Role of Knowledge for Meaning and Purpose

Role of Knowledge for Meaning and Purpose â€Å"The whole point of knowledge is to produce both meaning and purpose in our personal lives.† To what extent do you agree with this statement? Curious mind, has a zeal to understand what is going on in the surrounding , let it be a natural event or phenomenon or people around, this understanding developed is what I assume frames the basis of knowledge. To quench this thirst provides the necessary fuel required to move on in personal lives. Knowledge provides the purpose and meaning to lead ones personnel life , while saying personal life I mean, the life of a person as guided by him or herself under his or her own instinct, in very own way-not forcefully guided by others rather willfully adopted to lead the personnel life. The question is how a person will drive his life in a specific way? One of the obvious answers could be by having knowledge of what is best for him. This leads to discuss the reason and emotion as the two Ways of Knowing, supported by the Areas of knowledge fueled by ethics and Natural sciences. The essay will try to understand how the reasoning charges the emotion to lead life in a particular way under t he umbrella of Natural sciences in an ethical way, by considering the logical arguments related to it with the help of examples as far as possible. While emotion is a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from ones circumstances, moods or relationship with others, Reason is the cause, explanation or justification for an action or event, reasoning and emotions are closely connected, the decision making relies on emotions, this implies that life is guided by reasoning and emotions, reasoning helps us to foresee the consequences and to judge if the action makes sense, yet what ‘makes sense’ depends upon the emotion. People do not practice any activity without active or passive purpose. They don’t waste time and energy purposelessly specially, a regular exercise of getting knowledge for more than a quarter of their life,Struggling in schools and colleges- investing money,time andenergy. There is Reason behind;true,sometimes the knowledge has a direct and well known purpose whereas sometimes the academic knowledge has some passive purpose but all these knowledge are meant to shape the life of the gainer and struggler for knowledge. The quest of finding the fact about malaria, a deadly disease was, to understand the reason the cause, and its cure, it took long time before the facts got established and a possible treatment was discovered leading to the invention of the medicine.Was this without a purpose? Was there an emotion attached behind, to save the whole human kind? I opine, the pain and sufferings of the patients may have fuelled the research to some extent as well. The natural science and its knowledge are all full with reason and purpose behind all scientific discoveries and inventions and endeavor. True, while trying to find out something purposefully people get extra, even un-associated knowledge of some other type or class which may or may not have an immediate use and purpose in their eyes, for the time being.But the graphic detail of it, remains saved in their mind and is utilized somewhere else in due course of time. or even if unutilized the knower is well aware of the latent information, to keep this piece of work in his brain, so as to utilize it some other time thus, knowledge has two forms namely an active and passive knowledge. It may also be noted that sometimes reason gets defeated by emotions attached to the purpose, a child’s repeated demand of cold drinks while suffering with cold and flu is accepted by father, at this point the knowledge question is, why this acceptance? Possibly, not because of reason but emotion! Talking about the natural science, why do scientists invest their time and brain in new research? Without, any point in their brain? Then what do they do sitting and observing? Till when and why, answering these questions frames the overall purpose of them being there. And these are the knowledge question as well, any new research cannot be carried out in physics or chemistry or biology unless there is a reason behind it, the people from management studies and sciences know it much better, when they say that the most important work for a successful activity is: setting the Goal breaking it into small achievable targets, and then working for the sake of those targets.One by one, to finally achieve the goal, and thus sort out the overall purpose. Scientific research are also done in the same fashion, by setting up goals breaking it into pieces and sequential steps, all forming important steps to reach a solution of the problem, a big tunnel cannot be made or a big mountain cannot be br oken or brought to ground without any purpose. Knowledge establishes facts and information are devised from this fact to help understand life and surroundings in a more refined way which thus provides a better living environment. Now the question is what if there is no purpose behind any peace of quest and there is no curious mind working behind a given idea or set of ideas, will the brain still be working will their still be an idea or creativity from nowhere? Where to start for what when how and many more questions will stand still without any straight or creative answer. So how the quest will take form and why?Another important point worth mentioning out here is the famous instant from Sir Isaac Newton’s life when he wandered as why the apple is falling down on the ground and not going up once it is broken from its branch, which leads to the famous and useful theory of gravitation. This incidence was not only once occurring rather a routine natural process that no one actu ally cared so no purpose and meaning for the people from normal walk of life, so a wandering but purposeful wanderer is needed to really bring meaning and purpose, to shape up knowledge. Or is there any counter claim? Supposing that Mr. Newton was sitting and thinking or dreaming something else at the time of this falling apple, paying no attention to this phenomenon of nature, then what would have happened? The answer is, whatever but not the theory. Ethics is another important area of knowledge which needs to ponder under this debate of knowledge meaning and purpose. Human coordination towards other humans and towards the nature is another philosophical area, which never works without any relationship between purpose, meaning and knowledge. How an ethical rule is defined and or established unless the raw material, a piece of past experience or a smallest of fact is available to the genuine thinkers in this field?Human mind starts working in an active way only with an input of purpose so in here if the main purpose and the meaning are missing from the whole fury of knowledge then nothing as knowledge takes shape. While wandering through wild purposelessly people get involved in watching the plants and trees with highest degree of curiosity only if they have interest in watching and gaining some active or passive purpose behind it others may find interest in watching animals or birds out there. Now if their interest is towards human and ethics the perspective will be different then someone interested in animals and animal protection as compared to someone else who is interested in the delicate balance between all these factors and the new ethical theory or principle formulated will be different from all these theorist and philosophers of ethics. Having said this, we may discuss the academic knowledge as acquired by the scholars at school and colleges, they will have better approach towards their studies, if they have the knowledge and understanding behind their subject of endeavor, if they know the real reason behind the struggle in studies, they will excel in their field as compared to those who are trying to study just for the sake of studying. This is the reason why preface and introduction to the book is written, and written to be placed on the front page. Students undertaking professional qualification always record high percentage of passing out as compared to those who are pursuing a general academic course where the pass percent is comparatively low. Thus to sum up knowledge is always acquired with a purpose and meaning in life and not in vain , I fully agree with the statement, and personally gaining knowledge for me is only possible if there is direct and indirect purpose leading to the meaning in life. This provides the necessary fuel and zeal required to continue the endeavor and struggle towards the successful assimilation of knowledge. Bibliography: References; 1) https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366bih=622noj=1sclient=psy-abq=the+meaning+of+Emotionoq=the+meaning+of+Emotiongs_l=serp.12..0l9.94867.104530.1.110389.8.7.0.1.1.0.989.3221.3-1j2j0j2.5.0.msedr01c.1.61.serp..2.6.3222.WSAznehMuh8 2) https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Reasoning 3) http://www.theoryofknowledge.net/areas-of-knowledge/ 4) http://www.theoryofknowledge.net/ways-of-knowing/ 5) Eileen Dombrowski, Lena Rotenberg,Mimi Bick. 2007. Theory of knowledge , Course Companion Oxford University Press.

To Be an Iskolar Ng Bayan

â€Å"Solar Eng banyan† are words which will forever be linked to each one of us studying here In this university. They are usually just accepted by students absent-minded, without truly understanding the weight of being an â€Å"solar Eng banyan†. Usually, for most people, what It meaner to be an â€Å"Solar Eng banyan† Is simply to be a student In the state university, the premier university in the country. However, that meaning is not all there Is to it: it's the tip of the iceberg to what an â€Å"ISO/ask† stands for.What most people forget Is that the term â€Å"Solar Eng banyan† Is actually a literal description f what UP students are: we are scholars of the country. Here in UP, we often see students fight and protest for d higher budget for education from the government because this would directly affect every single one of us kiosks and asks. A part of the annual education budget tot the country Is meant to subsidize our up talon. The relati vely low tuition fee here in UP is due to the fact that our government pays for some chunk of our supposed tuition: therefore what we have to pay for ourselves is a lower fee.However, looking at things In perspective, It Is not really the government hat subsidizes us. The money of the government comes from the Filipino people. Our countrymen, so we owe our education to them. Their money Is used to allow us to study here, therefore we are their scholars; we are scholars of our countrymen and of our country, hence the term â€Å"Solaris Eng banyan†. With that in mind, we have to remember that it is not only our parent's' money that is wasted every time we skip our classes, every time we fail our exams, or every time we have to retake our subjects.We may not feel guilty for wasting our parent's' money, but we should keep In mind hat we are also wasting our fellow Filipinos money. For example, our tuition may have been partly paid by a hardworking father, who does his Job faithfu lly and honestly every day, but the salary he is able to take home to his family is not enough because tax was deducted trot it, tax which was used tort government subsidy tot UP students. Instead of being able to provide his family with enough to eat, his money went to us, to be able to pay for our tuition.We should at least have the decency to be ashamed of wasting the money given to us, mandatory, by our countrymen. This s the reason why UP wants the â€Å"cream of the crop†, the best students in the country, because they wouldn't want to waste the Flossing' money. They know that with good students, the things taught in the classroom would not stay in the classroom, but would stick to the students' minds. UP wants to produce graduates Witt nor and excellence. It is better if we all realize this at once, so we don't call ourselves â€Å"Kiosks and asks† Just to say we are one of the best students this country has.Let's live up to that name, to being â€Å"Solaris En g banyan†, and living up to It doesn't stop once we have radiated. It is important to remember that our country has invested in us by allowing us to be scholars. They expect a return of their Investment. Lets make their investment worth It. They are paying for our education so we could hopefully make their quality of life better, so we could make this country better, That is the real just doing well in school and getting high grades. Being an â€Å"solar Eng banyan† is taking what you learn in the classroom and using them to return the favor given to us by our countrymen.

To What Extent Can Language Shape Our Beliefs?

TO WHAT EXTENT CAN LANGUAGE SHAPE OUR BELIEFS? Language is all around us. We use it for all kinds of things like expressing our feelings, describing things, talking with our friends and family and writing literature. We may think that we know what language really means, but can we really be sure about that? More importantly, to what extent can language actually shape our beliefs? Well I think it depends on different people. With some examples I will try to show that usage of language is more complicated then many of us think. If we look how scientists express themselves. Most of them believe in some kind of facts.They believe that everything on this planet can be explained by facts, with words that we can find in different dictionaries. And this words are not so hard to explain. So if I would be a scientist, I would probably say, that the most important theory of meaning is the definition theory. I would say that, because I would believe that I can explain anything, let’s say mathematics, with words that we found in dictionaries. And definition theory says that meanings are to be found in dictionary. So if we believe in something, that has a meaning in dictionary, can we know what we believe in?But if we look at artists, how can they express themselves? How can they express what they believe in? Definitely, they do not support definition theory. If an actor wants to express love, he cannot look in dictionary and find its definition. He must make some kind of image in his head for which he thinks, it is the best meaning of love. In that case, image theory is the most appropriate one, because this theory says that meanings are found in our minds. He just makes an image and he can tell everybody else, what they believe that love is.But, if we cannot find the exact meaning of word, can we believe in something that we just thought about ourselves? Can we believe in our image without thinking about ideas of other people? In my opinion, you cannot express yours elf completely by definition theory or image theory. You must believe in both of them. If you find a word in a dictionary, you only know what it means and I think that is not enough. You can know its meaning, but sometimes you must make your own image in your head. But in the other hand, if you find meanings mostly in your head, you can make mistakes and change the true meaning of the word.So mathematician shouldn’t just rely on facts, he should also express his own ideas, even if they are not proved. And an artist should know that there are some meanings, that just cannot be changed and he must leave them as they are. I think that everybody in this world is more a scientist or more an artist. We must know that there are certain facts that we must believe in like a scientist does, but there are also a lot of things, which we can give our own meaning and believe in them. Language can’t totally shape our beliefs, but it is up to us, if we stick to language as it is or if we look beyond it. To What Extent Can Language Shape Our Beliefs? TO WHAT EXTENT CAN LANGUAGE SHAPE OUR BELIEFS? Language is all around us. We use it for all kinds of things like expressing our feelings, describing things, talking with our friends and family and writing literature. We may think that we know what language really means, but can we really be sure about that? More importantly, to what extent can language actually shape our beliefs? Well I think it depends on different people. With some examples I will try to show that usage of language is more complicated then many of us think. If we look how scientists express themselves. Most of them believe in some kind of facts.They believe that everything on this planet can be explained by facts, with words that we can find in different dictionaries. And this words are not so hard to explain. So if I would be a scientist, I would probably say, that the most important theory of meaning is the definition theory. I would say that, because I would believe that I can explain anything, let’s say mathematics, with words that we found in dictionaries. And definition theory says that meanings are to be found in dictionary. So if we believe in something, that has a meaning in dictionary, can we know what we believe in?But if we look at artists, how can they express themselves? How can they express what they believe in? Definitely, they do not support definition theory. If an actor wants to express love, he cannot look in dictionary and find its definition. He must make some kind of image in his head for which he thinks, it is the best meaning of love. In that case, image theory is the most appropriate one, because this theory says that meanings are found in our minds. He just makes an image and he can tell everybody else, what they believe that love is.But, if we cannot find the exact meaning of word, can we believe in something that we just thought about ourselves? Can we believe in our image without thinking about ideas of other people? In my opinion, you cannot express yours elf completely by definition theory or image theory. You must believe in both of them. If you find a word in a dictionary, you only know what it means and I think that is not enough. You can know its meaning, but sometimes you must make your own image in your head. But in the other hand, if you find meanings mostly in your head, you can make mistakes and change the true meaning of the word.So mathematician shouldn’t just rely on facts, he should also express his own ideas, even if they are not proved. And an artist should know that there are some meanings, that just cannot be changed and he must leave them as they are. I think that everybody in this world is more a scientist or more an artist. We must know that there are certain facts that we must believe in like a scientist does, but there are also a lot of things, which we can give our own meaning and believe in them. Language can’t totally shape our beliefs, but it is up to us, if we stick to language as it is or if we look beyond it.

Why are some companies successful while so many other businesses fail - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2616 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? INTRODUCTION Why are some companies successful, while so many other businesses fail? Some organizations may just be lucky. They may have the right mix of products and/or services at the right time. But even if luck leads to success, it probably will not last. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Why are some companies successful while so many other businesses fail" essay for you Create order Most companies that are highly successful over the long term effectively acquire, develop, and manage resources and capabilities that provide competitive advantages. For example, McDonalds enjoys outstanding brand recognition and a world class operating system. Marriott enjoys these same benefits in the lodging industry. Successful companies have also learned how to develop and manage relationships with a wide range of organizations, groups, and people that have a stake in their firms. The emergence of a fiercely competitive global economy means that firms have to expand their networks of relationships and cooperate with each other to remain competitive. McDonalds investment in Chipotle was a cooperative venture. As Steve Ells, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Chipotle noted, Weve enjoyed our relationship with McDonalds since the beginning and appreciate the support theyve shown in funding Chipotles growth over the last seven years. Still, weve always operated independently, and tha t wont change as McDonalds Continues to reduce its investment in Chipotle and focuses on its core business. Strategic management is a process through which organizations analyze and learn from their internal and external environments, establish strategic direction, create strategies that are intended to move the organization in that direction, and implement those strategies, all in an effort to satisfy key stakeholders. Stakeholders are groups or individuals who can significantly affect or are significantly affected by an organizations activities. An organization defines who its key stakeholders are, but they typically include customers, employees, and shareholders or owners, among others. Although larger companies tend to use the strategic management process, this process is also a vital part of decision making in smaller companies. Firms practicing strategic planning processes tend to outperform their counterparts that do not. In fact, executives have reported higher levels of satisfaction with strategic management tools and ideas than with most other management tools. Furthermore, 81 percent of companies worldwide reported doing strategic planning. In North America, the figure was even higher (89 percent). Hospitality firms also benefit from strategic planning, as suggested by a recent study of hotels in the United Kingdom, which found that business performance was positively associated with the thoroughness, sophistication, participation, and formality of strategic planning processes. An example of how strategic analysis can help guide business strategy is shown in Starwood Hotels Resorts efforts to launch a new product. This book also recognizes that there is a difference between the strategic planning process and strategic thinking, and that both are a part of effective strategic management. The strategic planning process tends to be a rather rigid and unimaginative process in many organizations. Strategic thinking, however, leads to creative solutions and new ideas like Starwood Hotels launch of the Heavenly Bed. As illustrated in the Heavenly Bed example, a firm that injects strategic thinking into the strategic planning process has the best of both worlds. THE ORIGIN OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 5 THE ORIGIN OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT The increasing importance of strategic management may be a result of several trends. Increasing competition in most industries has made it difficult for some companies to compete. Modern and cheaper transportation and communication have led to increasing global trade and awareness. Technological development has led to accelerated changes in the global economy. Regardless of the reasons, the past two decades have seen a surge in interest in strategic management. STRATEGIC THINKING AT STARWOOD The Heavenly Bed, first launched by the Westin brand of Starwood Hotels Resorts, has transformed the bed, a basic feature of any hotel room, into a luxurious object of desire, enhancing the revenues of the chain and leaving many hotel operators to follow suit with copycat linens and custom bedding of their own. The strategic process at Starwood began with consumer analysis and product testing. First, Westin commissioned a study involving 600 business executives who travel frequently. The results showed that 84 percent said a luxurious bed would make a hotel room more attractive to them. What is more, 63 percent said a good night s sleep is the most important service a hotel can provide. Half of those surveyed said they sleep worse in hotels than at home. After testing 50 beds from 35 lodging chains, Westin developed its prototype all white Heavenly Bed with a custom designed pillow top mattress, goose down comforters, five pillows, and three crisp sheets ranging in thread count from 180 to 250. Once the product was designed and tested, the fi rm introduced the bed with a carefully planned marketing strategy. USA Today ran a story on the front page of its business section. The same day, 20 pristine white Heavenly Beds lined Wall Street up to the New York Stock Exchange in New York City. Inside the Stock Exchange, Barry Sternlicht, the then Chairman and CEO of Starwood Hotels Resorts rang the opening bell and threw out hats proclaiming, Work like the devil. Sleep like an angel. Meanwhile, at New York s Grand Central Station, 20 more beds graced one of the rotundas there, and commuters disembarking the trains were invited to try them out. Similar events were staged the same day at 38 locations across the United States, tailored to each city. Savannahs event featured a bed floating on a barge down the river with a landing skydiver. Seattles event took place atop the Space Needle. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Traditional Perspective As the field of strategic management began to emerge in the latter part of the 20th century, scholars borrowed heavily from the field of economics. For some time, economists had been actively studying topics associated with the competitiveness of industries. THE ORIGIN OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 7 Industry concentration, diversification, product differentiation, and market power. However, much of the economics research at that time focused on industries as a whole, and some of it even assumed that individual firm differences did not matter. Other fields also influenced early strategic management thought, including marketing, finance, psychology, and management. Academic progress was slow in the beginning, and the large consulting firms began to develop their own models and theories to meet their clients needs. Scholars readily adopted many of these models into their own articles and books. Eventually, a consensus began to build regarding what is included in the strategic management process. The traditional process for developing strategy consists of analyzing the internal and external environments of the company to arrive at organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). The results from this situation analysis, as this process is sometimes call ed, are the basis for developing missions, goals, and strategies. In general, a company should select strategies that (1) take advantage of organizational strengths and environmental opportunities or (2) neutralize or overcome organizational weaknesses and environmental threats. 10 After strategies are formulated, plans for implementing them are established and carried out. Figure 1.1 presents the natural flow of these activities. The first of these ideas was that the environment is the primary determinant of the best strategy. This is called environmental determinism. According to the deterministic view, good management is associated with determining which strategy will best fit environmental, technical, and human forces at a particular point in time, and then working to carry it out. The most successful organization best adapts to existing forces. Some evidence suggests that the ability to align the skills and other resources of the organization with the needs and demands of the environment can be a source of competitive advantage. 12 However, after a critical review of environmental determinism, a well known researcher once argued: There is a more fundamental conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing analysis: the strategy of a firm cannot be predicted, nor is it predestined; the strategic decisions made by managers cannot be assumed to be the product of deterministic forces in their environments. On the contrary, the very nature of the concept of strategy assumes a human agent who is able to take actions that attempt to distinguish one firm from the competitors. Basically, a large firm may decide not to compete in a given environment. Or, as an alternative, the firm may attempt to influence the environment to make it less hostile and more conducive to organizational success. This process is called enactment, which means that a firm can influence its environment. THE PRINCIPLE OF ENACTMENT The principle of enactment assumes that organizations do not have to submit to existing forces in the environment; they can, in part, create their environments through strategic alliances with stakeholders, investments in leading technologies, advertising, political lobbying, and a variety of other activities. 14 Of course, smaller organizations are somewhat limited in their ability to influence some components of their environments on their own. For example, a small restaurant firm may have a difficult time influencing national government agencies and administrators. However, smaller organizations often band together into trade groups, such as the National Restaurant Association, to influence government policy on pressing issues like minimum wage, immigration policy, and health care costs. Also, they may form alliances with other entities. The Global Hotel Alliance is one example, in which Omni Hotels, Kempinski Hotels Resorts, Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts, Rydges Hotels R esorts, Marco Polo Group, Dusit Hotels Resorts and Landis Hotels Resorts have joined forces to compete against the mega chains. In addition, even a small firm may be able to exert a powerful influence on its local operating environment. The key to enactment is understanding that a firm does not necessarily have to adapt completely to the forces that exist in its operating environment. It can at least partly influence certain aspects of the environment in which it competes. DELIBERATE STRATEGY VERSUS EMERGENT STRATEGY The traditional school of thought concerning strategy formulation also supported the view that managers respond to the forces discussed thus far by making decisions that are consistent with a preconceived strategy. In other words, strategy is deliberate. Deliberate strategy implies that managers plan to pursue an intended strategic course. In some cases, however, strategy simply emerges from a stream of decisions. Managers learn as they go. An emergent strategy is one that was not planned or intended. According to this perspective, managers learn what will work through a process of trial and error. 16 Supporters of this view argue that organizations that limit themselves to acting on the basis of what is already known or understood will not be sufficiently innovative to create a sustainable competitive advantage. In the first week of launching the Westin Heavenly Bed, 32 guests called to ask where they could buy the bed. A light bulb went on. Westin executives put order cards wi th a toll free number in every room. Then they started placing catalogs by bedsides and desks and set up a web site. By June of 2004, Westin had sold 20,000 pillows $ 75 for the king sized version and 3,500 bed/bedding combos, at $ 2,965 each, enough to spread the idea throughout Starwood, with the Sheraton, St. Regis, and W lines all turning into retailers. The unanticipated success of the Heavenly Bed has spawned a new business companies that help hotels run their retail arms. Boxport, a spin off of San Francisco based hotel procurer Higgins Purchasing Group, operates web sites and catalogs for several chains that now sell Bedding of this example of emergent strategy, it is not a good idea to reject deliberate strategy either. One of the strongest advocates of learning and emergent strategy recently confessed, We shall get nowhere without emergent learning alongside deliberate planning.Both processes are necessary if an organization is to succeed. When Starwood first lau nched the concept of the Heavenly Bed in 1999, the strategy was a deliberate effort, but the opportunity to provide retail sales was an unintended outcome, and this unforeseen opportunity led to an emergent and highly successful retail strategy, as the above example shows. EFFECTIVE STRATEGIC PLANNING In summary, scholars have determined that both adaptation and enactment are important to organizations. They should adapt to environmental forces when the costs of enacting (influencing) the environment exceed the benefits. However, they should be proactive in creating their own opportunities. In addition, organizations should engage in deliberate strategic planning processes, but they should also be willing to make mistakes and learn from them as they chart a strategic course. In other words, strategy should be both deliberate and emergent, and firms should both adapt to and enact their environments, with the situation determining which option to choose. Westin learned these lessons by paying attention to their customers. The Organization as a Bundle of Resources: The Resource Based View In recent years, another perspective on strategy development has gained wide acceptance. The resource based view of the firm has its roots in the work of the earliest strategic manageme nt theorists. 20 It grew out of the question, Why do some firms persistently outperform other firms? One of the first competencies identified was general management capability. This led to the proposition that firms with high quality general managers will outperform their rivals. Much research has examined this issue. Clearly, effective leadership is important to organizational performance, but it is diffi cult to specify what makes an effective leader. Also, although leaders are an important source of competence for an organization, they are not the only important resource that makes a difference. Economic thought also influenced development of the resource based view. Nearly two centuries ago, an economist named David Ricardo investigated the advantages of possessing superior resources, especially land. 22 One of Ricardos central propositions was that the farmer with the most fertile land had a sustained performance advantage over other farmers. More recently, another eco nomist, Edith Penrose, expanded on Ricardo s view by noting that various skills and abilities possessed by firms could lead to superior performance. She viewed firms as an administrative framework that coordinated the activities of numerous groups and individuals, and also as a bundle of productive resources. 23 She studied the effects of various skills and abilities possessed by organizations, concluding that a wide range of skills and resources could influence competitive performance. A common thread of reasoning in the distinctive competency literature and the arguments of Ricardo and Penrose is that organizational success can be explained in terms of the resources and capabilities possessed by an organization. Many modern scholars have contributed to this perspective of the firm. According to this view, an organization is a bundle of resources, which fall into the general categories of: 1. Financial resources, including all of the monetary resources from which a firm can draw. 2. Physical resources, such as land, buildings, equipment, locations, and access to raw materials. 3. Human resources, which pertains to the skills, background, and training of managers and employees, as well as the way they are organized. 4. Organizational knowledge and learning 5. General organizational resources, including the firm s reputation, brand names, Patents, contracts, and relationships with external stakeholders. Envisioning the firm as a bundle of resources has broad implications. For example, the most important role of a manager becomes that of acquiring, developing, managing, and discarding resources. Also, much of the research on the resource based perspective has demonstrated that firms can gain competitive advantage through possessing superior resources. Superior resources are those that have value in the market, are possessed by only a small number of firms, and are not easy to substitute. If a particular resource is also costly or imp ossible to imitate, then the competitive advantage may be sustainable. A sustainable competitive advantage may lead to higher than average organizational performance over a long period.