...Essayist, poet, philosopher, and transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) penned the “Concord Hymn” as a commemorative hymn sung during the ceremony dedicating the North Bridge Obelisk battle monument in Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1836. The hymn remembers the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the first battle of the American Revolution, marking it forever with the line “… the shot heard round the world” (4). Although written about men who fought and died bravely in 1775, Emerson’s “Concord Hymn” encourages readers to remember all men (and women) who serve and die protecting freedom. In the first stanza, Emerson names the North Bridge “the rude bridge” giving the imagery of a poorly constructed bridge crossing the river (1). The colonial farmers’ flag unfurled there in battle on April 19, 1775. Stanza two moves the reader forward in time, marking that the bridge has long since been swept away, the British defeated, and Americans though victorious, are “silent” and slow to remember (6). The third and fourth stanzas are current time (1836). Stanza three is commemorating the day that they are setting the Obelisk to honor those who fought and gave their lives for freedom. The spirit of freedom in stanza four that dared patriots to fight and die is forever marked in the “shaft” of the North Bridge Obelisk (16). A possible reason the teacher selected the “Concord Hymn” for our memorization piece is that the author, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and another author we are...
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...Battle of Lexington & Concord Written by: Kaitlyn Carter In 1764 the Lexington War started with Lexington and the British. The British had a plan to go to Lexington and capture 2 people. The wanted to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock. After they captured them two people they went to Concord to get gun powder. Americans somehow found out about that plan and spread the word. There were two light near the church in North Boston that said the Boston were attacking from sea. Paul Revere went on a horse to warn the people the British were coming. The minutemen fought inspired many Patriot's to take weapons from the British. The British had a surprise victory. Lexington fought the British in 1775 to start off the revolutionary war. "I shall feel no pain from the toil or the danger of the campaign, my unhappiness will flow from the uneasiness I know...
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...announcement. There needs to be strategic renewal where the intent is to regain sustainable competitive advantage. Change in the organization needs to align the internal process that demands new strategies to find new talent and skills of its employees. The goal being lasting changes in employee behavior to support strategic renewal. According to Sector (2010), effective strategic renewal needs behavioral change that targets patterns of employee actions and interactions to meet the company’s strategy and to achieve and sustain outstanding performance. Behavior is said to come from both the person and the organizational context in which the person works. It’s the setting and circumstances of which we work. In looking at the failure of the Concord Bookshop there are some things that were not done effectively to make the change necessary for its success. I think the first major error made is that the...
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...Search thousands of free essays... Search Type in your essay topic: ex. Vietnam War JOIN LOGIN CUSTOM ESSAYS HELP CONTACT Concord Book Paper Essay Below is a free essay on "Concord Book Paper" from Anti Essays, your source for free research papers, essays, and term paper examples. Join Anti Essays to read full essay. Already a Member? Login Now Please upgrade your account to view this essay on Concord Book Paper. Running head: CONCORD BOOKSHOP PAPER Submitted by: jmb529 Concord Bookshop Paper Jonell Benson HCS/587 Ginger Weatherston University of Phoenix Concord Bookshop Paper This paper will discuss the organizational change process from the readings of, “Tales of Woe at Concord Bookshop.” The variety of change processes gives change leaders and administrators the ability to visualize the internal and external components of change that will go against the status quo and possibly cause a clash between the owners and the workers. The phases in the organizational change model are strategic responsiveness, behavioral change, employee participation and resistance to change. Also included, are the three faces of change and trigger events and change. I will describe two portions of the change process that were not completed or implemented at the Concord Bookshop, which caused failure of the change process. While attempting to implement change, the change leader must first assess the need for change. There was an increase in the amount of competition with...
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...Concord Bookshop Paper Horace Steward III HCS 587 May 12, 2014 Debra Kent Concord Bookshop Paper Concord Bookshop is a small family owned and operated bookstore located in New England. Faced with increasing financial hardship and competition from megastores and online competitors, members of the Concord board made the decision to make major business changes. Hiring of an outside general manager was the spark that ignited the ensuing firestorm, and resulted in eight seasoned employees quitting or planning to resign. Faced with pressure from unhappy employees and local authors, members of the board met to provide an opportunity for employee concerns to be vented. The meeting resulted in board members giving employees an ultimatum and employees leaving with a sense of betrayal. A brief synopsis of the events that occurred at the Concord Bookshop might have been avoided by the adoption and implementation of organizational change process. The phases in the organizational change process are strategic responsiveness, behavioral change, employee participation and resistance to change (Spector, 2010). Strategic responsiveness involves recognizing the need to make changes by an organization as the result of internal or external factors. In the case of Concord, financial pressures caused by competition was a catalyst for change. According to Spector (2010), “Behavioral change directly targets patterns of employee actions and interactions in order to meet the company’s strategy...
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...Organizational Change and the Concord Bookshop Organizational change is a process by which a business makes changes to improve themselves. The world is constantly changing and evolving and businesses need to find a way to keep up. How businesses manage change varies depending on what type of business it is. The model of change developed by Kurt Lewin in the 1950s consists of three stages of change-unfreeze, changing, and refreeze (Medley & Akan, 2008, p. 485). An example of organizational change is the Concord Bookshop. The Concord Bookshop is a 64-year-old bookstore in New England (Spector, 2010). The owners found it necessary to makes changes because of the current market for book sales. The change was not well received by the staff and conflict developed between the owners and the staff. “For strategic renewal to be effective, organizations need to do more than announce a new strategy. Leaders need to align internal processes, structures, and systems with demands of the new strategy” (Spector, 2010, p. 3). Phases of Organizational Change Kurt Lewin’s model of change consisted of three stages of change. The first stage is the called the Unfreeze, the organization accepts change is required. “To prepare the organization successfully, you need to start at its core – you need to challenge the beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors that currently define it” (Mind Tools, 2010, p. 2). The second phase people accept change will happen. “In order to accept the change...
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...Concord Bookshop Organizational Change Paper Concord Bookshop Paper It is safe to say that change is inevitable and an important part of most organizations. Changes usually occur to improve the productivity in an organization because of a crisis or to prevent any issues that may arise. Problems usually arise when the changes made are not manages appropriately. This is why it is so important to familiarize oneself with the phases of the organizational change process. This paper discusses the different phases and determines which phases were not completed or executed by the concord bookshop and eventually caused the change failure. Phases of the Organizational Process To start the organizational change process there are several steps are taken. The first step is goal recognition. According to Ingram (n.d.) to make a change one must realize a change is inevitable. The need for change can be brought to light in several ways. Audits and employees can help in identifying issues as well as the use of assessment tools such as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) or Gap analyses are useful in identifying problems. The second step of the organizational process is planning phase. This is the time when the decision makers can sit down to discuss the steps he or she will need to perform to achieve the desired goal. Research will assess what effects this change will have on the organizations finances, productivity, quality of merchandise, etc. Communication is the...
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...without ensuring proper planning or implementation. Many theoretical models have been established to ensure that organizations have references to use when implementing change in an organization. Below Kurt Lewin’s change model will be explained and used to analyze the change that occurred several years ago at successful independent bookstore called Concord Bookshop. The Concord Bookshop is a 64-year-old independent bookstore in New England that underwent big changes. Kurt Lewin was a psychologist who studied change implementation. Lewin’s change model includes three phases the unfreezing, changing, and refreezing stage. The first stage in Lewin’s model is the unfreezing stage. In this stage the individual or individuals are proposing a process to change and have to provide the individuals affected with an understanding of why this change is necessary. Nancy Borkowski (2005) states that the unfreezing stage is when the, “workers involved in perpetuating resistance acquire an understanding of variances that exist between current practices and behavior and desires activities and behavior” (p.384). This stage did not occur during the Concord Bookshop change process because management did not effectively communicate the need for change. Workers at the bookstore were unhappy with the changes management implemented because they were not involved in the change process. Employees of the bookstore started to resist the changes because management ignored the concerns they voiced. Managements...
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...Concord Bookshop Concord Bookshop is a local jewel of the New England (Spector, 2010). It is one of the last independent bookstores that is deeply rooted in the literary culture of its town. Unfortunately, as technology has advanced, it has become easier to order a book online or go to a big chain store to find a book. The competition from the Internet and chain stores has eaten away at the revenue of Concord Bookshop. With decreased revenue the board has decided to implement a management change. This move caused several employees to quit and the local authors to take up the pen and write the board in protest. In reading the story of the Concord Bookshop it is easy to see that a change was needed for the store to be profitable. It is not known if the board’s decision to change management was the correct one, but it is easy to see that the board grossly underestimated the resistance they would receive. The Board decided to change management and the structure of management without warning or input from present management. If the board would have followed Kurt Lewin’s Change Model the change in management and restructuring would have been better received. First, the Board would “unfreeze” the staff and notify them of the decline in revenue and profits. This would have created dissatisfaction with the status quo (Spector, 2010). With this information the Board could have engaged the staff, and asked for recommendation on improving revenue and becoming more efficient....
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... The Constitution is the founding document for American democracy, and it features many ideas from the time it was written. One set of ideas that are not prominently feature in the constitution are those of Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that is based around a focus on ideas and feelings, and the belief that individuals can find truth within themselves. The best know Transcendentalist writers include the likes of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who became well known for their strong political opinions (Brodrick). Issues that are extremely important to the Transcendentalists such as slavery and the forcible removal of Native Americans from their land are not addressed, and barely mentioned in the body of the Constitution (Goodman). However, many of the amendments do address Transcendentalist ideas. Although the body of the Constitution does not feature specifically Transcendentalist ideas, several of the amendments do reflect some Transcendentalist values. When reading through the body of the Constitution, it does not specifically reject Transcendentalist views, yet it seems to feature ideas that may be contrary to Transcendentalism. The first example of this is that while Transcendentalists focus on individualism, the Constitution focus on the majority and not giving too much power to one person. This idea of limiting the power given to one individual can be seen in the different checks and balances that were created to prevent someone from...
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...“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” As Ralph Waldo Emerson outlined in this quote, those who wish to be present in society, therefore classified as “a man”, must live by a transcendental way of life. Transcendentalism, a political and social movement, takes root in nonconformity. It alo relies heavily on the reflection of the Divine Soul that can be found in all objects, and on the importance of nature. The journey into nature, taken by Chris McCandless, is a direct representation of the views of Emerson, as reflected in “Nature”, and “Self-Reliance”, put into action. Emerson wrote both of these essays in order to show the positive impact transcendentalism can have on one’s live, and why more people should live by it, like McCandless. In his essay entitled “Nature”, Emerson wrote, “The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things.” By separating oneself from the material world, all the detrimental aspects of life will be eliminated. In this essay, he also references childhood and the importance of childhood curiosity even as an adult. People should think of their childhood, and about how they looked at the world in such an optimistic way, in order to change their view of the world today. By doing this, the beauty of nature truly returns, as well as the curiosity to know more about it. Emerson mentioned that “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of everyone of its members”, in his essay, “Self-Reliance”....
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...Writing Your Own Rules: Living deliberately in Thoreau Walden Henry David Thoreau once stated, “Why should we knock under and go with the stream? Let us not be upset and overwhelmed in that terrible rapid and whirlpool called a dinner, situated in the meridian shallows” (Thoreau 909). Thoreau has a very strong perspective on transcendentalism. Becoming a transcendentalist offers the right to trust one own intellect. Therefore, this quote demonstrates that Thoreau express to his audience the importance of being one’s self and not following society’s standards. Transcendentalism is referred to as society versus oneself. Henry David Thoreau believes learning to trust one’s individual intuitions and becoming a non-conformist allows individuals to live a more deliberately life. Henry David Thoreau used his selection, “Where I Lived, and What I lived For” to demonstrate how the changes of society serve as a distraction to an individual. Although, Thoreau was a non-conformist, he never stated it he allowed his actions to speak for him through his work. Thoreau notes, “Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails” (909). Due to the many changes of society, people always try to fit in with its new adjustments. Thoreau strongly suggests that we use nature as a symbol to withstand even though it can be laborious sometimes. Most people would consider this to be a challenge. Thoreau believes that...
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...Emerson and Thoreau share many of the same beliefs and are key components of the transcendentalism movement. These beliefs are easier to compare than to contrast. The way Emerson thinks of society relates to Thoreau's views on government, and both men have similar views on nature. The fundamentals of transcendentalism are rooted in the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. In "Nature", Emerson says "Standing on the bare ground - my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space - all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball" (Nature 367). Here, He is saying nature's simplicity allows him to think clearly and have deeper thoughts. As for society, Emerson states "Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members," Society plans to take what makes us individuals by making us into conformists "Self-reliance is its aversion"(Self-Reliance 369). With this quote, individuals are shown how Emerson believes that to combat this conformity people need self-reliance. The ideas of transcendentalism are expressed in Thoreau's In Walden. Thoreau explains his thoughts on nature similarly:"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what It had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived" (Walden 383).Thoreau went seeking life without material goods. Moreover, in "Civil Disobedience", Thoreau wrote to stop people from supporting...
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...What is one’s duty to? Is it to himself or to the society he lives in? In 1841, Henry David Thoreau accepted an offer to stay with neighboring Ralph Waldo Emerson's family and earn his keep as a handyman while he concentrated on his writing. Thoreau began to adapt to and follow Emerson’s belief in transcendentalism, writing many essays about his belief in transcendentalism. In “Civil Disobedience”, he strongly addresses its readers that they should follow their conscious and not be influenced by a government. In his work “Walden”, Thoreau discusses the insignificance of material goods. He also debates the importance of living close to nature, similar to Emerson’s “Nature”. Some may argue that Thoreau's beliefs and ideas are extreme, but in many ways, they are both idealistic and realistic. While not all of his truths can be classified as realistic, they are ideal. (Witherell and Dubrulle) Thoreau’s belief that a person should live close to nature, is a realistic idea. After Henry David Thoreau’s brother, John, died, Thoreau began working for his neighbor Emerson. Not too long later, Thoreau began living near Emerson’s pond, as close to nature as possible. In today’s society, nature can be easily forgotten, but its people can still include it in their lives. People should remember the significance of nature, and encourage one another to respect it and germinate it. They should view nature with the same respect and significance that they view God with. Although living...
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...Concord Bookshop Paper The article “Tales of Woe at Concord Bookshop” is about a small town bookshop that has been in existence for 64 years. Many people of the town enjoyed using the bookshop. The bookshop’s financial situation was considered to be the worst it had ever been, so the board of directors made a drastic decision to hire a new general manager. No changes were going to be made to any current employee. This paper will show the organizational change processes that were not implemented at the Concord Bookshop, which led to the change failure. The phases in an organizational change process are strategic renewal and organization change, behavioral changes, and employee participation and resistance to change. According to Spector (2010), strategic renewal requires organizational change and demands “wide-scale invention, reinvention, and redesign of business processes and organizational structures” (p. 4). For strategic renewal to be successful, organizations need to create new business models. The business model is the organizations approach to generating revenue and making a profit. Changing an existing business model is more difficult than starting a new one because changing an existing model requires organizational changes. These changes usually affect behavior patterns of existing...
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