Shakespeares Othello - The Motivations of Iago in Othello :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

The Motivations of Iago in Othello  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Have you ever met a devil who does evil for his own sake? Iago in William Shakespeare's Othello could seem like he has good motives, but I feel that he uses them as his excuses. The first thing that I did was uncovered Iago's motives. Iago is the most controversial character in Othello. He is able to keep his true thoughts and motives from everyone. Are his motives only excuses for his actions? Iago pretends to have so many motives that they seem more like excuses. Iago then uses these excuses to justify his actions, which are pure evil. I also feel that Iago has motives and actions that cause his actions. Does Iago have many different excuses, or does he only have one? This paper will prove that Iago has one clear motive and reason for his madness. Iago is not looking for justification that causes him to act the way he does. There is much more though to Iago. He is not a man of only excuses, he has goals with his motives, which causes him to act the way he does. As early as the first scene of the play Iago shows us strong motives for his actions. In this first scene we see Othello, a general of Venice, has made Cassio his new lieutant. Iago feels he truly deserves his promotion as he says "I know my price, I am worth more no worse a place."(l.i.12) Iago over here is confused why Othello has made such a stupid decision. Iago is a man with a tremendous ego who knows, sometimes overestimates, his worth. Roderigo, a Venetian gentleman, understands Iago when Iago said that he is "affined to love the Moor."(l.i.41-42) What Iago really means is "I follow him to serve my term upon him."(l.i.45) Iago wants to use Othello for his personal goals. We also must put ourselves into Iago's shoes. He is a man whose self-esteem and professional carrier have just been torn apart. Iago makes his actions of revenge toward Othello almost immediately by informing Brabantio, a Venetian senator and father of Desdemona, that "an old black ram (Othello) is tupping (hi s) white ewe (Desdemona)."(l.i.97) Iago's next motive becomes clear when he convinces Othello "that he (Cassio) is too familiar with his (Othello's) wife." (1,iii.4399) Iago's motive here is to break the bond between Othello and Desdemona.

Book Report: The Other Side Of Truth by Beverley Naidoo Essay

The Other Side of Truth is an historical fiction novel set on a true story. Although all the characters in the book are fictional, three political figures who were real people, are mentioned within it. It is set in around 1996, just after an event that ties in with one of these real people, has come to an end. The story linking the fictional characters together is supposedly set when talk of this real life event has died down. The novel is told in third person and is mainly focused on the thoughts and actions of the main character; a young Nigerian girl named Sade. The Other Side of Truth begins in Lagos, Nigeria with a terrible tragedy. It begins on an ordinary day, Sade and her younger brother Femi are packing their bags for school, and their father, an outspoken Nigerian journalist is getting ready for work. Suddenly: â€Å"A shot. Two shots at the gate in the early morning and a car screeches away down an avenue of palm trees† After the terrible loss of their mother, Sade and Femi find that terror is all around them. Their father decides that they must flee their country to England, and go and stay with their Uncle Dele. At once. Just the two of them. Plans for their journey are promptly arranged and they soon find themselves on the plane to England, under the names of Yemi and Ade, travelling as the children of a Mrs Bankole. But as soon as they arrive in England, Mrs Bankole deserts them and they are left wondering the streets of London on their own. A huge shock comes, when they are unable to locate their Uncle Deli. Together, they tramp round the dusty, dirty London streets, trying to find place to shelter for the night. Their large holdall is stolen and they soon find themselves being taken away by the police, assumed as thieves. When asked their names, they take their mothers surname, so that the police  don’t find out that they are the children of Mr Folarin Solaja, a man whom many Nigerian’s hate, just because he writes the truth. The police soon realise that they are not thieves and the children are handed over to the social workers who fix them up for the night at a Mrs Grahams. The next morning, the social workers begin to inquire about the reason why they were all alone in the centre of London, late last night. Where were their parents? At first the children say nothing, not knowing what to say and what to keep to themselves. After a long struggle, the social workers finally manage to get their names and a little information out of them. It takes a long time, but finally the children are given temporary admission to the country, and the social workers take the children to the home of Mr and Mrs King whom they are to stay with until they find their Uncle or any of their relations. The children start to settle down with the Kings, and they both start school. However problems for Sade are far from over. She is bullied, by two of the girls from school, into stealing from the family of her friend Mariam who is also African. All Sade and her brother want, is for things to be how they were on that morning before the death of their mother. But now, they never know if they will ever see their father, or any of their relations again. The Other Side of Truth is a tragic novel that I found, on the whole is very emotional. The characters are very convincing and memorable. They are described as seen through the eyes of Sade and are very realistic. The author has named the people who play minor parts in the novel, by the action they did, or what they said in the story. For example, all we hear about one character is, † A man in a yellow coat guarded the door. With one hand, he held a mobile telephone up to his ear. With the other he controlled the queue.† This man is not given a proper name, instead the author writes him as ‘Mr Mobile’. The use of this naming technique is used throughout the  book. It is only with the main characters that real names are used. Beverley Naidoo has written the novel in a very vivid style, and it is very easy to picture what is going on at each point in the book in you head. The opening is very strong and will immediately get the reader hooked, as it did for myself. Usually it is the opening of the book that decides whether you are going to read on or not, and in this book a major event happens in the first chapter, which makes you want to find out what happens next. The author uses many very descriptive passages and emotional phrases to really bring you into the book and make you feel that you are there experiencing what Sade and Femi had to. Throughout the novel, Beverley Naidoo has used flashbacks to something that has happened in Sade’s life in the past that relates to the story at that time. It might be something that her mother had said, or something that her father had told her. An example of this from the novel follows: When Sade returns from school on her first day, Aunt Gracie asks her what it was like and Sade replies, † It was fine, thank you.† This was a lie and there is then a flash back to something Sade’s mother had once said: â€Å"Tell a lie, play with fire. But don’t complain of the smoke.† The Other Side of Truth is a novel that will appeal to anyone who enjoys historic books with a bit of an adventure. I think it would mainly appeal to teenagers, but adults who enjoy an easy read may also like it. I really enjoyed reading the book, as there was always something happening and it was fairly easy to understand with not many character names to remember, so I did not get confused. I found it very emotional and very realistic. The novel is very well written and you can really get into and feel that you are there, watching the incidents in the book happen right in front of your eyes.

Why Did the Titanic Sank

Why did the Titanic’s maiden voyage ended in such disaster? One of the largest passenger liner of the early 20th century made in the history, having the first and final voyage 100 years ago, owned by the magnificent White Star Line, was travelling without interference through the calm waters until one of the sailors on board reported that the Titanic is heading for a vast and humongous iceberg in April 12 1912 at that lethal midnight. The disaster had caused 1517 deaths on board, though there were only partially of the passengers that survived the disaster; which strangely are mostly consisted of women and children.In this essay we will embark on a journey to find out the causes of the Titanic’s maiden voyage ended in such disaster. Competition and pressure for Atlantic passengers At that time, Bruce Ismay, the Managing Director of the White Star Line, was fierce about the competition for Atlantic passengers with other companies and the White Star Line wanted to show th em that they could make a six-day crossing from Southampton to New York City. In order to meet this schedule, the Titanic could not afford to slow down, putting pressure on Captain Smith to maintain the travelling speed of the ship.Over confident by Captain Smith of the Titanic As the ship was manoeuvring on calm waters, the captain received several warnings about iceberg. In fact, the captain ignored seven warnings. If he was cautious and more concern than been on schedule, he would have slowed down the ship and put more crews to keep eyes on the icebergs, maybe the Titanic disaster would not have happened. Poor quality of the rivets in Titanic Besides that, a few million rivets were used to hold sections of Titanic together steadily.As some of the rivets were recovered from the wreckage and investigated, the result shows that the rivets were made of sub-standard iron which caused sections of the Titanic to break due to the force of impact of the ship and the iceberg. If a better i ron were used for the rivets, the Titanic may have been able to survive the disaster. No binoculars for lookouts at night time and going too fast Other than that, though there were binoculars aboard the ship, hardly a crew knew there was even one in the ship.It is possible that the crews can give an early warning about the iceberg where the Titanic was heading to. In addition to the worst, as the warning was received by the captain, the ship was in full speed. In quick reaction, the captain adjusted the speed to reverse, which was a mistake. This caused the ship to skid a slightly and hit the iceberg at the side instead of head on. It was believed that if Titanic hit the iceberg head on, other than causing of a disastrous result, the ship may destroy the iceberg instead of vice versa. The lifeboat talesWhen the lifeboats were fitted onto the ship, there were only 16 of them on Titanic, which however only allow approximately 1648 passengers to be rescued, which is about one third of the total amount of people on board. This is because the ship rather provided comfort for the passengers than safety. And since the Titanic had the title of â€Å"unsinkable†, the people grew more confidence and they felt that the Titanic did not need much of the lifeboats. Addition to the trouble, Boards of Trade’s regulation stated that ships over 10 000 tons were only allowed to bring 16 life boats only.This would also mean that out of the original 64 lifeboats Titanic was supposed to carry, the White Star Line only provided life boats as legally required. Next, many of the lifeboats in initial stage were not fully filled and utilized. It was due to the lack of experience and knowledge of the crew members on board. It was believed that only about 50 members of the deck crew knew how to launch the lifeboats. It was Captain Lord of Californian’s fault It was said that the last iceberg warning was sent to Titanic by the Californian, at about 1 hour before the SO S message of Titanic went out.The crew of the Californian were fed up of hearing messages being sent by passengers on the Titanic to friends and family back home, telling about their great experience they had been having. As the crew of Californian saw the fireworks which was intended to be the SOS message, Captain Lord concluded that the passengers on Titanic were having a party. This was one of the great mistakes taken by the Californian crew, if they were patient enough to hear the distress message from the Titanic, they probably can do something such as arriving at the scene of the disaster earlier and save more victims.Conclusion At the end of the essay, there were several hypothesis of the massive and lethal event. Before the journey, the rivets should be made of a better quality of iron so that the ship is durable enough to withstand the impact of iceberg. During the journey, Captain Smith should be more cautious about the warning concerning about the icebergs and alert of fi rst journey of this heavy duty ship and Captain Lord should be a little patient and put more attention on the SOS message which is extremely vital and significant for the people on board of the Titanic could be rescued by them.

buy custom The Political Parties essay

buy custom The Political Parties essay The American health market like the normal commodity market has changed its focus from providing quality services to maximizing the quantity of services provided to maximize profits, which they have succeeded in, but at the expense of the peoples welfare. There is a significant difference in the quality health care provided by salaried doctors and that provided by doctors who were paid per service, with the salaried doctors exhibiting better quality service delivery. These incentives have also caused many doctors to turn their backs on patients who cannot afford their services, which beats the purpose of being a doctor. The quality of healthcare in the United States relative to that of other countries has been a major issue. A free market approach to healthcare much like the market for other commodities has been argued by one political advocacy to result in low quality healthcare as doctors compromise the quality of healthcare in favor of quantity and has been found to result in higher mortality rates (Hoffman, 2003). The cost of healthcare in the United States relative to its economy is the highest in the world. There is need for a fiscal policy that will bring the costs of healthcare under control and ensure universal coverage of health care in America in the long run. The inconsistent coverage in health care has been a major concern. For example, a 2009 Harvard study found that there were more than 44800 deaths in the United States every year cause by lack of health insurance. It was also found that there were thousands of others who died annually due to lack of medical care. The following essay covers the current health care condition in America and the stance of political parties in regards to the same and to reforms. Health reform has been discussed and debated by political parties in the United States for a long time with every party having a different opinion from the other and sometimes from the public. All Americans agree that there is need for health reform in America but few are willing to pay for it. There also seems to be a lack of consensus on the best approach with approximately 40 percent being democrats, 30 percent being republicans and 30 percent being independent (Birn, 2003). The main difference in the stance taken by the political parties is whether to improve the quality of health care by giving the public control over health care, an approach advocated for by the republicans or to provide universal coverage and allow for government intervention, the democratic approach. While majority of Americans think that health care reforms should be addressed now, they cannot seem to decide on the timing. In light of other urgent matters such as the economic condition of the country the majority of the democrats think that the health care reform issue should be tackled immediately, while the majority of republicans think that at the moment health care reform is not affordable (Wainess, 1999). When it comes to the question of raising money to cater for health care reform, the democrats favor government based funding. They support the ideology of increasing taxes for the wealthiest and also on unhealthy health practices such as smoking. The republicans on the other hand recommend that Americans be charged with the responsibility of funding this reform. The Republican stance Therepublicans unlike the Democrats believe in giving the power to make decisions to the people rather than to the government. When it comes to health reform therefore their focus is on the patient and his needs and wants rather than the government. Their main goal is the provision of better quality health care at lower costs. They disagree with the democrats goal of offering increased access without lowering costs. Republicans claim to have a bill that is workable and that will cover all Americans without costing the tax payer any money. This bill, the Empowering Patients First Act which they proposed as a replacement for the amendment of the Senate bill was rejected by the Senate Finance Committee. Their reasons were that this bill would not reduce the number of people without insurance cover and was feared to actually reduce health insurance coverage since it would do away with mandated coverage rules that are in operation in some States. The insurance companies would than benefit from more government funds by coming up with new insurance subsidies. The republicans however, maintained their stand since they beleve that charging the public with this responsibility is bound to increase doctors accountability and to increase competition therefore reducing costs. For a long time the republicans have been against government control in the health sector and advocate for private medicine practice as opposed to socialized medicine. The republicans objectives in advocating for less government involvement include encouraging the promotion of health and the prevention of diseases, protection of the citizens from restructuring effort that would result in rationing or complicated health care, create a cooperative environment among the health providers, the patients, the stakeholders and payers in the health care system and eliminating government interference between the health care providers and their patients (Williamson, 1994). Their stance basically is one of increasing the patients control, their accessibility and affordability of health care. They also disagree with the democrats policy of increasing taxes for whichever class and government subsidies instead of lowering costs. They advocate for patients empowerment and reducing government intervention therefore curbing the bureaucracy that comes with the involvement of the government. Their argument against the involvement of the government is the lack of progress so far in light of their intervention. Their goal is to improve the quality and coverage of health insurance at lower costs. In their view, health care provider and American citizens, not the government is key to real health reform. They believe that Americans have the right to an affordable health care plan which meets their needs. Therefore it is imperative that insurances be made more affordable by lowering premiums, and more secure. They also advocate for the employees choice to own coverage apart from the one offered by the employer or one linked to the job. The patients, not the insurance companies need to have the upper hand and the insurance companies need to strive to keep patients business as opposed to the patients striving to keep their insurance covers. Republicans are concerned about the inequalities exhibited in the current tax system. In the current tax system the high income employees enjoy better health tax benefits compared to other Americans who cannot afford a health care plan. Part of their goal is to ensure all Americans receive equal tax benefits, whatever the means of their insurance. Tax reform is another strategy that would reduce health care costs significantly. Inefficiencies in healthcare have been partly perpetuated by a lack of clarity in regards to health insurance costs and the bearer of these costs in employment. Health insurance provided by providers is currently exempted from tax and it has been argued that taxing employer based health insurance would increase the tax revenue significantly. The Economist, in November 2009 estimated the increase in tax revenue in the event that employer based health insurance was taxed to be 215 billion dollars. Tax payers are more likely to change the system or their behavior that will impact on demand for health care services. Besides ensuring individuals are in control of their health care, Republicans are committed to helping lower cost, improving quality of care as well as helping Americans adopt a healthier life and a culture of wellness. They also advocate for preventive measures such as vaccines and improved nutrition. An example is strategy suggested in aiding medical cost reduction is measures towards lowering obesity. Preventing overweight and obesity issues prevents a large number of diseases related to these conditions whose treatment is rather costly such as heart disease, cancer among others. Therefore lowering obesity is bound to significantly reduce healthcare costs. They also advocate for less smoking and consumption of alcohol (Willimson, 1994). This is bound to lower the demand for health care services and therefore lower its prices. They also advocate for equal treatment of mental health care with physical health care. Access to health care should not only be limited to those seeking physical health care but also to those seeking mental healthcare. One of the strategies that the republicans advocate for that is bound to lower costs is increasing competition. This can be achieved by providing the citizens with perfect information concerning health care so that they make informed decisions about health care and health providers. This should increase competition and consequently lower costs. The republicans believe in the betterment of medical research especially by funding it. This would be accomplished by using comparative effective research among other tools. This would ensure that there is a body that is charged with the specific task of ensuring that the medical and healthcare field was at its best at all times. It would also be responsible for carrying out regulatory measures to ensure the healthcare system was based on quality service provision rather than quantity. Incentives presently being used by the health care system have been criticized as aiding in increasing health care costs. One of their major problems with current incentives is that doctors get paid for the number of services provided rather than receiving a constant salary. While this is aimed at encouraging them to provide more health services it could also cause them to compromise on quality services in bid to maximize the quantity of health care provided and in turn increase profits. Fully insured patients also contribute to the high health care costs since they have no incentive to consider minimal costs when choosing among alternative treatment methods. This has the effect of increased premiums by the insurance companies to all. The republicans stress the importance of appreciating the health providers who do a good job and rewarding them. They should be paid for the quality of work they provide and not by the number or tests run or the cases they treat. The use of technology can be used to improve record keeping by making it digital therefore easy to store and to access. Technology is devoid of human error therefore making it more reliable. It encourages low costs, more efficient record keeping and more accurate treatment. Recently a lot of funds have been directed towards improper payments that amount to medicare fraud. These crimes are highly lucrative for the perpetrators and are often difficult to trace. However, seeing as the amount of money that is lost to these fraudulent cases amounts to 60 billion dollars every year, there is need to address this issue and adapt measures to apprehend the perpetrators while preventing the likelihood of their successful perpetration. Thorough auditing needs to be done and more transparency and accountability measures implemented if these monies are to be saved (Cook, 2007). These fraudulent practices besides costing the government a lot of money, may lead to lawsuits directed at the doctors often. Lawsuits often have the effect of increasing insurance rates and consequently increasing the costs of health care. The Democrats stance The democrats most consistent advocacy for years has been increasing health care coverage in the United States by advocating for access of health care to everyone. They have fought for the public to have some basic assurance and security in health care. A research study in Health Affairs found that 50 percent of personal bankruptcies were a result of medical bills, a finding that indicated the inconsistency in health care coverage in the United States. Over the years a couple of the presidents of the United States have taken measures towards the achievement of this goal, and most recently President Obama increased health care coverage to include four million children who do not have insurance cover. Therefore it advocates for public funded systems which have been found to result in high quality healthcare. This group has also criticized the quality of managed care and that of health maintenance organizations. The shortage of doctors and nurses in the United States is another issue of concern for the democrats. A shortage of medical practitioners means healthcare services will become scarcer and therefore increase in cost. With an average of 2 to 3 doctors for every a thousand people, the doctors are swamped as it is. A deterioration of this statistic would mean less accessibility to quality medical care in addition to increased health care costs. They therefore advocate for the training of more doctors and nurses since the more they are the more likely the public security in health care since it means more doctors are available per a particular number of people (Cook, 2007). Another measure that the democrats have advocated for is the bill passed concerning insurance coverage for persons with pre existing conditions. In the near future, uninsured adults who lack insurance on the basis of pre existing conditions will be able to acquire insurance coverage via a new program. Buy custom The Political Parties essay

The Difference Between an Element Group and Period

The Difference Between an Element Group and Period Groups and periods are two ways of categorizing elements in the periodic table. Periods are horizontal rows (across) the periodic table, while groups are vertical columns (down) the table. Atomic number increases as you move down a group or across a period. Element Groups Elements in a group share a common number of valence electrons. For example, all of the elements in the alkaline earth group have a valence of two. Elements belonging to a group typically share several common properties. The groups in the periodic table go by a variety of different names: IUPAC Name Common Name Family Old IUPAC CAS notes Group 1 alkali metals lithium family IA IA excluding hydrogen Group 2 alkaline earth metals beryllium family IIA IIA Group 3 scandium family IIIA IIIB Group 4 titanium family IVA IVB Group 5 vanadium family VA VB Group 6 chromium family VIA VIB Group 7 manganese family VIIA VIIB Group 8 iron family VIII VIIIB Group 9 cobalt family VIII VIIIB Group 10 nickel family VIII VIIIB Group 11 coinage metals copper family IB IB Group 12 volatile metals zinc family IIB IIB Group 13 icoasagens boron family IIIB IIIA Group 14 tetrels, crystallogens carbon family IVB IVA tetrels from the Greek tetra for four Group 15 pentels, pnictogens nitrogen family VB VA pentels from the Greek penta for five Group 16 chalcogens oxygen family VIB VIA Group 17 halogens fluorine family VIIB VIIA Group 18 noble gases, aerogens helium family or neon family Group 0 VIIIA Another way to group elements is based on their shared properties (in some cases, these groupings do not correspond to the columns in the periodic table). Such groups include  alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transition metals (including  rare earth elements or lanthanides and also actinides), basic metals, metalloids or semimetals, nonmetals, halogens, and noble gases. Within  this classification system, hydrogen is a nonmetal. The nonmetals, halogens, and noble gases are all types of nonmetallic elements. The metalloids have intermediate properties. All of the other elements are metallic. Element Periods Elements in a period share the highest unexcited electron energy level. There are more elements in some periods than others because the number of elements is determined by the number of electrons allowed in each energy sub-level. There are seven  periods for naturally occurring elements: Period 1: H, He (does not follow the octet rule)Period 2: Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F, Ne (involves s and p orbitals)Period 3: Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, Ar (all have at least 1 stable isotope)Period 4: K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, As, Se, Br, Kr (first period with d-block elements)Period 5: Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Sn, Te, I, Xe (same number of elements as period 4, same general structure, and includes first exclusively radioactive element, Tc)Period 6: Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au, Hg, Tl, Pb, Bi, Po, At, Rn (first period with f-block elements)Period 7: Fr, Ra, Ac, Th, Pa, U, Np, Pu, Am, Cm, Bk, Cf, Es, Fm, Md, No, Lr, Rd, Db, Sg, Bh, Hs, Mt, Ds, Rg, Cn, Uut, Fl, Uup, Lv, Uus, Uuo (all elements are radioactive; contains heaviest natural elements)

D2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

D2 - Assignment Example The environment is critical in shaping and determining the child’s development. In transition to parenthood, Cochenour and Chrisman (61) explain this stage to be a critical stage where the young parents are redefining their career growth, while at the same time a child comes along to require more attention and care from the two. Thus according to Cochenour and Chrisman, a child can be source of joy or conflict; the care of the child puts more strain on the parents, who are still required to utilize their strengths in defining their new career goals (Cochenour and Chrisman 64). The extended family thus chips in to offer the child the required development; the child no long belongs to the parents alone, but has to identify her/ himself with the large family context as all the family members have a role to play in shaping the child’s development. In addition, this brings about the sense of belonging and inclusiveness, which is necessary in defining identity. To solve the p roblems of conflict between parents as the new child requires more attention and care from the two; both parents have to actively participate in rearing the child; the role should never be left as an obligation of a particular parent. This creates the required environment for child development. Parents should also choose an environment that would be constructive in the child’s development. In understanding the structure of a family, the family systems theory would be of much importance to childhood educators. Cochenour and Chrisman (62) explain that the theory’s primary concept is that the family consists of interconnected members, with each member influencing the other in predictable and recurring ways. The theory would largely focus on the family behaviors and history to influence an individual’s behavior. Therefore, understanding this theory would help early child educators to have prior knowledge related to the several types of families,

Entrepreneurship and Small Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Entrepreneurship and Small Business - Essay Example Small businesses are also innovative as they are responsible for many of the new products or services on the market (Fucini and Fucini 1985). These factors have a knock-on effect of increasing employment opportunities, particularly amongst women and minorities who find this as an alternative avenue into business. This can be demonstrated by the high number of Asian, Chinese, Italian and other restaurants across the country. Women are also likely to start their own business as they are sometimes discriminated against when they take maternity leave. As small businesses are mainly innovative or arise from this situation, their organisational culture is of great importance as it influences whether they business can react to its environment; and whether the business can survive int the current environment. Organisational culture is a system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs and norms about the way things are done, and it is often referred to as corporate culture (Bird 1989). Culture is also important to small businesses as it has an impact on organisational effectiveness (Bartol and Martin 1998, Mullins 1999). ... Direction refers to the degree to which a culture supports rather than interferes with, reaching organisational goals (Hisrich and Peters 1995). Small businesses have to maintain a culture that is focussed as they are often striving to achieve growth levels and increase profits. This would not be possible without a direction or focus for the organisation to maintain. Pervasiveness addresses the extent to which a culture is widespread among members, as opposed to being unevenly distributed (Hisrich and Peters 1995). Small business will look at employing individuals who share similar drive and ambition to the entrepreneur. It would defeat the purpose of the small business if individuals who are not passionate about the innovation are employed. Strength refers to the degree to which members accept the values and other aspects of a culture (Hisrich and Peters 1995). The employees also have to believe in the innovation or the small business concept for it to be effective. These three factors embedded in organisational culture demonstrate how important it is for small businesses and entrepreneurs to adopt an enterprise culture, as it will determine how well they can react to factors present in the external environment in which they operate. This paper will briefly demonstrate the characteristics of enterprise culture and how this culture can be affected by the external environment. Enterprise culture Most successful organisations foster an adaptive entrepreneurial culture in which members view growth and change as desirable and believe that they can affect the competitive environment to their advantage, which differs to bureaucratic organisations which are more likely to have members who prefer the status quo and have little faith in their ability to