Organizational Change And Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Organizational Change And Development - Essay Example Different perspectives on organizational changes According to Grieves (2010), â€Å"The phrase change intervention refers to change actions taken at strategic level to help an organization become more effective† (Grieves, 2010, p.7). Competition is growing day by day because of various reasons and it is necessary for the organizations to device new methods to counter competition. An organization which fails to implement adequate changes in its structure and functioning may struggle to survive in this heavily competitive and highly advanced organizational world. For example Nokia was the leader in the Mobile phone market up to a couple of years before. However, they are not so at present because of the intrusion of smartphones from Apple, Samsung etc. In other words, Nokia failed to implement timely changes in its product ranges and as a result of that they lost considerable market share in mobile phone market. It should be noted that even in normal situation, goal conflict exi sts between firm (owners) and its employees, but the magnitude and intensity of this conflict is very low and so it is hidden, we call this ‘goal difference’, and both parties (firm & employees) accept each other’s goals. In a strategic and major change program, firms alter their goals, which result in shifting and increasing their focus towards new goals. The shift in focus and increased commitment of firm towards attaining its new goals, increase the magnitude and intensity of goal conflict and it become very difficult for both parties to accept each other’s goals (Khan and Rehman, n. d) The interests of the organization and that of the employees are always travelling in opposite directions. Employees want to reduce their workloads as much as possible whereas the... This report stresses that periodical changes are necessary for the organizations to survive in an ever changing market. Structural, functional, developmental, transitional and transformational changes are necessary for the organizations to cater the needs of the changing business world. Many of the traditional business and organizational principles are no longer effective under the current system of business. Because of the huge advancements in science and technology and the subsequent developments in human life, the needs of the needs of the current generation are entirely different from that of the generations in the past. Only those companies which are able to cater the needs of the present generation may survive in the market. In short, organizational changes are unavoidable for an organization which tries to stay in the present heavily globalized market. This essay makes a conclusion that values and valorizations are important terms in the corporate world at present because of the increasing awareness about the public about sustainable business practices. It is impossible for a current organization to exploit community resources as much as possible and provide nothing in return to the communities. Current generation knows the importance of protecting our environment and they deals only with the companies which have good track record of exhibiting social responsibility.

Personal statement for graduate admission Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Personal statement for graduate admission - Essay Example This degree program helped me come to terms with the different nuances of Information Technology and allowed me to get acquainted with the web and database quarters. I have been working in different capacities since 2006 which has only made me feel apt with how I have viewed my professional domains and what I expect from life in general. My hard work, I believe, is the key which has given me immense confidence at the end of the day. This is the reason why I have always longed for something interesting and exciting coming my way, asking me to give my best and concentrate wholly and solely towards the task at hand. The new technologies and developments have made me feel aligned towards what I plan to do in my educational quarters. This is the reason why I have chosen the Information Technology field because it excites a person time and again, and gives him the room to shape up his learning tenets as and when required. I have experienced that being at the top of one’s professional domains eventually helps the individual to grow beyond a certain level, and this is exactly what has transformed my life in a number of different ways. My technical skills are aptly driven to achieve results which are not only strategically designed but also aimed at harnessing the skills that I have attained with the passage of time over the years. Since I have gained much insight into how Oracle 10g, Java language, PHP, MS SQL Server and other applications and software are run, I feel that I have turned a leaf within my professional acumen. This is the reason why I find myself head and shoulders above the rest, as this has assisted me in growing and developing my own self over a period of time. In the end, I would request the authorities at the helm of affairs to consider my case for graduate admission because I opine that I am the best fit. My aim is to give the very best and this can only be

National Business Systems Variations

National Business Systems Variations In this essay I will explore how Porters diamond model explains the variations in national business systems and comparative economic performance and to what extent other ideas and approaches will be required. Porter introduced the diamond model of national competitive advantage (1990) to explain why a number of countries are more competitive than others and why a number of businesses within the countries are more competitive. The model proposes that the national home base of an industry plays an important role in achieving an advantage on a universal scale. This home base contributes the essential factors that will support the organisations in building advantages in global competition. Japans automobile industry and US semiconductor industry have both been linked to Porters diamond model in creating unique business systems and gaining competitive advantage over other industries. Porter (1990) identified four determinants in attaining a national competitive advantage he concludes that a combination of the four determinates within a nation has an enormous influence on the competitive strength of the firms located there. Porter (1990) argues that competitive industries take the form of specialised clusters of home based firms. Clusters are correlated through vertical relations such as buyers integrating with suppliers or through horizontal relations through customers, technology, skills, distribution channels etc (Chen et al 2008). These specialised clusters will enable a nation to create business systems which will lead to competitive advantage and economic success. Factor condition is the nations position on factors of production that is necessary to compete in a given industry, for example skilled labour or infrastructure. These national factors often provide initial advantages for the nation. Each nation possesses particular factor conditions that are more favourable. For example, Japans large pool of engineers is reflected by the number of engineering graduates. These engineering graduates have been essential to Japans success in variety of manufacturing industries. Porter (1990) points out that these factors dont have to be nature made or inherited. Home demand conditions can influence the creating of specific factor conditions which can affect the direction of the innovation and advancement of product development. Porter argues (1990) that home demand rests upon three major characteristics. First the mixture of customers needs and wants. Second the demanding buyers in the home base will pressure companies into meeting high standards. For example Japanese consumers value space-saving gave the nation a lead in compact products and Americas long distances have led to competitive strength in very large truck engines. Third, an industry will have an advantage in market segments which are more important at home than elsewhere. In each of these instances, it is not the size of the home market that is important, but the extent to which it encourages firms to innovate. A large home market which meets all three conditions will be highly supportive of international competitiveness (Davies and Ellis 2000). A related and supporting industry is when one globally successful manufacturing company can create advantages in other similar manufacturing companies. A nation industries will be better able to compete internationally if there are clusters of industries in the home base economy which are linked to each other through vertical or horizontal relationships amongst suppliers, customers and distribution channels. For example Germany has a cluster in chemicals and USA in the semi-conductor industry. Dyer (1994) found in his research that the Japanese network relationships with their suppliers can enable the company to send their workers to assist customers with the work, position the factory near the customers or even invest in physical assets that are customised. This will therefore allow the Japaneses auto businesses to keep up with the inventory and transportation costs low enabling them to improve the product development. For example Toyota was able to benefit from their production net works as they created assembly factories that are geographically close with their suppliers. The firm structure, strategy, and rivalry are the conditions governing how businesses are shaped, managed and deal with domestic rivalry in a nation. The cultural factors are important for each nation. For example each country will have different cultural traits in which the business is structured. This will create benefits for each nation and industry. In Japan the automobile industry rivalry is strong, has seven major companies: Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Mazda, and Subaru which all fight for the market share. These seven businesses compete intensely in the home nation, and within other nations and markets. Strong domestic competition demands all these businesses to have superior technologies, products, and management practices to compete and survive, for example there is high number of engineers in management that emphasis on improving manufacturing processes. The US has only two main businesses in automobile industry which are Ford and General Motors. The US manuf actures have stated that the quality of the automobiles of Japanese cars is better than the US cars. Toyota and other automakers in Japan were able to grab 25% of the US auto market industry while the US home producers for the cars were unable to compete with the Japanese price and on the quality of the product (Buffa 1984). In addition to the four conditions, Porter (1990) points out two important components which are the role of chance which are important as it allows nations to shift their competitive position and alter the conditions of the diamond model. Chance events have different impacts on nations for example the oil shock helped to upgrade Japanese industry (Porter 1990). The role of the government is an important influence on modern international competition. The governments can put forward the policies a nation should follow to create advantages, enabling the industries in a nation to develop a strong competitive position globally. For example the government policy for Japan and US has created success for these nations. According to Porter (1990) governments can progress the advantages by ensuring there is high potential of product performance, ethical standards, or encouraging reasonability and negotiation between the suppliers and buyers on a domestic level. For example the US governments g ave large support in semiconductor industry in focusing on specific products that meet consumer demand for example the missile system in the US national security. Nations can use Porters (1990) diamond model to identify which businesses systems they can build to generate a competitive advantage and compete with others nations globally. The Japanese have considerable advantages in Porters diamond factors. The semiconductor manufacturing and software services are key industries that have contributed greatly to US growth and productivity in the 1970s. Okimoto, Sugana and Weinstein (1984) research found that the US businesses were able to obtain competitive advantage in key industries such as steel, automobiles and consumer electronics. These businesses had the ability to set the standards of each industry, create new technology and control shares of the world market. The markets and industries that Japan have chosen or created a competitive advantage are the autos, steel, motorcycles, cameras and small appliances. The success of Japanese automobile industry is due to the close relationships with their suppliers. For example both Toyota and Nissan are able to work closely with their supply production network to produce high quality cars; this gives the Japanese manufacturers an advantage over the US automakers (Dyer 1994). Research found on Numakura (2004) article has shown that the Japanese automobile companies have greater higher profit margins than the American companies. This is because the Japanese production systems such as Just in time (JIT) and Kaizen have enabled the industry to increase their productivity and cost reduction. Compared to US, rather than having a close relationship, the businesses are more likely to influence their supplier by a number of strategic polices (Buffa 1987). In the 1970s the Japanese had labour cost advantages, strong networks of suppliers, very demanding consumers which enabled them to gain competitive advantage over other nations. However Porter (1990) underplays the role of history, late development theory, globalisation, culture and managerial enterprise in determining the competitive advantage. As a result of defining the problem incompletely, he offers an incomplete solution (O Shaughnessy 1997). This shows other approaches are required to explain various business systems and comparative economic performance in nations. Gerschenkron (1962) theory on late industrialisation could be another approach to Porters theory to explain the economic performance of a nation. The theory shows how Japan as a nation was able to go through a period of rapid growth during 1951-1990 that helped them to compete globally. Japans economy boosted after the US declined as in the 1970s the Japanese companies was able to replace the US leaders in key industries. The production and operation management enabled the Japanese industries to become a competitive nation. This was done through their production systems and manufacturing products at a low cost. The Japanese companies were able to do this by offering the consumers good quality products at cheap prices. Table 1 (Capdevielle Alvarez 1981) shows a comparative evidence of how US companies productivity averaged at 2.7% in 1960 and decreased at -0.3% at 1980. While at the same time Japan averaged a productivity increase of 9.4%, Germany and France productivity also increased at 5.6% and 5.4% (Buffa 1987). The reasons for US decreasing in their productivity growth in industries and their capability to compete globally are due to many reasons. One factor could be the difference of the work ethics values between US and Japan or Germany showing us how culture can also have an effect on the nations competitive advantage on various business systems. Bosch and Prooijen (1992) have paid attention to the role of national culture and impact it has on Porters diamond. Porter agrees in that national culture is an important determinant in the competitive advantage of nations, but does not include national culture in his descriptive framework of the diamond. National culture has an important impact o n relations between related and supporting industries (Bosch and Prooijen 1992) therefore to an extent Porters theory doesnt account how culture is another explanation for the variations in national business systems and comparative economic performance for a nation. For example, Hofstede (1980) found Japan compared to Western and Northern Europe, is a very strong uncertainty avoider. Hofstede (1980) argues that the variations in values between cultures will require the difference organisational responses. The economic environment of a nation can be determined by the cultural values. Gerschenkron (1962) theory also states that history is important in measuring economic success and performance for a nation. Porter (1990) neglects the role of historical cause in his diamond model. In the case of Germany and Japan for example, there is probably a direct connection between past militarism and the present industrial domination. Militarism has contributed to industrial excellence by creating a tradition of discipline in the labour force for both of these nations. Germanys and Japans competitiveness owes a great deal to its amoral military past (O Shaughnessy 1997). Particular historical events can be unique to a country which can determine its character (Saunders et al 1986). The occurrence of invasion and revolution is a shared experience amongst many successful nations in history. O Shaughnessy (1997) argues that there are limitations to Porters (1990) methods. For example the diamond conditions emerged from examining the history of 100 industries, but to do this tho roughly histories would have to be written in the form that would allow such analysis. The detail would require the company histories. Neither the references nor the acknowledgements suggest any such documented histories of 100 industries. The four histories quoted from Porters are just sketches that illustrate rather than test the theory (O Shaughnessy 1997). Chandler (1992) also agrees that the history is important for any organisation and industry. He argues that significant analysis of a business or nation today must be based on the understanding of its past. Reich (1991) agrees on the concept that Porter theory on national competitiveness (1990) to an extent doesnt account for various business systems and comparative economic performance. He argues that economic success or performance is due to national purpose rather than national competitiveness. Nation competitiveness depends on globalisation and the skills, training and knowledge commanded by its workforce, the key to success is the people of the nation. Reich argues that national industries dont exist in any meaningful sense, as it is global corporate networks rather than national industries that now dominate economic activity. Resources are placed in those nations offering the best production and marketing advantages. For example Reich (1991) points that US decline in productivity is due to the changes of the world competition structure as by 1980s more than 70% of the products consumed in US had to be competed with similar goods that were produced abroad with standardised producti on systems. Chandler (1977) stated that a globalised firm can allow other nations to learn and benefit from the same sources of their national competitive advantage. For example in the 1960s, America and other western countries were amazed by the rapid speed of Japans growth and how it was able to manage its economy to become a successful competitor in the globe. America and other European nations started to learn from Japanese management structure and operation. However Porter (1990) makes a strong case of the importance of the home country in todays global economy. Porter argues that by providing a favourable environment for the successful organisations, home countries can play a vital role in wealth creation in the context of international competition. Chandler (1992) looks at a different perspective to explain the economic performance in nations and the development of business systems. His theory argues that large managerial enterprise had a significant contribution on national competitive advantage through exploitation of economies of scale and scope. Chandler states that in order for large managerial enterprises to gain and keep competitive advantages, top managers must commit to the three-pronged investment. This is because these large enterprises have a large market to sell their products to. These large enterprises can create a competitive advantage by producing more at a lower cost with the same outputs. The cost per product is decreased due to mass production and the diversification of the production line. Chandler (1992) explains how the US lost their competitive advantage to the Japanese companies in the semiconductor industry. Chandler (1992) states that many of the US companies in the semiconductor industry such as Inte l and Silicon Valley failed to make long term investments in production, distribution and management that was important for them to become the first movers in the industry. Chandler (1992) therefore explains how the Japanese companies were able to make the investment that was required from them to become a first mover in the semiconductor industry. This enabled the Japanese companies to develop their organisation ability to quickly demolish the American competitive advantage. Overall Porters model (1990) of national competitive advantage to an extent does account for the variations in national business systems and comparative economic performance across different nations and industries. However the model doesnt consider and explain how culture, history, late industrialisation and globalisation can have an impact on the economic success of a nation and the variations of business systems.

How to Achieve the American Dream :: Creative Writing Narrative Papers

How to Achieve the American Dream Right now, most of you reading this are twenty somethings with extremely bright futures ahead of you. Many of you were the stars of your high school, if not area, if not state, if not country. Then you got here and things changed. All of a sudden, everything was challenging. From the first moment you got here you were in competition with all the other freshmen for spots in a fraternity, sorority, independent living group, or dorm. You compared SAT scores, compared achievements, and found that they, like you, were amazingly accomplished. Many were National Merit Scholars, AP Scholars, Governor’s School participants, Math Olympiad winners, Science Fair winners, and Scholarship recipients. MIT is the premier science and engineering school in the country if not the world. Within it’s walls, minds have been coached and trained to excel in such diverse areas as film, computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, math, physics, economics, management, chemistry, architecture, and aero-space engineering. In Hollywood we are portrayed as the end all be all. In the movie Independence Day the scientist who discovers the secrets of the aliens is an MIT Ph.D. Also an MIT PhD in Physics is portrayed as a scientist in the movie Armageddon. People travel from all parts of the world to walk through our hallways and to hear MIT professors give lectures and to watch students cross at 77 Massachusetts Avenue. So you start school and soon find that the work that is assigned for the most part is busy work. Going to bed at four or five am start to seem like reasonable bedtime hours. In addition to this, you can actually count how many hours you have slept in the last three days on your hands. Suddenly, you don’t see yourself as being lucky for being so privileged as to be attending MIT. Complaining about how much work you have, how little you slept last night, and how much this place â€Å"sucks† seems to pepper all the conversations that you have during the day. Not only that, but the administration knows what it does to students so they have three-day and four-day weekends to let the students let off a little steam. The administration calls these weekends â€Å"long weekends†, whereas the students call them as â€Å"Suicide Weekends† – They are held so that students don’t become over-stressed and commit suicide.

Acc 564 Assignment 1

Auditing I| Sarbanes Oxley Act| Assignment 1| | Rachael Lantz| 8/15/2012| | Since the financial crisis investors have become less confident in the companies within the market. In order to restore confidence within the market and the audits of their financial statements Senator Sarbanes and Representative Oxley created the legislation known as the Sarbanes Oxley Act which came into effect in 2002. The legislation created major regulations on company financial reporting and the regulation of it.Forcing management to be accountable for the financial reporting and internal controls within their company and requiring the audit committees to report on their opinion of the company’s internal processes. (Soxlaw. com) The Sarbanes–Oxley act requires that the audit committee of a public company consist only of independent members and be responsible for the appointment, termination, and compensation of the audit firm.Because the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 explicitly shifts respons ibility for hiring and firing of the auditor from management to the audit committee for public companies, the audit committee is viewed as â€Å"the client† in those engagements. Because of the lack of independence between the parties involved, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act prohibits related party transactions that involve personal loans to executives. It is now unlawful for any public company to provide personal credit or loans to any director or executive officer of the company.Banks or other financial institutions are permitted to make normal loans to their directors and officers using market rates, such as residential mortgages. This reduces the risk of assets being misused by the management. (Arens, 2010) The risk of fraud has been reduced since the passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002. By requiring that the financial statements are a fair representation of the company the amount of fraudulent statements produced has been reduced. The Act regulates that the chief executive officer and the chief financial fficer and the external auditors have reviewed the financial reports and that they are free from material misstatements or misleading information. Section 404 of the act requires that the auditor attest to and issue a report on management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting. To express an opinion on internal controls, the auditor obtains an understanding of and performs tests of controls related to all significant account balances, classes of transactions, and disclosures and related assertions in the financial statements (Arens, 2010).The act requires management to disclose all material information or changes within their accounting processes. By requiring senior management to review the reports they are held accountable for the financial accounting of the firm, and procedures to prevent employees and other members within an organization from committing fraud or theft and management is legally responsible if material mis statements have been made.By making management accountable then they are less likely to commit fraud if faced with jail time. Management and stockholders frequently have different goals. Management often wishes to expand and use the company’s assets in different ways than a stockholder. Management’s accountability of the financial reports often helps encourage management to use company assets in appropriate ways. Disclosures were also a reduction in risk of fraud because all material information must be disclosed.By requiring this disclosure if a company’s net income increased this year due to a change in accounting method or principle this information must be disclosed in the annual report. (sec. gov) The public company accounting oversight board, PCAOB is a non-profit organization created by the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 to oversee the audits of public companies. The PCAOB helps to protect the investors from fraud by regulating auditor’s requirements w ithin the Sarbanes Oxley Act (pcaobus. org).PCAOB Standard 2 requires that the audit report on internal control over financial reporting under Sarbanes-Oxley include the auditor’s opinion as to whether management’s assessment of the design and operating effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting is fairly stated in all material respects. Management must document the design of controls, including all five control components and also the results of its testing and evaluation. The types of information gathered by management to assess and document internal control effectiveness can take many forms, including policy anuals, flowcharts, narratives, documents, questionnaires and other forms that are in either paper or electronic formats. The process to develop the auditor’s opinion involves both evaluating management’s assessment process and arriving at the auditor’s independent assessment of the internal controls’ design and operat ing effectiveness (Arens, 2010) With the passage of the act in 2002 there are now laws governing the relationship between corporations and the auditing firms, the requirement of auditors to be rotated on a regular basis, and the enforcement and regulation of internal controls.Accounting professionals such as Certified Public Accountants have seen an increase in the demand of the services since the act has been put into action. And senior auditors have become more involved within the audit committee. The relationship between auditors and their clients has changed since the passage of the act. With rotation requirements auditors are no longer influenced by management to report anything other than their independent opinions. (aicpa. org) Since the passage of SOX Act the auditing profession has been regulated for the first time.The PCAOB board members are appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and therefore government regulated. Under these regulations investors and potenti al investors are better protected from fraud. By requiring the auditors to be accountable as well as the management the public are given a better more accurate representation of the company in the annual report. With these regulations in place and the increases in regulations within the future the amount of frauds will reduce each year. After the passage of the act with the exception of the years 2007 and 2009 the average number of disciplinary actions against auditors is four.With the board regulating auditor standards the temptation to report incorrectly on an audit has decreased. For instance the board is in the process of amending the act to disclose relationships with related parties and their transactions because these transactions are hard to account for and propose a threat to misstatements (sec. gov). References: Arens, Elder, Beasley, 2010 Custom Edition, Auditing and assurance services, Pearson Publishing. http://www. soxlaw. com/index. htm http://pcaobus. org/Pages/defau lt. aspx http://www. sec. gov/about/laws/soa2002. pdf http://www. aicpa. org/Pages/Default. aspx

Beijing’s Transformation

From a walled city to a modern metropolitan, from a closed culture to globalization and from ancient teashops to modern cafeterias and from birdcages to subways; the road to modernity has been a very long one for Beijing. There is a plethora of driving forces for the drastic changes that Beijing has undergone.There are huge contradictions about the way common people react to these changes and about how the new Beijing measures up to their vision of their city. This dilemma of choosing between tradition and modernity, between old values and new ethics and between age old culture and the world order, is not unique to Beijing.Developing countries, particularly oriental ones, are often faced with these difficult choices on the road to progress. The choice has to be made and made judiciously. Beijing’s cultural ethos is very closely related to the walls which were symbolic of so many things in Beijing’s culture, such as social status, direction, space, class, privacy and eve n prejudices. The changes that took place in the mindsets of people who were at helm, and the changes that were responsible for Beijing’s new look, can be tracked through the treatment meted out to these walls in different eras.The city was earlier enclosed within walls and the courtyards were separated from each other by walls. The walls contributed to Beijing’s mystery and charm that was part and parcel of its magnificence. But the first step towards modernization of Beijing was the flattening of these walls which had stood for so long as a symbol of Chinese culture in vogue in Beijing at that time. Right after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, the onslaught of modernization was brought on and the walls were the first to feel the brunt of this modernization.The walls were pulled down to make way for fast tracks and western style buildings. This was the beginning of the end of old Beijing with its aura, cultural heritage and glorious history. Mao, in association w ith Soviet communists who had money, technical know-how and a vision, laid out extensive plans for the modernization and industrialization of Beijing. Though the Soviet Union and China fell apart in 1960, the foundation of the plans had already been laid and the modernization proceeded on similar lines. Factories were built in and around Beijing in large numbers.Rural agricultural faced a setback because the peasants abandoned the villages in order to join the urban work force. Worker’s settlements sprang up like mushrooms and Beijing became a modern industrial city of the world. The air which was earlier pure and healthy, now became smoky and has till now not been able to regain its earlier freshness. The walls now symbolized feudalistic attitudes to the new generation who were more for rapid industrialization. Hence the remaining walls, temples, courtyards, teahouses and pleasure houses, were sheared down.Their place was taken by dull and drab official buildings, standardiz ed stores, apartment buildings and so on. Even holiday rituals were not left untouched. From folk fairs, the generation graduated to parades and rallies. Beijing was changing and changing rapidly. The walls were later sacrificed for the need of materials for civil defense and subway lines. Mao’s obsessive fear about Soviet invasion, caused tunnel digging to become the national occupation, in the 1970’s. The tunnels dug during that period still lie under the city.In a way, the walls that were once the awe inspiring feature of Beijing’s architecture now lie forgotten under the city. Historical reasons were at the forefront in the causes of Beijing’s makeover from a conservative, mysterious and culturally rich society to a modern, global village with loads of modern architecture and almost no historical heritage to speak of. Elitist Chinese architect Liang Sicheng wanted Beijing to grow to modernism but still remain in a delightful sync with its rich culture by concentrating the modernization outside the walled city.The plan was a beautiful orchestration of the divergent forces of tradition and modernity but the plan was laughed off for being too idealistic and impractical. Had it been implemented, Beijing would have had a different look altogether. The Chinese population, by and large, is divided into two major sectors- one segment consists of people who are all for modernization even if it comes at the cost of culture. The other genre is of people who believe that old cultural traditions must not be shed off like extra baggage in the long journey to progress.They must be preserved, nurtured and slowly evolved into what may be a great culture in the times to come. This conflict is foremost when we come to understand the psychology of people in developing countries about what they feel is the right way to attain development of economies and nation building. Beijing’s Urban Planning Commission member Hou, with his respectable cre dentials, firmly believes that architecture of any city should reflect the theme of the era.Chinese architecture, for centuries, was only reproducing itself and had made little progress. It had become stagnant and modernization calls for modern architecture as well. There are a lot of people who conform with the above views, people who believe that modernization is the new mantra and no country should be weighed down by its past. For many, the destruction of old values and ethics and old architecture does not amount to cultural vandalism simply because they believe they no longer serve any purpose in the modern world.All the things, artifacts, architectural wonders, rituals and values that are obsolete and impractical and unsuited to modern life styles, must die a natural death and people must not pine for them or be nostalgic. In the opinions of this new brigade of people, change is always for the better and we must learn to accept it in order to be in sync with the times. The old timers, conservationists, intellectuals and even some students, on the other hand, are less than happy about Beijing’s changing skyline. They are the cult who believes that modernization need not come at the destruction of old values and traditions.They still believe that Chinese architecture is still contemporary and practical, Chinese rituals are still relevant and Chinese values are still capable of illuminating the correct moral path to any individual. They believe that modernization of Beijing could have proceeded on different lines, tracks that would have ensured that the old traditions would have blended beautifully with the new traditions that came in with globalization. Chinese culture would then have been a colorful melange of values old and new, would have shed it weaknesses and evolved into a great culture.Development often brings with it loads of difficult choices which have to be made and made correctly by the people who hold the reins. If these choices are not made judiciously and the common people are not comfortable with them, we will get to see a divided society on the question of how good the progress is. Beijing is undergoing that phase today, where its citizens are into an intense conflict about whether the development is the need of the hour or is it just a burden on the culture and tradition which have worked for so long.The development has taken place so fast that people did not get the time to come to terms with it and were left wondering and gaping at what was happening to their system and to their ethnicity. By the time people realized that new values had infiltrated their society, it was already too late and they were left to adjust to the surroundings as far as they could for their own good. However, increasingly large numbers of people believe that development had to happen and the way it happened is of no consequence.New traditions and cultures are all part and parcel of this package and should be accepted as such. In all, this genre has no regrets about anything except the few minor mistakes like the deterioration of Beijing’s skyline which even they regret. By and large, the conflict is immense, the debate is still on and the result is eagerly awaited so that the road for future can be chartered insightfully. Such discords are common and all countries have either faced it at some point of time in history or are still into it like China.At the essence of such conflict is the vast difference in public opinions and their mindsets. Some are more akin to changes and take to them positively; others are averse to them and look at everything new with raised eyebrows and in suspicion. Hence the divided opinion about the sweeping changes accompanying the progress is somewhat expected. The people in power have to create an environment which is conducive of changes and take most of the people with them in the long voyage to progress.Public opinion will always be conflicting as such a vast number of indi viduals cannot think alike. But the operative word is ‘majority’ of the people. It is possible to create a favorable opinion in the minds of most of the people about what is happening around them and they have to be convinced that some good will come out of it. The development should be paced in such a way that the changes are not too drastic too fast and the people are allowed to adjust slowly to the changes. There are not two views about the fact that the cultural heritage of the countries is to be preserved.The rituals need to change a little bit to be more relevant and practical in the fast paced world. But the required changes in the ritualistic part to culture have to evolve and not coerced on the people. Only if the changes take place slowly will they be incorporated into the existing structure without creating ripples upon the surface of the calm water. It needs to be understood that what has been going on for a long time will take a bit of time to be mummified and we cannot and must not expect it to disappear as soon as we wish it to or as soon as something new comes up.On the road to progress, a fine balance and harmony needs to be struck between tradition and modernity. Beautiful old architecture, artifacts, and some delightful customs need to be remembered if only for the sake of tourism. The developing countries need to uphold their culture for posterity. It may sound cliched that the coming generations need to know their forefathers and their ancestral traditions; but in truth it is very important for the future that the progeny know, respect and appreciate their past.In the fast road to progress, we need to know about the values that made life livable, the customs that called for celebration and the traditions that created compassion and insight. The question Beijing is facing now is of great importance and needs to be dealt with properly by the people who have the power in Beijing. The city is in the throngs of a cultural crisis an d in order to stop another Cultural Revolution from taking place, something needs to be done and done fast. What has been destroyed cannot be replenished but whatever still remains can be preserved.Beijing has too great a culture to be left to the elements of modernity. It needs to be preserved carefully so that it can be a legacy to the coming generations. No doubt, modernity is the need of the hour but the overlooked fact is that even cultural preservation is a requirement. If this fact is realized in time, maybe Beijing can be a utopia, with the desired blend of culture and globalization; like a beautiful modern city where relics of golden past have been carefully and passionately preserved.