Role of Department Stores Essay - 1100 Words

Role of Department Stores, Baseball, and the Vaudeville House in the 19th Century City (Essay Sample) Content: NameProfessorCourse8 May 2015Role of Department Stores, Baseball, and the Vaudeville House in the 19th Century CityAccording to Gunther Barth, in his book City People: The Rise of Modern City Culture in Nineteenth-Century America, an exceptional American town society developed during the period between 1830 and 1910, which forced the individuals living in the urban areas to establish ways of attaining happiness, identify together with security. He particularly claims that the department store, the apartment house, baseball and the vaudeville house directed the anarchy and autonomy of present day cities into a tradition that gave a solution to the major challenges of the existence of urban centers as seen by the large groups of individuals. Such challenges include the need for communication and lack of identity, the wish by women to participate in the big city way of life, the search for leisure by men as part of the existence of cities, and the hope by everyone to sta nd out in a crowd (Barth 23).The culture that these institutions (department store, the apartment house, baseball and the vaudeville) established, vanished with the introduction or arrival of the automobile. For the purposes of ascertaining this position, the writer develops what he refers to as an intellectual construct from the practical evidence. According to him, the departmental stores appeared instantaneously or concurrently in the America and Europe; however, in the United States, they were the exceptional province of women and, actually, brought women to the town center that was initially under the dominance of them men. Marketing, sales, female clerks, and various products and services had a remarkable impact as it brought women of different regions and classes together (112-118).Another impact that the departmental stores had on the 19th Century city was on the labor force; for instance, Marshall Field, in the year 1904, employed people in the range of 9,000 and 10,000. Th e traditional retail stores wanted workers that would be responsible for various jobs, whereas the departmental stores needed many more employees, and this enhanced specialization since each one of them had his or her own task and there was nothing like diversification, or sharing of tasks. As a result, most of the tasks in the department stores did not require specialized skills, and the storesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ greater size implied that the top leadership could have greater salaries because they were considered to be doing a lot of work.Perhaps, the most considerable effect of the department store on labor force was that women were brought into the retail labor force. The conventional retail stores held the assumption that their work was too demanding and difficult for women, but the managers of the department stores believed that most of the specialized tasks in their stores, particularly in clerical work and sales, did not exclusively need manly features and could be occupied by the lo wer-paid women of female labor force.Nonetheless, with just a few other alternatives available to the women, most of them went for the jobs at the department stores despite the fact that the wages were very low as compared to other positions held by men. As the clerical and sales positions absorbed more and more women, the criticism on the department stores concerning the manner in which they handled their workers continued mounting. In 1913, managers from two big department stores, Carson Pirie Scott and Marshall Field were engaged in the federal legislative hearings on the suggested minimum wage for the workers. The labor practices of the stores increasingly gained more disrepute and notoriety as the managers affirmed that it was still possible to increase the wages of their female employees by one hundred percent and still make good profits; yet they were still not ready to offer the women a good pay that was proportional to their work, or the revenues that they generated for the stores.Despite all the difficulties that the women were subjected to, the stores still taught them the art of fashion, whereby this greatly enabled them to take part in the urban culture. This gave the women the sense of belonging as they interacted among themselves and even with the men freely. The women felt a great departure from their tradition as this new culture impressed them such that they embraced it fully, and this gave them confidence in life, something that they had been lacking ever since. Moreover, several people came to the department stores for window-shopping; others gawped at the marvels of modern-day design and the technology that showed them what could be offered by the new industrial world.On the other hand, baseball similarly taught the men city life; the advocacy for recreation by the Social Gospel movement as a genuine activity encouraged a lot of people to take part in the spectator sports. The sport also taught the participants about competition or rivalry , competence, official rules and brilliance, which all governed jobs and play. Those who part...

Highlights of a Conversation with Stanford GSBs New Admissions Director

The Stanford MBA program has a new admissions director – Kirsten Moss – and, everything being personal in this program, she is already leaving a fresh stamp on admissions approaches. During our AIGAC (Association of International Graduate Application Consultants) annual conference a couple of weeks ago in CA, she generously shared her ideas, plans, and passion for the new role and what it means for our clients who want to apply to Stanford. Fresh from completing a PhD in psychology, Kirsten expressed excitement about implementing in Stanford admissions what she learned through her research into leadership. Stanford will likely remain as daunting an admit as it was under Derrick Bolton, but I believe Kirsten will bring a unique slant to shaping the class. Here are my notes and insights from our group’s conversation with her: †¢ The adcom will look for a record of demonstrated impact as evidence that the applicant will grow into a leader of impact. †¢ Kirsten believes that there is an impression â€Å"out there† that Stanford admits or seeks only graduates from top-ranked colleges/universities. She wants to dispel that impression and cites two examples from some years back of students admitted who’d attended state colleges of no exciting pedigree. What they DID have was outstanding academic records AND exceptional impact on their school communities. She intends to continue this approach of focusing on outstanding and distinctive performance over pedigree. †¢ Through the application, she is looking to discover what applicants love to learn and how they’ve demonstrated it; how they have behaved, e.g. when/how/where have they taken initiative to go above and beyond, how have they led in conflict; where their energy comes from and what motivates them. In the â€Å"what matter most† essay, she hopes to understand what is the link between â€Å"what matters† and the applicant’s actual behavior. †¢ Also, she’s seeking evidence of persistence – that the applicant has taken initiative and fought really hard for something important to him/her. Similarly, she’s looking for people who are doing things today – not only projecting about meaningful things in the future. †¢ Stanford is known for its stratospheric GMAT scores, and if I were a betting person, I would bet that under Kirsten’s direction, the adcom will weight a hyperventilation-causing GMAT slightly less, and track record of powerful, constructive impact even more. I don’t think it will make Stanford an easier admit by any means – just slightly differently weighted amazingness. Mike Hochleutner, Director of the Stanford MSx program, also kindly gave us some time. He mentioned that, this year again, applicants will have the opportunity to apply to both the MBA and MSx programs in one application. While the MBA targets people with outstanding leadership potential, the MSx program targets people with â€Å"demonstrated leadership accomplishment† who present â€Å"clarity of purpose.† He notes that, while MSX students can have access to MBA recruiting, most recruiters are looking for a different age and experience cohort. He made the interesting point that the MSx Diversity Fellowships are looking to reach more people in both Africa and – yes – the midwestern states of the US! Both are under-represented regions for the program. It is tempting to write on about all the mouthwatering resources the MSx students enjoy during their year at Stanford, but there is no need to repeat the website. I’ll just say: if you are interested in the program and you are a qualified applicant, DO give your application your all. Everyone I’ve worked with who has been admitted to this program has done just that. Cindy Tokumitsu has advised hundreds of successful applicants, helping them gain acceptance to top MBA and EMBA programs in her 20 years with Accepted. She would love to help you too. Want Cindy to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: †¢Ã‚  Stanford GSB MBA Essay Tips Deadlines †¢Ã‚  Stanford MBA Class of 2018 Profile †¢Ã‚  An Inside Look at Wharton’s MBA at the 2017 AIGAC Conference