Organizational Behavior Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organizational Behavior - Case Study Example A meeting was conducted with senior leadership at the law firm to discuss which of the three nominated employees should actually make partner. In this meeting, different attitudes regarding certain human resources policies were quite mixed as were the reactions from the attending leaders about which employees could provide the most long-term value in the role of partner. The main issue in this case is that there is a lack of unity when it comes to decision-making regarding who to elect as partner in the group. This is an organizational culture where policy is open to multitudes of different interpretations and nobody seems to have a clear handle on how these policies should be communicated regarding promotion opportunities. For example, the part-time employee up for partner nomination was not necessarily informed that moving to part-time status would impact her potential for reaching partner. None of the senior leaders can seem to agree on whether this is beneficial for the business long-term or whether it actually causes more harm in areas of corporate employee dedication. There are concerns within the senior leadership group that promoting Julie, the part-time employee in question, could set a policy precedent which gives too much flexibility to part-time staffers and could impact their ability to effectively carry out the role of partner. This di vision at senior leadership level is noticeable at the colleague level and at the employee level when they have access to read the meeting minutes. In terms of organizational behavior and culture, the lack of senior leadership unity regarding policy creation and implementation and their belief about how human resources impacts the business creates a culture of division. The process of promoting an individual to partner also seems to be ritualistic at the senior level, where they feel they must perform this annual

The Liberty Leading the People - Eugne Delacroix Essay

The Liberty Leading the People - Eugne Delacroix - Essay Example The painting reveals the picture of a heroine carrying a flag and a musket slightly at the right of the painting. There is also a child who is holding two guns on the right of the painting. Additionally, another man is holding a sword and is armed for battle on the left corner. There is also another young man holding a musket at left of the painting. Apparently, many people are helplessly lying on the ground. In the background a blue sky and light is seen on the horizon. The flag carried by one woman, the heroine, is colored red, white and blue. The men, who are armed, are dressed in uniform ( Coetzee 45). The uniform constitutes of grey shirts, black three-piece tops, and khaki trousers. Additionally, all the armed men are wearing hats. The men are also carrying black bags with a certain trademark and a white handle. The buildings near the scene of the battlefront seem demolished. Some of the people lying down are in the same uniform as that of the men in action. The parts of the ar t, which are in light are the standing people like Eugene Delacroix and the woman with a rifle. The subdued people are in shade and the source of light is the rising sun at the horizon. The painting has a good mixture of colors, which have been used to create dà ©cor and beauty of the images and the background. The whole scene reveals a fierce confrontation between two rival groups and the scene that catches my eyes is the woman carrying the flag implies that a battle was worn and the group owning the flag worn the battle (Delacroix sand ONeill 67). The figures are intriguing and attractive to the audience especially because of the colors used to present them. There is movement portrayed by the painter. The woman with a rifle is presumed to be in motion given her position. The three dimensional reflection of the painting is manifest in the creative location of the background, the sky and the people at the forefront. The painter was standing at the front

Analysis Of British Petroleum And Its Competitive Environment Management Essay

Analysis Of British Petroleum And Its Competitive Environment Management Essay This report highlights three aspects of business development and market growth for British Petroleum considering the competitive environment of BP, the key business strategies of BP for five years and the resources and capabilities that are available to BP for the last five years. The competitive environment point towards new capabilities that BP has developed for years to maintain competitive advantage. Competitive advantage has been analyzed using Porters model and it is suggested that differentiation and focus could be a response to changing market conditions. The competitive environment is also affected by factors such as brand image and reputation as related to social responsibility and environmental awareness. BPs strategies have focused on IT outsourcing to energy efficiency, leadership building and stakeholder management, application of resources and technologies, safety as well as climate change concerns. BPs investments have led to sustained production and volume growth and this is expected beyond 2010. BPs capabilities and financial resources received a boost with the rise of oil prices and growing demands worldwide with BP main businesses being in petrochemicals, petroleum refining, and oil and gas exploration and production. 1. Competitive Environment of BP BP is a diversified energy products company engaged in oil and gas explorations and development or production and transportation of crude oil and natural gas. BP is responsible for refining, marketing, transportation, sale of gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and other petroleum products; and the production, marketing and sale of petrochemicals. The global oil and gas industry being high competitive show that with expanse and success of a company, capabilities are stronger and competitors could have problems understanding or imitating these. So developing new capabilities would be essential in maintaining competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is attained when capabilities are neither simple and highly imitable nor too complex that defies internal steering and control. Capabilities that grow through use are considered critical to success and BP and other similar companies will have to develop such capabilities (Kay, 1993). A resource based view suggests that sustainable competitive advantage could help in developing existing and new resources and capabilities in response to changing market conditions. Knowledge and knowledge management are related to value creating assets and helps in competitive advantage. As far as the competitive environment is concerned, there could be sufficient competition in the main markets of BP although world energy markets are unaffected by government policies and changes. The global economy and globalization could be some of the factors that have triggered competition in the world market and more so for the oil and gas industry (Bowman and Faulkner, 1997). The oil industry has been dominated by a few major international oil companies, including BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron along with companies of the gulf states. Seven major oil companies produced, transported and refined as well as marketed two thirds of the oil supply around the world for several years. State owned oil companies as in Saudi Arabia, Gulf and OPEDC countries are the largest suppliers of crude oil even today. Aramco has produced more than four times as much oil as ExxonMobil which is the largest private sector oil company and ExxonMobil produces twice as much oil and gas. Gazprom is anot her such company which is majority-controlled by the Russian government but also privatized and is responsible for more than 20% of world production and of exports of natural gas. The oil industry and companies in the OPEC states have diversified into refining, marketing and petrochemicals, but these may be of secondary importance when considered on a global basis although the contributions of such companies are important in certain regional markets. There are also problems of environmental awareness and corporate responsibility and BPs strategies have been framed by these considerations. Sarkis and Tamarkin (2005) addressed the ways of reducing greenhouse gases and organizations involved in reducing emissions and with emergent markets. Investment in equipment could help reduce emissions and could boost sales. However there could be a faster price rise and projects may not be economically feasible leading to the need for more stringent regulations. Real options analysis is considered an important tool for the energy industry and the energy industry is still completely influenced by greenhouse gas policies drawing attention to emissions and the role of controlling greenhouse gas emissions within the industry. 2. Key business strategies of BP over the past five years. Analysis using Porters generic strategies to discuss why this strategy was pursued or changed. Some of the key directions towards strategy included energy efficiency with BP operations such as considering the price of carbon in investment decisions and promoting low cost energy pathways through gas or power generation. The company also plans to make continued investments in alternative energy with bio fuels, wind and solar or carbon sequestration and investments in research and technology. Companies focus on safe and reliable operations with continued journey in personal safety and implements operating management system with compliance. The people efforts are on building capabilities and leadership behaviors and performances help in restoring revenues or reducing complexity and costs. Apart from the culture of leadership and restructuring, building skills and capability and diversity or reward for performance are important elements of company strategy. BP already identified new regions of access for its operations including Iraq, Indonesia, Jordan, and new acreage in Gulf of Mexico and Egypt. The reserves and resource replacement are at 12%-250% and production growth was at 4% (Hayward et al, 2010). The success story of the company has been projected as governance and shareholder alignment, safer operations and volume growth as well as steady financial performance. 2010 expected performance has been projected at $4 billion investment, production growth of 1-2%, focus on cost efficiency and development of projects with an average 1-2% volume growth until 2015 with increased potential and sustained growth to 2020. Resource bases and sources of growth beyond 2015 has been marked through expanding deepwater, leveraging expertise in gas and managing the giant oil fields of the world and enabling application of technology. The focus of the company has been on cost and capital efficiency and profit growth and diversifying the portfolio with a growing resource base. A momentum on costs and strategies and operations and an average 1-2% volume growth was expected until 2015 (Hayward et al, 2010). BP is also shown as having increased potential to sustain growth to 2020 and changes in the process could drive capital and cost efficiency. Fuel value chains through quality and integration could mean right markets and right locations for logistics and refineries and quality products and brands through marketing and channel management. BP has also highlighted supply optimization and trading and common processes at the back office. Among its infrastructural changes, BP has undergone major rebuilds of CDU to process heavy crude and for the manufacture of crude oil and also new world scale sulphur removal and gas oil hydro treating units. Refinery infrastructure upgrade shows location advantage. The market share possibilities discussed showed 40% capital employed in growth markets with leading technologies and strong customer relationships with margin share growth and premium brands. The company also gives importance to safety and efficiency, quality and integration and application of resources and technology and the emphasis provided is on safe and reliable operations. In the next 2-3 years over $2billion of pre tax performance opportunity was also identified. Costs were at 2004 levels with their refinery modification in 2012 (Hayward et al, 2010). The strategy of the company was given as a focus on the growth of profits as well as cost and capital efficiency through upstream production and downstream strategies are higher turnaround and cost efficiency. Alternative energy is seen as focused and disciplined with higher corporate efficiency and strategic growth. The focus on strategy is based on profit growth and use of alternative energy, as also a focus on corporate performance and efficiency and on cost and capital efficiency. BP was among the first multinational companies that joined in the merging consensus to address climate change (Kolk and Levy, 2001). BP has focused on a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and along with solar energy, BPs other lines of business are seen as exploration, oil and chemicals. However as far as BPs position towards climate change is concerned, analysts have tried to examine Is BP reacting to inevitable environmental pressures, but conducting business as usual, or is BP seizing the moment and opportunity and using global climate change as a doorway to a new business model for the 21st century? This seems an important analysis as it marks whether BP is projecting a new business model through the climate change focus or simply responding to the global environmental pressures and challenges and whether the climate change focus within its strategy would be positive or negative for BP (Lowe et al, 1998). As far as the analysis of BPs strategies are concerned, Porter has argued that any firms strength would ultimately depend on cost advantages and differentiation. The generic strategies that should be followed by any firm for success have been given as cost leadership, differentiation and focus (Porter, 1998). Cost leadership is attained through low cost of materials and integration decisions and differentiation strategy offers unique products and attributes to clients giving a competitive edge, and focus provides a narrow market focus so that specific needs of segments are met. Porters general strategies could explain the key business strategies adopted by BP in the last five years and these were related to climate change as well as cost and capital efficiency and profits. Juris (1998) suggested that in the UK it is possible to move from a monopoly of one company dominating the market to a competitive environment with many players and this is true even in the natural oil and gas industry without significant structural reforms within the business environment, although this could be expensive. Structural reforms and innovation brings about differentiation and launch of products and services that the consumer perceives to be different, Any form of change or deregulation must be accompanied by regulatory and institutional frameworks and all entrants to the market should be given equal rights. With cooperation between the government and industry participants, there has to be mechanisms for appropriate balancing and operating. BP will also have to follow these regulations towards market balance despite being a major player. Industry participants have tried to reach a consensus on how to enhance the existing framework that could make markets more efficient. British oil and gas industry will have to effectively give more time and resources to developing a tariff structure for pipeline capacity and transportation services in tariff markets (Juris, 1998). BP has a role to play in stabilizing tariffs that could make the markets efficient. Cross (1995) highlighted outsourcing as a BP strategy and explained how the BP Exploration Operating Company, $13 billion division of British Petroleum Company explores and produces oil and gas and outsourcers all IT operations in efforts to cut costs and get more flexible higher quality IT resources to improve business. At BP exploration it was decided that the company no longer needed technologies that provided business information to employees and this could be outsourced. There were problems encountered with internal IT departments and the old and new machines as well as the need to focus on technological details rather than wider more important business issues led to the need for outsourcing these to technicians. As far as BPs technology strategy is concerned, BP diverted its IT support through outsourcing. Outsourcing helped in the reshaping of the IT department. At BP information technology was used as utility for operations to develop application and supply processing power as also to provide technology support. This is now given to outsourcing providers and the company buys generic applications or contracts the work. The IT department is expected to improve business rather than be an internal group that simply meets supply of the company. The company however has a different IT strategy and does not rely on a single supplier for all IT needs although this could make BP to escalate its fees and become more rigid in its services. At the same time selective outsourcing and division of IT operations led to strain on management resources. BPs IT strategy focused on buying IT services from multiple suppliers although these could be delivered in a way as if by single supplier. Contractors delivered services to 42 BP businesses worldwide. The subcontracts were also performed effectively and the cornerstone of the BP outsourcing strategy was to use services from multiple suppliers and yet project them as one. The IT department is kept separate from Operations so that the IT managers could independently work on the business rather than get involved in technicalities. Several IT services including large and small providers were used for outsourcing which was however a difficult task but had the benefits of reduced fixed costs, im proved service, and access to new ideas and technologies (Cross, 1995). However the downsides were the technical issues and the danger of operations and management getting loaded with IT problems. 3. Resources and capabilities of BP over the five years, and analysis of the extent to which the company has aligned its resources and capabilities to its business strategies The alignment or use of resources and capabilities to shape business strategies of the company shows that BP placed a great emphasis on infrastructure and profit growth by building its resources and through partnering and strategic alliances. BP has built its larger base by organizing around the smaller business units and the company has several smaller business units that work together and the resources are available easily and quickly. The company follows a decentralization strategy with its various units having independent operations although there are differing views on whether this has been particularly helpful or led to original thinking. New approaches to BP business showed how the BP business could successfully steer through crises although the recent focus has been on BPs strategy towards climate change (Kolk and Levy, 2001). Considering the changes in BP strategy, it has been noted that BP had a politicized bureaucracy managed matrix structure and with the complexity performance declined and the company faced financial crisis. In recent years however BP has reported highest profits $4 billion in the third quarter of 2004 alone. The high prices of crude oil added to the profits although the companys cost efficient operations were key to strong performance. The company also absorbed two oil companies Amoco and Arco and other companies and the acquisitions helped in the expanse and scope and several strategic and organizational changes added to the remarkable turnaround in the companys performance (Roberts, 2005). BPs transformation came as it divested unrelated lines of business and divided business into units with three basic businesses with upstream oil and gas exploration and production, downstream petroleum refining and marketing and petrochemicals. There were different functioning markets and the unit s were run independently adding to the strategic advantage of the company. The company presentations showed that the US refining portfolio was fully operational and US convenience retail helped in reducing marketing footprint with cash costs down by 15% in 2008. $4billion was invested by the company for alternative energy since 2006 and employee count was reduced to 7500 and cash costs were also reduced by billions in 2009, bringing down the overall expenses of the company (Hayward et al, 2010). Among other strategic directions of the company are using solar energy as alternative energy and fuel and BP has been successfully developing the solar energy potential as one of the greener sustainable sources of energy. BP corporate strategy has also been focused on issues of climate change (Kolk and Levy, 2001) and there are two directions to this strategy. One is the potential advantage in corporate reputation and image if BP is projected as green and clean company which controls its business units and functions according to global climate conditions, and the other is the possibility of a new business model within which BP could work and using of solar energy as green energy is already a step towards this motive. In the last five years BP resources and capabilities have changed drastically. Along with addition of BP solar energy, there has been increased investments and increased profits with higher oil prices. BP has also potentially expanded its reach and operations across many new regions and continued to add new resources and capabilities including material and financial to fulfil its strategic directions. The business strategies of BP have been primarily geared towards profitability and corporate responsibility so along with cost leadership, focus, innovation, differentiation and climate change, BP had diversified and categorized its business units along with mergers and acquisitions.

Economics: Turn Around Is Fair Game :: essays research papers

Economics: Turn Around is Fair Game   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  America's size and prosperity have made it the largest consumer of imported products in the world. Brightly lit shopping malls adorned with the latest foreign-made apparel, gadgets and trinkets, testify to the vast selection of goods available for purchase. There is a dark side to this enormous quantity of choices: a hefty price tag - the federal deficit. Unfair trade agreements, and, predatory pricing strategies and practices from abroad, placed those goods on the store's shelves. The United States Trade Representative (USTR), who is directly responsible to the President and Congress for trade negotiations; is forecasting a two hundred billion-dollar trade deficit for fiscal year 1996. The American people must demand reciprocal trade agreements for overseas business competitors. Complimentary trading would; put an end to subsidized dumping, curb the loss of manufacturing jobs, and, tear down the barriers associated with free trade.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The practice of selling items at a price less than what it costs to make them is called dumping. Foreign governments subsidize the manufacturing processes of certain industries so their companies can displace the competition's industry. The television industry is a perfect example of subsidized dumping. The post World War II infusion of subsidized Japanese-made televisions, terminated the United States(U.S.) television manufacturing industry. In the late 1950's, half a million units crossed our borders, tax and tariff free. These television sets were made using cheaper components and cheaper labor. However, the cost of transportation, which would normally escalate each individual price, was paid for by the Japanese government. The pioneering inventors of the electronic marvel were forced out. No longer able to compete by meeting rapidly declining prices, companies had to stop production, liquidate all available assets, and release their entire work force.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Unemployment figures for 1996 are predicted to be at seven percent (USTR, 1996.) This equates to nearly twenty million skilled American workers without jobs. The math is simple; imports cost an economy jobs, exports produce jobs. Reciprocal trading contracts would definitely curb the exponential loss of manufacturing jobs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Trade barriers are the largest problems facing American companies in overseas markets. The obstructions are sometimes overt, sometimes hidden and usually extremely complex. Deals are covertly impeded with complicated licensing and import procedures. Regulations concerning special specification standards and testing of American goods are hurdles deliberately enacted to block fair trade. If foreign governments were mandated to treat American businesses the same way native companies were treated, free commerce would truly be achieved.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The U.S. has used an arsenal of tools to try to mitigate unfair trade practices and enhance U.S. access to overseas markets. These include: Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act - Section 301 serves as the flagship of the

The Banking Concept

Through Freire†s † The Banking Concept of Education,† we see the effects this concept has on it†s students and also we see the effects that the alternate concept, problem-posing has. The ‘banking† concept allows the students to become vessels of knowledge, not being able to learn at a creative pace. By using communism, seeing through how education is taught in the classroom, it is parallel to Freire†s ‘banking† concept. We can see that both ideas are similar and both were harmful to the human mind. While ‘banking† poses the threat of creative growth and power, Marxism, which applies Marx†s ideas to learning in a communistic way, it creates the threat of never being able to learn. The banking concept is † a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those who they consider to know nothing† (Freire 213). The goal of the ‘banking† concept is to deposit as much information into the students as possible. This results in disconnected memorization without the real understanding and discouragement of creative thought. They cannot think for themselves. As Marx writes, just as there are two types of learning, ‘banking† and problem-posing, he explains that society is this way also. There is the upper class and subordinate classes. They both struggle for economic and political power and the primary way the upper class keeps its power is through their beliefs and values. They are allowed to think. The subordinate classes believe they are subordinate due to the upper classes prestige and way of thinking. Like Freire†s ‘banking† concept, education is the way to keep students down and this works because the students accept all knowledge from the teacher, just like the dominant class in Marx†s ideology, keeps the subordinate classes submissive. There are also things that make Freire†s ideas of teaching that leave Marx at a disadvantage. This is because most submissive people will eventually fight back to get their ideas heard. So therefore the ‘banking† concept has a flaw in itself. When Marx talks about the subordinate classes believing that they had to live up to the upper class, he forgot to mention that throughout time, an oppressed people will figure out that they deserve better than what they are receiving. Overthrowing a government or standing up to a figure of power allows the submissive to no longer not be able to learn. They learn through facing what they had been crushed by for so long. ‘Banking† will eventually fall to its demise, to its students. This will then pave the way to actually learning something that is useful and can be utilized. ‘Banking† and Marx both do not realize that you cannot keep something hidden out of sight, a people that can learn and live, without having to keep them subservient.

Microsoft Recruiting Strategy

Those people adapt faster to new situation and hence solve problems much faster, and it is also unnecessary to antenna them their cooperate culture. Rule N minus 1 To keep the people busy and permanently challenged. The HRS management has developed a general rule of hiring people. The so-called n minus 1 rule. What Is this rule, it basically means that Microsoft is not hiring the needed amount of employees, instead they hire less than needed. In this case, they are not pressured to fill up all the positions and can make sure only to hire the best and most fitted for the Job.All the employees are challenged with more work to keep workstation and work performances high. Hire/ no hire – system In Microsoft, the hiring process followed the strict hire or no hire system. The system works Like this. There are approximately 10 Interviewers for one employee and all of them have evaluate the candidate base on his creativity, problem solving skill and their personal opinion. Then they a re bound to give their vote of hire or no-hire. All the results come together and finally the manager over the position, which to be filled, will decide on those results and his personal opinion over the candidate.Babbler says, if we are not 100% sure that we want this guy, we always don't hire. Hiring mediocre is far worse than hire the bad. Work environment Campus Work Place Since most people are recruited fresh from college education, most employees lack comfortable and familiar. So he created his firm to look like a campus for fresh off college employees. The offices of the employees were all closed offices which you could decorate and personalize. Those reminded more of dormitories than of offices.A garden and a small pound in the middle of the campus for leisure and creative thinking process were also included. Caffeine culture Microsoft spent a lot of money for mandated benefits for their employees. The key to this strategy is to bind the workers as long to their workplace as possible. So the average day of a Microsoft employee looked like this: get up in the morning, drive to work, do some work, breakfast, do some more work, lunch, do more work, dinner, drive home sleep. The cafeteria was subsidized and basically everything with caffeine was for free – to raise productivity.Feeling of a small company Bill Gates wanted to keep the feeling of his company the same one when they first founded Microsoft – a small company. To ensure that, he splinted his firm into small divisions and even smaller workups. That way people felt more important of their job, not like some wheels in a big company. Development Personal mentoring To ensure competitiveness, Microsoft has developed a ladder system – linked to their salaries. If work was accomplished in a satisfactory way, one could climb up the ladder without being promoted to management level.This system is especially fitting to Microsoft, since most newly recruited employees were high technical ly skilled programmer, that meant not everyone of those people was a good manager. Don't fire the learning When people at Microsoft fail at some projects, they won't have to fear being fired. Bill Gates says that it would be stupid to fire people who Just learned a lot from allures and give them away to other companies. Instead they even get promoted to other projects to encourage them and motivate them to do better on this new project.Review and Reward SMART system. It was a evaluation system of the employees achievement based on his work results quantified in Specific, Measurable, attainable, result-based, and time-bound features. That way, comparison between coworkers was made possible. Evaluation system Everyone at Microsoft was evaluated twice a year. They were given a rating between one (poor) and 5 (outstanding) to evaluate their work. All employees had to evaluate homeless first before seeing their supervises and getting evaluated by them.That way it was made sure that every one stayed on track and was getting permanently challenged. If an employee had no idea of what rating they were going to get, it meant that their manager did a poor Job. Options Last but not least, people were motivated with options on the firm. It not only meant, being rewarded for their present work but also meant to reward those in the future, to bind monetary rewards to the future performance of the firm, which is all dependent on the employees performances.

God of the Underworld Professor Ramos Blog

God of the Underworld If someone talks to you about Hades, you probably think of a powerful evil Greek mythological God. A tall, stoic, dark haired man who hates his life and wishes to be more powerful than his brother Zeus. If you research Hades and learn more about his personality and all the bad he has done, is he really a monster? People were afraid of Hades because of the types of punishments he would give mortals. Such as Sisyphus who cheated death so many times that Hades decided to punish him by cursing him with an eternal task of carrying a boulder to the top of the hill and anytime that he got close to the top the boulder would roll back down. Pythia who was also punished by being bound to the chair of forgetfulness for trying to kidnap Hades queen Persephone. Lastly, Tentalus who tried to convince mortals that the Gods were easily tricked by sacrificing his own son to prove a point; his punishment was that he was supposed to stand in a deep pool of water underneath a low hanging branch of a fru it tree for eternity with a burning thirst and aching hunger. Every time he tried to get water or fruit it would go further away from him. All these stories make Hades seem like a villain, but a lot of punishments he did was requested from his brother Zeus. To help understand Hades I will show you how he connects to monster theory, how he is represented in pop culture, and my judgement on it.   Hades fits into five out of seven of Jeffery Jerome Cohen’s â€Å"Monster Culture (Seven Theses).† Thesis one â€Å"The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body† discusses how a monster can represent the fears of that time period. As we know, Hades was in the classical Greece era circa 500 b.c.e and during that era people were afraid of the Gods, especially Hades. Hades was already an intimating guy; he was a rather large muscular man, with a beard, a weapon called a bident, and robe like clothing. What got people really scared of Hades is the type of punishment you would be given if you did something wrong in the God’s eye. Thesis two is that â€Å"The Monster Always Escapes† for Hades it is impossible to catch him/kill him. He is a powerful immortal god, so unless you are a god yourself it will be hard to defeat Hades. For thesis three â€Å"The Monster is the Harbinger of Category Crisis† how Hades fit into that is quite interesting. T hesis three is about how a monster is created/born/raised a different way and for Hades he was raised in the stomach of his father. Hades father Cronus ate five out of six of his children because of the prophecy that his children will one day overthrow him and take his power. Zeus was the only who was not eaten because his mother hid him away after he was born. Zeus and his mother Rhea come up with a plan to get his five siblings out by giving Cronus a drink to make him regurgitate his five siblings. After they defeated Cronus, Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon divided the universe among themselves. â€Å"They kept the earth and Olympus as common property, while Zeus took the heavens as his domain, Poseidon the seas, and Hades the misty darkness of the Underworld† (March, 1).   For thesis four â€Å"The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference† states the monsters are different from normal people and that â€Å"for the most part monstrous differences tends to be cultural, political, racial, economic, and sexual† (Cohen, 18). Not only does Hades being a God make him different from the mortals, but also the fact that Hades is judged as a monster based off his appearance and title. He has dark features, a dark kingdom, and a scary title. People feared him because he seemed like a dark person, but in fact he was not a dark person. Hades was occasionally loyal, honest, caring, and compassionate. What makes him seem scary is his expressionless face and anti-social personality. â€Å"He was aloofness personified, the invisible presence of darkness and the less he did, the more terrifying he became† (Bloomsbury, 2). Lastly, Hades fits into the monster theses six â€Å"Fear of the Monster is really a Kind of Desire†. The monster ref lects things that attracts us during that time period. Hades has the power to punish/hurt people who treat him wrong and we wish that we could have that same power at times too. To punish someone for trying to kidnap our spouses or to hurt someone for talking badly about you. In many movies, books, and stories we watch or read about Greek mythology Hades usually becomes the villain of the story. In the 1997 Disney movie â€Å"Hercules† Hades is the main monster who is trying to re-arrange the cosmos and over power his brother Zeus because he is unhappy with his duties in the underworld. There is a prophecy that states if Zeus’ son grows up to be a man, he will defeat Hades. Hades tries to kill Hercules many times in the movie, but fails to do so and ends up losing. Hades is animated as tall, pale/gray skinned guy with blue flame hair, pointy teeth, sharp nails, yellow eyes, and dark clothing. His personality in the movie is manipulative, merciless, and does not care if he causes pain or panic among the mortals. He appears to be calm and collected but can be set off easily. The only good quality that Disney gives Hades is that he is fair and will stay true to his word even if he knows he will lose. In the 2010 movie â€Å"Percy Jackson and t he Olympians: The Lightning Thief† Hades once again is the main villain of the movie and Percy Jackson is our hero. The plot of the film is that Zeus bolt (the most powerful weapon) has been stolen and every character assumes that Percy Jackson did it, even Hades. Hades kidnaps Percy’s mom and tells him that he has one week to give him the bolt or else he will kill his mother. Hades personality is represented more as a dictator; a person twitter pated with being the most powerful God and will not listen to reason until he gets it. He is cruel, abusive, manipulative, and cold hearted. Hades appearance in the movie is somewhat of a normal person. He is average height, has a well-groomed beard, and a â€Å"Mcjagger† style. When he tries to intimate a person to get what he wants, he transforms himself into a devil like character; huge, red eyes, horns, wings, sharp teeth/nails, and covered in flames.    The more I learned about Hades the more I like him as a Monster, but that is also the thing about Hades is that he is not as much of a monster as I thought he was. All through my childhood I have thought Hades was the villain in Greek mythology, but that is just how he is portrayed in pop culture. Once you learn about Hades back story and what kind of person he is, he is not as evil as a person as he seems. It’s unfortunate that based off his power, appearance, title, and the things that Zeus asks of him makes him a monster, even though his siblings do just as bad of things. Zeus constantly commits adultery, and Poseidon kills without good reason. It’s not fair that Hades is the one considered bad when his brothers do equally as bad things.   Everything you have thought that you knew about Hades thanks to pop culture is actually false facts. Hades is not the monster that he is made out to be. Hades is loyal, fair, caring, sturdy, and an introvert. Hades deserves to be represented properly, and in doing so it could also teach kids to not judge a person based off their appearance and titles. Just because he has dark features and could be intimidating does not mean he is a monster. Looks could be deceiving especially in Greek mythology.   Boser, Ulrich. â€Å"The First Soap Operas.† Mysteries of History: The Ancient World, Jan. 2004, p. 60. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=truedb=f6hAN=16340453site=ehost-live. Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. â€Å"Monster Culture (Seven Theses).† University of Minnesota Press. 1996. Print. Hades. Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth, Kenneth McLeish, Bloomsbury, 1st edition, 1996. Credo Reference, https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/bloommyth/hades/0?institutionId=5312. Accessed 24 Jul. 2019.   Hades (1). Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Jennifer R. March, Oxbow Books, 2nd edition, 2014. Credo Reference, https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/hades. Accessed 17 Jul. 2019. Hercules. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. Walt Disney Pictures. 27 June, 1997. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Directed by Chris Columbus. 1492 Pictures. 12 February, 2010.