Report nokia company from 2003 -2008 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Report nokia company from 2003 -2008 - Essay Example Importance is given to teamwork and mutual respect (Nokia-b, 2010). In the beginning of 2008 the company announced a new â€Å"company structure†. It aims at aligning the opportunities in the company with future growth prospects. Nokia also plans to increase the efficiency of the working ways across the company. According to the Articles of the company and Finnish Companies Act the management and control of the company is divided between the company shareholders, the Board of Directors,, President and Group Executive Board headed by the CEO. The Board gives decisions relating to the activities of the Group including crucial investment decisions, approval of plans and divestments. The Group Executive Board of the company is in charge of managing company operations (Nokia-c, 2010). The competitors of the company are LM Ericsson Telephone Company, Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Nokia has the highest market capitalization out of all the above mentioned competitors. In terms of sales the company ranks first among its competitors. Nokia has operations across China, Finland, India and Germany. In these countries the company offers Networks Technology. Nokia offers â€Å"mobile devices and technology† services in China, Brazil, Great Britain, Finland, India, Hungary, Mexico, South Korea and Romania (Nokia-d, 2010). The devices unit of the company is in charge of managing and developing its mobile services portfolio. Nokia Siemens Network offers fixed network infrastructure, wireless, networks and communications service platforms and professional services to service providers and operators. NAVTEQ is a major provider of â€Å"digital map data† for mobile navigation devices, internet based applications and business & government solutions. The map data of NAVTEQ is a significant part of the map services of Nokia which provide downloadable maps and voice-based navigation (Nokia-f, 2009). The vision of the company is based on the

The relationship between education and development

The relationship between education and development Development, which implies positive values, has been the concern of mankind from time immemorial. Many renowned thinkers devoted efforts to understand development better consequently theories of development have emerged. Ingemar Fagerlind and Lawrence J. Saha (1983) cited at least four clusters of development theories, namely, the (i) classic cyclical theory, which includes the Greek and Roman views of the never ending cycles of growth and decay of all material things, including nations and civilization; (ii) Augustinian Christian theory, which represented the views of doomsdayer who sees the world as heading toward major catastrophe, including the threat from a nuclear war or the explosion of the population bomb; (iii) linear theory, represented by optimists who see development as a never-ending progress; and (iv) cyclical linear theory which combines the essence of the conflict orientation of the cyclical theory and the optimistic orientation of the linear theory. By and large, people who see a dynamic interactive relationship between education and development are advocates of the linear model theory. Within this model, however, are three groups of social scientists, namely, the so called structural functionalists (e.g. Talcott Parsons and Robert Merton), the human capitalist theories (e.g. Theodore Schultz), and the modernization theorists (Alex Inkeles). The human capitalist theory and to a certain extent the modernization theory constitute the framework for building cases to show that education enhances development. The human capital theory postulates that the most efficient path to national development lies in the improvement of a countrys population. And of course, educators and almost all socio-economic planners are convinced that the best way to improve the population is through various forms of education and training Those who think of education as crucial to development also draw inspiration from the modernization theory. Alex Inkeles and his colleagues think that to modernize is to develop. Society cannot develop unless its population holds modern attitudes and values. They see a direct relationship between education and socio-economic development, in that education brings about a change in outlook in the individual which promotes productivity and work efficiency. Education has a modernizing influence on values, beliefs and behaviours which make human beings more development-oriented. Viewed from the modernization theory, education is called upon to re-orientate and/or suppress beliefs, attitudes and values which tend to obstruct the initiation of the modernization process. EDUCATION, DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN CAPITAL THEORY S.G. Strumlin first attempted to quantify the role of education in economic growth in 1925. It was not until the late 1950s and early 1960s that interest in the study of the nature of the changes occurring in the different sectors of the economy in the United States of America pushed economists to search for explanations. Some of these economists such as Denison and Solow found out that a large part of growth in Gross National Product (GNP) in the United States over the first half of the 20th Century remained unexplained when they tried to attribute the growth to conventional economic factors. Even after taking into account increases in real physical capital like equipment, structures and the like, and total number of hours worked, a large residual still remained to be explained. However, they came to realize that important qualitative changes in the labour force had occurred. People were more productive for each hour they worked because of the greater skills and knowledge they posse ssed. The assumption was made that formal education was instrumental to these high levels of productivity that they were observing in the economy. Economists such as Schults and Becker, and economists of education such as Welch and Hoffman explained a part of the residual by what they called Human Capital of which education through formal schooling was considered a major factor. It is the view of Fagerlind and Saha that one of the first systematic articulations of the Human Capital Theory occurred in 1960 in Theodore Schultzs Presidential Address to the American Economic Association on the topic investment in Human Capital. In the address, Schultz suggested that education-was not to be viewed simply as a form of consumption but rather as a productive investment. He also argued that an educated population provided the type of labour force necessary for industrial development. Proponents of Human Capital Theory assume that formal education is highly instrumental to the improvement of the productive capacity of a population. The improvements of the productive capacity of the human work force in this sense is a form of capital investment. Human capital theorists postulated that the most efficient path to national development lies in the improvement of human capital through education. They also contended that the two pre-conditions for economic growth and development in any nation were investment in education and improvement in technology. Klees and Wells put this argument as follows: Human Capital Theory considers educational activities explicitly as investment that contribute to efficiency now and growth over time. From this perspective, education develops an individuals productive skills and therefore yields benefits over time to the individual and to the society as a whole. Thus we can evaluate, at least in part, the relative worth of allocating resources to educational activities compared to other alternative uses of these resources by examining educational costs and benefits. This framework has provided the basis for a considerable amount of educational resource and policy through the developed and developing world. This orientation championed by Schultz and Associates dominated the thinking in Economics of Education throughout the sixties. It formed the basis for manpower planning models used in forecasting educational enrollments required for specific development needs. Human Capital Theory also gave economists the conceptual tools with which to link man -power demands, their changes over time in response to economic growth and the educational system; and to incorporate them into elaborate national development plans and growth targets. Four manpower planning strategies or guidelines emerged from Human Capital research. They are the Social Demand Approach, the Manpower Requirements Analysis, the Cost-Benefit or Rate of Return Analysis and the Optimum Allocation of Resources Method. The social demand approach assumes that education is a social good. It is believed that its expansion as the demand arises will eventually result in benefits for the society. Therefore the state should bear the costs of educational expansion. Demographic data and social conditions are used in planning educational provisions when using this approach. Manpower require-ments for certain economic production targets can be estimated and produced through the formal education system. Planning education using this technique involves estimating skill requirements for certain occupational categories needed for economic development over a period of time. In cost-benefit analysis, estimates of the costs of acquiring various levels and kinds of education and the benefits associated with each kind and level are made. The assumption is that the value of the ratios so estimated would guide planners in decision-making with respect to the kinds of education to be offered or changed. In so doing, competitive rates of return on investment in education relative to other investment portfolios in the conventional capital markets can be maintained. The method used in optimum allocation of resources is to describe the principal relationships between education and other sectors of the economy and then to allocate resources optimally, given some objective functions and constraints. In general, linear programming techniques are used to derive the education production functions. In most developing countries, the manpower requirements approach was used as a guideline to relate educational planning to economic needs. A survey in 76 countries in 1968 showed that 65 of them had educational plans modeled after the manpower needs of the country. How-ever, as Sobel pointed out, protagonists of the manpower planning approach subsequently developed systematic mathematical models integrating manpower needs and educational planning which resulted in a proliferation of single-occupation studies in virtually all societies by each university or national university system, governmental manpower department, education ministry or vocational training department. Linear programming techniques were used to combine rates of return or cost-benefit analyses approaches with manpower requirements techniques to generate models of demand for education from the expected level and distribution of output in a given economy. These were done in an effort to ascertain whether the resultant manpower and education mix would maximize the growth of Gross National Product, maximize the excess of benefits over the costs of education. Most of the research findings showed that in country after country, a correlation exists between levels of education and subsequent lifetime earnings. In a comprehensive research study, Psacharopoulos standardized 53 rate of return studies for 32 different countries and sought to determine what generalizations could be made from the results. Some of the findings are as follows: * rates of return are generally higher in less developed countries; * primary education tends to yield the highest returns; * returns to human capital exceed those on physical capital in underdeveloped countries but roughly equal those on physical capital in developed countries; and * differences in per capita income can be explained better by differences in human than in physical capital. This theoretical orientation of the Human Capital Theory, as Kless and Wells point out provided a basic justification for large public expenditure on the expansion of formal school systems in developing countries. Its appeal was based on the presumed economic returns to investment in education both at the macro and micro levels. Thus governments intensified efforts to invest in Human Capital so as to achieve rapid economic growth and development.The obvious policy implication for most governments given the results of such empirical research was to expand enrollments and to provide for a longer period of schooling in order to maximize the benefits from schooling. In Africa, a Conference of African States on the development of Education in Africa was organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from May 15 25, 1961. The Conference, as Thompson noted, firmly grasped the concept that education was an investment in productivity and urged that educational provision should be planned continuously in relation to manpower needs at all times. EDUCATION, DEVELOPMENT AND MODERNITY THEORY Another dimension from which the relationship between education and development was vigorously examined and explicated during the 1960s was in the social psychological and sociological formulations of modernity theory. Modernity theorists argued that modernization is essentially a social-psychological process through which a country becomes modern only after its population has adopted modern attitudes, values and beliefs. They tried to show that there were causal links between modernizing institutions, modern values, modern behaviour, modern society and economic development. They maintained that the creation of modern values can be planned. Particular social institutions like the school, the family, the media and the workplace were identified as being of extreme importance in the emergence of modem values. However, most modernity theorists placed considerable emphasis on education because the school was perceived as a major agent in producing the skilled manpower and the modem attitudes and values necessary for the existence of a modern society. In the early postà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬World War II era, approximately twenty societies were regarded as highly modernized and roughly another ten to twenty were depicted as having passed a threshold on the path to modernization. Definitions of modernized varied. Some noted structural features, such as levels of education, urbanization, use of inanimate sources of energy, and fertility. Others pointed to attitudes, such as secularization, achievement orientation, functional specificity in formal organizations, and acceptance of equality in relationships. Conscious of the ethnocentric nature of many earlier explanations for growth in national power and income, social scientists in the 1950s and 1960s generally omitted cultural traits associated closely with Western history from definitions of modernity. Yet, given the rhetoric of the Cold War and a preoccupation with democracy in U.S. national identity, political institutions became a central factor in many definitions. The theory of modernization normally consists of three parts: (1) identification of types of societies, and explanation of how those designated as modernized or relatively modernized differ from others; (2) specification of how societies become modernized, comparing factors that are more or less conducive to transformation; and (3) generalizations about how the parts of a modernized society fit together, involving comparisons of stages of modernization and types of modernized societies with clarity about prospects for further modernization. Actually, reasoning about all of these issues predated postwar theory. From the Industrial Revolution, there were recurrent arguments that a different type of society had been created, that other societies were either to be left permanently behind or to find a way to achieve a similar transformation, and that not all modernizing societies had equal success in sustaining the process due to differences in economic, political, and other institutions. In the middle of the 1950s, these themes acquired new social science and political casting with the claim of increased rigor in analysis. (Modernization Theory Defining Modernization Theory Modernization Theory Modernization theory is a description and explanation of the processes of transformation from traditional or underdeveloped societies to modern societies. In the words of one of the major proponents, Historically, modernization is the process of change towards those types of social, economic, and political systems that have developed in Western Europe and North America from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth and have then spread to other European countries and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the South American, Asian, and African continents (Eisenstadt 1966, p. 1). Modernization theory has been one of the major perspectives in the sociology of national development and underdevelopment since the 1950s. Primary attention has focused on ways in which past and present premodern societies become modern (i.e., Westernized) through processes of economic growth and change in social, political, and cultural structures. In general, modernization theorists are concerned with economic growth within societies as indicated, for example, by measures of gross national product. Mechanization or industrialization are ingredients in the process of economic growth. Modernization theorists study the social, political, and cultural consequences of economic growth and the conditions that are important for industrialization and economic growth to occur. Indeed, a degree of circularity often characterizes discussions of social and economic change involved in modernization processes because of the notion, embedded in most modernization theories, of the functional compatibility of component parts. Although, there are many versions of modernization theory, major implicit or explicit tenets are that (1) societies develop through a series of evolutionary stages; (2) these stages are based on different degrees and patterns of social differentiation and reintegration of structural and cultural components that are functionally compatible for the maintenance of society; (3) contemporary developing societies are at a premodern stage of evolution and they eventually will achieve economic growth and will take on the social, political, and economic features of western European and North American societies which have progressed to the highest stage of social evolutionary development; (4) this modernization will result as complex Western technology is imported and traditional structural and cultural features incompatible with such development are overcome. For example, in the social realm, modern societies are characterized by high levels of urbanization, literacy, research, health care, secularization, bureaucracy, mass media, and transportation facilities. Kinship ties are weaker, and nuclear conjugal family systems prevail. Birthrates and death rates are lower, and life expectancy is relatively longer. In the political realm, the society becomes more participatory in decision-making processes, and typical institutions include universal suffrage, political parties, a civil service bureaucracy, and parliaments. Traditional sources of authority are weaker as bureaucratic institutions assume responsibility and power. In the economic realm, there is more industrialization, technical upgrading of production, replacement of exchange economies with extensive money markets, increased division of labor, growth of infrastructure and commercial facilities, and the development of large-scale markets. Associated with these structural changes are cultural changes in role relations and personality variables. Social relations are more bureaucratic, social mobility increases, and status relations are based less on such ascriptive criteria as age, gender, or ethnicity and more on meritocratic criteria. There is a shift from relations based on tradition and loyalty to those based on rational exchange, competence, and other universally applied criteria. People are more receptive to change, more interested in the future, more achievement-oriented, more concerned with the rights of individuals, and less fatalistic. Educational Reform and Human Capital Development. Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB) is a Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education established by Aga Khan University (AKU) in response to demand from schools for more appropriate school examinations. AKU-EB was founded in August 2003. It offers examination services to both Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) throughout Pakistan. Its primary purpose is to improve the quality of education by making examinations of reputable standard more accessible to Pakistani students and having them increasingly valued by leading higher education institutions in and outside the country. In 2000, AKU-BOT approved the recommendation of the task force to establish and examination board. Its principal aim was to offer high quality public examinations using modern methods of assessment to test achievement within the national curriculum in order to enhance the quality of education. AKU-EB from the beginning was envisaged as a small undertaking which would be able to serve as a role model to have positive impact in field of education. There has been great amount of funds poured in to AKU EB. Besides AKU, USAID supported through the Governments Educational Sector Reforms throughout Pakistan . After the initial start-up period of five years, the University expects to become solely responsible for AKU-EBs financial affairs. The general objective of the AKU-EB is to design and offer high quality public examinations in English and Urdu based on the national curriculum for secondary and higher secondary education. It also arranges training sessions for teachers to develop appropriate learning materials to prepare teachers and students for the new examination system. It is intended to serve as a model of internationally recognized good practice in order to enhance the countrys capacity for educational assessment and tests, and therefore to improve the quality of education in schools, and through them, the quality of education in the national universities. The concept of human capital and education revolutions intertwined because formal education is an important factor in human capital formation. One of the objectives of AKU EB is to improve school environment by improving their curriculum by changing assessment strategy. Generally an individualà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s levels of human capital are raised producing better school results. Hence this effect the policy making in public and privte sector involved in educational reforms. Education is an investment in human capital, that is, in the skills and knowledge that produce a return to the individual in the form of higher earnings. Education also has social returns or spillovers. The presence of educated workers in a region enhances the earnings of those who, regardless of their own educational level, work with or near educated workers. I would be interested to know about how AKU EB is measuring its impact on schools and teachers. How it can be explained by human capital development theory perspective? How is it investing in building infra structure and equiopment and training? What are individual and social returns of AKU EB efforts? And what are its effects on changing other local boardsà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ assessment strategies and curricula. How are teachers and parents looking at AKU EB as source of human capital development?

Creation Mythology of Africa Essay -- Myths Africa African Essays

Creation Mythology of Africa One way of examining the values and traditions of a people is to look at their explanations for how the world came to be. These stories make such wonderful tools for analysis because all cultures have some sort of ‘creation’ story. Thus to compare groups of people we may start by looking at their creation mythology. It is important to note that the downfall of comparing mythologies is that in a way it is like comparing apples to oranges. This is because not every myth portrays and explains the same elements. Five myths from throughout Africa will be mentioned throughout this essay. They are from the Boshongo, Mande, Shilluk, Egyptian, and Yoruba peoples. For a brief description of these myths please see the appendix. Please remember that these myths do not represent the beliefs and stories of all of Africa. In each of these stories, the tale of creation has been presented with a unique twist. Yet there are several important similarities among the various myths. Besides explaining creation, there is always one major creator. However, in some stories such as that of the Boshongo, the creator had helpers whereas in the Shilluk tale, Juok worked alone. In the Boshongo myth, Bumba creates nine animals and mankind. Then these animals and Bumba's three sons worked together creating everything else. In the Shilluk tale, obviously everything is related somehow because everything shares the same creator. Even in other stories where the creator has helpers, however, all of these helpers were made by the creator and thus everything is still connected. In all of these stories, mankind is created by a more powerful being. This represents the belief that... ...rican Cosmogony.† http://alexm.here.ru:8081/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/051.html. taken from: Leach, Maria. The Beginning. New York: 1656. pages 145-6. â€Å"Creation Myths.† http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/ophelia.htm. January 8, 2001. Crystal, Ellie. â€Å"African Creation Myths.† http://www.crystalinks.com/africacreation.html. August 1995. â€Å"Egyptian Creational Myths.† http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptcreation.html. August 1995. â€Å"Egyptian Cosmogony and Theogony.† http://alexm.here.ru:8081/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/054.html. taken from: Piankoff, Alexandre. The Shrines of Tut-ankh-amon. New York: 1955. page 24. â€Å"Life and Death Under the Pharaohs – the Gods.† http://icvc.imago.com.au/egypt/html/the_gods.html. 1998. â€Å"West African Cosmogony.† http://www.fandm.edu:80/departments/Anthropology/Bastian/ANT269/cosmo.html. 1999.

Kitchen Best Essay

Individual case study: Kitchen Best Kitchen Best is the typical family owned SME, specialized in the Kitchen appliance production, with Headquarter in Hong Kong and manufacturing plant based in China, in the Guandong province. The main problems concerning the company, are all related with its managing and governance system. The company has been run for years by its founder, Cha Dong, who managed it in a paternalistic way, establishing very strong relationships with most of its senior Staff. His management style reflected the old business culture, characterized by high sense of belonging to the â€Å"family† and an high degree of acceptance of the practice of kickbacks, considered the normal way to run business in China. When Cha Dong, at the end off its career, left the management to its son, Henry Chan, all the governance shortcomings came to light. Henry Chan, who received a Western education, had a more international approach, less involved than its father in the operationa l activities of the company and more focused on its ambitious targets. He prospected to double the revenues of the company entering the US and EU market directly, while continuing to serve the Asian market, where its father focused until that day. Its expertise in the Western culture would have helped the enter in such markets, making the project ambitious but feasible, on the other side focusing in such a target would have meant ignoring the management aspects of its role, who are the basis for the success of a company. Furthermore Henry Chan lack of operational expertise, so he completely relies on Ma Luk, the company’s operations Director, to whom his father delegated the entire operational activities of the factory, during its lasts years of management. He had in that way a great independence and power, given by its expertise and close connection with clients and suppliers. He had also a low level of coordination with Henry Chan, to whom he formally reported, but still su bstantially referred to Chang Dong for important issues. In fact the Kitchen Best founder had still a strong managerial presence in the company, as all its employees trusted him completely, we can asses that the managerial transition did not happened in substantial terms. The company’s culture reflects the old managerial style of the founder: the selection and training of employees is done on a familiar contact base, not relying on impartial standards of efficiency. The lack of standards in training and  recruitment, the high degree of toleration of kickbacks, together with the high independence in the operational decisions, are all factors that contributed to the bad management of the Staff. To Ma Luk, too much power was delegated, with no substantial control, due to the lack of technical skills of Henry Chan. Moreover his strong ties with clients and suppliers were created through kickbacks, tolerated by the father and after by his son, partially to provide a certain continuation in management and partially for fear of losing most of the crucial contacts. Sze, on the other side, trained Macy Wei, Quality Control Manager, affecting so the impartiality required by her role. Looking at the Trust and Advice Network inside the company, we will s urely underline a strong connection between Sze and Macy Wei, as between Ma Luk and Cha Dong, while the actual manager of the company will result isolated and not connected to the main key figures of Kitchen Best. The communication Network will also reveal important managerial considerations. The communication is formal, non effective and one-way: from the bottom to the top, with a total absence of feedback from Henry Chan. A radical change is so necessary in the company’s culture and governance system, starting with a zero tolerance approach toward facilitating payments. Kickbacks are reducing the competitiveness of the company and is severely punished by criminal laws both in China and Macao, where the company operates. This corruptive system is also exposing the company to many problems: one of its key customers, Honghua, has adopted a zero tolerance policy to kickbacks and the company is re-evaluating all its suppliers under standards of competitiveness. To cope with these issues, Henry Chan should concentrate more in the operational part of the company, gaining expertise and position himself strongly at the head of the company. First of all, he should establish a code of ethics, as a first step to change the old and paternalistic company’s culture, by inserting Western elements such as standards and ethics principles. The Code of Ethics should be a formal statement, containing ethical principles related with employees responsibilities and Business integrity. On the other side, Standards should be settled and implemented, with a zero toleration of sub-standards, especially when Selecting, Hiring, Training and Promoting employees. Promotions should be based on performance and compliance with the Codes. Moreover an External Independent Auditor should be hired to control that all  the members of the company, and also its suppliers are complying with standards and Codes. After all, Henry Chan should communicate in an effective w ay the radical measures adopted, explaining to the Stuff how fundamental is for the company to meet the standards established, to enhance its competitiveness in order to better serve its actual Asian clients and to enter the US and EU market. Repeating past errors, such as the Shago or Haus de Metro Incidents, will be fatal for the future of the company: suppliers will be chosen according to their competitiveness and no more on family or friendship relationship base. For that reason a specific Code of behavior for Suppliers has to be implemented too. In conclusion, to make the corporate governance transformation of Kitchen Best feasible, Henry Chan should definitely strengthen its position and impose a more ethic behavior inside the company. To do so, he should enter into the Trust Network, establishing a trust relationship with its Stuff, not being afraid of scolding them when necessary and partially divesting their strength in the customer and suppliers relationships. He should Invest much more time in operational and managerial tasks, as the growth and success of the company depend on them. He should also implement a bi-side communication with its employees, reporting periodically their performances through Feedbacks. When Henry Chan will have adopted all these measures and implemented all the Standards and Codes, his father will be divested from its role, reducing so its influence in the company’s decisions, who reflected the old paternalistic culture, favorable to the unethical practice of facilitating payments.

Isolation and Loneliness in Of Mice and Men Essay

In the novel Of Mice and Men the theme of loneliness and isolation can hardly be ignored as there are elements of them in key moments in the story. Isolation and loneliness plays a huge role in the story and some of the points that make this book a very gripping read, they also put things across that most of us would not have imagined in the first place. George and Lennie play the biggest part to the themes of loneliness and isolation. When they first arrive at the ranch everybody is very surprised to see two itinerant workers travelling around together. The night before George and Lennie come to the ranch they are sitting by the brush they say to each other ‘Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world†¦ They don’t belong no place†¦But not us!†¦ Because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you.’ George and Lennie’s dream of themselves owning a ranch together and having a house with two separate bedrooms for each other, this in the day the book was written was very strange because people keep themselves to themselves and travel on their own they would do almost anything to share a room with somebody just for the company. But George and Lennie aren’t lonely and they want their own space away from other people. All of the other workers are not afraid to tell George and Lennie that they find it strange that two workers are travelling together and Lennie can only speak when George lets him. The ranch owner tells George that he will keep an eye on them because George may be trying to take something from George, for example his money. This is a perfect example of how people thought about workers travelling together. A good point about having friends on the ranch is if you get in a fight you have someone to stick up for you. An example of this is when Curley starts to hit Lennie he does nothing until George tells him that he can hit back and so he does and Curley gets what he probably deserves. The friendship that George and Lennie has is very important especially to Lennie because most other people would not be able to put up with him being a pest and causing them to loose their previous job in weed due to Lennie doing something stupid. If it was not for these two friends looking out for each other Lennie would probably been killed a lot earlier on in the story and not by George. Curley’s wife is also a great example of loneliness and isolation on the ranch. Steinbeck does not give her a name. That makes her feel unimportant and she is not wanted, even though she plays a big part in the novel about the themes of dreams and in a way stops Lennie and George from getting their own dream of their own ranch. She is the only woman on a ranch full of men. This means that there is an immediate sense of loneliness because if any of the workers are caught flirting with her there will be trouble because Curley’s dad is the ranch owner and he can get the workers sacked if his son tells him to, so Curley’s wife has to stay in her house all day and the only person she can really talk to is Curley. Towards the end of the novel when Curley’s wife is talking to Lennie in the barn it is the first time in the whole novel when she actually has a full conversation with anybody. She opens up to Lennie and tells him things that she has never told anyone else before, probably because she has nobody else to talk to. She really ‘lets her hair down’ and tells him all sorts of things like she tells him that she does not like to only have to talk to Candy because she does not like him and that he is not a nice person. The only reason why she married him was so that she can escape her ‘previous life’ at home. She also says ‘Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house alla time.’ On the ranch Candy is another perfect example of loneliness and isolation. Because he is old and disabled the other workers have a different attitude to him. His equivalent to a friend on the ranch was hi old dog. Because his dog was old and no longer useful so they kill it. Candy hopes they shoot him when he gets unable to do any work. At the very end of the novel when Lennie has killed Curley’s wife and Curley is hunting him down. George is the one to kill Lennie because they were friends and he wanted no body else to shoot him. This shows friendship even when Lennie has done something very bad up until his last moment George can still find it in his heart to be kind to Lennie.