The Ideal Man Defined in The Fountainhead    Ayn Rand has based her novel, The Fountainhead on the projection of an ideal man. It is the portrayal of a moral ideal as an end in itself. She has placed 'man-worship' above all and has brought out the significance of the heroic in man. Man-worshippers are those who see man's highest potential and strive to actualize it. They are dedicated to the exaltation of man's self esteem and the sacredness of his happiness on earth. The Fountainhead has brought out the greatness of man - the capacity, the ability, the integrity and honesty in man - as an ideal to be achieved. It is based on the idea of romanticism which means that "it is concerned not with things as they are but with things as they might be and ought to be." The Fountainhead is the story of an architect, Howard Roark-, whose genius and integrity were as unyielding as granite and of his desperate battle waged against the conventional standards of society. It is a tale of hatred and denunciation unleashed by the society against a great innovator; of a man who has great conviction in himself; of a person who believes that man's first right on earth is the right of the ego and that man's first duty is the duty to himself, a man who redefines egoism. An egoist, in the absolute sense, is not the man who sacrifices others to self. He is the man who stands above the need of using others in any manner. Roark doesn't function through others. He needs no other men. His primary goal is to achieve perfection. He is a man with uncompromising values and integrity. In order to make her philosophy clearer, Ayn Rand has simultaneously given an account of people like Peter Keating and Ellsworth M. Toohey. Peter Keating - a man who cheats and lies but preserves a respectable front. He knows himself to be dishonest but others think he is honest and he derives his self-respect from that. His aim in life is greatness - in other people's eyes. Other people dictated his conviction which he did not hold but he was satisfied that others believed he held them. Others were his prime concern. He didn't want to be great but to be thought great. He borrowed from others to make an impression on others.
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A Critical Analysis of the Government Strategies for Attracting Foreign Direct investment in Saudi Arabia - Dissertation Example FDI potential is measured by comparing the country’s FDI levels to its economic size. In this regard, Saudi Arabia ranked 138th out of 140 countries in terms of its FDI potential (UNCTAD, 2004). Closing the gap between FDI potential and actual FDI performance is very important to Saudi Arabia because under the leadership of King Abdullah, Saudi Arabian officials have made a commitment to attracting FDI to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s economic plans include the construction of large cities and the enhancement of Saudi Arabia’s global competitiveness. These economic strategies necessitate attracting FDI and foreign partnerships (Blanchard, 2009). In its efforts to liberalise FDI entrants Saudi Arabia repealed its previous investment law and replaced it with the Foreign Investment Law 2000. The new law created a new licensing authority for facilitating the processing and approval of FDIs: Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority (SAGIA) (Foreign Investment Law, 2000). The idea is to make FDI entry easier and to reduce the time involved in establishing FDIs in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, corporate taxes were reduced from 45% to 30% (Hussein, 2009). This research study analyses the regulatory and policy strategies employed by Saudi Arabia to attract FDI inflows and to minimize FDI outflows with a view to identifying the extent to which these strategies are successful and can be improved to close the gap between FDI performance and FDI potential. ... usion 32 Recommendations 32 Conclusion 35 Bibliography 42 Chapter One Introduction to the Study Research Aims/Objectives Saudi Arabia’s new Foreign Investment Law 2000 is a liberalized approach for attracting FDIs. The new 2000 law is arguably a major improvement over its previous investment law. For instance, unlike the previous law, the 2000 law permits foreigners to own property and projects (Foreign Investment Law, 2000). With the creation of SAGIA, FDIs are processed faster and entrants have greater certainty relative to the FDI criteria for. Moreover, together with the European Union (EU), the US, China, Japan, South Africa and Brazil, Saudi Arabia is among the G20 leaders and has demonstrated a commitment to efficiently and effectively regulating its financial markets (Eichengreen & Baldwin, 2008). In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia’s regulation of its financial markets is among the region’s most advanced. Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia’s regulatory framework contains a number of restrictions that have the potential to negatively influence FDI performance in Saudi Arabia (International Monetary Fund, 2006). The restrictions on FDIs reveal that although, FDI inflows are remarkable, they can be improved. The aims of this research are therefore to: Identify and analyse Saudi Arabia’s FDI regulatory framework with an emphasis on the Investment Law 2000. To identify and analyse the strengths and weaknesses of Saudi Arabia’s FDI regulatory framework. To determine why Saudi Arabia’s FDI performance is not commensurate with its FDI potential. To identify how and why Saudi Arabia’s FDI regulatory framework facilitates the gap between its FDI performance and its FDI potential. To identify Saudi Arabia’s FDI performance trends and its FDI potential. To
Introduction
Without a doubt, the greatest asset an organization can have is its human resource. Therefore, issues affecting the staff have increasingly become popular among business managers, scholars, policy makers and other stake holders. One of the issues that have particularly generated sufficient interest is managing workforce diversity. O’leary & Weathington (2006) defines diversity simply as way of differentiating one person from another. Diversity is about recognizing and appreciating the uniqueness of each person. People can be different in terms of race, sexual orientation, age, gender and physical abilities just to mention a few (Burke 2007). As a result, workforce diversity has become a major business concern. Managing it should not be merely motivated by the potential of increasing the profit margin, but also should be to ensure the working environment is conducive, safe and nurturing (O’leary & Weathington 2006). Any business that manages its workforce effectively is bound to enjoy a number of benefits. Advantages of Workforce diversity It would be hypocritical not to acknowledge the fact that most business primarily exist with an intention of profit maximization. As result most of the organization activities will be geared towards achieving this goal. Efficient management of the workforce diversity can accelerate the process by increasing the company’s competitive edge (Ongori & Agolla 2007). O’leary & Weathington (2006) pointed out that are diversified staff is likely to be more creative, innovative and generally possess a relatively high ability of coming up with quality work. As oppose to a homogeneous group, when a diverse group get acquainted to each other, their job performance becomes superior due to an ... ...orkforce, they have been reaping the sumptuous benefits. Works Cited BMO Financial Group c 2010, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion [Online] available from [17th Dec 2010]. Browder, LM & Miller 2009, Workforce Diversity: The Big Blue Case, McGraw-Hill, New Delhi. Burke, LM 2007, Managing the Diverse Workforce Effectively, Rutledge, London. IBM c 2007, Global workforce diversity [online] available from [17th Dec 2010] O’Leary, BJ & Weathington, BL 2006, ‘Beyond the Business Case for Diversity in Organisations’, Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, Dec, vol 18, issue 4, pp1-10. Ongori, H & Agolla, JE 2007, ‘Critical Review of Literature on Workforce Diversity’, Africa Journal of Business Management, pp 72-76. |