'Teamwork is a method for organising activities in the workplace that Essay

'Teamwork is a method for organising activities in the workplace that offers undeniable advantages'. Discuss this statement - Essay Example The adoption of agriculture and the subsequent rise of farming communities likewise showed the importance of group work, when it comes to planting, irrigating and finally, harvesting the crops. Group work lightens the load as well as hastens the task completion when it is crucial to finish the work before adverse weather conditions set in, such as the coming of winter. Discussion This brief paper explores some of the theories involving teamwork in organizations and provides some examples to illustrate the importance of teamwork to group performance in achieving overall corporate strategy as one of its competitive tools. In this paper, teamwork is discussed within the context of a modern corporate organization. Previous ideas of teamwork entailed mostly primitive activities like hunting and planting, but in the modern setting, it is a teamwork that is anchored in an industrial setting in the post-Industrial Revolution period. In this context, teamwork ideas are anchored on mostly proj ect-based work but it also has other varied applications which are discussed as the paper progresses. Participative management, co-determination, worker representation in management teams, quality improvement circles, and small-group activities, are just some of the fine examples of teamwork (Kandula 124). Organizing activities around teamwork in a corporate setting offers advantages that cannot be attained by someone working individually; some distinct advantages are: Employee involvement – people become more committed when they are involved in the business, when they are consulted, and given a chance to share their inputs. Organizational success is better assured when all people get involved, rather than just a select few or elites. A good way to involve people is to make them join a team for an equitable participation. Conducive to new ideas – people can become more creative when they are exposed to various ideas, suggestions, and comments of other people within a t eam setting. Although it is sometimes the originality and brilliance of one individual which can make a difference, it is more often the case that an exchange of good ideas in a team that produces the most brilliant insights because data, information, knowledge, and wisdom are shared together. Enhances communications and relationships – the nature of group work requires all people within the team to work together, share their ideas, and communicate frequently such that in the process, they become more interdependent and thereby build stronger relationships. Organizational performance is enhanced when there is effectiveness in good teamwork. Improvements in quality levels – whether it is a product or a service an organization is selling, teamwork raises the level of quality because people supplement and complement each other when quality consciousness is embedded in each employee as a team concept. Raises the learning process – teamwork promotes the learning proc ess in socializing, when people are doing a common task assigned to them, and given a group objective. The idea is an entire organization learns in the process, not just the individuals (Marquardt 52). Reinforces individual strengths – most work today is multi-disciplinary in nature, so no one person can be expected to do it all alone. Teamwork can likewise mitigate weaknesses, enables more rapid adaptation to changes, and saves resources by doing more with less. Various theories have

Charles Ludlam. Ridiculous Theatre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Charles Ludlam. Ridiculous Theatre - Essay Example On his death in 1987 The New York Times said that he was "one of the most innovative and prolific artists in the theater avant-garde" (Kaufman, 1), but Charles Ludlam was not so easily categorized as the gender-bending, sex and drug-filled plays of the Theater of the Ridiculous would suggest. He was more complex than appears at first glance, and one of his most successful plays, Bluebeard, does not involve cross-dressing. This paper will examine how Ludlam created the Theatre of the Ridiculous through his writing and performing and how, in a paradoxical fashion, he also moved beyond such easy genre-definitions into his own unique form of theatre. Ludlam was openly gay before it was easy to be so, even within the theatre, and yet he dismissed the idea of a "gay community" in famous San Francisco comments (Kaufman, 1). In the same way, he invented a particular kind of theatre, but steadfastly refused to be limited by it. Ludlam was born and raised on Long Island and discovered his penchant and talent for acting in high school. He wore his hair long during he Fifties, before it was fashionable to do so and was even more-or-less openly gay at the same time. Thus started his life-long tendency to buck conventional standards and be a complete individual. His acting was regarded as so ludicrous as a teenager that some amateur companies refused to cast him, not because of a lack of talent, but because he had too much talent and was perceived as being potentially damaging to other actors (Kaufman, 3). This was a tendency that meant that he essentially had to create his own theatre on graduating from Hofstra University with a degree in Theatre in 1964. Camille might be regarded as "quintessential Ludlam because it has elements of so many different theatrical references" (Busch, 1) As Busch continues, the play is, in one sense at least, a compendium of Ludlam's huge theatre knowledge, with references to Wilde and Ibsen, among others. This bricoleur type of writing style - taking material from wherever the playwright feels there will be valuable material without considering whether it makes a logical whole, is the essential element of Ludlam's craft. In a sense this type of playwriting, and the performance that comes from it, has its origins deep in the history of theatre. From Aristophanes' commentary on his contemporary politics and the Tragedies of the day (Brockett, 12) to Commedia Del Arte, and to much of performance art there is a long tradition within theatre of piecing together a work from the "garbage of popular culture and recycling it into something rather golden and perhaps garish" (Busch, 1). By "garbage" there is no attempt to apply a qualitative value to the material, but rather to suggest that on their own, these odd allusions to specific moments, performances, sections of plays and even specific words would amount to little. It is within the context of a rounded performance that they become something of value. In Camille Ludlam takes a well-known story and uses it for his