Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Comparative Analysis of Slavery by Stanley Elkins and Ordeal by Fire Research Paper

Comparative Analysis of Slavery by Stanley Elkins and Ordeal by Fire by James McPherson - Research Paper Example The difference in skin colour made a total difference in the perception of humanity that led to different treatment towards different people depending on their skin colour. Slave trade became a common phenomenon in America in the early 18th century with the onset of agricultural developments and the industrial revolution. However, slavery in America can be traced back to the 16th century when the first slaves entered America, twenty of them, all blacks from the African continent. These were brought into America as permanently indentured servants leading to more Negros and Caucasians moving into America as permanently indentured servants. Slavery, later on, grew in the southern agriculture where three types of crops were grown: tobacco, rice and indigo as a means of providing cheap untrained labor (McPherson, 1982). The farm owners who grew indigo felt devastated with the smell that was associated with it and did not want to touch it hence the need to have the African slaves to work o n the production as they concentrated on the sales and the keeping of the income that was accrued from the enterprise. Two American writers Stanley Elkins and James McPherson became so bold to address the evil that was being meted out on humanity by their fellow humans. In a bid to advocate for the abolition of the vice, these writers sternly criticized the trade of slaves in America and pointed out the need to set them free as they held to the fact that all men were created equal and that the slave trade was an embarrassment to the American continent. McPherson notes that at the onset of slavery in North America, slaves rarely worked on farms since most northerners only owned subsistence farms, slaves were therefore used as cooks, butlers, and house cleaners. These were more of light chores that did not humiliate the slaves. However, the dawn of agriculture-shifted things all together and the normal manual household chores were replaced with the forced farm labour. This left the sl aves with no choice other than to admit and be receptive to the prevailing shift in working conditions. Macpherson’s protest began at the point when forced labour was entitled to the slave immigrants. Arising from this, he launched a campaign for the slaves’ freedom. He argues, â€Å"The industrial revolution's new inventions made northern slave labour uneconomical. Free labour replaced slavery in most northern states except for the border state of Delaware. Free labour emphasized the right of each individual to "sell" his labour to the highest bidder† (McPherson, 1982). Thus, the sale of men in the American markets like goods moved McPherson to challenge the ethical implications of this. This according to him was a complete disregard of the human nature by her fellow humans, to sell a person as a good in the market was an abuse to human nature â€Å"when the southwest opened up new cotton lands, after depleting the upper south's soils, the slave population aga in increased. Upper south whites bred slaves for sale in the lower south† (McPherson, 1982)

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Barriers In Multicultural Communication

Barriers In Multicultural Communication It means the established beliefs, social norms, values, material traits, and behavior patterns transmitted from people to people that differentiate groups of people. Cultural backdrop affects how individuals communicate and how they deduce messages received from others. Multicultural Perspectives Being aware that miscommunication can arise due to ethnicity, age, gender, race and physical disability, and much other dissimilarity such as religious and lifestyle is the first step towards better multicultural communication. Larger cultural multiplicity in the organizations and workplaces increase the need for understanding how cultural background affects communication. Communication Barriers in Multicultural Communication Communication barriers most of the time hamper the quality of communication when you are interacting with people from cultures other than your own. These barriers include:- 1. Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism 2. Lack of Knowledge and Understanding of Cultures 3. Discriminatory and Harassment 4. Language Differences Now lets study these barriers in detail. Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism Cultural relativism compares the norms and conducts of different cultures and usually means evaluating them against standards of whats wrong and whats right. This approach to other cultures becomes an obstacle when you presume that cultural norms, customs and conducts are not right if they differ from those of your culture. Ethnocentrism is the natural idea that your own cultural tradition and values are right and superior. People around the world are ethnocentric to an extent. Norms, customs, and conducts that are different from those of your culture may seem unusual, abnormal and sometimes even wrong. Lack of Knowledge and Understanding of Cultures Although a particular culture may usually demonstrate similar behaviors or attributes, this does not mean all individuals in that culture are similar. People establish stereotypes when they presume that certain norms, values or attributes typical of a particular culture define all members of that culture group. Stereotypes are an outcome due to limited knowledge of cultural diversity. An understanding of various cultures means to be fully aware that individuals within each culture may have some resemblance and some variations. It means responding to people as individuals while understanding that cultural backdrops and experiences impact behavior and communication. Discriminatory and Harassment Discrimination is demonstrating partiality toward or hurtful elimination or rejection of people because of cultural or any other differences. Business communication between the sexes demands a clear understanding of remarks and actions that could be interpreed as sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is undesirable behavior of a sexual nature or with sexual implications. It may occur for men as well as women. Language Differences Language can also be a barrier to communication. An increase in multicultural interactions presents language challenges. When organizations communicate with the large number of people who speak the languages other than English misunderstandings may occur. Non verbal language influences the receivers understanding and acceptance of a spoken message. In multicultural business communication, non verbal signs vary as much as spoken languages do. Nonverbal greetings can be anything from a bow to a handshake or from a hug to an upward flick of the eyebrows. Misunderstanding or misinterpretation of cultural differences in nonverbal messages causes communication problems. Communicating in High or Low Context Cultures Traditionally, high-context countries place high value on relationships and prefer indirect communication when carrying out business. Low context countries give more value to productivity; prefer the use of direct communication, and give minimal attention is paid to building relationships. High context cultures allocate more meaning to shared history, non- verbal signals, and the context of the messages than to what is said. Japan, China, and most other Asian countries generally are considered high context cultures. The United States and Canada, as well as northern Europe, are low context cultures. Given below are the basic differences between high and low context cultures. High Context Low Context Indirect communication. Direct and specific communication Fewer words, more nonverbal clues High value on words rather than nonverbal clues. Simple and ambiguous messages Structured messages with technical details. Very verbal people seen as unattractive; smiling associated with nervousness. Informal, frequent smiles, and frequent use of hand gestures and facial expressions Preference to long term relationships and underlying messages. Temporary personal relationships. Long term view of time. Short term view of time. Appointments are generally considered flexible. Emphasis on appointments on time, management of schedules, and punctuality are given high preference. Vague and non confrontational language is preferred. Focus on getting a job done, being specific, and goal attainment. Honor and respect more important than business; adjourn power and position Personal relationships not considered that much; ideas and people are assumed as equals. Private networks are used to obtain information. Information is made accessible readily, shared with others. Values family and group authority Individualism valued. Multicultural communication guidelines You can become an effective multicultural communicator if you follow a few simple guidelines. Understanding our own culture Communication with others can be improved by increasing awareness of your own culture and its influences on your beliefs, values, and behavior patterns. We have to understand that our cultural background and experiences shape what we think, what we value, and how we communicate. Keep an open mind and respect diversity Learn about other cultures, beliefs, and customs without judging them by our own cultural identity and unexamined biases. These is not to suggest that we change our beliefs or disrespect our own culture, but rather that we acknowledge that cultural norms affect values and conducts and that understanding how others interpret verbal and nonverbal language helps our communication receive the intended response. However, avoid accepting stereotypes that assume that characteristics that may apply to some people in a particular culture are characteristic of all individuals in that culture. Identify and adapt to language differences When we are communicating with persons from another culture, we should try to learn how that cultures verbal and nonverbal languages differ from your own. Examine and understand the meaning of nonverbal communication signal such as facial expressions, social distance for conversing, and hand gestures. Offensive non verbal gestures should always be avoided. Now that we have adequate knowledge about cross cultural communication, barriers in cross cultural communication and guidelines to be followed for better cross cultural communication, we can now discuss the aspects of the Japanese culture one would wish to observe and understand in order to avoid problems of cross-cultural communication. Japanese Non-Verbal Communication 1. The Japanese pull out all the stops for peace and are dependent on group; they use non verbal gestures such as facial expression, tone of voice and posture to tell interpret what someone feels. 2. The Japanese frequently trust non-verbal messages more than the spoken word as a single word can mean various things. 3. Frowning when someone is speaking is taken as a sign of disagreement. 4. Most Japanese maintain an impassive expression when speaking. 5. Expressions to watch out for include inhaling through clenched teeth, tilting the head, scratching the back of the head, and scratching the eyebrow. 6. Non-verbal communication is so vital that there is a book for foreigners on how to interpret the signs. 7. It is considered disrespectful to stare into another persons eyes, particularly those of a person who is senior to you because of age or status. 8. In crowded situations the Japanese avoid eye contact to give themselves privacy. Relationships Communication 1. The Japanese prefer to do business on the basis of personal relationships. 2. In general, being introduced or recommended by someone who already has a good relationship with the company is extremely helpful as it allows the Japanese to know how to place you in a hierarchy relative to themselves. 3. Build and maintain relationships with greetings / seasonal cards. 4. It is important to be a good correspondent as the Japanese hold this in high esteem. Business Meeting Etiquette 1. Appointments are required and, whenever possible, should be made several weeks in advance. 2. It is best to telephone for an appointment rather than send a letter, fax or email. 3. Punctuality is important. Arrive on time for meetings and expect your Japanese colleagues will do the same. 4. Since this is a group society, even if you think you will be meeting one person, be prepared for a group meeting. 5. The most senior Japanese person will be seated furthest from the door, with the rest of the people in descending rank until the most junior person is seated closest to the door. 6. It may take several meetings for your Japanese counterparts to become comfortable with you and be able to conduct business with you. Business Negotiation 1. The Japanese are non-confrontational. 2. They have a difficult time saying no, so you must be vigilant at observing their non-verbal communication. 3. It is best to phrase questions so that they can answer yes. For example, do you disagree with this? Group decision-making and consensus are important. 4. Written contracts are required. 5. The Japanese often remain silent for long periods of time. Be patient and try to work out if your Japanese colleagues have understood what was said. 6. Japanese prefer broad agreements and mutual understanding so that when problems arise they can be handled flexibly. 7. Using a Japanese lawyer is seen as a gesture of goodwill. Note that Japanese lawyers are quite different from Western lawyers as they are much more functionary. 8. Never lose your temper or raise your voice during negotiations. 9. Some Japanese close their eyes when they want to listen intently. Dress Etiquette 1. Business attire is conservative. 2. Men should wear dark-colored, conservative business suits. 3. Women should dress conservatively.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Television and Media Essay - African Americans and TV Shows :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

It is estimated that African Americans spend about four to five hours more than the general public on watching television a week. Yet still with these findings, there are only 18 shows that feature an African-American cast or lead character out of the 115 that air on the six major broadcast networks. Even with this imbalanced ratio, there are reasons why there are so few programs featuring leading African Americans, despite the great amount of blacks that are consistent television viewers (Hall 12). It is thought that television producers are just trying to play it safe by sticking to what they know and what they are used to doing. It has been hard for networks to duplicate shows that have satisfied the viewers, such as "The Cosby's", "The Jefferson's", and "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," Creating this kind of "crossover" audience is essential in a show's success(Hall 12). A more recent show that has been able to gain this success is "The Hughley's". It is said to be "probably one of the best things that's happened this year" according to WB Entertainment President Garth Ancier. This show is said to have "wide spread appeal", and it also helps that it follows right after "Home Improvement"(Hall 12). Although following such a well known show helps out with the viewers, the show is getting more and more popular, and will hopefully cause a change in the way networks associate black television with failure. Even though there is at least one African American in almost every drama ensemble, you don't see any dramas with a full cast of African Americans (Hall 12). It is assumed that if one were to be put on the air, it wouldn't do well because it is something that hasn't been done before. African Americans are automatically associated with being comedians. All of the shows featuring a mostly black cast are comedy shows. This is a reason why networks would stay away from creating a drama with a full cast of African Americans. "The industry has not accepted that people are different", says Louis Carr, executive producer of Black Entertainment Television (BET)(Hall 12). BET has done a lot for African Americans on Television. Not only does it show music videos, but it has an award show where it celebrates and appreciates African American stars.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Catholic Response to Reformation

4. What were the responses of the Catholic authorities in the 16th century to the challenges posed by the Lutheran Reformation? The demand to reform the Roman Catholic Church stretched on for ages. Many people, such as Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, and Jan Hus criticized the church for its worldliness and believed that one didn’t need direction from the Church, but just needed to read the Bible for guidance. It was from these men that Martin Luther came to the conclusion that faith alone would lead to salvation and you didn’t need to work for it.Martin Luther appealed to Pope Leo X to correct the abuses of the Church. When that didn’t work, he rallied the people to follow him. His beliefs spread through German states and most of Northern Europe. In response, the Catholic Church assembled the Council of Trent, which defined the Catholic religion and reformed the abuses of the Catholic Church. The Church also established the Jesuits, who spread the Catholic teachings during the Lutheran Reformation. Finally, the Church employed many policing tactics against the Lutheran Reformation.These responses kept Catholicism a major religion in Europe. Although the conciliar movement was ended by Pope Pius II around the 1450s, the people during the Lutheran Reformation were calling for a general council of the church. Charles the V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, tried to persuade the Pope to assemble a council because he hope that the church would fix some of the abuses, thus stop people from converting to Lutheranism. However, Francis I, King of France, actively promoted the Protestants in Germany, even though France is a Catholic country.He did this because Charles V’s land surrounded France. He wanted Germany to be in a state of argument so that it would be too weak to be a threat to France. While Francis II did this, he also used his influence in Rome to call off any assembly of a council because it would expose the flaws of the Roman Catholic Church. In time, the King of France lost and a council was called to reform the abuses of the Church and establish a statement of the Catholic religion. It began deliberations in 1545 in Trent, in the Alpine border between Germany and Italy.The Council of Trent reaffirmed many beliefs of the Catholic religion such as it justified that faith and works led to salvation, transubstantiation, purgatory, and the celibacy of the clergy. The council of Trent also declared reforms in monastic orders. It called to correct the abuses of indulgence while at the same time upholding the principle. It also called for bishops to take more responsibilities in their administrative control over their clergy and to make sure they were properly taking care of their own duties. The Council also wanted competent men running their churches, so they set up seminaries to educate the priests.The decrees of the Council of Trent would have been obsolete if it wasn’t from a new relig ious seriousness within the Catholic Church. There was much hatred toward the Roman clergy, as shown by the sack of Rome in 1527, where German and Spanish soldiers looted Rome, killed thousands, captured the Pope. Moralist began to speak and there words were heard. New popes, starting with Pope Paul III, regarded his office as a religious force to reform the church. New religious orders were founded on the basis of the new Catholic faith. The Jesuits, the most famous of these orders; it was founded by a Spaniard named St.Ignatius Loyola. He had a religious experience in 1521, when he was a child before hearing of Luther, and wanted to become a soldier of the church. On this experience, he founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Authorized by Pope Paul III in 1540, the Jesuits were an order less attached to the clergy and more actively involved in the affairs of the world. They believe the Roman Church was a divine institution, and all members had to take a pledge to obey the Pope. T he Jesuits were some of the most famous educators of the Catholic world, with around 500 schools in the upper and middle classes.They combined the faith and religious teachings of the Catholic Church with the etiquette teachings that a gentleman should have. The Jesuits also brought into their teachings the Renaissance humanism found in the Latin classics. The Jesuits were not only teachers of the Catholic religion, but they also acted as a missionary force. They recruited members from all over Europe, especially in areas that were still disputed over which religion to choose. After the initial burst of Protestantism faded, many people wanted to return to the Catholic religion, especially when the Council of Trent corrected the most obvious abuses of the Church.The Jesuits reconverted most of these people in the areas of Germany, Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary. They also recruited from countries that already turned Protestant, like England, where their goal was to stop Queen Elizabeth I because they believed that the universal church was more important than national independence in religion. The Catholic Church not only reformed and spread its teachings across Europe, but the Church set up laws and police to enforce the Catholic religion. Many books were censored by the Catholic Church. They were trying to suppress the knowledge of â€Å"heretics†, the Protestants, from the people.The Pope had a list published by the Pope called the Papal Index of Prohibited Books. Only individuals with special permission were able to study these books. There were many establishments that enforced the Church’s rules. None was more dreaded than the Spanish and Papal Inquisitions. Although the Spanish Inquisition was originally established to drive out the Jews and the Muslims, it was introduced to all the Spanish-ruled countries in Europe. It was employed against the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. The Papal Inquisition was established in 1514, under the Hol y Office, a permanent committee of cardinals.To Rome, it was a revival of a famous medieval tribunal for the detection and repression of heresy. Both of these Inquisitions employed torture for various tasks. Torture was used for heresy or employed on any person charged with a crime, whether it was in civil and ecclesiastical court. The Spanish Inquisition was harsher than the Papal Inquisition in terms of punishment, people were often burned alive and the Papal Inquisition was all about protecting the faith in all parts of the Catholic world. In 1560, the major powers in Europe were declared Catholic countries, like France, Spain, and Austria.All the countries that turned to Protestantism were very small countries like the German states and the Scandinavian kingdoms in the north. The biggest Protestant nation was England, but England was still small compared to France and Spain. The reason why Protestantism did not spread is because of the tactics the Catholic Church employed agains t the Lutheran Reformation. The Council of Trent, the Jesuits, and the police commissions like the Inquisition all helped halt the teachings of Martin Luther and convinced the people to believe in the newer and better Catholic Church.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Behavior Plan Template Essay

Max does not talk about his past or his family. He focuses everything on sex, power, and himself. He has had six charges of assault and brags about how many woman he has slept with. Max has a personality that draws people in and can be very socialble, but once things do not go his way or are not about him he tends to lose it. He sees nothing wrong in what he does and it is normal to him. He has serious anger issues that he does not want to admit and I feel it has a lot to with his past. Max possibly suffered from some type of abuse when he was younger, either sexual, physical, emotional, or even all three. He seems to have very low self-esteem by the way he brags  and puts down other ideas. Max does not know how to have a normal relationship with people, without making things about himself or using anger while interacting. Max hold irrational beliefs about himself and the world, which is not good because it leads to the negative actions he has been exhibiting. This type of behavior Max is exhibiting relates to rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT). Course of Treatment List two target behaviors and two interventions. Target Behaviors Anger Issues Relationship/Emotional Issues Frequency and Duration of Target Behaviors Anger Issues are serious for Max because he seems to not be able to handle his anger. This behavior needs to be targeted for three months because he has been so use to this behavior for a long time and he needs to learn how to control anger and react to things in a positive way. Relationship/Emotional issues is an important area that Max need to work on. He needs to be able have a relationship with others that does not consist of him being selfish or dominiating. This behavior needs to be targeted for three months because he does not know how to interact with people without being dominating or using sex to his advantage to get what he wants. Severity and Number of Relapses If Max does not get this behavior under control he could have to do prison or jail time. He could also run into the wrong person and lose his life or be seriously injured. He has relapsed around 4 times, it has been difficult for him. Max needs to learn how to have a normal relationship with a person, that uses the correct emotions and is not all about himself. There will come a time when he is truly alone and has nobody because they do not like how dominating and arrogant he was. He could resort back into depression. He has relapsed around 5 times because he cannot stop being dominating and arrogant. Interventions Max needs to be in angermanagment classes, along with group and one-on-one therapy. He also needs do some sort of community service. Max needs to be in  one-on-one therapy and group therapy. He should volunteer at homeless shelters, so he can appreciate what he has and improve his own self-worth. He should be involved in any sexual activity for 4 months. Goals and Objectives List two long-term goals, two short-term goals, and one objective to work towards each goal. Long-Term Goal 1. The long-term goal for anger issues is for Max to control his anger and not have any other incidents of assaulting people. 2. The long-term goal for relationship/emotional issues is for Max to learn how to have a healthy relationship with others, which he is not controlling or uncaring to the person. His self-esteem should be confidence and not arrogance. Short-Term Goal 1. The short-term goal for anger issues is for Max to not have any anger outburst or physical altercations with anyone for three months. 2. The short-term goal for relationship/emotional issues is for Max to understand individuals and think about them for he thinks about himself. Objectives 1. If Max can control his anger he will be able to be a happy person and can have a normal reaction to things in life, without feeling out of control with anger (Macavei, 2005). 2. If Max can learn how to have a healthy relationship and use his emotions correctly, he will not be alone, but can have someone who he really cares about and who really cares him (Macavei, 2005). 3. If Max can learn to not lose control right away of anger he can learn that he does not need violence, but can think before he reacts (Macavei, 2005). 4. If Max can learn to understand others and think about someone else than himself he can become a better person and not who is not depressed or hides behind negativity. He can truly understand himself and work on his own personal issue (Macavei, 2005). Discharge and Termination Plans Describe the discharge and termination plan for the client. Discharge Plan Max has been discharged after four months of treatment. He has shown he can  control his anger and really overcome his relationship and emotional issues. He has completed his anger management and therapy. Max will still have to take angermanagement classes once a week and therapy, but he will be free to live on his own and conduct his life normally. He has also been prescribed medication that will help with his mood swings. Termination Plan Max will be released and living on his own. He will have to check in once a month for a year to make sure he has not relapsed. If everything comes out good he will not have to check in after the year. References Macavei, B. (2005). The Role of Irrational Beliefs in the Rational Emotive Behavior Theory of Depression. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=9ad88650-04e2-482a-a3a8-bf1f672d5913%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=18046159

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Governor Pinchot essays

Governor Pinchot essays Thoughout much of his life in politics, Pinchot's name had been occasionally thrown around as a possible Presidential candidate. It never happened. He was eventually elected to public office as Governor of Pennsylvania in 1922, largely through the support of rural counties and the new women's vote. During his 1923-1927 administration, his major goals were the regulation of electric power companies and the enforcement of Prohibition. In a crusade for "clean politics," he reorganized state government, did away with many longstanding political practices, eliminated the state's $30,000,000 deficit, settled the anthracite coal strike of 1923 and was known for Because Pennsylvania governors were then prohibited from successive terms, Pinchot ran again for the Senate and lost. But in 1931, he began his second term as Pennsylvania's governor during the depression years. He advocated Federal economic relief for states and donated a quarter of his own gross salary for one year. He successfully pressed for large reductions in utility rates and built twenty thousand miles of paved rural roads to "get the farmer out of the mud". When Pinchot left office in 1935, he was seventy years old. He made a third run for the Senate and later again for the governorship. Both campaigns stalled in the primaries. During his last decade, he fought the transfer of the Forest Service from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior, an agency he insisted was still corrupt. He assisted his wife in her political career and a third unsuccessful bid for a Congressional seat. During World War II, he developed for the Navy a special fishing kit to help sailors adrift in lifeboats survive. The military commended him for saving countless lives. Shortly before his death, he completed a ten-year effort to write an autobiographical account of his work between 1889 and 1910 and his part in the deve...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Unleashing Marijuana

Unleashing Marijuana Ralph SalazarDr. McFaddenENGWR 30023 November, 2014Unleashing MarijuanaWhen the average American thinks about marijuana they have one of two opposing perspectivesabout it: marijuana is illegal, consumers have sloth characteristics that make them unproductive in a fast pace society; marijuana is a natural remedy that soothes not only the body, but also the mind. It isalsoa great social stimulant and if legalized can help the economy. Both ideas about marijuana is true in certain situations, but neither of them is an absolute truth. Each opposing perspective, to an extent, holds certain unrealistic ideas that started with wholesome, accredited facts that could bring bothopposingviews to a neutral stand point. Unfortunately, only fragments of these facts are quoted to fita cause that a certain group orindividual'swishes to insert certain ideas into the minds of the public. Although marijuana has been criticized constantly to a high magnitude, the benefits of marijuana cannot only help t he individual but society as a whole.Looking at the original, wholesome facts from accredited resources, marijuana, is just like alcohol;when used in appropriate situations it canbe beneficial to the consumer as well as make social eventsmore appealing, but if used constantly andinappropriately to the point where it consumes a person's life,by replacing a person's productive habits with constant need to consume the substance, then it becomes a problem. Like any drug, both legal and illegal, the only way that it can bring out the "sloth" characteristics associated with marijuana is if the user has an addictive personality. The reason whyis, because people who have addictive personalities succumb easily to their desire, making them vulnerable by becoming dependent on a particular substance, situations, or whatever seems to excite them. In a typical human being, in the temporal cortex is therewards center where dopamine is created. Dopamine...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Whence and Thence

Whence and Thence Whence and Thence Whence and Thence By Maeve Maddox A reader has a question about these two words: Could you please shed some light on the usage of whence and thence in a sentence? I read these words many times but want to learn their exact usage in sentence. The words date from the early thirteenth century. In their original spellings, they were inflected adverbial forms ending in -s and meaning the following: whence = †from what place† thence = â€Å"from that place† For example: Whens comyst thow, and whithir gost thow?- Genesis 16:8, Wycliffe Bible, 1382. (Whence come you, and whither go you?) He departed thens, and cam in to his awne countre.- Mark 6, Tyndale Bible, 1526. (He departed thence and came into his own country.) In time, the words’ origins were forgotten, the -s changed to -ce in order to retain the soft s sound, and some English speakers started adding an unnecessary from: Begin from thence, where first Alphà «us hides His wandring Stream.- Pope 1712. From whence is this Fool?- Delany, 1720. In modern usage, this redundant from is commonly added to whence and thence: Republican leaders would be overwhelmed with delight if Trump, like Gulliver, decided to return from whence he came.- John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 2015. And when we go back to the sea whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came.- John F. Kennedy, 1962. The significance of the moth is change. Caterpillar into chrysalis or pupa, from thence into beauty.†- Anthony Hopkins/Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs, 1991. However, many speakers know to use whence and thence without adding a from: Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.- James Baldwin, 1962. Later he [Peter Benenson] went on to Eton and thence to Balliol.- Dennis Sewell. Thence is frequently encountered in official surveying and election records, as in this one from Hawaii: Commencing corner Judd and Liliha Streets, thence along Liliha to King, thence to Asylum road, thence to the mountains, thence along a straight line representing a continuation of Judd St., thence along Judd to Liliha St. Thence is also used figuratively to mean, â€Å"from that time,† as in the phrase from the Emancipation Proclamation: That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as  slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people  whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall  be then, thenceforward, and forever free.† Speakers who do not feel comfortable using such old-fashioned words can replace whence with â€Å"from where† or â€Å"where from,† and thence with â€Å"from that place† or â€Å"from that time.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:When to Use â€Å"That,† â€Å"Which,† and â€Å"Who†Hang, Hung, HangedJanuary 1 Doesn't Need an "st"

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Accounting For Leases And New Proposed Models Essay

Accounting For Leases And New Proposed Models - Essay Example The International Accounting Standards Board calls for a new lease accounting principle that relates to assets and liabilities. This write up proposes criteria to be set for deciding between two interpretations of whether the lease increases or decreases both assets and / or liabilities. SFAS no. 13, which was issued by FASB, was at that time, 2001, showing improvement on the setting of accounting standards for leases. Many write ups on leases followed suit such as 9 FASB amendments, 12 FASB technical bulletins, EITF consensus, 6 FASB interpretations and others. The FASB is continually working to come up with an adjustment to the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards no. 13 (lease) because it has failed to address many questions by many sectors of the accounting, school, business and other companies on the accounting procedures and interpretation of leases. SFAS no 13 states that an asset can be considered a capital lease, where the value of the leased property is included in the balance sheet of the lessee, If the four conditions listed a are met: a) The lease conveys ownership to the lessee at the end of the lease term. b) The lessee has an option to purchase the asset at a bargain price at the end of the lease term. c) The lease term covers 75% or more of the economic life of the asset. d) The present value of the rental payments when using the lessee’s incremental borrowing rate is ninety percent or more of the fair market value of the asset. TWO ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTS OF LEASE ACCOUNTING One of the main points of SFAS 13 is that all lease contracts generate obligations that should be presented in the balance sheet, contrary to what the Financial Accounting Standards Board believes. In fact, SFAS no. 13 states that "a lease that transfers substantially the entire benefits and risks incident to the ownership of property should be accounted for as the acquisition of an asset and the incurrence of an obligation by the lessee and as a sale or financing by the lessor. All other leases should be accounted for as operating leases. (FASB 1976, para. 60)" FASB differs this by saying that not all lease contracts create both a new asset and a new liability. The FASB and G4+1 group have been implementing the FASB standard on lease recording. Companies in Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and New Zealand have also been following the FASB standards. THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND ACCOUNTING FOR LEASES When assessing the generally accepted accounting principles states that accounting information that should be included in the financial statements are those that are submitted on time to the decision makers. These financial statements must also be relevant to the decision making process. Further, the financial statement items should stated in such a way as to permit comparability between two accounting periods or two or more financial entity who are subsidiaries, branches or competitors. Therefore, when rights and obligations are recorded in a lease contract, intangible assets are created. An airline company comes into "existence" when it buys an airplane. According to monsoon, There is a possibility that lessees may record the lease asset in the balance sheet will be boundless because intangible assets cannot be easily estimated. When a bank

Friday, October 18, 2019

Ethics in sports administration Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ethics in sports administration - Assignment Example The application of ethical practices has broader impacts in sports. Players adopting ethical practices would directly serve the cause of competitive environment within the sporting activities. The related members such as referees would be better equipped to make proper sporting and judgmental decisions; the fans would enjoy the true competition among and between different players; and the coach will see its efforts bearing true fruit. The paper provides a research question that what are ethical responsibilities of players? The main reason for selecting this research question is that on a ground, all other members play their respective role due to players sporting activities. The paper proposes that ethical practices promote sporting competence and improve performance of players. Here, an independent variable is sporting competence and sporting performance is a dependent variable. There is no significant difference between whether a player is coming at the middle order level or lower middle level is an example of null hypothesis. And, ranking and performance are independent and dependent variables respectively of null

Enviromental Economics Problem Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Enviromental Economics Problem - Research Paper Example Healthcare by products have been disposed to rivers and other areas that are ineffective for their disposal. As a result these wastes have brought with them different devastating affects most of them affecting the economy of the country. The waste is as a result of various economic activities taking place in the country. This therefore means that the waste and their effects are as a result of market failures. Identification of the problem is a key factor here and it involves looking at all the externalities of the various economic activities and the economic activities that are associated with them. Problem analysis is the other factor that we consider here. By the use of a demand curve, we can determine the net social benefit and the marginal private benefit and determine the causes of these externalities. At the end a solution which is economically appropriate is given out to replace the various policies. Problem identification There are various environmental problems that are seen in Kuwait. Following the announcement by Mohammed Al-Enzi that Sabah Al-Ahmad city was at a risk of pollution due to the exposure of the various liquid industrial wastes. This is situated just four kilometers from the city. He also states that Kuwait is one of the countries that have challenges regarding environmental waste disposal. Municipal solid waste is also a problem that is faced by the country. The collection of this waste, their transportation and disposal is a major challenge for the country various suggestions have been put forward to help in the management of these sites such involves the use of anaerobic digestion of the waste before disposing them to the land. Using LCA, the impact of these waste were seen to influence people a lot negatively. Electronic waste is another important point of discussion here. E waste should always be separated with other waste that is decomposable. However in Kuwait, these E wastes are mixed with other waste materials that can be decompo sed thereby making it even hard to dispose. People are also ignorant about the effects of electronic waste on the life of an individual and the entire world. Most people therefore do not take necessary effects needed in order to separate the E wastes from other bio degradable wastes. Awareness is therefore needed and this is the call for both public and government intervention. Healthcare products waste is also common in Kuwait. There are various diseases that are seen in the area of Kuwait due to the rising number of bad disposal of healthcare products. These result in negative economic impact on the government and the people of Kuwait as this disease are expensive to treat and better ways of disposal are also expensive to set and maintain. Poor disposal of these materials is also a major challenge that is faced by the people of Kuwait. By products from healthcare is also a challenge to the people as they have to think of the best way to dispose them and make them have no threat to causing diseases. Various hospitals are also taking the advantage of government reluctance and disposing their waste in a dangerous manner. This result in environmental pollution which in the long run affects the economy. Problem analysis The externalities experienced in Kuwait are as a result of the marginal social cost (MSC) being more than the private costs (MPC). From the look, there is more profit that the government an

Personalized Medicine and Biomarkers (Biomedical Informatics) Research Paper

Personalized Medicine and Biomarkers (Biomedical Informatics) - Research Paper Example Biomedical informatics and health informatics is an interdisciplinary field which integrates different fields such as computer science, biology, medicine and health care. It fosters an effective analysis and management of data for its application in health care. Bernstam et al , [1] defines biomedical informatics as a science of information where data is presented together with meaning in finding solutions to biomedical related problems. This makes the field distinct from related fields such as biomedicine, bioinformatics and computer science. Computers provide the interface between the data which they process and humans interpret the meaning of the data, a task the computers are incapable of carrying out appropriately. This field has gained relevance because of the rise in use of electronic health records and the plethora of data emanating from genomics research, [2]. Because of the growth of the data available to professionals in the healthcare, there has been a change in the patte rn of medical decision making towards the requirement of informatics and information technology platform to assist medics in their decision making. Personalized medicine is a form of medicine that makes use of personal information derived from person’s genes, proteins and environment to assist in disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment, [3]. A biomarker is a variable which can be a gene, protein, or chemical which is altered in disease condition. Biomarkers are classified as prognostic, predictive or therapeutic biomarkers. Prognostic biomarkers try to assess the likely cause of a disease whereas predictive ones assess the probability of whether a patient will benefit from a particular therapy. In the recent times, personalized medicine has been ameliorated by a more improved molecular understanding of disease thereby introducing effective

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Case Analysis of Omega Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Case Analysis of Omega - Essay Example As a result the bottom line corporate profits suffered in relation to a more efficiently structured performance management system. The measures that follow constitute an in-depth analysis of the steps that were taken to develop a more efficient performance management system, as well as a recommendation on the means by which Omega, Inc. can continue to move towards a more efficient model. The performance management system at the Omega corporation began with a training program designed to coach the sales professionals to a level of proficiency The individual subsidiaries then agreed and collaborated on the development of a performance management and evaluation system. The first step in the initiation of this system was to develop a thorough job description of the sale’s position and distribute it to the sale’s professionals at all the subsidiary branches. Furthermore, a mission statement was developed about the corporate aims and the intended goals of the sales professionals and distributed in the same manner as the job descriptions. The mission statement was also included prominently among the sale’s offices and meetings were held were subsidiary managers informed the sales professionals about the mission statement and company goals. In addition to these measures, formal performance management steps were taken to institute a performance evaluatio n program. Specific performance goals were set for each employee. The sales professionals were also required to attend thorough training sessions. During the training course the sales professionals received feedback about their performance. Feedback mechanisms were also instituted on the job as managers continued to inform the sales professionals of their performance. While these methods were a step ahead of the past method, they ultimately were unsuccessful as the sales professionals had no means of keeping track of their own

What Factors did Account for South Africas 1994 Transition to Essay

What Factors did Account for South Africas 1994 Transition to Democracy - Essay Example This period was associated with racial, social, political and economic segregation which led to apartheid. On February 2nd 1990, President FW Clerk released a speech that hinted to a decisive moment in South Africa’s struggle for democracy (Decalo 7-35)1. The day is highly regarded by many South Africans as it marked the commissioning of the release of Nelson Mandela (11th of February) and other detainees who had been arrested in the process of the struggle. This paved way for open negotiations. South Africa had been going through long struggles for democracy in a sub-society that chiefly consisted of whites at the helm of leadership and power and non-white sub-society with little or no influence in governance matters. Factors that led to the transition in South Africa can be classified as both internal and external. In his book, Coups and Army Rule in Africa: Motivations and Constraints, Samuel Decalo, argues that the transitions that led to democratization in South Africa we re majorly internal. The democratic changes that occurred in SA are also linked to international factors. According to Sola Akinrinade and Amadu Sesay in their book Africa in the Post-Cold War International System (eds.) the external factor that influenced transition in South Africa includes democratization in Eastern Europe and the End of Cold War. ... The limited freedom of expression saw most opposition parties denied access to the media when conducting their political functions. The media content was normally dominated by news on the authoritarian governments. This had to be curbed with revolution being the only effective tool (Decalo 20).4 Another factor suggested by Decalo is the institutional factor (25-35).5 Most of the dynamics that characterized the negotiations were institutionalized in the post apartheid period. This led to a significant stability and consolidation of democracy. The rules, norms, formal and informal principles were widely accepted by the majority making the transition process possible. According to Decalo, the most crucial dynamic that underwent institutionalization is constitutionalism whereby all political groupings and civil organizations accepted the rule of law. The democratic changes that occurred in SA are also linked to international factors. According to Sola Akinrinade and Amadu Sesay in their book Africa in the Post-Cold War International System (eds.) the external factor that influenced transition in South Africa includes democratization in Eastern Europe and the End of Cold War. The end of World War II saw a rise in global political struggle for power between the United States and its associates from the West, and the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, allies of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe (Akinrinade & Sesay, 92-128).6 According to Akinrinade and Sesay (1998), the Eastern Europe group had less developed governments democratically and in the 1980s, the Soviet Union and its Eastern Europe allies went through vigorous democratic transitions, a period that also saw East and South East Asian countries leave

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Case Analysis of Omega Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Case Analysis of Omega - Essay Example As a result the bottom line corporate profits suffered in relation to a more efficiently structured performance management system. The measures that follow constitute an in-depth analysis of the steps that were taken to develop a more efficient performance management system, as well as a recommendation on the means by which Omega, Inc. can continue to move towards a more efficient model. The performance management system at the Omega corporation began with a training program designed to coach the sales professionals to a level of proficiency The individual subsidiaries then agreed and collaborated on the development of a performance management and evaluation system. The first step in the initiation of this system was to develop a thorough job description of the sale’s position and distribute it to the sale’s professionals at all the subsidiary branches. Furthermore, a mission statement was developed about the corporate aims and the intended goals of the sales professionals and distributed in the same manner as the job descriptions. The mission statement was also included prominently among the sale’s offices and meetings were held were subsidiary managers informed the sales professionals about the mission statement and company goals. In addition to these measures, formal performance management steps were taken to institute a performance evaluatio n program. Specific performance goals were set for each employee. The sales professionals were also required to attend thorough training sessions. During the training course the sales professionals received feedback about their performance. Feedback mechanisms were also instituted on the job as managers continued to inform the sales professionals of their performance. While these methods were a step ahead of the past method, they ultimately were unsuccessful as the sales professionals had no means of keeping track of their own

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Criminal Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Criminal Justice - Essay Example The term 'punishment' within the realm of psychology has been defined and described by B.F. Skinner, a popular psychologist, as a type of reinforcement - the consequences of which makes a behavior less likely. It includes both positive as well as negative reinforcement. It is also defined as "affecting behavior by using unpleasant consequences" (Weseley and McEntarffer, 2010: 137). Psychologists over the years have identified three fundamental types of learning among individuals. These include classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. Among these, the operant conditioning method of learning or reinforcing desirable behavior has been widely applied by the criminal justice systems across the world. Operant conditioning is different as compared to negative reinforcements since unlike the latter, operant conditioning targets the undesirable behavior (such as lying, stealing etc) and eliminates it by punishment (Levinson, 2002). Figure 1: The Operant condit ioning process Source: Vito and Maahs, 2011: 116 Within the field of criminal psychology, the consistency of punishment is given much more significance as compared to the severity of punishment, as it is regarded as highly effective in deterring criminal behavior among individuals (Vito and Maahs, 2011). Relationship to corrections: Punishments are known to be highly effective in drawing favorable responses from the criminals. Historically various forms of punishments such as fines, spankings, imprisonment, and other corporal punishments have been commonly implemented by criminal justice systems as a means to control behavior. According to psychologists punishments have the ability of significantly lowering the possibility of a response to occur again and hence are one of the widely accepted measures of corrections (Coon and Mitterer, 2008). Psychologists have observed through a series of experiments that criminals / individuals in general, tend to teach themselves to obey their con sciences through operant conditioning. It has been observed that criminals displayed weaker responses and higher likelihood to return to normal / acceptable behavior after receiving adverse punishments such as injections or shocks (Levinson, 2002). The psychology of criminal behavior is rooted in the fundamental principles of human behavior such as behavioral, social learning and cognitive psychology. Hence any form of punishment which targets individual behavior or aims to alter their behavioral patterns are known to generate favorable results. According to Spiegler and Gueveremont (1998) "behavior therapy arguably has the broadest and strongest empirical base of any form of psychotherapy". (qtd. in Tonry, 2011: 168) However despite the growing evidence regarding the effectiveness of punishments in deterring crime there is no significant relationship between the severity of punishment and seriousness of the crime committed. It has been observed that criminals charged with relativel y lower offences have been confined to longer terms of imprisonment (Clear, Reisig and Cole, 2012). Critical evaluation: The corrections policy and criminal justice system in general have significantly changed over the years. The highly severe forms of punishme

Monday, October 14, 2019

The History Of Walt Disney Film Studies Essay

The History Of Walt Disney Film Studies Essay Animation is the allusion of movement through the persistence of vision. It dates back to as early as 1650 in Paleolithic cave painting, where animals were often drawn with multiple sets of overlapping legs. Although some argue that this could simply represent the artists changing their minds about leg position, most perceive these paintings as early attempts to portray motion. The zoetrope, a cylinder with vertical slits in the sides, is another example of early animation, as the inner surface of the cylinder has a band of sequenced pictures that produce the illusion of motion as the user looks at the pictures through the slits as it spins. Since cave paintings and the zoetrope, other forms of animation have been established, including stop motion, 3D animation, motion capture, rotoscope, film, etc. Numerous people have contributed to the world of animation and amongst those is Walt Disney. Just to name a few of his accomplishment, Walt was the first to add a music and effect track to a cartoon. He produced the first commercially released film produced in the full-color three-strip Technicolor process. He made the first full-length animated film. He was one of the first to use television as an entertainment medium and he created the theme park. Furthermore, no conversation pertaining to animation is complete without the mention of Disneys name, as his groundbreaking design and assembly techniques moved him to the vanguard of the animation industry. The impact Walt Disneys works continue to have on animation today is possible through the love and dedication he had for art and animation. Walter Elias Walt Disney was one of five children. He was born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois to Elias and Flora Disney. He lived in Marceline, Missouri for most of his childhood, which is where he developed his love for art. Although Walts father did not support his interests in art, his mother and brother always encouraged him to pursue his talents. While living in Missouri, Disney began drawing, painting, and selling pictures to neighbors and family friends, as he needed extra money considering that his family was living in poverty. When he was about ten, Disney moved to Kansas City, Missouri where his uncle Mike Martin was a train engineer. Being in his uncles company, Walt developed a love for trains, which resulted in a summer job selling newspapers and snacks to travelers at the railroad. Disney later moved back to Chicago and attended McKinley High School. Walt continued to pursue animation upon his return to Chicago, as he enrolled in drawing and photography class es at McKinley and was a contributing cartoonist for the school paper. In addition, Disney took night classes at the Chicago Art Institute. At the age of sixteen, Disney dropped out of school to join the army during World War I. He was rejected because he was underage. Since he could not join the army, Walt moved to France and drove an ambulance for a year instead. He never stopped drawing. When he returned from France in 1919, Disney moved back to Kansas City, where he planned to pursue a career as a newspaper artist. His brother Roy helped him reach this goal, as he landed him a job with Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio. While working there, Walt met cartoonist Ubbe Iwerks, which led to him working as a commercial artist for the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where he made animations based on cutouts. While working for the ad company, Walt continued to explore his options. He began experimenting with a camera, doing hand-drawn cel animation. His interest led to his opening of his own animation business and he recruited Fred Harman, from the ad company, as his first employee.  Disney and Harman screened their cartoons, Laugh-O-Grams, with Kansas City Theater and their cartoons success resulted in Disney getting his own studio. Walt hired a few other employees and together they combined both live action and animation to create the series Alice in Cartoonland. Unfortunately, Walt had to file for bankruptcy in 1923 because the studio was in serious debt, but this misfortune led to better things. Walt relocated to Los Angeles and collaborated with Roy and Iwerks to create Disney Brothers Studio. Their first deal was to distribute their  Alice  cartoons with New York distributor Margaret Winkler. While working with Winkler, they invented a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and contracted the shorts at fifteen thousand dollars each.  A few years later, Disney realized that Winkler, her husband, and other Disney animators stole the rights to Oswald. He did not let this mishap discourage him, as this discovery paved the way for the infamous Mickey Mouse, which earned Disney his first Academy Award, an Honorary Award for the creation of Mickey Mouse. Walt had been developing Mickey for a while before he released the first animated shorts featuring Mickey, Plane Crazy  and  The Gallopin Gaucho. Both of these films were silent and failed to find distribution; however, Disneys third sound-and-music-equipped short called  Steamboat Willie, was a big hit, as Disney was the first to add a music and effect track to a cartoon. Walt still had more trends to set and boundaries to break. In 1929, Disney created  Silly Symphonies, which featured Mickeys newly created friends: Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. One of the most popular cartoons, Flowers and Trees, was the first commercially released film produced in the full-color three-strip Technicolor process and it went on to earn Disney his second Academy Award, for Best Short.   As if that was not extraordinary enough, in 1933  The Three Little Pigs  and its title song Whos Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? became Americas theme during the Great Depression.  This resulted in Disneys third Academy Award, another for Best Short. In 1937,  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated film, premiered in Los Angeles, producing one and a half million dollars, despite the Depression. It also won eight Oscars. During the next five years, Walt Disney Studios completed animated films, Pinocchio,  Fantasia,  Dumbo,  and  Bambi. By the time of Walts death,  Disneys Brother Studio had produced more than 100 features. Disneys last major success that he produced himself was the motion picture  Mary Poppins, which mixed live action and animation. Disney was one of the first to use television as an entertainment medium. The  Zorro,  Davy Crockett, and The Mickey Mouse Club (known today as Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) series were extremely popu lar with children. Although Mickey is responsible for majority of Disneys initial success, his accomplishments did not end there. Walt Disney also invented the theme park. Disneyland theme park opened in 1955. It was designed for children and their families to explore, meet Disney characters, and enjoy rollercoaster rides. Disney used Walt Disneys Wonderful World of Color, a popular Sunday night show, to begin promoting his new theme park. In a very short period, it became a tourists attraction for people worldwide. Because of the success of Disneyland, Disney began plans for a new theme park in Florida. It was still under construction when Walt died from lung cancer at the age of sixty-six on December 15, 1966. Following Walts death, Roy took on the responsibility of finishing the Florida theme park, which opened in 1971. He named it Walt Disney World after his late brother. The Walt Disney Company launched its own television channel on April 18, 1983. The Original Disney Channel (1983-1997) marketed primarily towards younger children, with series such as Still the Beaver, The Baby-sitters Club, Five Mile Creek, Flash Forward, Adventures in Wonderland, Vault Disney, etc. In 1997, a new pre-teen programming took hold, with shows such as Smart Guy, Bug Juice, Jett Jacksons, and more. Later Zoog Disney attempted to connect the television and internet, giving kids who played online games an opportunity to see their names on television. From 2001 to 2002, Disneys ratings grew higher and it was about ninety percent basic cable programming. Pre-teens started watching the newer shows like, Even Stevens, Kim Possible, Lizzie McGuire and more, leading to the collapse of classic Disney programming. In recent years, the diversity of viewers has increased even more with an older audience of teenagers, young adults and families, from over one-hundred and sixty countri es and twenty languages. Walts interest in animating developed at a young age, as he drew and painted pictures to sell to his neighbors and family friends to earn extra money as a child. Walt quickly turned his hustle into a passion, as he enrolled in drawing and photography classes at McKinley high school and took classes at the Chicago Art Institute at night. Even when Walt was no longer in school, he continued to enhance his skills. He never stopped drawing, or trying to entertain others. No matter the trials and tribulations he faced, he never lost sight of his dream. When his first studio suffered from debt, he collaborated with his brother and old friend to open a new one. When his partners betrayed him and stole the rights to his first commercially successful character, Disney took it as an opportunity to release a new character. It is obvious Walt dedicated his life to his work, from his childhood to his death; thus, proving his love and dedication to animation is responsible for the success he has h ad in animating and the impact he continues to have on animation today.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Essay --

This is the retake part of English article assignment. The requirements of this part are to write opinion about two articles related to Macro Economics and two articles related to Law, as well as a personal comment about Saunders’s Research methods book students had to read for Methodology, evaluating its educational value, as well as pointing out its weak and strong points. The students should mediate whether they like the article or not, if it’s related to lectures in the class or contradicts it, also if it illustrates something. The article chosen should not be older than 6 months and the students have to write their own comment about the article based on their knowledge built during their studying of the courses. 2. Macro Economics articles A. Comment on article 1 Globalization became an important aspect in the international economic relations. I chose this article and liked it because it discusses one of the important issues that international economic relation face, which is globalization. In my opinion it’s not only a problem, but it could be useful to certain countries, yet it could destroy the fair competition in some countries. To me, if there was no barrier or limitation for the globalization, people might stop buying the local product, which means the gross domestic production will decrease leaving the country in an economic loss. Because of globalization, most of the countries in the world will no longer concentrate on the local markets. Their focus became on regional or even world markets. It also changed the way they produced domestic goods. Just because a country might have the resources and ability to produce a particular commodity no longer means that they will produ... ...heart which gives no space for creativity. In my opinion as a student I think that the books we study should be interesting and leave a space of creativity for the student because we have many lectures and we need to study a lot of book and it is very hard for most of us to study all the books by heart, that is why the study books should be written in way that allows all the students to read it and understand the content to be able to write the idea in their own way and not just copy pasted text from the book. As a conclusion I see that the book has a rich content for those who want to be specialized as market researchers because of its intensive information but I think it would be better if we could learn the research methods in more general ways that we understand and can help us in our future jobs not just theoretical details we forget after finishing the exam.

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Pueblo Indian Religion in the Early 20th Century Essay -- Essay Papers

Pueblo Indian Religion in the Early 20th Century The Pueblo Indians religious history is different than the average Christian religion history. Their religious beliefs are based on the creation of life. The persons seen as the creators of life are the centrality and the basis of their religion. In the early 1900’s these Indians were looked upon in different lights. White man compared the Pueblo rituals and religious routines with his own. Pueblo religious beliefs, practices and social forms were criticized, scrutinized and misunderstood by white Christian American settlers. The major religious practice and worship of the Pueblo Indians involved ritual dances. White men attempted to stop these Puebloan ritualistic dances because they did not meet his own religious standards and this happened before the Indians had a chance to explain or define what their dances really stood for. Women played a significant role in Puebloan ritual dances and religious A brief description of the Pueblo Indian culture and religion are needed to get a full understanding of why their dances were misinterpreted by white settlers and why the Indians were judged and treated in such an unjust way. Pueblo Indians lived in Arizona and New Mexico and had a very different culture religiously than the white man. White religious history shows us that women were not seen, in European and new American culture, as not being significant to religious practices. In the Pueblo religion, however the woman was regarded in a different light. They rarely practiced in religious rituals but were the center of their people’s religion. Pueblos had rituals that were performed exclusively by men, and there, these men imitated women’s reproductive pow... ... for their religious beliefs and cultural values. People’s religious beliefs and practices all need to be protected from harm and negative influence like a child needs care from his mother. The Pueblo Indians should be looked at as an example of how people should not be treated. This way, hopefully we won’t make the same mistake twice. We all have an obligation to know all the facts and the whole truth about something before we start to reject it. If the white people in the early 20th century had taken the time to understand the meaning of these dances they may not have been so quick to judge and may have stood back and reflected on their own ways of living. Work Cited Young Jane. "Women in Western Puebloan Society". Journal of American Folklore. 100.398(1987): 436-445. Jacobs D. Margaret. "Making Savages of us all". Frontiers. 17.3(1983): 178-209.

Friday, October 11, 2019

How to write a history essay

HOW TO Write A HISTORY ESSAY Brief: 214112 Most history essays begin with a inquiry. The first standards in ‘how to compose a history essay’ is to get down with the inquiry being asked and interrogate it for intending. What is inferred by the inquiry? What attack is required? An essay that starts by analyzing the inquiry – reasoning with it – or its significance – explicating the manner you are traveling to near the inquiry and what methods you are traveling to use in replying it, instantly gets you into the topic and is a good start point. History is about construing the available ‘facts’ , so demoing how you interpret the inquiry ‘lays out your stall’ and gives the reader an penetration into what will follow. The following undertaking is for you to plunge yourself in the topic of the essay. Type cardinal words on the subject into your library hunt engine and choose any texts that seem to cover the subject by and large, or in item. It is difficult to state precisely how many books are required to be read before you have an apprehension of the topic, but it is good to seek to do certain you have read a mix of books: the most recent scholarship on the topic every bit good as a few older books: this ensures you have an apprehension of old attacks to the topic and a broad scope of statements. Often ‘introductions’ and ‘conclusions’ give a good indicant of what the book contains, and their bibliographies can indicate you in the way of farther utile reading stuff. Journal articles are besides an highly valuable resource, and once more can be searched for, and frequently sourced, electronically. Journal articles and books by historiographers are ‘secondary’ beginnings. The other indispensable beginning of information for a history essay are ‘primary’ beginnings: these are most frequently original paperss from the period, but they can besides be grounds that is exposed by the landscape, pictures, unwritten tradition, architecture, archeology, and artifacts. Equally, as history necessarily embraces all other subjects, sometimes a sidelong attack to researching the topic can be honoring and you might include mentions from philosophers, archeologists, anthropologists or from literature. Once you have immersed yourself in the topic, the following undertaking, before really composing the essay, is to make up one's mind what attack and statement you feel is right for the inquiry, and can be supported by ‘evidence’ . Deciding on your statement – what position you hold of the topic – is critical before working out the construction of the essay. After reading around the topic you will hopefully hold a feel for the grounds you find most dramatic and persuasive ; if you are lucky, you may hold a whole new angle on the topic you want to set frontward. It is of import that you make certain you have collected together, from what you have read, quotes from a mixture of beginnings that either back up your statement – or so that contradict it ( but that can be convincingly argued against ) . It is of import to demo your thorough apprehension of the historiography of the topic and the mentalities and stances taken by other historiographers. An ess ay should demo alternate statements to your ain and include an account of why you find them unconvincing. Every spot of ‘evidence’ must be footnoted in your concluding essay with the writer and rubric, so it is of import to do accurate notes as you read. New grounds from primary beginnings is particularly helpful in doing your essay original. . Once you feel confident that you have read plenty and hold a good thought of what statement, or statements, you want to set frontward in reply to the inquiry: so reexamine your notes and jot down a construction for the essay. In simple footings this involves an debut, the chief organic structure of the essay with the statement, and a decision. As mentioned, the debut can include an account of the attack you are taking and your apprehension of what the inquiry demands, and should ‘signpost’ the way the essay will take. The cardinal organic structure of the essay will incorporate the grounds you have collected together. The nexus that threads the statement will be your reading of the grounds, and you marshal your ‘narrative’ around that grounds. The decision will bind up the statement ( s ) made, and significantly, include the reply to the inquiry. With your construction in topographic point you are ready to compose up your essay. There are general ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ in building a history essay. Traditionally history is written in the 3rd individual. Unless you are a recognized expert in the field, it is best to avoid the ‘I’ word: sentiment should be based on back uping grounds and historiographers are urged to endeavor to be nonsubjective. History should be written in the past tense. Accuracy is critical, and that goes for spelling and punctuation every bit good as transcribing quotation marks and supplying faithful footers, every bit good as a bibliography of everything that you have cited or read and that may hold informed your sentiment in the essay. Citations should be identified by citation Markss ; and unless within a quotation mark, abbreviations should be written in full. Wherever possible, sentences should non be overlong ; even complex ideas can be expressed with lucidity and simpleness. ( Reading it aloud can be helpful in exposing bugs and awkward sen tences ) .A History essay should, in other words: flow ; be easy to read, and the statement should be telling and easy understood. Naturally there are many different historical ‘schools’ of idea, political, societal or economic, be they: ‘top down’ , ‘bottom up’ – Marxist – revisionist – longue duree ( the Gallic Annales School ) , or micro and macro histories et Al. These assorted historical stances provide analytical attacks to any given period or capable, and have been, and go on to be used by historiographers to assist them show the grounds and support statements. You may happen acknowledging, beliing, or following one or more of these attacks helpful in building an essay. However, one of the chief jobs for the historiographer is the job of hindsight. The trouble with history is we know how it ended, we know the result, and it is difficult to divide that cognition from any analysis of past events or their causes. Nowadays a teleological attack is seen as unacceptable: this is frequently called the ‘Whig’ position of history, and sees ev ents in the yesteryear as a portion of the inevitable March of ‘progress’ . Events, and statements environing them, should, therefore, be placed merely within the context of their ain clip, and every attempt should be made to animate the thought procedures of the clip and contextualise the bureaus that coloured the events under reappraisal. So in reply to the job ‘how to compose a history essay’ , foremost understand the inquiry ; so read up all you can on the topic. Following, analyze what you feel is a convincing statement which answers the inquiry ; roll up your ‘facts’ and construction your essay with strict back uping grounds. And, eventually, to rephrase E. H. Carr, retrieve ‘facts’ do non talk for themselves they merely ‘speak’ when the historian calls on them, interprets them, and gives them intending.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Understanding Change

PART ONE Understanding change Perspectives on change The ethics of organizational change Planned change and its critics Strategic change Building and developing competitive advantage 3 39 73 11 1 147 CHAPTER 1 Perspectives on change 1. 1 Introduction 1. 2 Perspectives on change 1. 2. 1 Modernity, progress, and change 1. 2. 2 Pathways to change 1. 3 Structural-functional change: changing structures and functions 1. 3. 1 An organization is a complex whole 1. 3. 2 Structural theory 1. Multiple constituencies: change by negotiation 1. 4. 1 Stakeholder interests 1. 5 Organizational Development: the humanistic approach to change 1. 5. 1 Intervention strategies at the individual level 1. 5. 2 Intervention strategies at the group level 1. 5. 3 Intervention strategies at the organizational level 1. 6 Creativity and Volition: a Critical Theory of Change 1. 6. 1 Conflict, flux, and change 1. 6. 2 People are active agents 1. 6. 3 The critique of the spectator view of knowledge 1. Summary Study q uestions Exercises Further reading References 4 6 6 7 8 13 16 18 20 22 24 24 25 28 28 29 30 33 35 35 36 36 4 UNDERSTANDING CHANGE 1. 1 Introduction This chapter lays the framework for this book by arguing that organizational change is developed within models and frameworks that inform our understanding of the subject. In this chapter we will learn that knowledge and practice of organizational change are influenced by assumptions derived from the models or perspectives we use.For example, if we regard change as a matter of systemic structural arrangements we can make in an organization, then we can see how the analogy of organism or biological system helps to inform our judgements. Because perspectives offer ways of seeing, they will inevitably organize our perception in line with the dominant analogy used. However, analogies are only partial knowledge claims. Four perspectives on change are cited in this chapter: why four perspectives in particular?The answer to that question is str aightforward but you need to understand at this point that a perspective is an overarching approach that contains a variety of theories that have become associated with it. You will see why these are the dominant perspectives once you have read the remainder of this section. First, the structural-functional perspective is the oldest approach to organizational design and therefore change. Like each perspective, it contains a variety of theories that attempted to resolve some of its difficulties as it developed.These theories include the hard systems, systems dynamics, cybernetics, soft systems, criticalsystems heuristics, and postmodern systems thinking (Jackson, 2003). The structuralfunctional perspective encourages us to think about structural arrangements and functional interrelationships within organizations. The development of the opensystems model in the 1950s assisted our understanding further by focusing on how inputs to an organization are transformed into outputs. This is u seful for thinking about how we might change tasks and relationships in a production process.The value of the structural-functional perspective lies in its ability to change the arrangement of tasks and procedures in relation to the customer or client specification. The advantage of the perspective lies in its ability to look at an organization as a control mechanism: that is, to understand the important structural components and to articulate the functional interrelationships between the parts. Inevitably, structural redesign will therefore influence the functions that each part produces for the whole. But the perspective has disadvantages also.Because it is a model for controlling operations, it is therefore mechanistic. It tends to ignore how motivations, behaviours, attitudes, and values contribute to effective performance. The multiple constituencies perspective emerged from dissatisfaction with the structural-functional perspective. Although it was initially associated with th e work of Cyert and March (1963), it increasingly came to adopt a range of theories associated with the action and motives of individual actors rather than with the action of systems per se.The multiple constituencies perspective refers to the way that complex organizations have to negotiate objectives with different groups of stakeholders who have overlapping and often conflicting needs. When we consider hospitals, health PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE trusts, postal services, public bodies, local government, and transnational companies, then we come to recognize that the organization’s needs are inextricably linked to various stakeholder groups. This affects how resources are managed and distributed, as well as how change might be facilitated to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.An investigation of how multiple constituencies bring their own interests and motivations into the organizational arena will help us to provide an informed approach to managing change by recognizing the various resource needs of different groups. We can recognize the advantage of this perspective in drawing attention to the various stakeholder needs but we can also recognize that it is limited to a partial analysis. It is less concerned with developing people. It also has a limited view of power. Consequently this reduces organizational change to consensual negotiation between pluralities of groups.Those academics and practitioners that adopt the Organizational Development perspective would share much with the two previous perspectives because it embraces both a systems approach and a focus on stakeholders and governance. However, it is distinguished by its methodology of action research as much as it is by its ethical approach to developing organizations through people. For the first time we begin to see people as resources to be developed rather than as simply costs on a balance sheet. This perspective emerged from the human relations approach, which focused on personal and grou p development.However, unlike the two previous perspectives, it argues that maximum efficiency and effectiveness cannot be achieved by dealing with tasks, procedures, and customers’ or clients’ needs without looking at the quality of management, leadership, communication, culture, motivation, and values. Because the Organizational Development (OD) perspective on change emerged out of human resource theory, it became a synthesis of structural functionalism and behavioural research. The two main contributions of this approach are the focus on social characteristics and ts methodology dedicated to a humanistic approach to change and development. OD is also associated with the idea of planned change and the need to clearly diagnose clients’ needs before making an intervention. These provide major advantages in thinking about change but they are also partial and limited to conceptualizing change as a matter of consensus, as does each perspective mentioned so far. The final perspective—Creativity and Volition: a Critical Theory of Change— reflects the challenges and assumptions of Critical Theory.It cannot be regarded as a unified perspective, as the others can, because it does not seek to offer solutions to change problems. But it does go further than any of the other perspectives in demonstrating that people, rather than systems, are the main element of analysis in any change theory. Each of the other perspectives tends to reify human action. By contrast, this perspective seeks to redress the balance by arguing that people are active agents of change. It also brings another important element under scrutiny.That is, each of the other perspectives focuses on rational change. This has implications for designing and planning change as a linear sequence of events. However, if change programmes ignore emergent processes that result more from conflict, flux, and uncertainty than from consensus and stability, then intervention strategies will have a limited and often 5 6 UNDERSTANDING CHANGE unintended effect. Because this perspective is derived from Critical Theory we should not assume that it is immune to criticism. The main criticism is that it does not offer solutions.It does not provide useful intervention strategies. It does, however, make us stop and think before we act. You should now be clear that each perspective contains a range of theories that share assumptions, methods, and approaches. These can be stated simply as: 1. A focus on systems and structures (the structural-functional perspective). 2. A focus on governance (the multiple constituencies perspective). 3. A focus on behavioural improvement through personal and Organizational Development (the OD perspective). 4.A focus on constant critique (Creativity and Volition: a Critical Theory of Change). A simple reminder of the focus is: systems, governance, behaviour, and critique. The argument throughout the book is that to manage change you need to un derstand these interweaving debates. In this chapter we will: †¢ Explain the benefits and limitations of change contained within the structural-functional perspective. †¢ Examine how a multiple constituencies perspective provides arguments for involving stakeholders in complex change initiatives. Explore the value of human resource and organization development interventions as well as their limitations in planned change initiatives. †¢ Appreciate why organizational change may be characterized better by conflict, flux, and uncertainty. †¢ Consider the source of creativity. †¢ Appreciate the role of Critical Theory in understanding organizational change. 1. 2 Perspectives on change 1. 2. 1 Modernity, progress, and change It is important to contextualize the four perspectives of this chapter by illustrating that each emerged from, or in reaction to, the process of modernism.The term ‘modernism’ was originally used to describe the new machine age of the early twentieth century, which reflected progress through the application of scientific principles, order, and control. Scientific principles emerged from the pursuit of rationality embedded in the philosophy of the Enlightenment. The twentieth century was influenced PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE by progressive movements in art and architecture, but the new age was eventually associated with negative qualities that, paradoxically, were linked to its greatest triumph—the machine age.The new machine age was characterized by large-scale movements, revolutions, and world wars which all proclaimed progress through the application of machine technology or through the metaphor of the machine as the embodiment of efficiency and effectiveness. This was no more apparent than in business and management, where modernity reflected the task of controlling large-scale organizations. Techniques or processes such as bureaucracy, Taylorism, and Fordism came to reflect the new managerialism of th e machine age in which the principles of measurement and calculation came to dominate thinking.This emphasis on rational calculation had advantages in the form of mass production of cheap goods but, to achieve this, the human cogs in the machine were alienated by a technology that largely ignored social practices. You should therefore be aware that the structural-functional perspective emerged at the time when modernism suggested progress through the application of rational principles. It should be no surprise, then, that it tended to focus on task and throughput by using the metaphor of organism as machine. The perspective referred to as multiple constituencies emerged in the 1960s.It was the first to challenge the naive rationalism of the structural-functional perspective by arguing that an organization is not equivalent to a biological entity and that therefore the organic model was not appropriate to organizations. An organization was better conceived as a ‘legal fictionâ €™ (Shafritz and Ott, 1991). This had the advantage of persuading us that progress is simply a result of social processes and that all organizations are no more than devices to achieve certain objectives. The perspective helped to establish the idea of change through governance.Organizational Development has been the main tradition of organizational change and has much to recommend it, such as a declared humanistic commitment to change. It has also developed useful techniques and methods, but its use of the biological model limits its critique. The perspective we call ‘Creativity and Volition: a Critical Theory of Change’ is united only by its objection to modernism. It therefore provides a useful counterbalance to the other perspectives by offering criticism of the conventional wisdom. But it also suggests that human volition and creativity are a long way from the modernist assumptions of progress. 1. 2. 2 Pathways to change Each perspective contains theories that lead to a change intervention. The phrase ‘change intervention’ refers to change actions taken at a strategic level to help an organization become more effective. A perspective can therefore be regarded as a model for understanding how a subject can be understood. Advocates of a perspective develop theories to inform their views and they construct methodologies to test the accuracy of their various theories within a perspective. However, each perspective is open to criticism precisely because it contains assumptions about organizational reality.Each is therefore valuable as a framework 8 UNDERSTANDING CHANGE Figure 1. 1 Pathways to change STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL CHANGE Change occurs for dysfunctional reasons when internal functions fail or when structures do not reflect the rational design of the best system INTERVENTIONS focus on the alignment of functional relationships and the structural re-design of the system to accommodate changing external environmental conditions MULTIPLE CONSTITUENCIES Change is a negotiated order and organizations are arenas in which internal groups and external stakeholders seek to exert influenceINTERVENTIONS focus on contractual relationships. A distinction is made between a formal contract and an informal or psychological contract ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Change is planned once needs are diagnosed INTERVENTIONS focus on both personal and Organizational Development and change CREATIVITY, VOLITION AND CRITICAL THEORY Change results from conflict not consensus INTERVENTIONS are replaced by critical analysis for change, but in the interest of validity we need to be cautious about the claims to certainty that each makes.We would be wise, therefore, to view these perspectives as pathways to understand organizational change. We can take the analogy further and suggest that each perspective represents a pathway through a minefield of conceptual difficulties. Each perspective is illustrated in Figure 1. 1. 1. 3 Structural-fun ctional change: changing structures and functions Structural-functional change is the oldest perspective on organizational change. This perspective is also known as structural-functional analysis. It is effectively a social-systems PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE iew of organizations as opposed to the mechanistic or closed-systems perspective of physics. Henry Fayol was one of the first writers to make the link between structure and function. In his 1916 book General and Industrial Management, he describes the relationship between organizations and biology in terms of an analogy. Thus he points out that, just as organisms evolve and become more sophisticated in their structural properties, so do organizations. We can see why the organic analogy is important to organizations when we consider Fayol’s description of specialization and differentiation.For example, [s]pecialization belongs to the natural order; it is observable in the animal world, where the more highly developed the creat ure the more highly differentiated its organs; it is observable in human societies where the more important the body corporate the closer its relationship between structure and function. As a society grows, so new organs develop destined to replace the single one performing all functions in the primitive state. (Fayol, 1916: 19) 9 Thus, as organizations grow and develop, they become much more complex and require new types of structure.In order to deal with this complexity, work has to be simplified through the division of labour. Some years later, structural-functional analysis viewed the study of organizations as the analysis of both structural and functional interrelationships between elements in an organizational system. Structural-functional analysis of an organization begins with the assumption that organizations are cooperative systems. Whilst they are constituted by individuals, this is less relevant than the fact that they are systems designed to coordinate the actions of in dividuals. They are better viewed, therefore, as adaptive organisms.This means that any organizational system ‘is deemed to have basic needs†¦ related to self-maintenance†¦ and†¦ self-defence’ (Selznick, 1948: 26). Selznick suggests that organizations, as systems, maintain themselves by means of five essential imperatives, described as follows: 1. The security of the organization as a whole in relation to social forces in its environment. This imperative requires continuous attention to the possibilities of encroachment and to the forestalling of threatened aggressions or deleterious (though perhaps unintended) consequences of the actions of others. 2.The stability of the lines of authority and communication. One of the persistent reference points of administrative decision is the weighing of consequences for the continued capacity of leadership to control and to have access to the personnel or ranks. 3. The stability of informal relations within the orga nization. Ties of sentiment and self-interest are evolved as unacknowledged but effective mechanisms for adjustment of individuals and subgroups to the conditions of life within the organization. These ties represent a cementing of relationships which sustains the formal 10 UNDERSTANDING CHANGE uthority in day-to-day operations and widens opportunities for effective communication. ‘Consequently, attempts to â€Å"upset† the informal structure†¦ will normally be met with considerable resistance. ’ 4. The continuity of policy and of the sources of its determination. For each level within the organization, and for the organization as a whole, it is necessary that there be a sense that action taken in the light of a given policy will not be placed in continuous jeopardy. Arbitrary or unpredictable changes in policy undermine the significance of (and therefore the attention to) day-to-day action by injecting a note of caprice.At the same time, the organization wi ll seek stable roots (or firm statutory authority, or popular mandate) so that a sense of the permanency and legitimacy of its acts will be achieved. 5. A homogeneity of outlook with respect to the meaning and role of the organization. To minimize disaffection requires a unity derived from a common understanding of what the character of the organization is meant to be. When this homogeneity breaks down, as in situations of internal conflict over basic issues, the continued existence of the organization is endangered.On the other hand, one of the signs of a ‘healthy’ organization is the ability to orient new members effectively and readily slough off those who cannot be adapted to the established outlook. (Selznick, 1948) These imperatives are the mechanisms of a stable ‘organic’ system that is applied by analogy to an organization. One particularly relevant assumption of this analogy, and indeed of structural functionalism in general, is that of compulsion. There is little room for individuals to exercise imagination because organizations are viewed as constraining mechanisms that compel people to act in a particular way.When viewed through a structural-functional frame, organizational analysis proceeds by following three basic assumptions, as indicated below. 1. Organizations are cooperative systems with adaptive social structures, made up of interacting individuals, subgroups, and formal and informal relationships. 2. Organizations contain variable aspects, such as goals, which are linked to needs and self-defence mechanisms. 3. Organizations are determined by constraints and characterized by transformations when adjustments to needs are required.Such adjustments are required to deal with dysfunctions caused by instability in the operating environment. The biological sciences were seen as rescuing social science from the laws of traditional Newtonian physics, which saw everything as a closed system (Katz and Kahn, 1966: 16). Consequ ently, the emergence of the open-systems model, which was influenced by von Bertalanffy’s ‘general system theory’, enables us to view organizations as continuous flows of inputs, transformations, and outputs beyond their own boundaries. In 1966 Katz and Kahn articulated the concept of an organization as anPERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE open system. This was reinforced by Thompson’s systems contingency perspective in 1967. What emerged was an idea of an organizational system as an artificial rational construction designed to improve work performance. Unlike the closed systems of physical sciences, social (and biological) systems depend on, and interact with, their external environments. For Katz and Kahn, the main difficulty in proactively managing strategic change results from the fact that organizations have in-built protective devices to maintain stability. Changing these patterns is very difficult.Unintended change often occurs when organizations drift from the ir original aims. As Katz and Kahn indicate: [t]he major misconception is the failure to recognize fully that the organization is continually dependent upon inputs from the environment and that the inflow of materials and human energy is not a constant. The fact that organizations have built-in protective devices to maintain stability and that they are notoriously difficult to change in the direction of some reformer’s desires should not obscure the realities of the dynamic interrelationships of any social structure with its social and natural environment.The very efforts of the organization to maintain a constant external environment produce changes in organizational structure. The reaction to changed inputs to mute their possible revolutionary implications also results in changes. (Katz and Kahn, 1966: 278) 1 1 The open-systems model expresses the relationship between the elements as indicated by Figure 1. 2. Figure 1. 2 The open-systems model of Katz and Kahn ENVIRONMENT T ask Technology INPUTS Human, financial information, materials Management OUTPUTS Products and services Structure People 12 UNDERSTANDING CHANGEThe organization has inputs that are then transformed through a variety of management functions. These are designed to achieve the best possible organizational design by coordinating the task, through the use of technology by people who are structured or organized in a way that is both efficient and effective. x Stop and think 1. 1 Identify an organization and illustrate its inputs, outputs, and transformational processes. Provide details on how the internal processes are managed and controlled. Following Katz and Kahn, the open-systems model contains eight characteristics: 1.Importing energy from the external environment. Thus, just as the biological cell receives oxygen from the bloodstream or the body takes in oxygen from the air and food from the external world, the organization draws energy from other institutions. 2. Throughput is a phr ase used in many organizations, meaning that, as open systems, organizations transform the energy available to them. Just as the body converts starch and sugar into heat and action, an organization takes raw inputs such as materials and people and transforms them by producing products or services.Katz and Kahn suggest that, just as the personality converts chemical and electrical forms of stimulation into sensory qualities, and information into thought patterns, so the organization creates a new product, or processes materials, or trains people, or provides a service. 3. Output is essentially the service or product. Just as the biological organism exports from the lungs physiological products like carbon dioxide that help to maintain plants in the immediate environment, the organization provides customers with an output they value. 4.Systems are cycles of events in which the product is exported into the environment, where it furnishes sources of energy for repetition of the cycle of activities. Thus energy is the exchange of inputs and outputs with the external environment. For example, raw materials and human labour are turned into products and services, which are then marketed for monetary return, which is then used to obtain more raw materials and labour and perpetuates the cycle of activities. 5. Entropy is a process described by Katz and Kahn as ‘a universal law of nature in which all forms of organization move toward disorganization or death’.For example, ‘all complex physical systems move toward simple random distribution of their elements and biological organisms also run down and perish’. Therefore the survival of the organization requires the ‘arrest of the entropic process’. This is overcome because the organization imports more energy from its environment than it expends. In other words, ‘social organizations will seek to improve their survival position and to acquire in their reserves a comfortable marg in of operation’. Organizations do go out of business but they can replenish themselves.As PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE Katz and Kahn point out, ‘social systems, however, are not anchored in the same physical constancies as biological organisms and so are capable of almost indefinite arresting of the entropic process. Nevertheless the number of organizations which go out of existence every year is large. ’ 6. Information input, negative feedback, and the coding process mean that all inputs are also ‘informative in character and furnish signals to the structure about the environment and about its own functioning in relation to the environment’.Furthermore, the ‘simplest type of information input found in all systems is negative feedback’, which ‘enables the system to correct its deviations from course’. Katz and Kahn see this as analogous to the digestive system, in which selective signals are absorbed or assimilated. Terms like ad aptation and assimilation reflect the biological analogy because an organization responds only to those signals to which it is adapted, and reacts to the information signals to which it is attuned.Katz and Kahn argue that, rather like the selection process in nature, the term coding reflects the selective mechanisms of a system by which incoming materials are either rejected or accepted and translated for the structure. 7. Organizations, like biological systems, are not motionless, so there can never be a true equilibrium. Instead, we must understand that organizations, like organisms, develop a steady state or ‘continuous inflow of energy from the external environment and a continuous export of the products of the system’.The biological analogy is illustrated by the ‘catabolic and anabolic processes of tissue breakdown and restoration within the body’ that ‘preserve a steady state so that the organism from time to time is not the identical organism i t was but a highly similar organism’. Related to this are what they call the ‘homeostatic processes’ for the regulation of body temperature. Thus, as external conditions of humidity and temperature vary, the temperature of the body remains the same because it is regulated by the endocrine glands. The steady state and dynamic homeostasis of organizations are regulated by the organization’s subsystems. . Organizations ‘move in the direction of differentiation and elaboration’. That is, in biological systems genetic change occurs: organisms move from primitive to complex arrangements in order to survive. Similarly, as organizations mature they become increasingly diffuse. Thus they ‘move toward the multiplication and elaboration of roles with greater specialization of function’. 13 1. 3. 1 An organization is a complex whole As Michael Jackson states, ‘a system is a complex whole the functioning of which depends upon its parts a nd the interactions of those parts’ (2003: 3).Broadly speaking, we can think of three types of system: †¢ Natural biological systems. †¢ Social systems, such as families and religious and political institutions, which are socially constructed entities designed to accommodate relationships between people. 14 UNDERSTANDING CHANGE †¢ Artificial or mechanical systems, such as built environments and information systems, which are designed to make improvements to living or work arrangements. One of the advantages of systems theory, as Jackson informs us, is that it is not reductive.That is, it does not seek to reduce complexity by breaking it down into its component parts. Systems theory seeks to understand phenomena as wholes and consequently the term ‘holism’ is sometimes used to illustrate that a system needs to be seen in its entirety. The idea of holism is articulated by Thompson (1967): Approached as a natural system, the complex organization is a set of interdependent parts which together make up a whole because each contribute something and receive something from a whole, which in turn is interdependent with some larger environment.Survival of the system is taken to be the goal, and the parts and their relationships presumably are determined through evolutionary processes. Dysfunctions are conceivable, but it is assumed that an offending part will adjust to produce a net positive contribution or be disengaged, or else the system will degenerate. Central to the natural-systems approach is the concept of homeostasis, or self stabilization, which spontaneously, or naturally, governs the necessary relationships among parts and activities and thereby keeps the system viable in the face of disturbances stemming from the environment. (Thompson, 1967: 283)Systems theory seeks to explain complex interrelationships among organizational elements and external variables by using quantitative techniques. Because they see them as continua lly changing dynamic equilibria, systems theorists therefore view organizations as designed to cope with and manage change. An example of this is Weiner’s model of an organization as an adaptive system. Weiner uses the term ‘cybernetics’ (from the Greek for ‘steersman’) to describe a study of structures and functions of control, and information processing systems in both animals and machines. Thus, such systems are able to regulate themselves.In biological systems this is a natural process, whereas an organization’s systems must be designed. The overly mechanistic approach to viewing artificial systems needs to be balanced against two concerns related to the environment in which the organization exists: 1. Organizations are also social systems: any technical system requires people to operate it. Consequently their needs must be designed into the technical system. 2. Organizations have contingencies. In other words, the technology used by the o rganization, the nature of the industry it operates in, the competences of thePERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE staff who work for it, their motivations and leadership are also important contingencies that affect an organization’s performance. Each concern reflects the view that any change interaction must incorporate these constraints into the design of the new (changed) systems model. For example, if an organization is seen as a social system and not simply a technical system, then we must come to recognize the way in which people have to live, work, and engage in some way with the technical system.For systems designers such as architects and computer programmers it is therefore important to involve the people affected by the system. 15 x Stop and think 1. 2 Think of a technical system that you might redesign if asked to do so by an organization. For example, this might be an IT system, a production system, use of a physical space, or an administrative system. If you do not involve in its design the people who will eventually use the system, what negative outcomes might emerge? The link between organizational systems design and contingency theory illustrates how systems theory developed from a simple biological analogy.Galbraith’s (1973) book made a clear link between the functional components, organizational structures, and contingent circumstances of an organization. For example, Galbraith’s approach invites us to look for: †¢ The type and quality of information required in conditions of certainty or uncertainty. †¢ The degree of interdependence between the various functional components. †¢ Mechanisms that enable organizational adaptation. Table 1. 1 illustrates how information within the system affects an organization’s ability to take action towards change. The degree to which hange can be planned depends upon the amount of reliable information in the system. When the quality of information is high, changes can be planned but are unlikely to be major; when conditions are unpredictable, information is unreliable and the degree of success in any change initiative is low. We can therefore state that the greater the level of uncertainty, the more the organization must make provisional judgements and be ready to change things quickly. Contingency theorists who work within this perspective view organizational change as the degree of control an organization has over circumstances.Thus we can formulate a simple question for this purpose: ‘how wide is the gap between the amounts of information required by this organization at this time? ’ If we take the 2008 world banking crisis as an example, we can illustrate this point. During the month of 16 UNDERSTANDING CHANGE Table 1. 1 Control over circumstances: situations where significant change is inevitable The likelihood of major strategic change is low when: The situation is highly predictable. Traditional roles and procedures guide action. The qua lity of information is high.The likelihood of major strategic change is high when: The situation is not predictable. New procedures are required. The quality of information is low. October 2008, protracted negotiations between President Bush and the US Senate representatives, unhappy with his initial plans, eventually resulted in a rescue package for US banks. This was followed by the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, partly nationalizing some UK banks. Members of the G7 countries lowered interest rates around the world at the same time, also attempting to find a coordinated approach to the world economic crisis.The reality was that, at the time, no one could realistically estimate its extent: the information gap was simply too large. No one really knew who owed money to whom; nor did anyone know what impact the banking crisis was likely to have on other sectors of the world economy. Thus, attempting to steer change was impossible because there was insufficient information to ma ke reliable decisions. Although this is an extreme example, many organizations face similar problems to varying degrees. In situations of severe unpredictability caused by lack of information, managing planned change becomes highly problematic.The solution, according to Galbraith, is to find new solutions: The ability of an organization to successfully coordinate its activities by goal setting, hierarchy, and rules depends on the combination of the frequency of exceptions and the capacity of the hierarchy to handle them. As task uncertainty increases, the number of exceptions increases until the hierarchy is overloaded. Then the organization must employ new design strategies. Either it can act in two ways to reduce the amount of information that is processed, or it can act to increase its capacity to handle more information.An organization may choose to develop in both of these ways. (Galbraith, 1973: 312) 1. 3. 2 Structural theory The structures of organizations are considered to b e amenable to change. Organizations are viewed as rational and should be designed to achieve their objectives. The Classical School of Management argued that all organizations should be designed scientifically. The main contributors to the school were Henry Fayol, PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE Charles Babbage, Daniel McCullum, Frederick Winslow Taylor, and Max Weber. For these writers, organizational efficiency was achieved through the rational design of organizations.The Classical School assumed that there was a best structure for any organization, related to the environment in which the organization operated. The design of an organization was related to specialization and to the division of labour. Specialization is the extent to which highly skilled operations and individuals are required. Because the design of organizations was seen as a purely rational activity, problems or dysfunctions were seen to result from structural imperfections or flaws that could be solved by changing the org anization’s structure.Furthermore, although the Classical School considered that a bureaucratic structure was the best means to achieve efficiency and effectiveness, by the 1950s this view was increasingly challenged. The first challenge emerged with the work of Burns and Stalker (1961), who were interested in the rapidly changing electronics industry in Britain, and in Scotland in particular. Their research revealed that organizations in stable operating environments are heavily dependent on control mechanisms and therefore require mechanistic structures.Conversely, the newer industries based on, or developing, micro-electronic technology required organic structures in order to meet situations that are changing. The message, therefore, was that the rate of organizational change is critical to organizations. Where they have to meet rapidly changing circumstances and conditions, and where technology is critical to their survival, then organic structures need to be designed. Th is would also be true today of the fashion industry, where styles change quickly and competition for change requires organizations to get goods into the high street quickly.In the following year Blau and Scott (1962) argued that organizations have both a formal structure and an informal aspect to them. The formal structure determines the standard rules and regulations: for example, a highly structured organization operating bureaucratic procedures is managed through complex rules, policies, frameworks, and desk instructions. However, they argued that it is impossible to understand how organizations are structured by simply looking at rules and regulations without understanding the informal aspect of the organization.Their argument was heavily influenced by Barnard’s (1938) book, The Functions of the Executive, and suggested that the informal organization reflects unconscious processes. In other words, habits, attitudes, and assumptions of people are critical to performance. T his was clearly an early recognition that change requires more than structural redesign because it suggested that senior managers have to align the structure with what we call today the organization’s culture. The earlier work of Max Weber in the 1920s reflected his concerns with specialization.By the 1960s academics used the word ‘differentiation’ to reflect this but also to indicate how specialization is affected by increasingly complex environments. In relation to organizational change, we can note that the process of differentiation— increased complexity of organization—suggests that diverse forces are responsible for pulling organizations apart. This process of differentiation therefore means that 17 18 UNDERSTANDING CHANGE organizational change is required in order to integrate the organization with its new environment.To put this more succinctly, differentiation requires integration. This particular concern was articulated by Lawrence and Lor sch (1969) in their book, Developing Organizations: diagnosis and action. It also reflects the emphasis on design since change planning is required to deal with uncertainty caused by rapidly changing circumstances. This was reinforced by Davis and Lawrence’s (1977) argument that a matrix organization was required when external change was forced upon organizations. Accordingly, they argue that change in design is therefore determined by three conditions: 1.Outside pressure for dual focus. What they mean by this is that some companies need to focus attention both on complex technical issues and on the unique requirements of the customer; this dual focus requires a matrix structure. 2. Pressures for high information-processing capacity. The second reason to adopt a matrix structure is a requirement for high information-processing capacity among an organization’s members. The failure to construct a matrix organization in such circumstances will lead to information overload . 3. Pressure for shared resources.When organizations are under pressure to achieve economies of scale, they need to find ways of utilizing scarce human resources to meet quality standards. Both systems theory and structural theory share the view that organizations are rational and serve utilitarian purposes. That is, organizations are viewed as a means to achieve efficiency and effectiveness. They do this by identifying clear goals. The structural-functional systems perspective is therefore described as rational because it assumes a relatively simple cause and effect relationship among variables related to functional integration and structural change.As a perspective, it is clear about what it seeks to achieve. Organizational change is relatively straightforward: we either change functional relationships in order to achieve harmony or we change the design of the organization in order to meet the complexity of its environment. 1. 4 Multiple constituencies: change by negotiation In a dvancing a critique of the structural-functional perspective Michael Keeley (1983) argues that it is common to model organizations after biological systems. In most texts organizations are depicted as ‘social actors’ who possess the distinguishing features of living beings such as goals and needs.By contrast, individuals are portrayed as functional ‘members’ filling roles and serving as ‘human resources’ to further the organization’s ends. The organic model is useful mainly for addressing survival needs, PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE but one difficulty is that it tends to confuse the goals of an organization with the goals of powerful individuals. The structural-functional perspective presents a reified and overrational picture of social systems. By contrast, the multiple constituencies perspective does not assume that organizations exist independently from the people who work for them or interact with them.Multiple constituency theory was firs t outlined by Cyert and March in their book A Behavioural Theory of the Firm (1963), which describes organizations as coalitions of self-interested participants. Organizational goals, they argue, change as a result of bargaining processes because an organization is a dynamic coalition of individuals and groups, all of which have different demands. The perspective focuses on how goals are achieved and whose interests are satisfied and affected by the actions taken in the name of the organization.If we think, therefore, of an organization containing a number of groups and external stakeholders, all of which have differing interests, then we can consider how organizational change affects each different group, or alternatively how each may make demands on an organization to change its strategy. The multiple constituencies perspective focuses on the way in which resources are managed and distributed among organizational members and stakeholders in the interests of governance. 19 x Stop a nd think 1. 3 Imagine that you start a new job as a travel executive and are required to visit overseas destinations six times a year.You chose this job because you were excited by the prospect of overseas travel. As an incentive, employees are permitted to stay in the destination for two days after they have completed their tasks. Consequently executives are motivated to choose an interesting destination. Your organization operates from two different sites in the UK. During your first year of employment you hear rumours that the person who allocates staff to destinations ‘cherry picks’ the best for herself and then for friends or colleagues who work with her at the main site.You begin to realize that the rumours have a ring of truth about them. What do you do? Try to ingratiate yourself with the decision maker by becoming friends? Offer to take on more work if she offers you one or two better destinations? Should you take the issue to her line manager at the risk of be coming unpopular? Or do you accept the situation for what it is and that life is not fair? How do you bargain for change? The multiple constituencies perspective criticizes the structural-functional approach for making it difficult to achieve conceptual clarity about what constitutes organizational effectiveness.For example, Connolly, Conlon, and Deutsch argue that effectiveness statements are evaluative and descriptive. Generally they are not attempts to answer the question ‘how is an entity X performing? ’ but usually ‘how well is entity X performing? ’ and often ‘how much better should entity X perform? ’ The central differentiation among current effectiveness statements is how they specify the evaluation criteria used to define how well the entity is performing or could perform (Connolly, Conlon, and Deutsch, 1980: 211). As a result, the multiple 20UNDERSTANDING CHANGE constituency view treats organizations as systems with differential asse ssments of effectiveness by different constituencies. Although the interests of internal groups (for example, executives, managers, production workers, and so forth) and external stakeholders (for example, clients, shareholders, government regulators, suppliers, and so forth) may overlap, they each have specific interests and priorities or goals they seek to pursue. Each constituency brings its own interests and motivations into the organizational arena.We can therefore consider organizations as webs of fluid interactions between different groups of people whose interests keep changing. The multiple constituencies approach is therefore a means to identify the actions and motivations of people. More importantly, it reflects organizational change as a continuously negotiable order because interests and coalitions change over time. Although the multiple constituencies perspective originated with Cyert and March, it is rooted in the social contract tradition of political and moral argum ent.The idea of contract theory emerged in the seventeenth century with the political theorists Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In the twentieth century such theories have become the basis for political theorists (as we will see in Chapter 7) and writers concerned with corporate ethics (see Chapter 2). 1. 4. 1 Stakeholder interests Since stakeholders reflect dynamic interests, change agents need to learn how to interact with them. There are various ways of doing this. For example, Mitroff (1983) suggests seven approaches.These are: 1. The imperative approach, which identifies stakeholders who feel strongly about an organization’s proposed policies or actions. This approach requires making a list of as many stakeholders as possible and interacting with them to resolve concerns. 2. The positional approach, which identifies stakeholders who occupy formal positions in a policy-making structure. For example, health trusts, schools, colleges, universities, and charities are required to have boards of governors who must oversee the operations of such organizations.Many boards of governors can be identified from organization charts or legal documents. 3. The reputational approach entails asking various knowledgeable or important people to nominate those they believe to have a stake in the organization. 4. The social participation approach identifies individuals or groups of stakeholders who may have an interest in a policy-related issue for the organization. For example, members of committees, and people who might normally be excluded because they are not so visible, or who do not normally have the opportunity to articulate their views, will be represented. 5.The opinion-leadership approach identifies individuals who have access to leverage of some sort. Examples include informed professionals, commentators, and editors of important newspapers or journals. PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE 6. The demographic approach identifies stakeholders by charac teristics such as age, sex, race, occupation, religion, place of birth, and level of education. 7. The focal organization approach seeks to identify individuals and organizations that have important relationships with the focal organization. That is, suppliers, employees, customers or clients, allies, competitors, regulators.The multiple constituencies perspective suggests that, prior to any change initiative, change agents should analyse the following issues: †¢ The purposes and motivations of a stakeholder. †¢ The resources of a stakeholder. These will include material, symbolic, and physical resources, as well as informational resources and skills. †¢ Special knowledge and opinions of the stakeholder. †¢ Stakeholders’ commitments to the organization and expertise. †¢ Relationships between stakeholders, focusing particularly on the amount of power (or authority), responsibility, and accountability they have. The extent of the network of interdepende nt relationships among stakeholders. †¢ The extent to which a change in strategy can be identified in the interests of any one particular stakeholder. 21 Such an analysis of stakeholder interests suggests that whilst stakeholders are generally supportive and have an interest in the organization, they can also become a negative influence on it. They might indeed reflect a threat and become a barrier to organizational change. Mitroff therefore suggests a number of options for influencing or changing the views and actions of particular stakeholders. We can: †¢ Simply exercise power and authority by ommanding the stakeholder to comply. †¢ Appeal to reason and therefore attempt to persuade the stakeholder. †¢ Engage in tactical bargaining with a stakeholder. †¢ Negotiate in order to reach a compromise. †¢ Engage in problem solving by sharing information, debating, and arriving at mutually agreed perceptions. The multiple constituencies perspective reflects a view of social systems in which people take actions and engage in activities to maximize their own interests. They also collude with others and engage in purposeful activity. Negotiation of organizational change revolves around three central issues: 1.Changing organizational objectives requires that leaders be able to re-evaluate the organization’s current mission, purposes, objectives, and goals, and mobilize action through inspiration. Such leaders need to embrace inspirational leadership. 22 UNDERSTANDING CHANGE 2. The ability to develop and mobilize intellectual capital by using the combined resources held by all stakeholders creatively. This should include the identification and cultivation of scarce resources, skills, and capital. 3. The ability to sustain cooperation and to eliminate conflict among stakeholders so that ethical, moral, and cooperative understanding is achieved.The perspective argues that it is constituencies of people, rather than organizations, that h ave goals and objectives. Consequently, it moves us away from the problem of reification, because stakeholder interests must be negotiated. Yet it still assumes that people act rationally through an appeal to the common good. The perspective draws us towards interventions that focus on a concern with organizational and personal values, social justice, and the distribution of rights and obligations. It provides a useful way forward for organizations in the public domain that are subjected to public scrutiny through governance. . 5 Organizational Development: the humanistic approach to change Organizational Development (OD) is derived from human resource theory or organizational behaviour. It dates back to the Hawthorne experiments, which began in the Western Electrical Company in 1927. Elton Mayo and his team began these experiments by using the same assumptions as the structural-functional perspective: that is, they initially sought to investigate improvements to organizational effi ciency by redesigning an organization’s environment along scientific principles.The experiments focused on rational pragmatic concerns such as technology and work performance, the rate of flow of materials, and throughput of a factory system. One can therefore recognize the early development of open-systems theory and structural design within these experiments. Their lack of success meant that the problem of efficiency and effectiveness was refocused towards socio-psychological factors, such as group norms. One interesting source dating back to 1926 was Mary Parker Follett’s description of ‘The Giving of Orders’ (1926).Follett argued that psychology could make an important contribution to understanding motivational relationships in the workplace. One example she discusses is the importance of understanding the law of the situation. Once this is discovered, better attitudes follow. She suggested that giving orders in a positive manner facilitated more harmo nious attitudes within the workplace. But related concerns that began with the Second World War later paved the way for a more sophisticated social science concerned with behaviour in organizations.In particular, a concern to identify effective leadership and to enhance workgroup relationships was paramount because of the American army’s focus on morale. As a result, many academics emerged from this tradition with a clear focus on the relationship PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE between leadership, motivation, and group dynamics. The investigation of individual and organizational needs was part of this use of applied social science. An early example was Maslow’s research, which resulted in his paper ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’ (1943).The awareness that human needs impact on organizations was a theme developed further in McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise (1957). By the late 1960s and 1970s OD emerged from this behavioural research as a distinct disci pline. Whilst it focused on harmonizing individual and organizational needs, it also readily adopted the open-systems framework of the structural-functional perspective. French and Bell (1978) were largely responsible for articulating this approach when they characterized the perspective as a mixture of open-systems theory with humanistic values.Today, we can discern six essential characteristics of OD. These are: 1. A methodology informed largely by Action Research—a term coined by Kurt Lewin in the 1940s. 2. Interventions should only result from careful organizational diagnosis (Tichy, Hornstein, and Nisberg, 1976). 3. A recognition that effective change requires process consultation (Schein, 1995) rather than negotiation through an individual in order to achieve corporate social responsibility in change initiatives.It should be noted that this is in line with OD’s humanistic approach to change. 4. An awareness of barriers to personal growth and organizational change , championed largely by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1973). 5. An emphasis on personal and organizational learning in contrast to training, proposed by Reg Revans (1982). 6. A recognition that groups and culture will influence change initiatives, articulated by Lewin (1951) and Schein and Bennis (1965). OD emerged as a distinctive discipline for managing change.It did so initially by adopting experiential approaches such as T-groups (training groups) and Lewin’s Force Field Analysis as a technique for managing organizational transitions. Action Research encouraged employees to develop a collaborative approach to diagnosing problems and engaging in action learning. Argyris’s book on Intervention Theory and Method (1970) is a comprehensive review of process-consultation techniques articulated by Schein (1995) and intervention techniques that became associated with the idea of planned, organization-wide change.Such change strategies were ‘managed from the top’ in o rder to ‘increase organizational effectiveness and health’ through interventions in the organization’s processes using behavioural science knowledge (Beckhard, 1969). Lewin’s (1951) three stages of change—unfreeze, change, refreeze—reflects the essence of the traditional OD approach through which a clear goal or destination is identified and cascaded to the organization’s members. This has been described as a linear model of change (Marshak, 1993) that tends to omit the 23 24 UNDERSTANDING CHANGE untidy parts of the process that do not fit neatly into Lewin’s framework’ (Inns 1996: 23). Most critics of Lewin’s planned change model make this argument. However, we must be cautious about this since, as we will see in Chapter 3, Lewin did not apply this approach to organization-level change. Often, OD proceeds with problem identification through the application of Action Research at the individual, the group, or the or ganizational level. Following careful diagnosis, intervention strategies are designed to deal with an organizational problem by applying various techniques.At the individual level, behaviour modification theory is often used to encourage personal growth. At the group level, intervention strategies are informed by analysis of group dynamics, whilst at the organizational level, strategic interventions are designed to manage strategic change through the application of technology, structural change, or change to human resources. We can understand how these interventions work by exploring them in greater depth. 1. 5. 1 Intervention strategies at the individual level Strategies at the individual level were influenced by behaviour modification theory.The purpose of this technique is to increase the frequency of desired behaviours and reduce the frequency of undesired behaviours. Behaviour modification therefore seeks to modify the behaviours of individuals by training people to recognize a positive stimulus in order to provoke a desired response. It can also be used to change an individual’s reaction to fears and phobias. Intervention strategies used instead of behaviour modification theory include personal and management development techniques such as Lewin’s Force Field Analysis and learning interventions designed to improve personal learning. Stop and think 1. 4 We rarely remember modifying our own behaviour but we do this all the time. Think about the last time you learned a new skill. How difficult was this at first? During the learning process how did you modify your own behaviour or attitudes? How did evaluation lead to improvement? 1. 5. 2 Intervention strategies at the group level At the group level, intervention strategies originated from studies of group dynamics including armed forces personnel, industrial workers, and professional groups. Group dynamics was first defined by Kurt Lewin in the 1940s.Observations of groups led Lewin to note th at groups develop personalities as a result of their unique composition. Change was therefore more likely when the group as a whole made a collective decision to have its members change their behaviours. This was far more effective in producing the desired changes than more formal techniques such as lectures and PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE instruction. Lewin’s work became the foundation for training in group skills, sensitivity training, teambuilding, and OD. Groups therefore can be a major influence on change, or can inhibit change.However, the capability of a group to respond flexibly to change will depend on the degree to which its members: †¢ Explore problem-solving alternatives. †¢ Are motivated to achieve the objectives of the group. †¢ Make an effort to learn how to change. †¢ Discover what specifically needs to be changed to meet current demands. †¢ Are prepared to experiment. 25 1. 5. 3 Intervention strategies at the organizational level At the or ganizational level, a greater depth was provided by a focus on planned change interventions.Planned change strategies, according to Chin and Benne (1976), emerged from the Enlightenment tradition with the application of rational thought to interventions in the modern world. In other words, changing things requires an application to reason. Associated with this was the pursuit of social progress. Chin and Benne describe a central element common to all planned change programmes as ‘the conscious utilisation and application of knowledge as an instrument or tool for modifying patterns and institutions of practice’ (1976: 22).Planned change interventions are therefore extremely varied but they fall under three broad headings: 1. Empirical–rational interventions, such as political interventions giving rise to new