Paper Renovating Home Depot free essay sample

The big-box store is thriving under CEO Bob Nardellis military-style rule | Five years after his December, 2000, arrival, Chief Executive Robert L. Nardelli is putting his stamp on what was long a decentralized, entrepreneurial business under founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. And if his company starts to look and feel like an army, thats the point. Nardelli loves to hire soldiers. In fact, he seems to love almost everything about the armed services. The military, to a large extent, has become the management model for his entire enterprise. Of the 1,142 people hired into Home Depots store leadership program, a two-year training regimen for future store managers launched in 2002, almost half, 528 are junior military officers. More than 100 of them now run Home Depots. † It’s one thing to have faced a tough customer. Its another to face the enemy shooting at you. So they probably will be pretty calm under fire. We will write a custom essay sample on Paper Renovating Home Depot or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Nardelli is a detail-obsessed, diamond-cut-precise manager who, in 2000, lost his shot at the top job at General Electric Co. Overall, some 13% of Home Depots 345,000 employees have military experience, vs. 4% at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Importing ideas, people, and platitudes from the military is a key part of Nardellis sweeping move to reshape Home Depot, the worlds third-largest retailer, into a more centralized organization. That may be an untrendy idea in management circles, but Nardelli couldnt care less. Its a critical element of his strategy to rein in an unwieldy 2,048-store chain and prepare for its next leg of growth. The kind of discipline and maturity that you get out of the military is something that can be very, very useful in an organization where basically you have 2,100 colonels running things, Rivals such as Wal-Mart are plunging deeper into home improvement products, while archenemy No. 1, Lowes Cos. is luring Home Depot customers to its 1,237 bright, airy stores. Even as other companies seek to stoke creativity and break down hierarchies, Nardelli is trying to build a disciplined corps, one predisposed to following orders, operating in high-pressure environments, and executing with high standards. The cultural overhaul is taking Home Depot in a markedly different direction from Lowes, where managers describe the atmosphere as demanding but low-profile, collaborative, and collegial. Lowes does not have formal military-hiring programs, nor does it track the number of military veterans in its ranks. Observes Goldman, Sachs Co. analyst: Bob believes in a command-and-control organization. In Nardellis eyes, its a necessary step in Home Depots corporate evolution. Even though founders Marcus and Blank were hardly a pair of teddy bears, they allowed store managers immense autonomy. Whether it was an aisle, department, or store, you were truly in charge of it, says former store operations manager and Navy mechanic Bryce G. Church, who now oversees 30 Ace Hardware stores. And the two relied more on instincts than analytics to build the youngest company ever to hit $40 billion in revenue, just 20 years after its 1979 founding. In the waning years of their leadership in the late 1990s, however, sales stagnated. The company grew so fast the wheels were starting to come off,† These days every major decision and goal at Home Depot flows down from Nardellis office. Theres no question; Bobs the general, Although he has yet to win all the hearts and minds of his employees, and probably never will, Nardellis feisty spirit is rekindling stellar financial performance. Riding a housing and home-improvement boom, Home Depot sales have soared, from $46 billion in 2000, the year Nardelli took over, to $81. 5 billion in 2005, an average annual growth rate of 12%, according to results announced on Feb. 21. By squeezing more out of each orange box through centralized purchasing and a $1. 1 billion investment in technology, such as self-checkout aisles and in-store Web kiosks, profits have more than doubled in Nardellis tenure, to $5. 8 billion. Home Depots gross margins inched up from 30% in 2000 to 33. 5% last year. But fast-growing Lowes is still Wall Streets darling, in large part because analysts are only now getting comfortable with Nardellis strategy. CULTURE OF FEAR Nardelli has pushed his cultural makeover hard in the five years since he has been at the helm. But not all have embraced him, or his plans. BusinessWeek spoke with 11 former executives, who describe a demoralized staff and say a culture of fear is causing customer service to wane. Before he arrived, managers ran Home Depots stores on tribal knowledge, based on years of experience about what sold and what didnt. Now they click nervously through BlackBerrys at the end of each week, hoping they made plan, a combination of sales and profit targets. The once-heavy ranks of full-time Home Depot store staff have been replaced with part-timers to drive down labor costs. Underperforming executives are routinely culled from the ranks. Since 2001, 98% of Home Depots 170 top executives are new to their positions and, at headquarters in Atlanta, 56% of job changes involved bringing new managers in from outside the company. As a manager, Nardelli is relentless, demanding, and determined to prove wrong every critic of Home Depot. He treats Saturdays and Sundays as ordinary working days and often expects those around him to do the same. The military, says Nardelli, trains its recruits to be leaders and think on their feet, skills he wants in Home Depot stores. I just think these are folks who understand the importance of training, understand the importance of youre only as good as the people around you. Indeed, the Home Depot of Bob Nardelli is being run with military-style precision. These days everyone at Home Depot is ranked on the basis of four performance metrics: financial, operational, customer, and people skills. The company has placed human resources managers in every store, and all job applicants who make it through a first-round interview must then pass a role-playing exercise. Dennis M. Donovan, Home Depots executive vice-president for human resources and a GE alumnus, measures the effectiveness of Home Depot workers by using an equation: VA = Q x A x E. Its meaning? According to Home Depot, the value-added (VA) of an employee equals the quality (Q) of what you do, multiplied by its acceptance (A) in the company, times how well you execute (E) the task. The goal is to replace the old, sometimes random management style with new rigor. While Nardelli is careful to say that the military is just one pipeline of talent into Home Depot, the company also recruits senior citizens and Latinos through four Hispanic advocacy groups. Now, with Lowes and Wal-Mart picking off Home Depots customers, Home Depot is moving quickly to whip the troops into shape. What worked 20 years ago may not work today. Its as simple as warfare. We dont fight wars the way we used to. SIMPLE SLOGANS To win the customer service war, Home Depot has adjusted its tactics. Home Depot plans to roll out a 25-page booklet dubbed How To Be Orange Every Day. All store employees will be expected to keep it in their apron pocket. It contains aphorisms such as customers cannot buy what we do not have, we create an atmosphere of high-energy fun, and every person, penny and product counts. It is expected that such simple slogans will help shore up Home Depots once-vaunted customer service. They recall the four basic responses to an officers question in the Navy: Yes, sir; No, sir; Aye, aye, sir; and Ill find out, sir. It is seen as an effort to align all Home Depot workers on the same page when it comes to serving customers. I think about that line from A Few Good Men when Jack Nicholson says: Are we clear? and Tom Cruise says: Crystal . A former executive says that Nardellis effort to measure good customer service, instead of inspiring it, is to blame: My perception is that the mechanics are there. The soul isnt. Home Depot executives add that internal polling shows customer satisfaction is improving, but they wont release complete resul ts. They point to Harris Interactives 2005 Reputation Quotient, an annual 600-person survey that combines a range of reputation-related categories, from customer service to social responsibility. The survey ranked Home Depot No. 12 among major companies and reported that customers appreciated Home Depots quality service. Some of the same former managers who blame Nardellis hardball approach for corroding the service ethic at Home Depot describe a culture so paralyzed with fear that they didnt worry about whether they would be terminated, but when. COMMAND OF DETAILS Still, its hard even for Nardelli critics, including ones he has fired, not to admire his unstinting determination to follow his makeover plan. But some of them question his business model (squeezing efficiencies out of the core business while buying up new businesses) can work in a retail environment where taking care of customers is paramount. Bob has brought a lot of operational efficiencies that Home Depot needed, says Steve Mahurin, But he failed to keep the orange-blooded, entrepreneurial spirit alive. Home Depot is now a factory. Can his plan work? Ab-so-lute-ly, says Nardelli. This is the third time this business model has been successful. He rejects the idea that he has created a culture of fear. The only reason you should be fearful is if you personally dont want to make the commitment, says Nardelli. â€Å"He says Home Depot is dealing with the challenges of being a more centralized company just fine. And he makes no apologies for laying off the ranks of underperforming store workers and executives to achieve aggressive financial objectives. We couldnt have done this by saying, Run slower, jump lower, and just kind of get by, insists Nardelli, hardening his gaze. So I will never apologize for setting the bar high. Questions: 1. Compare Home Depot under Nardelli’s leadership and under the Markus and Blank leadership. What has changed? List main features of both leadership styles with its main advantages and disadvantages. 2. To what extent can we find elements of the classical management approaches in Home Depot under Nardelli’s leadership? Comment on the formula â€Å"VA = Q x A x E† to measure employee’s effectiveness. Be specific when relating to theories / authors. 3. List Home Depot stakeholders and indicate how they have been impacted by Nardelli’s new company’s culture. How each stakeholder has been impacted? Who are the beneficiaries? Who has been impacted negatively? Be specific. Paper renovating Home Depot Question 1: Compare Home Depot under Nardelli’s leadership and under the Markus and Blank leadership. What has changed? List main features of both leadership styles with its main advantages and disadvantages. The main features of the leadership of Markus and Blank were: â€Å"laid-back†, â€Å"independent†, †supportive† and â€Å"participative† Advantages: Their employees were happy with the way they were allowed to work. The store managers had a lot of independence in running their stores. A respected and customer friendly atmosphere in the store. Disadvantages: With these styles they weren’t able to let the store grow bigger financially. The main features of the leadership of Nardelli were: â€Å"task oriented†, â€Å"directive†, â€Å"autonomous†, â€Å"inflexible† and â€Å"autocratic† The advantage of this styles are that he had a good overview over his company and that he was able to make more financial growth. Disadvantages: He neglected the enthusiasm of his people with being too strict. By only wanting to make the store grow bigger he didn’t paid much attention to the importance of the customers and his customer service. What has changed? What has changed the most were the differences in leadership styles of Nardelli and Markus Blank. The employees were used to a more laid-back and independence style of leading from Markus, but when Nardelli came he had new ideas for change. Nardelli believed that managing by metrics was the best way to guarantee fairness in judging a person’s performance. He wanted control, however the store managers felt that they lost their autonomy and independence. This led to the failure of unification of commitment and enthusiasm of his followers. Question 2: To what extent can we find elements of the classical management approaches in Home Depot under Nardelli’s leadership? Comment on the formula â€Å"VA = Q x A x E† to measure employee’s effectiveness. Be specific when relating to theories / authors We can find elements classical management approaches in his leadership in a couple things. Like administrative and bureaucratic. Controlling for instance. He invested heavily in technology. He also wanted to virtually measure everything in the company and hold top managers strictly accountable for meeting the numbers. With this investment he was able to measure performances and could take action to ensure desired results. We can also find a lot of organizing. The book How to be orange everyday is a good example. With this book he wanted to arrange his people to accomplish the work. And by leading the company with a military approach he wanted to get as much as organized as he could. Quote: The kind of discipline and maturity that you get out of the military is something that can be very, very useful in an organization where basically you have 2,100 colonels running things, The formula: â€Å"Nardelli was clearly able to deliver profits while trimming the costs. Under his tenure, the company made vital investments that improved the infrastructure and operations. As a result, the company delivered strong and consistent growth. †(Howell, Debbie) â€Å"Some of the same former managers who blame Nardellis hardball approach for corroding the service ethic at Home Depot describe a culture so paralyzed with fear that they didnt worry about whether they would be terminated, but when. †( Grow, Brian, Diane Brady, Michael Ardnt. ) Relating to Debbie Howell his leadership was very effective to get his employees work hard and deliver a great success to the company’s growth. The quality of what they did and the way they executed must have been really good. However I think they sometimes felt not so accepted while there was a lot of pressure to succeed. Question 3: List Home Depot stakeholders and indicate how they have been impacted by Nardelli’s new company’s culture. How each stakeholder has been impacted? Who are the beneficiaries? Who has been impacted negatively? Be specific. Employees Shareholders Community I think they all have been impacted by his new company culture because the former owners had a very different way of leading than he had. There must have been some change for every stakeholder. His military way has definitely impacted all of them but of course in their own way. Employees have been impacted by his new culture in losing their independency and had to follow strict rules under a high pressure of good performance. Who feared losing their jobs. The shareholders first gained more profit form the financial growth but his last year was less profitable. Bob has brought a lot of operational efficiencies that Home Depot needed, says Steve Mahurin, chief merchandising officer at True Value Co. and a former senior vice-president for merchandising at Home Depot. But he failed to keep the orange-blooded, entrepreneurial spirit alive. Home Depot is now a factory. (Howell, Debbie). The community including customer also suffered of his changes in customer service. â€Å"Nardelli has pushed his cultural makeover hard in the five years since he has been at the helm. But not all have embraced him, or his plans. BusinessWeek spoke with 11 former executives, who describe a demoralized staff and say a culture of fear is causing customer service to wane. †(Bu sinessweek) The beneficiaries were the shareholders who had a higher dividend because of the big financial growth but later on they were also treated negatively because of the stagnating numbers in his last year. The Board of Directors also approved the sale of Home Depots supply division to increase shareholders value. † The ones who have been impacted most negatively were the employees. â€Å"He used a functional structure in which he made all major decisions and monitored all activities while the staff just served as an extension of the management. This is not how the company was run in the past, and it made some of the Home Depot board members nervous. His ambition also drove him to expand the service component of the organization. This was stretching the company strategy into a whole new area in which Home Depot was not familiar. †

The best movieTitanic essays

The best movieTitanic essays The best movie i have ever seen is" Titanic". The reasons i like it so much are the grand scenery and the romantic content. The film Titanic is about the love story of Rose Dewitt Bukater and Jack Dawson. It is a classical romance story. Rose was from the American upper class but Jack was only a free-spirited young steerage passenger.They loved each other deeply even there was a huge gap between them. This forbidden love ended when the ship sank and Jack fell into the bottom of the ocean. I think the movie had the exellent content. The two main characters had outstanding performance. Kate and Leonardo were perfect for the part of Rose and Jack. Although it was only a classical love story , it encompassed a large range of emotions, laughter, rage, terror and the feeling of first deep love. I especially appreciate the love between them. They both tried to save each other. It showed the power that love could give a person. I was so touched by the courage his love give her to make a new life for herself on her own, even after his death. The scene when Rose took he whistle from the mouth of the dead man and withour hesitation blew it to attract the attention of the lifeboats said everything about the will to survive. This scene made me cry. Beside, the scenery and the stage properties really made me amazed. From the big ship to the small cushions at Rose's room, they were all delicate. Last but not least, the great theme song "My heart will go on" by Celine Dion marked t he end of the story. Even Jack leave Rose forever, her heart will keep going on. Titanic was already the winner of 11 Academy Awards. I deeply believe that it is the best movie i have even seen. Everyone can not miss it. ...

African American

Please show how Segregation shaped the lives of African Americans during the time frame 1870-1920. Please examine all faucet of society under slavery to support your argument. In the year of 1870, It was the re Invention of slavery. America could not be built without economic. The south was still a negative place and they tailed to accept blacks. After decades of discrimination, the voting rights act of 1965 aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that denied blacks tovote under the 15th amendment. The 1 5th amendment in 1870 gave African Americans the right o vote. The constitutional amendment passed after the civil war that it guaranteed blacks the right to vote. It affected not only freed slaves In the south but the blacks that were living In the north who was not allowed to vote(3). The amendment was favored by the Republican Party; since the votes of the slaves helped the party dominates national politics In the years after the war. During the same year, Hiram Rhodes Revels. who was a republican from Mississippi, became the first African American to sit in the United States congress when he was elected to the United tates senate. Millions of black men served In congress during reconstruction but more than 600 served In the states legislatures and many more held local offices(3). The Jim Crow laws were the era of struggle. The state and local laws in the united states enacted between 1876 and 1365. In 1890, there was a separate but equal status for African Americans. Jim Crow laws followed the Black codes which restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans with no equality. During the reconstruction period, the federal law provided clvll rights protection In the united States for the African Americans who had formally been slaves(l)_ In 1890, Louisiana required by law that blacks ride In separate railroad cars. The whites on railroads, including separate railway cars. Plessy attempted to sit in an all- white railroad car. After refusing to sit in the black railway carriage car, Plessy was arrested for violating in1890. Louisiana statute that provided for segregated separate but equal railroad accommodations. Those using facilities not designated for their race were criminally liable under the statute(4). Plessy was found guilty on he grounds that the law was a reasonable exercise of the states police powers based upon custom, usage, and tradition in the state. Plessy filed a petition in the Supreme Court of Louisiana against Ferguson, asserting that segregation stigmatized blacks and stamped them with a badge of inferiority in violation of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments(4). The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson was one of a combination of rulings passed by the U. S and the state Supreme Courts after reconstruction. Many of these decisions allowed and required Jim Crow segregation laws in southern states. At the highest level, the case was decided on May 18th in 1896, in favor of Ferguson and the state of Louisiana. The Supreme Court had given southern states all the permission they needed to let any remaining equality between the races fade away and be replaced by the Jim Crow laws standing(S). By the 1870s, many southern whites had resorted to intimidation and violence to keep blacks from voting and restore white supremacy in the region. Beginning in 1873, a series of Supreme Court decisions limited the scope of Reconstruction-era laws and federal support for the Reconstruction Amendments, particularly the 14th nd 15th, which gave African Americans the status of citizenship and protection. The Compromise of 1877 occurred after the Presidential Election of 1876, when Congress formed the Electoral Commission to resolve disputed Democratic Electoral votes from the South. The republicans agreed to enact Federal legislation that would spur industrialization in the south. They agreed to withdraw federal soldiers from their remaining positions in the south(5). They did this to appoint democrats to positions in the south and to appoint a democrat to the presidents cabinet. The Compromise f 1877 effectively ended the Reconstruction era. The Southern Democrats promised to protect but the political rights of blacks were not kept. The end of federal interference in southern affairs led to widespread disenfranchisement of blacks voters(4). From the late 1870s, southern legislatures passed a series of laws requiring the separation of whites from persons of color on public transportation, in schools, parks, restaurants, theaters and other locations. These segregationist statutes governed life in the South through the middle of the next century, ending after the uccess of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The migration was a watershed in the history of African Americans. It lessened their overwhelming concentration in the South, opened up industrial Jobs to people who had up to then been mostly farmers, and gave the first significant impetus to their cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and New York(8). The single largest movement of African Americans occurred during World War l, when people moved from rural areas and small towns in the South to cities in the North and the East. Even in the North, blacks encountered violence at the hands of whites, who esented competition for Jobs and black economic success. Segregation and discrimination in housing, education, and Jobs was pervasive in the North as well. From 1916, more than six million blacks left the South for other regions of the United States. Over the next fifteen years, more than one tenth of the countrys black population would voluntarily move north. The Great Migration lasted until 1930. This was the first step in the full nationalization of the African American population(2). The Klu Klux Klan is the oldest organization. During this time 1920s, there were still 5 percent of African Americans in the south. The Klan was created in 1871 by the Democratic Party to prevent African Americans from voting the 1 5th Amendment. The Klan also became Americans 1st terrorist group and became an institutional part of American life and political colt.

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Essay

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design - Essay Example local community on police and ultimately decrease crime and associated fear, police officers can initiate programs to train local community members to deal with the criminal and crime spot, these programs may also include additional control and improved surveillance over surroundings physically, and implementation of community based policing program (www.publicstrategies.org, 2002). CPTED provides the fundamental principles and guidance with regard to solution of certain problems and determination of potential participants and make them part of problem solving process. It also addresses the fact that crime is associated with the environment and states the possible solution to decrease the probable occurrence of crime prevalence in the local areas. The main agenda of this process is to formulate a tool that will be readily available to police officers and community members in order to cope up with crime situations and combat with resulted fear in the problem areas (Center for Problem Oriented Policing, n.d.). CPTED and SARA both address problem solving techniques in order to prevent crime in problem related areas. CPTED deals with identification of criminal activities with in the local area and factors indicating the prevalence of these activities. SARA is also a crime reduction program that deals with scanning, analyzing, responding and assessing crimes and aims to decrease the impact of crime (SARA model,

Masters accounting curriculum for international college Research Paper

Masters accounting curriculum for international college - Research Paper Example Accountancy is a method or manner of communicating information to stakeholders such as the shareholders on how a business is performing financially by making use of financial statements. Accountancy is thus an important aspect of any business since it helps in summarizing as well as classifying data in a simplified way. Companies that conduct business internationally are faced by numerous challenges, which include cultural diversity, competition, as well as the challenge of having to do business in a multilingual setting. This requires persons aspiring to engage in multinational or global business to be equipped to deal with the above challenges. Additionally, multinational corporations have more complicated financial statements as compared to national one. Accountants are thus required to have adequate skill to enable them audit international financial statements and make appropriate decisions on behalf of their employees. However, most existing curricula fail to address how the new ly emerging challenges should be dealt with adequately. This results in most graduates lacking knowledge on the aspects characterizing global business. It thus becomes depressing when such graduates have to work with global companies. This research paper focuses on International College, which is considering offering a Masters in Accounting for international students. The paper will give recommendations on how the college should develop a curriculum that addresses the current needs of companies who do business around the globe. Procedure To establish the aspects to include or eliminate from the existing curricula, there is need to understand the conditions that characterize the global business.... It thus becomes depressing when such graduates have to work with global companies. This research paper focuses on International College, which is considering offering a Masters in Accounting for international students. The paper will give recommendations on how the college should develop a curriculum that addresses the current needs of companies who do business around the globe. Procedure To establish the aspects to include or eliminate from the existing curricula, there is need to understand the conditions that characterize the global business. International College should establish a panel to analyze the aspects that should be included in the curriculum to enable graduates deal with global business challenges. The steps that should be followed while establishing a curriculum on global business include identification of the problems facing the global business and establishment of solutions to the problems. To identify the problems facing the global business and are not being address ed by the current accounting program, a survey can be done on recently graduated accounting master’s student. Identifying the challenges that current accountants are facing will enable coming up with a curriculum that addresses these challenges (Lubin Web). Another step should be identification of possible consequences of applying the identified solutions in global business. It is important that the measures set to resolve these challenges be realistic and easy to implement. Another step should be coming up with ways to overcome the problems that may arise while applying new accounting strategies in global business. The last step should be coming up with a detailed design of how to implement the new

Propaganda And Its Uses By Countries, Especially During War Essay

Propaganda and Its Uses By Countries, Especially During War In order to gain the support of the public, countries use propaganda. During the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein and George Bush used propaganda to gain the support of their respective public. Propaganda was everywhere. It was on the radio and television and it brought the war into millions of homes. Propaganda was a vital part of the Gulf War because it provided the US and Iraq with the support of their public. Propaganda is always geared towards the populace claiming that the other country is the oppressor. The truth is often stretched or even fabricated to garner a public outcry for justice. The real truth, however, is very difficult to distinguish from fiction.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The blame is often pushed to towards the other country. Iraq claimed that they were the victims and that the United States was the aggressor. Hussein declared that they had been victimized by Kuwait. According to Iraq, they had to pay back money that they did not have and Kuwait was responsible for the cutback on healthcare and other vital services. Since Kuwait voted against raising the price of oil, Iraq was unable to receive any revenue. It was because of this that Iraq invaded Kuwait. The United States claimed that Iraq was the aggressor. In the American media, Iraqi tanks were shown to enter a defenseless Kuwait amidst destroyed buildings. The American public was convinced that their troops were only there to protect and that...

Marxist Theory of Crime

Using the material from item A and elsewhere assess the usefulness of Marxist approaches to an understanding of crime and deviance. (21 marks) Marxist approaches can be useful to help us understand crime and deviance. Marxists theory adopts the belief that the ruling class is responsible for societies. They think crime is systematically generated by the structure of capitalist society. Marxists believe that society is divided into two classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.The bourgeoisie promote values such as individualism and competition, and some may argue that it is these values that promote crime amongst the typical offenders, the proletariat. Traditional Marxism attempts to explain the relationship between the two aforementioned classes, with writers such as William Chambliss concluding that the best way to understand crime and deviance is to analyse the process by which the ruling class exploit their subordinates , through means such as the media , ideology and false-cl ass consciousness, to name a few mediums.An example of this, again the result of a study conducted by Chambliss. Marxist say that the rich and powerful decide what is considered deviant and criminal in society to suit their own needs and interests. This supports item A as it states ‘a set of rules laid down by the state in the interest of the ruling class'. This is reflected in crime statistics; the most common offenders are young, black males between the ages of 15-21. A counter argument to this is the idea of Strain Theory developed by Robert Merton.Traditional Marxism argues that it is increased aggression and individualistic nature of the capitalist society that inspires individuals to commit crime, however Merton comments that it is Strain between goals and the legitimate means to achieve these goals that cause an individual to commit crime. It is also noted that the Traditional Marxist theory only looks at the cause of crime, and not the effect that the crime has on the society. Another sociological theory that attempts to provide an explanation for crime and deviance is the Marxist subcultural theory.This Marxist theory of crime goes on to explain it is the emergence of youth subculture that result in crime. It is argued that only the groups on the margins of society are the few that are not bound by the ideology and economic importance of the ruling class, and due to this ‘immunity’, they are able to somewhat resist the influence of the capitalist society. The largest group which display this resistance are typically the working class youth.According to Brake, amongst other writers, the resistance which is provided by the working class youth is expressed through youth subcultures. A subculture is defined as a group within a society who adopt alternative norms and values to mainstream society. The youth part of these subcultures will wear different, or rather radical clothing compared to mainstream society, and their language, among o ther attitudes and formalities, will show a contempt for the capitalist system of which they are on the fringes of.It is also said by Brake, that this resistance is ‘magical’, magical in the sense that this resistance does nothing to solve the problems that are experienced by the youth subcultures, but it still continues, because each generation, it is said that the capitalist society produces vast wealth inequalities and opportunities, said by Althusser. Stan Cohen, on the other noted that this analysis of working class youth subcultures are based on analysis, and as such, are biased, due to these writers looking to prove that subcultures are a direct attack on the capitalist society.A criticism that Cohen provided is that there are many ways in which an individual can interpret the actions of a subculture, the Marxist view on this just so happens to be one of the many views in circulation. Blackman also notes that the concentration on youth subcultures and resistance ignores the fact that many subcultures are formed with an emphasis on, gender, sexuality, and also ‘intelligence’.Youth subcultures exist everywhere, in also institutions, for example in education. There are some who specifically desire to adhere to the rules of the education, and follow direction as they are given, and there are those who wish to resist because they find schoolwork autonomous, (the ‘earoles’ and the ‘lads’ – ), which is taken from the interpretivist view of education.