Critical analysis (Book Review Sample)

Critical Analysis
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Critical Analysis
A critical analysis is a form of critique that evaluates the credibility, author’s motives, themes, organization of material, and intended audience of a reading source such as a book or an article. This paper is a critical analysis of four texts with information on management, leadership, conflict resolution, and organizational communication. The four texts include Improving Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations by Ronald Riggio & Sarah Smith Orr, Organizational Culture and Leadership by Schein Edgar, The Complete Guide to Conflict Resolution in Workplace by Marick Rrancis Masters & Robert Albright, and Business Communication by Sathya Swaroop Debasish & Bhagaban Das.
Each of the four texts has a target audience that it addresses in matters pertaining to communication, leadership, or conflict resolution in an organization. In their texts, Debanish & Das (2009) address a wide sample of the population as their audience. The target audience is anyone interested in learning effective communication skills. Some of the audiences that the book addresses include managers, employees, and investors. Riggio & Orr (2004) targets business leadership and any other person interested in learning the tenets of good leadership. In addition to what Riggion & Orr demonstrates in their text, Schein (2010) also targets organizational leaders who want to improve their service delivery principles while managing an organization. On the other hand, Masters & Albright (2002) addresses an audience comprised of all members of an organization. However, the text is also appropriate for any other person who is interested in studying the process and importance of conflict resolution. Addressing the audience is the main motivation of writing a text. The authors of these texts reflected on the nature of the target audience before putting down their facts and figures. In selecting the target audience, the author needs to understand their needs and interests in that particular area of study. In this case, the author needs to be strict on the organization and readability of the content. The readability of the texts is appropriate for the above named audiences. They are to benefit from reading the books and later apply the techniques at their workplaces.
In critiquing the texts, the theme or thesis is an important factor of consideration. The four texts have different but related themes/theses. Riggio & Smith (2004) address the theme of leadership and its improvement. Partly, the text illustrates the impacts of transformational leadership on an organization. Schein [2010] demonstrates the role of leaders in applying the principles of culture for goal achievement in their organizations. The author adds that, leaders are both entrepreneurs and cultural architects. The theme in Masters & Albright (2002) is conflict management in an organization. Debanish & Das (2009) talks about effective communication and its importance in leadership. In addressing their themes/theses, the authors managed to illustrate the significance of writing the texts. Reading the texts indicates their effectiveness in exhaustively displaying their strength of analysis. They stick to the mainstream of their motivation and the ultimate result is an exhaustive explanation of the themes. Themes are important because they are the main tenets of understanding that a reader depends on while reading a text. Even though the themes in the four texts do not match, they conform to the same principle of book writing. They are part of the initial plans of the authors and demonstrative in nature. It is therefore logical to assert that thematic significance of a text is dependent on the topic of interest and the nature of the target audience.
The authors might have had different motivations prior to writing the texts. However, their purpose is the same, even though the themes are not the same. The purpose of most authors is to trigger change in the thinking of the audience. The authors of the four texts intended to reach the maximum number of audiences and change their perception of various behaviors in an organization. After reading the books, the reader is likely to gain knowledge on effective leadership styles, effective communication styles, and conflict resolutions in an organization. He or she is also likely to have a glimpse view of the cultural aspects of leadership and their effects on the organizational structure. The general purpose of writing a text is to enhance the reader’s understanding of a specific topic whose theme the author illustrates.
The literacy quality of a material can be either perfect or poor. As much as literacy quality should be always high, some authors fail to adhere to this rule. Some authors display literacy competency while others fail to prove their competency in literacy. In this case, the four books vary in terms of literacy quality. The authors managed to use jargons that are specific to the themes of analysis. After analyzing the specific jargons in the four texts, the reader is able to realize they suit an audience that possesses high literacy levels. For instance, Debadish & Das (2009) requires competence in the communication skills for the reader to understand. The other three texts address their audience in a more proactive and understandable manner. The general concept of literacy quality therefore plays key role in each of the four texts. Literacy quality is a motivational factor to the reader. It can either motivate the reader to read the text or destruct the reader from reading the text. No one should ever think of attracting a large following if the text does not conform to the desired literacy quality principles.
For an author to influence his or her audience through writing, he or she should be proactive in proving the credibility and organization of the source material. In this case, the sources of the four materials include data obtained from the organizational environment. Most of the data was collected from studies to prove the application of the authors’ theses and hypotheses statements. Debasish & Das (2009), Riggio & Orr (2004), Schein (2010), and Masters & Albright (2002) all demonstrate the significance of referring to different sources for information. It is also an enhancement of credibility and reliability of the text for use in other academic purposes. Most researchers refer to some of the existing books as part of their literature review whole teachers/learners use them in the classroom as sources of information. The four texts contain reliable information regarding organizations and leadership styles. This results from the use of credible sources from within their fields of interest. However, there always exist anomalies in writing that proves otherwise. It is always important for authors to cite sources in their texts. Riggio & Orr (2004) ...