Organisations need strong culture. Consider this statementin relation Essay

Organisations need strong culture. Consider this statementin relation to how we understand and makesense of culture in the post-bureaucratic era - Essay Example The aim of this paper is to explain the mainstream approach to organization culture. Here the managers always work to maintain right values, ethics, code of conduct and norms. Culture is the top priority for organizations where culture management, ensuring employees to follow the organization’s culture leading to organizational success. Values, norms and ethics vary among organizations when organizations are treated as different states. All of these organizations have different value sets and norms leading to differing systems and structures (Brewis, 2007). Culture, therefore, provides a common sense to the organization that enables the human resource to delineate ways to how to act and when and where to act. Organizational culture is responsible for bringing an organization to life as all the strategies, policies, regulations must be synchronized with the culture and the employees and managers (the alive participants) of the organization keeps the culture alive by following it. Organizational culture is therefore written and stored in the form of job descriptions, procedures, strategies etc. But if there arises a conflict between the documented and the practiced norms, values, and beliefs practiced within an organization, serious conflicts may occur leading to disastrous effects. The people will drift away from the formal rules at workplace. Organizational culture comprises of values and sets of beliefs that directly and predominantly originate from people’s minds identified as cultural artefacts (Brewis, 2007). Cultural artefacts are somewhat tangible and more material embodiment of organizational culture consisting of: According to Schein, among the three levels of culture, artefacts forms the tip of the iceberg, that is the visible part keeping hence, the two other parts way behind and hidden beneath. Values refer to answering questions such as what we are

Final exam Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Final exam - Assignment Example The following diagram illustrates the model. Source of information The message Receiver Interactive models are another class of models of communication. Though achieving the same purpose of transmitting information from a sender to a receiver, the model recognizes active participation of the receiver through feedback. The model also identifies continuity in communication as the receiver becomes the secondary sender during feedback and the primary sender becomes a secondary receiver recognizes the role of the environment on communication. The model is also cyclic. The following diagram illustrates the modes. Field of experience Message Field of experience Encoder, source, decoder Decoder, receiver, encoder Feedback Another model of communication is the transactional model that recognizes the potential of simultaneous communication as opposed to the single directional scope of the linear model. The sender in the model is also the receiver at the same time. The transactional model also considers effects of time in communications. The following diagrams illustrate the model. Transactional model in an interpersonal communication Time Difference in context Transactional model in a mass communication Time Contextual difference (Wood 16, 17) Q2. ... Another link between communication and culture is the role of communication as an indicator of culture. Even though communication influence culture through facilitating sustainability, culture also shape people’s communication approaches. Differences in communication styles among people from different cultures show this. Consequently, communication forms a basis of identifying different cultures. Similarity in communication styles among people from the same culture can classify the society into communities while difference in communication within the communities can classify aspects such as behaviour. Indicator role of communication over culture helps in improving cross-cultural communication by bridging communication barriers. Another link between communication and culture is the role of communication if initiating and influencing cultural changes. One of the examples of this role of communication is in the development and spread of the hip-hop culture that emerged through mu sic artists and was communicated to influence the youth into the hip hop culture (Wood 159, 168). Some of the communication concepts that relate to culture are communication barrier and dynamism in communication amidst development in technologies (Wood 120). Culture defines a person’s environment and therefore contributes to situational barriers to communication. Cultural differences are an example. Culture also define norms, behaviour, and attitude that may consider some communication trends as immoral or complex and therefore offer resistance to advancement in communication (Wood 159). Q3. The first step in preparation for a speech is earning credibility from the audience and this is achieved through ensuring reliability

Slavery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Slavery - Essay Example The story of Equiano demonstrates the inhumane situation of the slaves and the acceptance by slaves the white racial theories. In the middle of the XVII England has been shaken by the political crisis because of Oliver Cromwell revolution. The Putney Debates of 1647 revealed the English Revolution as an abolishment movement, a 1659 Parliamentary debate on slavery and the â€Å"free-born Englishman†, held on the eve of the restoration of Charles II and the Stuart monarchy, marked a counterrevolutionary reversal (Linebaugh, 132). The Putney Debates between Thomas Rainborough and Henry Ireton raised the questions of the struggle for the commons and struggle against slavery. Domestic wars and conflicts led to appearance of the new slavery forms in England: white slaves in Barbados, slavery in West Africa, Jamaica. Irish radicals and foes were sent by Oliver Cromwell to the Barbados, in the 1649 British merchants ordered the construction of a trading fort on the Gold Coast. The ski n color wasn’t decisive for the slavery - it was a matter of the profit for the merchants and elites. And Equiano in his autobiography gave us great example when even in the mid of the XVIII century there was an incident during the way through the ocean, when â€Å"one white man in particular I saw, when we were permitted to be on deck, flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast, that he died in consequence of it: and they tossed him over the side as they would have done a brute† (Equiano, 423). The interracial co-operations were not solitary: for example, Africans and Irish conspired together in plots of 1675, 1686, 1692 and alliance between slaves and servants was what planters feared most of all (Linebaugh, 126). The slavery began to acquire the racial shade in the 1670s. The resistance of plantation workers exploded in 1675-1676 in Virginia. There were two uprisings. The first one began in 1675 and was a war for land by freedmen and small farmers a gainst Indians and a portion of the colonial ruling class in Virginia. The second one was a war against slavery, waged by servants and slaves. After rebellion the planters charged the governor with restraining â€Å"any inhumane severity which by ill masters or overseers may be used toward Christian servants† (Linebaugh, 137). And the result of this rebellion was legislation in 1682 that provided â€Å"all servants not being Christians, being imported into this country by shipping† should be servants for twelve years, instead European servants – for five years. Of course, this legislation was directed toward the Africans. The defeats of the servants and slaves that was detailed represented in the â€Å"The Many-Headed Hydra†, became the reason why the elites, nobles, â€Å"whites† began to establishing new rules that had aim to discriminate the rebels and to justify himself. From the 1670s legislation was enacted to protect and Christians, â€Å"w hite† people (Linebaugh, 139). Rulers from the England, merchants and planters dispossessed tens of thousands more in Ireland, Barbados, West Africa and Virginia and made the slavery of Atlantic capitalism (Linebaugh, 141). Indeed, the masses of cheep labour in the America and Europe created the possibility to very fast enrichments. Slaves were very good investments. The people from the lowest classes had no wealth, they had no property. The capitalists wanted to control them,

Final exam Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Final exam - Assignment Example The following diagram illustrates the model. Source of information The message Receiver Interactive models are another class of models of communication. Though achieving the same purpose of transmitting information from a sender to a receiver, the model recognizes active participation of the receiver through feedback. The model also identifies continuity in communication as the receiver becomes the secondary sender during feedback and the primary sender becomes a secondary receiver recognizes the role of the environment on communication. The model is also cyclic. The following diagram illustrates the modes. Field of experience Message Field of experience Encoder, source, decoder Decoder, receiver, encoder Feedback Another model of communication is the transactional model that recognizes the potential of simultaneous communication as opposed to the single directional scope of the linear model. The sender in the model is also the receiver at the same time. The transactional model also considers effects of time in communications. The following diagrams illustrate the model. Transactional model in an interpersonal communication Time Difference in context Transactional model in a mass communication Time Contextual difference (Wood 16, 17) Q2. ... Another link between communication and culture is the role of communication as an indicator of culture. Even though communication influence culture through facilitating sustainability, culture also shape people’s communication approaches. Differences in communication styles among people from different cultures show this. Consequently, communication forms a basis of identifying different cultures. Similarity in communication styles among people from the same culture can classify the society into communities while difference in communication within the communities can classify aspects such as behaviour. Indicator role of communication over culture helps in improving cross-cultural communication by bridging communication barriers. Another link between communication and culture is the role of communication if initiating and influencing cultural changes. One of the examples of this role of communication is in the development and spread of the hip-hop culture that emerged through mu sic artists and was communicated to influence the youth into the hip hop culture (Wood 159, 168). Some of the communication concepts that relate to culture are communication barrier and dynamism in communication amidst development in technologies (Wood 120). Culture defines a person’s environment and therefore contributes to situational barriers to communication. Cultural differences are an example. Culture also define norms, behaviour, and attitude that may consider some communication trends as immoral or complex and therefore offer resistance to advancement in communication (Wood 159). Q3. The first step in preparation for a speech is earning credibility from the audience and this is achieved through ensuring reliability

Gender Normativity in Aurora Floyd; How Variances in Gender Behavior Essay

Gender Normativity in Aurora Floyd; How Variances in Gender Behavior Illustrate Societal Norms - Essay Example It is more likely, however, that Aurora's childhood was the primary influencer of her unfeminine behavior. At the loss of her mother, Aurora was allowed to do anything she pleased, as long as she was happy. Indeed She said what she pleased; thought, spoke, acted as she pleased; learned what she pleased; and she grew into a bright, impetuous being, affectionate and generous-hearted as her mother, but with some touch of native fire blended in her mould that stamped her as original. (Bradden 9) Without the careful training that young girls of the era received, Aurora was unable to succumb to traditional femininity. She read novels with inappropriate content, new of horse racing and betting, spent long days on horseback, and was quick to say what she thought. She was a strong, independent young lady, the exact opposite of what was desired in a woman! exactly the sort of woman to make a good wife. She had been educated to that end by a careful mother. Purity and goodness had watched over her and hemmed her in from the cradle. She had never seen unseemly sights, or heard unseemly sounds. She was as ignorant as a baby of all the vices and horrors of this big world. She was ladylike, accomplished, well-informed. (Bradden 21) Lucy was quiet and calm and good, willing to suffer for her husband and willing to do as she was told. As a model of femininity, she is perfect. There could be no recourse against her. However, it is her very perfection in femininity that makes her less noticeable by the men in the story. While Captain Bulstrode believes she would make an ideal wife, he also ponders the idea that "There are so many Lucys, but so few Auroras; and while you never could be critical with the one, you were merciless in your scrutiny of the other" (Bradden 21). Because she is perfect, it is impossible to fall in love with her, because of an internal fear that the man's own imperfections will be clearer next to her. While she is what should be desired in a wife, it is the wild Aurora that catches men's attentions; with her boldness and imperfection. These two young women represent two very different personalities. Aurora, who has everything, but still maintains the wildness and lower class lifestyle that her mother had, and Lucy, who has modest wealth, but has been raised to be the perfect specimen of femininity. Even their coloring matches the ideals. Aurora is dark haired and dark eyed, and was "a good hater" (Braddon 12). Lucy was fair haired and blue eyed, the Victorian ideal of beauty. Aurora, throughout the novel, acts and does precisely what she wants. However, even she is not able to make all her own choices. By force, she is sent to finishing school in Paris, and then has to endure a woman meant to help polish her when she returns. Lucy, who has the feminine graces, did not have to endure these actions, but instead has to endure the pain of being overlooked by the man she loves, as she can be nothing but

Rooms Division Operation Plan Essay Example for Free

Rooms Division Operation Plan Essay The rooms division comprises the front office, reservations, bell service, concierge, housekeeping, laundry including health and recreation. (NZQA 2005) Since the resort operates as a full-fledged 4-star category, the reservations, bell service and concierge are made separate sections from the front office and the laundry is made separate from the housekeeping. As a resort, the rooms division extends its scope to the facilities of surfing, spa, swimming pool, maintenance and gardens which are specialized functions are under the Health and Recreation department. The next 12-month operation strategies for the Rooms Division will aim to overcome the weaknesses as determined in the SWOT analysis which are lack of conference facilities and meeting rooms, high employee turn-over, shortfalls in planned maintenance activities and will focus on full blast redesigning and refurbishment, upgrading the service quality, augmenting market research, enhancing service capacity and upgrading management competencies. Refurbishment Any service company, particularly hotels and resorts will always have to consider sufficiency of infrastructure and facilities. The quality of service will always rely on these factors. (Gray 1992) Refurbishment will be necessary to achieve the resort’s major strategies especially in the expansion of conference rooms and meeting rooms. The refurbishment program for the rooms division includes expansion of the ballroom which now becomes a grand ballroom that is breakable into 4 mini ballrooms to accommodate 100 to 150 persons per ballroom, additional 8 function rooms that can accommodate 50 persons and 10 meeting rooms with a capacity of 20 persons. This will encourage local markets to book more parties, meetings and conferences and the resort will be able to accommodate to as much as 600 persons in one sitting at the same time be flexible enough to accommodate small groups. Because of this major move of the resort, some guestrooms will have to be refurbished which are those to be included in the packaging of the conferences and meetings. The 214 guestroom are in resort motifs and there will have to be at least 40 guestrooms that will be redesigned to match the conference package of the resort. It is expected that the conference and meetings engagement will generate the intended occupancy rate increase of 15% in the next year and the targeted increase in sales from the New Zealand and Asian markets. Aside from these more amenities will be supplied to the guestrooms as add-ons to increase occupancy rates particularly during off peak seasons along with refurbishments undergone in for the conference halls and meeting rooms. There will be two (2) business centers to be set up beside the ballroom areas to facilitate easy access to communication and printing requirements of the guests that are booked for the conferences and meetings. These business centers will be equipped with the latest IT facilities and state of the art communication systems that will answer to all types of needs of customers at all levels. These facilities are also expected to contribute to the income generated by the resort. Service Quality Since the resort saturate efforts to increase occupancy rates through massive promotional campaigns to be led by the resort Marketing Department. The rooms division will have its share of strategies and complementary efforts to upgrade the quality of service provided by the rooms division, particularly in the front desk, concierge, bell service and health and recreation departments which are the front liners of the resort. All staff at the front line would be required to learn Japanese Nippongo, Chinese Mandarin and Italian which are the most common language barriers as determined in the previous years. Aside from those, the staff had to improve their English communication skills. All staff of the division will have to undergo re-training and series of seminars on improving service quality. Butlers will be hired to provide special service to the guests at the VVIP suites. Flowers, chocolates, fruit baskets, beach bags, bathing suits and rubber sandals will be provided for the guests as promotional amenities. The image of the resort will depend on the excellent quality of service that the rooms division staff will provide the guests, as they enter the resort and reach the comforts of their rooms. (Branson 1998) Correspondingly, as a move to control the movement of customers, particularly those who will attend meetings, functions and parties, a separate route will be allocated for them, to protect the in-house guests from losing their privacy particularly those staying at the pool area. It is important to consider always, the privacy and comfort of the guests in the resort. This is what customers look for in hotels and resorts and that they are willing to pay much for that. (Gray 1992) Entrance to the pool area will therefore be limited to in-house guests although other restaurant and party patrons may be allowed discretely. Market Research  While there is a Marketing Department that specially focuses on finding the clients and developing strategies to attract guests and bookings (Gray 1992), the Rooms Division provides its counterpart move to market research. The early operations stage of the hotel will need the support of all the staff especially the expertise of the key people, like the Front Office Manager, the Executive Housekeeper and the different managers of the other departments in the rooms division to help determine the hotel’s target customers, their profile and their needs as well as determine how the rooms division services can satisfy them. The division will hold a strategic planning session to give inputs to market research. Here, the staff will give their expert ideas as to who the targeted clients are, where to find them, how the hotel can get them to book and most especially, how the hotel can satisfy them when they finally try the hotel services. The integrated inputs will be submitted to the Marketing Department for integration to the marketing plan. (Lane 1998) Production Development A major weakness identified in the plan is the deficiencies in providing maintenance services especially in the guestrooms. Guest complaints received in the previous year mostly were pointing to unserviceable facilities like the hot and cold water, busted bulbs, defective appliances, and even clogged bathtubs. In any service company, maintenance is as important as the other services provided. (Branson 1998) The division’s response to solve the problem would be to develop a maintenance preventive system that will require regular monitoring of facilities and assure that all is working well. Additional employees will be hired in the housekeeping department, those who already possess technical skills in maintenance and engineering so that housekeeping department can immediately solve minor technical problems without waiting for the engineering team to respond. Management Competencies The resort has been affected by fast employee turn-over and this will be answered by package incentives programmed by the Human Resource Department. Aside from the capability building programs being conducted for the staff skills upgrading including teambuilding and values development, the rooms division will institutionalize a regular learning session among management, which includes supervisors, assistant managers, managers and the division manager to improve the management competencies and benchmark on best practices. Food and Beverage Operation Plan The Food and Beverage Division comprises the FB Service and FB Production departments. FB Service will cover all restaurants, bars and the banquet; FB Production will cover the cold and hot kitchens, pastry and stewarding. Each of these departments is most critical and will contribute significantly to the total make-over of the resort. . The next 12-month operation strategies will aim to overcome the weaknesses as determined in the SWOT analysis which are lack of conference facilities and meeting rooms, high employee turn-over and the resignation of the Head Chef, shortfalls in planned maintenance activities and will focus on full blast refurbishment, upgrading the service quality, augmenting market research, enhancing service capacity and upgrading management competencies. Refurbishment In determining the courses of action to take, it is the SWOT that provides information on the focal concerns. (Branson 2002) Major problems identified in the SWOT were the lack of conference and meeting function areas. Management has decided to answer these needs and provide additional function areas. The focus of the Food and Beverage division on the refurbishment will be on the additional kitchen and storage facilities including kitchen fixtures, tools and equipment that will be put up specifically for the banquet areas. This will cater to the clients of the ballroom, conferences and meetings. The setting up of the banquet kitchen and storage beside the ballroom area will facilitate smooth and speedy transport of food for the specific banquet clients. The kitchen and storage must be able to provide food for at most 1,200 persons, which is the maximum capacity of the ballroom, conference rooms and meeting rooms all together. The expansion of the banquet will encourage local markets to book more parties, meetings and conferences and the resort will be able to accommodate big groups at the same time be flexible enough to accommodate small groups. Likewise for the food and beverage service, additional facilities, glassware, chinaware and silverware and other service tools and equipment will have to be procured for this purpose. Market Research The contribution of the food and beverage division to the over-all marketing strategy is the detailed identification of the targeted clients and how the resort will be able to satisfy them. (Cousins 2002) The general strategy of the resort for the next year is to improve food and beverage revenues through expansion of banquet services. The division will organize a special team of chefs and other banquet experts to study the preferred tastes of the target clients for the banquet and develop special menus that will appeal to prospective engagers. Series of food tasting sessions will be done and this will be coordinated with the resort PR department to invite media personalities and other influential people to promote the food and the service styles that are in store for the new resort image. Surveys may also be conducted to prospective companies and target groups to get their preferences in terms of service, food and the price. The team of FB leaders will have to find ways of developing menus that have lower cost so corresponding, lower prices will be offered to customers. This strategy intends to attract a wider margin of the market including those who would prefer practically priced menus and food and beverage package. Service Quality One of the possible causes of the fast turn-over of employees is the inability to cope with the demands of their jobs. Hotel work is not easy especially for those hired without skills. Employee involvement is very important in every move that the food and beverage division will undertake. (Gray 1992) The division will augment the activities conducted by the Human Resource department through coaching, mentoring and job rotation. This move will prepare next-in-line subordinates as alternates. The division will establish safety nets to protect the operation from being affected by employee absences or resignations. FB Managers and Chefs will work closely with the Human Resource Department to get the best and skilled people. Kitchen staff, particularly Chefs and other key positions like the Maitre-d’Hotel, Ice/Butter Carvers (Cousins 2002), will require special qualifications and ample experience. All staff will be trained on the company standard of values and service including the health aspect of food handling, aside from the specific skills training they will undergo. Simulation exercises and food and beverage tasting will have to be conducted to perfect the quality of food and beverages that will be served to guests. Special effort will have to be made to source for the Head Chef who will have to be provided special package incentives. Precautionary efforts will have to be made to retain hard to find skilled employees, which will be of utmost concern, not only by the Human Resource Department but also the FB Manager who oversees the work of the Head Chef and down the line chefs. Special commitment will have to be made by the Head Chef to be hired, whose role is very crucial to the success of the resort business. Production Development The expansion of the division particularly in the additional function areas will need complementing augmentation in terms of resort warm bodies and systems to equally make the service satisfying to the customers. The division will be expecting customers who are not â€Å"in house guests† for the parties, conferences and other meeting, therefore extra caution will have to be made by the staff, especially in billing guests to avoid losses for the restaurants. Procurement of supplies is critical in the production aspect. (Gray 1992) The key officers from the FB will have to be involved in the procurement as well as the design of the different kitchens and outlets. Their expertise will be needed for the sourcing and selection. All items to be procured will have to suit the standards set by the resort and the varying motifs of the FB outlets particularly the banquet functions. The resort will have will have to scan resources within reach and establish suppliers of hard to find facilities, supplies and ingredients. New technology on order taking and billing will be installed in all the food and beverage outlets. This is an on-line system that will centralize the billing and order taking to the computer which directly will generate summaries in the cashier. This computerization intends to systematize the process and prevent errors in the manual communication of orders and computation of bills. It is noted that this problem has caused stress to many staff in the restaurants, specifically for the waiters and order takers who made significant errors in orders and billings. The computerization intends to minimize these problems. Enhanced Management Competencies The rate of turn-over is highest among the chefs for the past years. Chefs have varying expertise that is crucial to the resort and hard to find. The resort will have to create special package of incentives for the chefs to assure that they are satisfied with the jobs. Chefs as well as the other supervisors and managers of the food and beverage division are relied on in terms of their expertise as well as their management capabilities. Many of the supervisors and managers have technical skills but lack the necessary management competencies. (Cousins et. al. 2002) Stephen Covey emphasized in his â€Å"Seven Habits of Highly Effective People† his seventh habit, which is most important is the â€Å"sharpening of the saw†, which means, every person no matter how effective and efficient will need to improve himself continuously to stay relevant. The food and beverage division will coordinate with the Human Resource department to prepare and package capability programs for the division management staff particularly on people handling, time management and stress management. They will also have series of IT enhancement particularly in Microsoft Office programs so that they will be able to cope up with the computer-based reporting systems being installed in the resort. These moves hope to improve the relations within the division and improve employee relations.

History of Tet Offensive

History of Tet Offensive Jordan Dingle The Tet offensive was an operation that took place in 1968 from January 30th to mid-August and was the largest military campaign of the Vietnam war. It involved nearly 80,000 North Vietnamese attacking more than 100 towns and cities in South Vietnam simultaneously. The offensive was a complete surprise to the South Vietnamese and the Americans, as it was thought to be impossible for the NVA to carry out an operation this large and no fighting was expected to happen because of the Tet holiday (Willbanks, 2007). This operation became a turning point for the American-Vietnam war as the offensive caused the U.S. to lose control of some cities temporarily and it showed the American public that the U.S. was not winning the war as the government had previously claimed. Prior to the Tet offensive, the U.S. faced declining support from the public in its foreign policy methods in Vietnam. U.S. citizens faced rising taxes and increasing U.S. casualty numbers in Vietnam. Many people were starting to feel that it was a mistake to send soldiers to Vietnam and that it was a hopeless cause. Public opinion polls at the time showed that the percentage of Americans who believed that the U.S. had made a mistake by sending troops to Vietnam had risen from roughly 25 percent in 1965 to about 45 percent by December 1967 (Willbanks, 2007). The U.S. military and President Lyndon B. Johnsons administration attempted to alter the publics viewpoint on the war by feeding the media optimistic information about the war. On the North Vietnamese side, there were concerns about the direction of the war and the affect it was having the capability of North Vietnam being able to sustain itself as country. Constant U.S. aerial bombings had decimated North Vietnams economic capability and the government realized that at the current rate, North Vietnam would lack the ability to affect the war in South Vietnam. The operation went into its planning stages in the early months of 1967 and was decided to take place on the Tet holiday to surprise unsuspecting American and South Vietnamese forces.   The North Vietnamese believed that the widespread offensive would cause the people of South Vietnam to revolt against the South Vietnamese government. While the offensive did cause the tide of the war to change, it did not cause mass uprisings (Bradley, 2009). The first phase of the Tet offensive began in the early hours of January 30th when the NVA and Viet Cong initiated attacks on all major cities in central Vietnam including Nha Trang, Hoi An, Pleiku, and Da Nang. On January 31st, another major attack was initiated in various major cities and bases in Southern Vietnam. Much of the forces in the operation were focused on South Vietnams capital, Saigon. North Vietnamese forces, while not able to take control of the city, managed to attack critical strategic points around the city. At the same time, the north Vietnamese forces and Viet Cong successfully attacked and captured the city of Hue in central Vietnam. It took the U.S. 25 days to fight back the North Vietnamese and retake the city (Willbanks, 2007). The North Vietnamese initiated a second phase to the offensive on May 4th and attacked various targets across South Vietnam again. But this time the Americans and South Vietnamese were prepared and the offensive was considerably less successful. The 2nd phase ended in late May. The third and final phase of the Tet offensive began on August 17th and was easily repelled by the South Vietnamese and Americans. This last attack was considered a dismal failure as it had little effect on any South Vietnamese or American positions (Willbanks, 2007). Although the Tet offensive did not achieve its goal of initiating uprisings throughout South Vietnam, it did inflict heavy damage on American and South Vietnamese forces. It allowed the Viet Cong to take control of the rural areas of Vietnam, especially in the Mekong Delta. The offensive put South Vietnam into turmoil as it was the first time that the war had reached any urban areas in South Vietnam. It reduced confidence in the government in their ability to protect its citizens from the Viet Cong. The battles that took place destroyed thousands of homes, displaced, injured and killed thousands of people. The human and material cost to South Vietnam was staggering. The number of civilian casualties was estimated by the government to be over 14,000 with at least 20,000 wounded.The North Vietnamese had suffered incredible amounts of casualties. Some estimates place the number of casualties to be over 180,000 dead during 1968.The offensive was the largest number of casualties that the North Vietnamese had faced in the war. The situation was so dire, that many Viet Cong cadres had to be replaced partially by North Vietnamese Army regulars. Although the North Vietnamese lost many soldiers in the South, they acknowledged the benefits of the Tet offensive. General Tran Do, one of the commanders in the battle of Hue, stated In all honesty, we didnt achieve our main objective, which was to spur uprisings throughout the South. Still, we inflicted heavy casualties on the Americans and their puppets, and this was a big gain for us. As for making an impact in the United States, it had not been our intention-but it turned out to be a fortunate result (Karnow, 1988). The aftermath of the Tet offensive also brought about more international influence into the Vietnam conflict. The Paris peace talks, which took place in May of 1968 initiated negotiations between the U.S. and North Vietnam while allowing third-party influence into the politics of the region. In short, the Tet offensive changed both the DRV and the U.S.s goals of military and political victory against each other to negotiations and de-escalation (Bradley 2009). The results of the Tet offensive also spread the conflict into the border regions of Cambodia and Laos. Before and during the Tet offensive, the North Vietnamese used the Ho Chi Minh trail, which lead through southern Laos and Eastern Cambodia, to send supplies and reinforcements to Viet Cong cadres in South Vietnam. This supply route, was the main resource in preparing the Viet Cong for the Tet offensive After the offensive failed, the U.S. began bombing campaigns in Laos and Cambodia along the Ho Chi Minh trail. These bombings eliminated Laos and Cambodias neutrality and dragged them into conflict within their own borders (Kranow, 1988). In the U.S., the aftermath of the offensive created a crisis for the Johnson administration. Public opinion was now overwhelmingly against the war. The U.S. had suffered much casualties with over 16,000 soldiers killed by the end of 1968. A new draft was also called in 1968 calling for 48,000 men to be enlisted. These factors brewed heavy discontentment with the U.S. government and the Johnson administration. The Tet offensive certainly made an impact on the 1968 presidential election and Lyndon B. Johnsons decision to not run for re-election. The new administration of Richard Nixon oversaw the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam, allowing the North Vietnamese to capture Saigon and reunify Vietnam. Works Cited Bradley, Mark. Vietnam at War. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Web. Bradley, Mark, and Marilyn Blatt. Young. Making Sense of the Vietnam Wars: Local, National, and Transnational Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Web. Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam, a History. Norwalk, CT: Easton, 1988. Web. Willbanks, James H. The Tet Offensive: A Concise History. New York: Columbia UP, 2007. Web.