Justice in Oedipus the King
After reading Oedipus the King, one may think that in this story, there was no
justice, and nobody could avoid their fate. King Laius and Queen Jocasta,
fearing the prophecy of the Delphic oracle, had the young Oedipus left on Mount
Cithaeron to die, but the father dies and the son marries the mother anyway.
Oedipus, seemingly a good person, also tries to avoid the second prophecy, only
to fulfill the first. But even through all this, I have done some research and
feel that there was justice in Oedipus, The King, and their fate wasn't
completely sealed.
First, the murder of King Laius. Laius seemed to die a unwarranted death,
but he was not necessarily in complete innocence, for he had done some malicious
things earlier in his life, such as the attempted murder of his son, Oedipus,
and the kidnapping and rape of Chrysippus, a young man Laius fell in love with
before Jocasta. And Oedipus wasn't as guilty under ancient Greek law as he is
under our modern laws. It was every Greek's duty to harm his/her enemies, and
as far as Oedipus knew, King Laius was an enemy.
Queen Jocasta wasn't exactly guiltless, either. The great Queen had also
tried with King Laius to kill their son, and had no respect for the prophecies
of Apollo: "A prophet? Listen to me and learn some peace of mind: no skill in
the world, nothing human can penetrate the future." She was also the other half
of a mother-son marriage. Greek law considered the act, not the motive -
meaning that even though she nor Oedipus knew they were related, they committed
the crime.
Finally, Oedipus's guilt. In some ways, Oedipus was the most guilty of
them all. Consider his 'hubris'. He regarded himself as almost a god, assuming
that since he alone had solved the sphinx's riddle, he was the one of the gods'
favorites. He was very quick to judge, and judged on the most flimsy of
evidence. He calls on Tiresias to tell him what he should do, and when he
doesn't like what he hears, Oedipus says, "Your words are nothing - futile", and
Characters will not stop searching for the truth until they discover it. Oedipus, the strong and powerful leader of Thebes is determined to end the plague and find out who killed Laius. In search of the truth Oedipus asks, “Does any man among you know who killed Laius son of Labdacus?” (Roche 14). Oedipus is eager to find out who
that he would not succumb to death from a man born of a woman. How he
'So, Pentheus listen to me. Do not mistake the rule of force for true power. Men are not shaped by force. Nor should you boast of wisdom, when everyone but you can see how sick your thoughts are. Instead, welcome this God to Thebes. Exalt him with wine, garland your head and join the Bacchic revels'(19).
Some of the stakeholders are the stockholders, which they care about making a profit. In my opinion, some ethical issues are the stockholders most of the times only care about making a profit.
Communication is the key to having a successful business. A company must be able communicate the overall plan and future goals to their employees so the employees can support the organizations goals. Global Communication's first issue was the lack of communication to the union about their need to enter international markets for the company to expand. The second issue was also a lack of communication to the union about their plans to outsource the technical call center to India and Ireland, which would in turn affect the employee's job status. They should have contacted the union president and furnished their goals to them before moving forward. This would have opened up the communication process and not left the union workers in the dark.
Global Communications can find a way to increase stockholder value, cut costs and improve profitability by making appropriate organizational adjustments
The events that led to the changes Global Communications are making came about with the shift in technology and the competition within the telecommunications industry. With companies able to compete globally, there is too much competition within the industry from other telecommunications companies as well as cable companies who can offer all the same services. With increased companies offering a wide range of services, Global is forced to cut costs in order to compete effectively and increase profitability. To this end, Global Communications senior management has come up with an approach to outsource some of their call centers to India and Ireland and expand new services to small business and consumer customers. Global also joined with a satellite provider to offer video services and a satellite version of broadband. This will mean job cuts and a reduction in salary for employees who remain and are relocated. The plan was accepted quickly and now management is under the gun to communicate the changes effectively to the employees without risking a morale problem that could affect productivity. Also, since the employees belong to a trade union and the union was not involved in the process of negotiating these changes, Global has to consider the legal and public relation implications of not fulfilling their contractual obligation to the trade union.
Oedipus, ruler of Thebes, murdered his father and married his mother. Such acts are almost always deemed unnatural and criminal; they are not tolerated within traditional society. A person who has committed these acts of murder and incest would be considered an outcast, yet Sophocles’s character, Oedipus, is not guilty of either.
This paper is designed to define a problem that currently exists at Global Communications, a telecommunications company and to develop a solution, along with alternate solutions that could be used to solve the problem. Always when making business decisions for a major corporation there are opportunities in the foreseen end-state goals, as well as challenges that occur that all have to be evaluated in determining the final decision. Throughout this paper the reader will be given some background information, along with the expected opportunities and hindering challenges that all will affect Global Communications and the underlying goals that is being worked towards. Global Communications stock was being traded at $28 per share just three years ago. Presently, the company has experienced a major depreciation in stock (Global Communications, pg. 1). The number one reason behind this is the competition that currently exists. All markets have been moving in on the same business, including local, long-distance and international (Global Communications, pg. 1). On the contrary, cable companies have come into the picture putting a halt on all profits being made from each market. Global Communication had to come up with a plan to solve the issue of losing stock value. This new plan, however; has not only given GC many opportunities, but there are also challenges at hand, and not all employees, including the union workers will be happy with the overall solution that the company has made (Global Communications, pg. 6)
Global Communications is a financially struggling telecommunications company. Its stock has depreciated fifty percent in three years. Currently, the organization is faced with too much competition within the telecommunications industry. Local, long-distance and international markets are all competing for the same business. In addition, the industry suffered a huge blow at the hands of the cable companies, who stepped in to provide complete solutions encompassing computers, televisions and plain old telephone service (POT).
The term that describes the big picture for what happened to Global Communication, is lack of planning. It was quite shocking that the senior management team was discussing the “challenges” in a meeting a day before announcing the new strategy. Unfortunately, avoidable mistakes led to the fact that GC struggled in their negotiation with the union to discuss the impact of their decisions.
Global Communications feels the pressures of the industries with trying to keep up with its competitors and watching its stock prices fall. Yet the stockholders are giving them a lot of pressure to correct the problem. They need to offer better services than what their competitors are providing to their customers. This paper will discuss the background, the problem, and the end goals.
Global Communications is a telecommunications company that has been for over 25 years. The company is a part of a growing and competitive industry. Due to the competition, Global Communications stock has declined and company officials need to come up with a plan to increase profits or file bankruptcy or close its doors for good.
Global Communications (GC) is a telecommunication company under tremendous economic pressure just like other telecommunication companies. Its stock value has diminished drastically at over 50% which creats doubt in the stockholdersand thefuture of the company is being questioned. GC decided to take an aggressive approach to solve this problem by outsourcing some of their technical call centers department to Ireland and India, without communicating it first to the union This will cause a lay-off of employees and cut salaries by 10% for those relocating. Of course this plan will not go well with the employees and the union who just gave up major benefits in the recent negotiation, are threatening to take legal action against GCs' new strategy. This paper will discuss the alternative solutions to GCs' problems, risk assessments for suggested alternative solutions, and the implementation plans to deal with the problems.
Global Communications (GC) organization has recently been through numerous troubles detrimental to its primary functions. Global Communication is a telecommunication company. Due to current economic conditions, telecommunications organizations are struggling to keep up with other industries. Their stock prices have fallen 50 % over a three-year period. The company has fixed costs that cannot be met, due to its lack of operating capital. Cost cuts made by the company include cutting healthcare and education benefits. Employee retention is another governing factor at the organization. The organizations should obtain and maintain a comprehensive understanding of cultural diversity within the workforce. Global Communications had to establish an appropriate benchmark of performance; therefore, the company will know when goals are not met. A significant increase in the efforts to develop the proposed globalization campaign perspective will provide alternative solutions to current organizational predicaments.