlocks drew,
And rasped the hoof and nailed the shoe.
Here, and at every place of call,
The welcome that we had from all,
The pleasant sound of names outgrown
By which in boyhood we were known,
Quick springing to their lips, a look
That backward to old meetings took
Our thoughts, a word that brought to mind
Something for ever left behind,—
All, though they blessed us, touched the springs
Of tears at the deep heart of things.
O tea s at t e deep ea t o t gs.

We saw the mountains far away,


Beyond whose blue horizons lay
The wonderlands of which we dreamed
Of old; and still their barrier seemed
To tell us of the pilgrim quest,
And things remote and unpossessed,—
Not of that world which on our hearts
Had marked its bounds and graved its charts.
They told us of that unknown shore
That none can find; but where, before,
They called us o’er the world to roam,
They now seemed sheltering walls of home.
And those old paths whose ends we sought
Were dearer for themselves than ought
Their ends foretold: no truth could harm
Their beauty or undo their charm;
No disillusions of the far
Could touch their homeliness, or mar
The love that made them what they are.

Here we were children: here in turn


Our children in the same paths learn
The secrets of the woods and flowers,
And dream the dreams that once were ours.
Their vision keen renews our own,
Their certainties our doubts atone,
And, sharing in their joys, we weave
The years we find with those we leave.
A little weary, glad of rest
Ourselves, our hearts are in their quest.
Pilgrims of life, whose steps have slowed,
We love to linger on the road,
Or reach the welcome stage, while they
Are eager for the unknown way.
Some time to come their thoughts will turn
To these wild winter nights, and yearn
For something lost and left behind
For something lost and left behind,
As now I turn.—I hear the wind
Keen in the chimney as of old,
And darkness falls on field and fold;—
I catch the clue, on scenes that were
I look not backward,—I am there!
The men are gone, the gates are barred,
We steal across the empty yard,
The cattle drowse within their stalls,
The shelter of our homestead walls
Is round us, and the ways without
Are filled with mystery and doubt.
Over the hidden forest sweeps
The wind, and all its haunted deeps
Are calling, and we do not dare
Farther beyond our walls to fare
Than o’er one field, the sheds to gain
Where, sheltered from the wind and rain,
The watchful shepherd and his dogs
Still tarry, and a fire of logs,
A lantern’s light, a friendly bark,
Make us an outpost in the dark.
I miss the way! I drop the clues!
Through mists of years again I lose
My childhood, and alone I sit
And watch the shadows leap and flit
Above the hearth. The world that lies
Beyond our homely boundaries
I know, and in the darkness dwell
No hidden foes, no wizard spell.
But still the starry deeps are crossed
By lonelier paths than those we lost;
Still the old wonder and the fear
Of what we know not, makes more dear
The ways we know; and still, no less
Than in my childhood’s days, I bless
The shelter of their homeliness.

A id th b dl d k
Amid the boundless and unknown
Each calls some guarded spot his own;
A shelter from the vast we win
In homely hearths, and make therein
The glow of light, the sound of mirth,
That bind all children of the earth
In brotherhood; and when the rain
Beats loud upon the window-pane,
And shadows of the firelight fall
Across the floor and on the wall,
And all without is wild and lone
On lands and seas and worlds unknown,—
We know that countless hearthlights burn
In darkened places, and discern,
Inwoven with the troubled plan
Of worlds and ways unknown to man,
The shelter at the heart of life,
The refuge beyond doubt and strife,
The rest for every soul outcast,
The homely hidden in the vast;
And doubt not that whatever fate
May lie beyond us, soon or late,
However far afield we roam,
The unknown way will lead us home.

THE END

Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh.

By SIDNEY ROYSE LYSAGHT


Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. net.
POEMS OF THE UNKNOWN WAY
ATHENÆUM.—“The series of poems under the general heading, ‘The
Undiscovered Shore,’ contains some exquisite renderings of the moods and
impressions of one who goes down, literally as well as tropically, into the
great waters. They are full of melody, full of sadness—the harvest of an eye
quick to catch the beauty of external circumstance and of an ear open to the
calling of the highways of the seas and the highways of life.... Mr. Lysaght
puts an exceptional sense of rhythm at the service of sincere thinking and
fine feeling.”
DAILY CHRONICLE.—“Mr. Lysaght has an admirable style and an
almost Swinburnian command of metre.”
LITERARY WORLD.—“Here is stuff with the right ring; with an accent
such as this to guide him, the critic cannot fall into a mistake. We have
enjoyed our tour among Mr. Lysaght’s perplexities in no half-hearted
fashion.”
Crown 8vo. 6s.
HER MAJESTY’S REBELS
MORNING POST.—“A most remarkable book, and no one on the look-
out for the best in contemporary fiction can afford to miss it.”
WORLD.—“Rare and charming novel.... The story is intensely
interesting, and every individual is alive and appealing.”
ACADEMY.—“To find fault with Her Majesty’s Rebels is difficult, and to
praise it worthily is not easy; few Irish books of such good parts have come
into our hands since Carleton’s days.”
STANDARD.—“The story is tremendously absorbing and poignant.”
SPECTATOR.—“A very striking story.”
DAILY CHRONICLE.—“An able book, certainly one of the ablest of the
year.”
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., LONDON.

By SIDNEY ROYSE LYSAGHT


Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. each.
ONE OF THE GRENVILLES
DAILY TELEGRAPH.—“Bound to be discussed by any one who reads it,
and whatever the verdict of the reader may be, he cannot fail to be
interested and attracted.”
GUARDIAN.—“A really good and absorbing tale.”
ACADEMY.—“There is freshness and distinction about One of the
Grenvilles.... Both for its characters and setting and for its author’s pleasant
wit, this is a novel to read.”
BOOKMAN.—“So high above the average of novels that its readers will
want to urge on the writer a more frequent exercise of his powers.”
THE MARPLOT
SPECTATOR.—“A clever, original, and vigorous work.”
WORLD.—“It is not often the path of the reviewer is brightened by so
admirable a piece of work as Mr. Lysaght’s novel, The Marplot.”
PALL MALL GAZETTE.—“A book which the reader cannot put down
without a glow of honest pleasure.... Of very high excellence.”
SATURDAY REVIEW.—“We do not often come across a better specimen
of modern fiction than The Marplot.”
DAILY TELEGRAPH.—“The whole book teems with good things.”
BOOKMAN.—“There is not a dull page in The Marplot.”
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., LONDON.
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