Organizational Communications Strategy Essay

Leaders are responsible for motivating people to do their work effectively and achieve common objectives. Some believe leaders are born but some of the qualities can also be embedded in leaders through training and learning. Communication is the process when one person conveys thoughts or feelings to another individual or collection of people. The effectiveness of the communication process can be measured by message intended is equal to the message extracted. Feedback is essential for the communication process as this provides a response to on how successful we have been in transferring our message as originally intended. Teams focus on a collective style of working where the team members work together to achieve common goals. In teams the synergy level is positive, that is the performance of the team is greater than the individual efforts. The self managed teams discussed in this case are linked with empowerment, empowering employees enables them to participate better in team decision making processes. Leaders should facilitate and gain the trust of these teams rather than try to control and dictate to them. This allows instant action to be taken against a problem leading to valuable solutions. Communication is the back bone of an organization; it is one of the most important aspects required for the survival and success of the organization, whether the objective is dealing with corporate clients, employees or general public. The aim of the massage is to get across the Messages clearly, convincingly and to the relevant targeted audiences, Content that is delivered should be conveyed using the most effective and efficient channels, and a important aspect which is to be kept in mind is that Communications are customized to reflect cultural, and local diversity so it should be utilized accordingly for the betterment of the organization. Every thing done in the organization is through communication so it is a very significant element of any organization. The company I have chosen of the fortune 500 is FedEx the communication strategy is accordingly to the current trends in the business, I will emphasize on IT for the purpose of communication whether it be with in the organization or out side to customers, the internet will be used in fact for this purpose, as it is the most efficient and effective communication medium of present era. IT internal use it is a blessing as at present organization are moving toward paper less offices and e-mails are the best way to correspond and to Provide timely responses to all questions and feedback received. For external use website is a best source to attract new and maintain present customer as a large population of the world uses the WWW, for socializing, checking e-mails, browsing etc. using this medium will help FedEx in Developing focused, targeted communications at the right time to the correct audience, Communicate concise, pertinent, interesting content with a positive tone to cater the market. Website will be used for the purpose of providing a repository of business wide communications and questions and answers that is easily accessible to all FedEx concern employees. Another vital source I would use for my communication strategy will be the mobile phone, it has been growing rapidly at present and the cell phone has become one of the most vital means to convey messages, as the general public who use cell phones are addicted to it. We could target our customer by mobile massages which are used at present companies to attract customer, further the merge of the mobile and the internet has had a positive impact on the industry. Further, we could use other means of promoting their Internet marketing efforts offline like newsletters, direct mails, etc in order to reach more people nationally and internationally. The same tools can be used to promote not only the website but the company as a whole at the same time based on data gathered about customers online. Conduct online promotion using banner ads, e-newsletters, e-zines, etc. Since internet marketing is a new concept, those people who do go online may not be aware of exactly which companies have websites now. Therefore it would be a really effective idea right now to start placing banner ads on websites, there should be an overall increase in awareness of the use of Websites to interact with their customers online. I believe that the postal system is not very reliable but the usage of online advertisement can increase the interactivity and understanding of consumers and become more personalized. The World Wide Web has got billions of users with a great deal of attention from press and industry analysts. It’s got big names like Amazon and Yahoo which makes it sound even more intimidating to small businesses to use the Internet as a big part of their marketing solution. Like traditional advertising, Web marketing does not need a catchy slogan or striking images or animations. To get started, all one needs to do is state just the facts: who you are, what you sell, where you’re located, and other basic information. It does not cost a lot to fix mistakes, add new information or make other changes. That’s one source of anxiety absent in Web marketing. The same free tools used to develop web pages can be used to fix them, add to them or expand them. Today’s consumers rarely wait until they enter a store before they begin to develop a decision to purchase one brand over another. For most businesses this is one of the greatest opportunities of the Internet. By responding to the consumers’ need for information and providing them with the information they are looking for earlier in the sales cycle, a business of any size can develop the kind of branded relationship that at one time only corporations with large ad budgets could afford. To get maximum benefit one can blend conventional advertising with online advertising to further energize and empower the overall campaign and make it interactive. What is needed is creativity and imaginative thinking. There is no particular, sure-fire way of doing it right and there is hardly a code of conduct. That gives internet-advertising a lot of breathing space but also leaves no excuses for not being innovative. As I have mentioned above if we conduct a cost and benefit analysis it would portray more benefit than the cost, the major target market of this media are the corporate clients as they make up most of the market in using FedEx services, with this innovative medium we will attract new customer for our product as well, the stake holder are the employee, loyal customer, the management of FedEx etc. In order to cater cultural nuances of people from all over the world we will have website customized to match the particular countries culture, and we will endeavor to cater the worldwide culture accordingly for instance Take nudity, Many Mildest cultures are reluctant to displaying women’s skin, while Europeans are far more tolerant of public nudity than Americans, these cultural difference will be catered for the effectiveness of the organizational communications strategy. Culture is a very difficult term to define. However, certain people have gone on and defined culture well by saying that it is a ‘set of shared values, opinions and practices of a community or group of people. ’ (Definition of Culture) The importance of the understanding of a socio-cultural environment of any country is imperative to attaining business advantage and eventually translatable success. This understanding of socio-cultural environment is then translated effectively into business practices so that they appeal to the local crowd and create a positive image of the firm in their minds. (Cultural Barriers) In my opinion this organizational communications strategy will do wonders for the organization, I hope this strategy will be implemented for the betterment of the organization.

Free Essays on Sexism In The Classroom

Sexism in the Classroom In â€Å"Failing at Fairness† one of the most important topics of sexism is addressed, and that of course is sexism in the schools. From the beginning of public education there is evidence of hidden sexism in the classroom, yet not until recently have researchers began to take a closer look at the dilemma at hand. Sexism in the classroom is not a problem that has just occurred overnight in schools. I believe that it has a history, staring long before I was born. I love to listen to the stories that my Grandparents share with me, as do many children my age. They always tell me how great those â€Å"good old days† were. Yet the stories make me step back and look at my grandparents, and see that those â€Å"good old days† are very different from today. Back then, the male role was heads of the household and they were responsible for any of the â€Å"physical work† to be done around the house. On the other hand, women had much less say in what was going on in the house, community, and even the nation. For the most part, women stayed home to take care of the kids and do all the housework that needed to be done. This has been the way of life for along time right up until the Second World War. Then slowly women began to work their way into the work force, leaving those elementary ideas behind. Through the years women have gained more and more rights focus on equality, but are they really equal? To some extent yes, and by law yes, but there are still those hidden views and ideas that are continually being pushed on society. I have always witnessed sexism in the classroom, even though I have attended catholic school all my life. I believe that it is more harmful if it is not that obvious. For instance, if sexism is taking place in a kindergarten class, and no one is there to correct it from the beginning, girls will feel like they are inferior to the boys and therefore hold back in participation. I ... Free Essays on Sexism In The Classroom Free Essays on Sexism In The Classroom Sexism in the Classroom In â€Å"Failing at Fairness† one of the most important topics of sexism is addressed, and that of course is sexism in the schools. From the beginning of public education there is evidence of hidden sexism in the classroom, yet not until recently have researchers began to take a closer look at the dilemma at hand. Sexism in the classroom is not a problem that has just occurred overnight in schools. I believe that it has a history, staring long before I was born. I love to listen to the stories that my Grandparents share with me, as do many children my age. They always tell me how great those â€Å"good old days† were. Yet the stories make me step back and look at my grandparents, and see that those â€Å"good old days† are very different from today. Back then, the male role was heads of the household and they were responsible for any of the â€Å"physical work† to be done around the house. On the other hand, women had much less say in what was going on in the house, community, and even the nation. For the most part, women stayed home to take care of the kids and do all the housework that needed to be done. This has been the way of life for along time right up until the Second World War. Then slowly women began to work their way into the work force, leaving those elementary ideas behind. Through the years women have gained more and more rights focus on equality, but are they really equal? To some extent yes, and by law yes, but there are still those hidden views and ideas that are continually being pushed on society. I have always witnessed sexism in the classroom, even though I have attended catholic school all my life. I believe that it is more harmful if it is not that obvious. For instance, if sexism is taking place in a kindergarten class, and no one is there to correct it from the beginning, girls will feel like they are inferior to the boys and therefore hold back in participation. I ... Free Essays on Sexism In The Classroom Sexism in the Classroom In their article "Sexism in the Classroom", Myra and David Sadker argue that sexism exists in the classroom and that boys are treated better than girls. The authors, Myra and David Sadker, talk about the research they did and what they observed over a three year period. They found that boys have a better opportunity of learning because they got more attention from the teacher and they observed that boys were often called on more than girls in the classroom. Their research also showed that the teacher gave boys more positive comments. Before I read this article I honestly never thought about sexism in the classroom. I believed boys and girls were given the same amount of attention in school. If I had thought there was sexism in the classroom, I would have guessed that girls were being favored over boys. In all of my classes in high school and in college I believe that females and males have been treated equally. This past week I observed my Spanish class to see if sexism exists in my classroom. The ratio of girls to boys in this class is 12 to 7. I observed that girls were called on more often than boys. Also, the teacher gave girls more positive comments than they gave to the boys. For example she told a few girls that they had worked well in their group and did a good job on the assignment But, most of the time she went around the whole class to get everyone to participate. I think that the teacher did a good job of trying to involve everyone in the lessons we were doing. There were more girls in my Spanish class and always more girls who raised their hands than boys. When we were put into groups, it seemed to me that girls contributed more to the group than the boys did. I also noticed this week that when we came into the classroom and sat down, it was mainly girls in the front of the classroom and mainly more boys towards the back of the classroom. It has been said that teachers often favor one side of ...

How to Add Resource Files in Delphi Executables

How to Add Resource Files in Delphi Executables Games and other types of applications which use multimedia files like sounds and animations must either distribute the extra multimedia files along with the application or embed the files within the executable. Rather than distribute separate files for your applications use, you can add the raw data to your application as a resource. You can then retrieve the data from your application when it is needed. This technique is generally more desirable because it can keep others from manipulating those add-in files. This article will show you how to embed (and use) sound files, video clips, animations and more generally any kind of binary files in a Delphi executable. For the most general purpose, youll see how to put an MP3 file inside a Delphi exe. Resource Files (.RES) In the Resource Files Made Easy article you were presented with several examples of the use of bitmaps, icons, and cursors from resources. As stated in that article we can use the Image Editor to create and edit resources that consist of such types of files. Now, when we are interested in storing various types of (binary) files inside a Delphi executable well have to deal with resource script files (.rc), the Borland Resource Compiler tool and other. Including several binary files in your executable consists of 5 steps: Create and/or collect all the files you wish to put in an exe.Create a resource script file (.rc) that describes those resources used by your application,Compile the resource script file (.rc) file to create a resource file (.res),Link the compiled resource file into the application’s executable file,Use individual resource element. The first step should be simple, simply decide what types of files you would like to store in your executable. For example, we will store two .wav songs, one .ani animations and one .mp3 song. Before we move on, here are a few important statements concerning limitations when working with resources: Loading and unloading resources is not a time-consuming operation. Resources are part of the applications executable file and are loaded at the same time the application runs.All the (free) memory can be used when loading/unloading resources. In other words, there are no limits on the number of resources loaded at the same time.Of course, resource files do double the size of an executable. If you want smaller executables, consider placing resources and parts of your project in a dynamic link library (DLL) or its more specialized variation. Lets now see how to create a file that describes resources. Creating a Resource Script File (.RC) A resource script file is a just a simple text file with the extension .rc that lists resources. The script file is in this format: ResName1 ResTYPE1 ResFileName1ResName2 ResTYPE2 ResFileName2...ResNameX ResTYPEX ResFileNameX... RexName specifies either a unique name or an integer value (ID) that identifies the resource. ResType describes the type of resource and the ResFileName is the full path and file name to the individual resource file. To create a new resource script file, simply do the following: Create a new text file in your projects directory.Rename it to AboutDelphi.rc. In the AboutDelphi.rc file, have the following lines: Clock WAVE c:\mysounds\projects\clock.wavMailBeep WAVE c:\windows\media\newmail.wavCool AVI cool.aviIntro RCDATA introsong.mp3 The script file simply defines resources. Following the given format the AboutDelphi.rc script lists two .wav files, one .avi animation, and one .mp3 song. All statements in a .rc file associate an identifying name, type and file name for a given resource. There are about a dozen predefined resource types. These include icons, bitmaps, cursors, animations, songs, etc. The RCDATA defines generic data resources. RCDATA let you include a raw data resource for an application. Raw data resources permit the inclusion of binary data directly in the executable file. For example, the RCDATA statement above names the application’s binary resource Intro and specifies the file introsong.mp3, which contains the song for that MP3 file. Note: make sure you have all the resources you list in your .rc file available. If the files are inside your projects directory you dont have to include the full file name. In my .rc file .wav songs are located *somewhere* on the disk and both the animation and MP3 song are located in the projects directory. Creating a Resource File (.RES) To use the resources defined in the resource script file, we must compile it to a .res file with the Borlands Resource Compiler. The resource compiler creates a new file based on the contents of the resource script file. This file usually has an .res extension. The Delphi linker will later reformat the .res file into a resource object file and then link it to the executable file of an application. The Borlands Resource Compiler command line tool is located in the Delphi Bin directory. The name is BRCC32.exe. Simply go to the command prompt and type brcc32 then press Enter. Since the Delphi\Bin directory is in your Path the Brcc32 compiler is invoked and displays the usage help (since it was called with no parameters). To compile the AboutDelphi.rc file to a .res file execute this command at the command prompt (in the projects directory): BRCC32 AboutDelphi.RC By default, when compiling resources, BRCC32 names the compiled resource (.RES) file with the base name of the .RC file and places it in the same directory as the .RC file. You can name the resource file anything you want, as long as it has the extension .RES and the filename without the extension is not the same as any unit or project filename. This is important because, by default, each Delphi project that compiles into an application has a resource file with the same name as the project file, but with the extension .RES. Its best to save the file to the same directory as your project file. Including (Linking/Embedding) Resources to Executables After the .RES file is linked to the executable file, the application can load its resources at run time as needed. To actually use the resource, youll have to make a few Windows API calls. In order to follow the article, youll need a new Delphi project with a blank form (the default new project). Of course add the {$R AboutDelphi.RES} directive to the main forms unit. Its finally time to see how to use resources in a Delphi application. As mentioned above, in order to use resources stored inside an exe file we have to deal with API. However, several methods can be found in the Delphi help files that are resource enabled. For example, take a look at the LoadFromResourceName method of a TBitmap object. This method extracts the specified bitmap resource and assigns it TBitmap object. This is *exactly* what LoadBitmap API call does. As always Delphi has improved an API function call to suit your needs better. Now, add the TMediaPlayer component to a form (name: MediaPlayer1) and add a TButton (Button2). Let the OnClick event look like: One minor *problem* is that the application creates an MP3 song on a user machine. You could add a code that deletes that file before the application is terminated. Extracting *. Of course, every other type of a binary file can be stored as a RCDATA type. The TRsourceStream is designed specially to help us extract such file from an executable. The possibilities are endless: HTML in an exe, EXE in exe, empty database in an exe, and so and so forth.

Assignment 10 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

10 - Assignment Example ifferences in employees needs and preferences, for instance many of the employees who are much younger and do not have dependent children and spouses always tend not to believe in life insurance. In many case scenario married couples who have dependable children and spouses at the same time always enjoys most of the benefits plan, as the company is a aware of the demanding situation to provide and be comfortable at the same time. Un-married persons living together are not recognized in such and do not enjoy the benefits enjoyed by married couples. Employees with higher standards of education also tend to enjoy most of the benefits plans in many organizations as compared to those employees with low level of education. In order to effectively come with a proper plan succession planning needs to be focused from senior management positions starting at the top and going down. The plan needs to focus on developing large talent pools as compared to few individuals. It should also build on well-developed competencies and objective assessment process planning. As such there should be plans of the number of job-ready people to fill senior jobs when they become vacant, the total percentage of jobs filled by internal candidate and also the time it takes for an outside hire to get up to speed with his/her job task. Organizations should at all ties have job ready talents, plan ahead and in a timely manner. Have at all times successors developed and ready to assume their next level of

Speakers' experiences and my the experiences for accounting Essay

Speakers' experiences and my the experiences for accounting - Essay Example It also serves as a tool of the eventual decision making in the business setting. Proper accounting portrays the ultimate financial position of the business. The accounting field provides an interrelationship with other departments in any organization. It tends to unify all the fields in any organization. All departments must spend through the consumption of the business resources. Accounting provides the platform of unifying all the expenditure and comparing it with the revenues that the business enjoy. Every department or discipline has a mandate of ensuring proper utilization to minimize the expenditure and maximize the returns. The evaluation of such disciplines is a tremendous initiative in determining the financial position of different disciplines. Examples of disciplines that require the knowledge of accounting to run them include; the human resource, ICT, marketing, and other disciplines. The information obtained from various fields in a business culminates into the final re port that is portrayed in the books of accounts. Amber Herrmann Amber Herrmann is a former graduate of CFCUSM. She started her course in accounting and passed the first accounting course. She later took a business course in human resource management. She graduated as an accountant, but later switched to human resources. The human resource is involved in the recruitment of new employees, performance appraisal, promotion of the employees, and the laying off workers. It is a department that is mostly involved in the maintenance and protection of the employee welfare. Accounting Information used by the Discipline Though Amber is a human resource manager, knowledge of the accounting has propagated her to become the merited manager she is. She provides the insights about the application of the accounting knowledge in the HR department. The department is involved in the management of about 12000 employees. The welfare of these employees has to be protected. The accounting information provi des them with the general liability procedures that the department requires for merited performance. During the annual general meetings, the department must prepare the most credible financial records and present them to evaluate their performance. This involves the use of the departmental cash accounts, balance sheets, and cash flows. This is due to its predisposition in the spending tendencies in most companies. â€Å"HR department has been deemed as spenders. The proper application of the accounting techniques ensures for efficient spending† (Herrmann, 15:01-15:30). The HR is necessitated to provide the final budgeting at the end of every financial year. This involves both the returns and the investments or expenditure. The HR must use the accounting discipline to ensure that the budget is sufficient and not exaggerated. They do not base their eventual values on assumptions, but on the values portrayed in the records. The proper employment of the values is necessary in mak ing the approximation of the supplies to their departments. This may be used to cater for the general liabilities such as employee injuries, legal liabilities, performance appraisal, and payment of the employee salaries. Therefore, the knowledge of accounting is used to monitor the patterns of budgeting (Herrmann, 14:45-15:59). Most organizations believe that the HR is a department that is explicitly involved in costs, and not returns. Amber uses her accounting knowledge to ensure that the money stays in the firm. They try to minimize expenses of

Design for an information system Research Paper

Design for an information system - Research Paper Example Broadly, an information system in the context of an organization is the harmonization of user needs, standard operation procedures, data, software, and hardware to process and manage digitized information. The need to computerise traditional health care information systems is overwhelming. Health care systems need pooling of patient records, better and more easily accessible electronic health records, patient scheduling and billing services for patients. The need for robust and highly functional computerised systems for an urgent care facility are especially critical, and system developers have already made considerable inroads in implementing the use of computerise systems for the management of the facilities. System development depends on a number of methodologies whose overarching mandate is to ensure the entire process of development to implementation goes smoothly, achieves the initial objectives and gives a desirable benefits-to-costs match. In this study, we look at the comput erization at SFO Medical Clinic, a Californian clinic that among other services offers urgent care to its broad range of patients. The goal of this paper is to identify and document a fully functional information system for a small company. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 SDLC Models and Complexity of Software Development 4 Preliminary Investigation 5 Requirements analysis 5 System Design 6 System Development 7 System Integration 7 System Testing 7 Gaining User Acceptance 8 Installation and Deployment 8 System Maintenance 8 Conclusion 8 References 10 Introduction Development of an information system requires more than knowledge and expertise in drafting excellent designs. Information systems have a far-reaching impact, with the principal aim to improve or replace existing systems. Therefore, the need to emphasize functionality over design is the supreme purpose of developing an information system. The goal of making highly functional and more efficien t is self-evidenced in the information system methodologies and the varying approaches to software development through the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). A SDLC is the major concept that fortifies user-oriented software development process. Urgent health care facilities, whether serving children, young people, aged, or emergency cases, require an intricate understanding of local systems. Urgent care facilities are unique in that they serve patients in situations where timely and planned treatment procedures are not possible (NHS Manchester, 2008). Through collaborative contribution to the elements pertaining to a certain urgent health care facility, an efficient information system is achievable. An information system for an urgent care facility should exhibit specificity to the needs of the patients, handiness of use for the staff operating the system, and safety in operation. The information system also helps in prevention redundancy in recording of patient data, and provide s a secure retrieval system, which also stores data on patients for easy recording and modification in subsequent visits. In this report, we consider the urgent department wing of the SFO Medical Clinic, in San Francisco, California. The urgent care arm experiences issues typical of such facilities in the US. The purpose of this report is to document the design and implementation of a new information system for an urgent health care facility. SDLC Models and Complexity of Software Development The SDLC aim is to result in a high quality information system, which meets all user needs and performs markedly better than the existing information systems, manual or otherwise. However, viewpoints differ as to the best model for the system development, a factor that is solely responsible for the

The Epic Of Gilgamesh | Analysis

The Epic Of Gilgamesh | Analysis The epic of Gilgamesh, is one of the oldest pieces of literature still read to date and the themes are still some that society can relate to. The trials and tribulations the main characters in this epic poem go through can easily be used to interpret challenges in peoples everyday life today. Gilgamesh the hero in the story who is also king to the great city of Uruk is blessed with strength, wisdom, beauty and is two-thirds god like. Gilgamesh is also very arrogant, self-absorbed and most certainly, lonely. The people of the city of Uruk pray to the gods for help with Gilgamesh and the gods send Enkidu. Enkidu is a wild, natural and carefree man who has subsisted in the woods. On a day when Gilgamesh is on his way to do what he feels is his birth right and sleep with a bride to be of one of his men Enkidu blocks him and challenges him to a fight. Gilgamesh who is undeniable the more powerful one of the two wins. Enkidu praises the king instead of being upset and causes Gilgamesh in r eturn to embrace Enkidu as his friend. This is the beginning of a bond of friendship in which both are opposites but they balance each other out. This is also where the transformation of Gilgamesh begins we see how meeting his complement teaches him to appreciate humanity and the bond of brotherhood that grows between them. Gilgamesh finally realized that the feeling of loneliness that he felt was the yearning of his soul for a true friend. Although it is a very primitive way but Gilgamesh begins to show signs of selflessness as soon as he brings his new found friend Enkidu home. Gilgamesh introduces his new friend to his mother, Gilgameshs mother adopts Enkidu he becomes not only the servant, confidant, and friend of Gilgamesh, but also he is referred to as a blood brother. The first journey that Gilgamesh proposes is an attempt to lift his friends spirits because he had noticed his weeping, Gilgamesh speaks, why are your eyes full of tears, why are you listless, your strength turned to weakness? (Gilgamesh, Tablet 2, 136-137). Gilgamesh has failed to get to know his friend and his action seem careless and selfish. When his intentions are to share what he feels would be a good time with Enkidu. Gilgamesh is not aware of the dangers in the forest and tells Enkidu they should journey into the forest and kill Humbaba. Enkidu attempts to speak some sense into Gilgamesh about the dangers of the wild but of course Gilgamesh still being selfish does not see his friend is trying to protect him. They set out to the forest Enkidu is entrusted to take care of the king of Uruk and bring him back home safe. Thought these two men just met there bond is immediate and while in the forest the trust Gilgamesh has in Enkidu is so great that when he wakes from sleeping tells his friends his dreams and feels comfort in his interpretation of them. When they finally reach their goal and confront the monster Humbaba in the forest the influence they have on each other is obvious. Gilgamesh the never wavering strong one has second thoughts and here come Enkidu and tell him those words of encouragement he needs to hear and Gilgamesh kills Humbaba. The men return home and are content for a while. As time progresses the loyalty Gilgamesh and Enkidu have towards each other grows. Almost childlike the way Enkidu responds to the princess and also goddess Ishtar who attempted to kill Gilgamesh in a fit of rage because he refused to marry her. Enkidu says to Ishtar If I could vanquish you, Id turn you to this, Id drape the guts beside you! (Gilgamesh, Tablet 6, 154-155). Enkidu is referring to the guts of the bull of heaven the princess had released to kill Gilgamesh but it failed to do so instead the two friends join together and kill it taking its horns as a trophy. The men caring spirit towards each other even though the response is playful in nature it brings comfort to the other to know that they have each others back. Unfortunately the gods felt that the insult towards Ishtar was enough and decide to punish the two friends. In the mist of all their adventures Gilgamesh has still never experienced a loss and still he feels that he is invincible. In spite of all of Gilgameshs p ower, he is incapable of preventing Enkidus death. Enkidu the great friend of Gilgamesh dies a death he considers to be a curse, he would have much rather a glorious death in battle but instead he lays in bed and waste away from an illness. This is the first time that Gilgamesh feels lost and helpless even his mighty strength cannot save his friend. Also Gilgamesh will get in touch with his human side and feel fear for he finally has come to the realization that he is human and death comes to all even him. Gilgamesh says, The fate of mankind has overtaken him, Six days and seven nights I wept for him, I would not give him up for burial, until a worm fell out of his nose. I was frightened (Gilgamesh, Tablet 10, 58-61) Gilgamesh referring to his friend Enkidu, that even after his death he was holding on to the hope that just maybe hes friend would wake up somehow. It took him seven days to finally realize that he is powerless against death. Gilgamesh gives his friend a lavish burial ceremony, lays him to rest in what he describes as a perfect resting place. The king also serves many offerings to the rulers of the underworld so that his friend is taking care of. Gilgamesh also calls on his craftsmen and has them build a statue in the image of his great friend covered in gold and other precious metals and stones to forever immortalize his friend. The fact remains Gilgamesh realizes his full humanity when Enkidu dies and he decides to go on a quest to search for immortality. Gilgamesh still consumed with pride will go on one last journey to seek eternal life, for he fears that his death will one day come just like it did for his friend Enkidu. Gilgamesh has become more aware of the vulnerability that comes along with being human. Without knowing he has also learned to care for another human being other than himself. Gilgamesh still full of pride refuses to give up and begins his journey. Along the way Gilgamesh encounters a few obstacles, first it was a pair of serpents that guard the entrance of the mountain he intends to pass. He pleads with them to let him through and tells them he is searching for eternal life, even though they tell him that he will never find it he is relentless and refuses to give up so they let him through. Next, he encounters Siduri the tavern keeper who tell him again immortality is not for humans but Gilgamesh refuses to listen, he pleads saying he is heartsick for his friend and to please allow him to cross or he will never ha ve peace within. But Siduri advises him and tell him that he should be content and enjoy his life and tells him This, then, is the work of mankind (Gilgamesh, Tablet 10, 90). The king of Uruk has ability to live life to the fullest to be merry, but instead he refuses and continues his search for something that is not attainable to human beings. Gilgamesh reaches the sea which is the last obstacle he believes he needs to cross to reach Utanapishtim the oldest human known to man and the only human who has been granted immortal life by the gods. Gilgamesh believes that by reaching him he will find the answer hes looking for and be granted eternal life. After finally crossing the waters of death Gilgamesh finally reaches Utanapishtim and tells him the purposes of his journey is to seek eternal life. Gilgamesh says Enkidu, my friend whom I loved has turned into clay! Shall I not lie down like him, and never get up, forever and ever?(Gilgamesh, Table 10, 265-267). In an effort to gain compassion from Utanapishtim this great King of Uruk will go into great detail in telling him of all the hardships he had to endure in his journey to reach the only person that may be able to tell him how to obtain immortality. Utanapishtim, does the opposite of what Gilgamesh expect him to do, instead of feeling pity for Gilgamesh he points out that all the hardships he has endured are by choice. Gilgamesh does not want to hear that instead he presses to know the reason why he has been granted immortality; finally he learns the story of the flood and why the gods granted Utanapishtim everlasting life. Utanapishtim gives Gilgamesh one chance to everlasti ng life and challenges Gilgamesh to stay awake for a week, he fails when he wakes Gilgamesh says What then should I do, Utanapishtim, whither should I go, Now that the Bereaver has seized my [flesh]? Death lurks in my bedchamber, and wherever I turn there is death! (Gilgamesh, Tablet 10, 246-249). With nowhere else to go with his quest of eternity Utanapishtim sends Gilgamesh home not before telling him to count his blessings and enjoy his life. He also gives him a plant of everlasting youth that again Gilgamesh fails to take care of and drops it allowing a snake to eat it. Gilgamesh weeps and finally realizes that although he searched far and wide for the secret of immortality, he found nothing and lay exhausted. Gilgamesh returns home and for the first time he looks at his great city of Uruk with pride. The Epic of Gilgamesh showed the reasons of Gilgameshs grief and why his attempt to do the impossible was so important to him. In a way Gilgamesh was looking to see if there was anything he could do and maybe be able to bring his friend Enkidu back to life. Enkidu shows Gilgamesh true friendship and love. It also showed how loyal friends could be to each other and how fast a friendship is born. The two friends learn from each other and support each other through all their journeys together. As Enkidu becomes more civilized by leaving his wild nature behind him, Gilgamesh was becoming a more selfless human being and leaving the tyrant king he used to be behind him Even though the two men had nothing in common in the surface they took notice of each others kindred spirits. Friends on impulse who formed a bond for no apparent reason but in return give us a glance at what it means to have a best friend and confidant. This also tells us that it doesnt matter how much humanity evolves the bonds we form with friends or family are just as important today as they were centuries ago.