Organizational Behavior Concepts: Self-Analysis

Organizational Behavior Concepts: Self-Analysis Vineesh Nambiar   Organizational Behavior Concepts: Self-Analysis and Team Assessments with Recommendations and Analysis The makings of a successful organization can generally be traced back to its ability to define itself from day one; very few organizations succeed if top level management doesnt lay down the rule of the land as far as expected Organizational Behavior is concerned. What exactly is Organizational Behavior? It basically relates to the study of the structurally set-up social system in an enterprise. In laymens terms, Organizational Behavior is a deeper look at the relationship employees (as individuals as well as in groups) have with a firm. The purpose of this paper is to examine different aspects of Organizational Behavior at various levels while simultaneously identifying managerial skills sets and attitudes that are beneficial at aiding in the successful fulfillment of objectives as it pertains to employee management. Using the CROAPI model, this paper looks to delve deeper into the following: Human Process Individual in the Organization Group Dynamics Influencing Others Organizational Processes Primarily this paper looks to shed light on self and critical evaluation of the concept of the team; mainly concerning itself with the important and practical guidelines associated with the facets that traditionally fall under the larger umbrella of Organizational Behavior. Starting with team cohesion, the aforementioned facets are as follows:    Team Cohesion Aristotle once said that The whole is greater than the sum of its parts and there can be no quote in existence that better summarizes the underlying relevance of team cohesion. Cohesiveness among teammates in any organization is essential for the maximization of effectiveness and efficiency when it comes to a firm. The similarity among members, the size of a team, the interaction between members and the overall penchant that a team shows for actively and aggressively pursuing success are some of the factors looked into when it comes to team cohesion. Social Loafing The next section deals with the phenomenon known as social loafing. A term devised to reflect the inability of some members in an organization to contribute a relatively acceptable level of performance when it comes to group tasks, potential and existing social loafers must always be on the radar of managers. There are a myriad of ways in which this issue can be dealt with: emphasizing the importance attached to a task, highlighting the work contribution of an employee and reducing the size of a task group are some of these. Motivation A manager has to put up with numerous expectations that sound easy on paper but nigh impossible in practice; keeping an employee or a set of employees at a constant level of high motivation falls under this category. This section of the report examines different theories that are associated with employee motivation as a unique, separate concept. These theories include Maslows Theory of Motivation, the Equity Theory of Motivation and the Expectancy Theory of Motivation. Personality Using the Five-Factor Model, this report aims at outlining different personality traits and establishes relevant relationships between these and employee performance. The parameters used under this model are Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to experience and Extraversion (CANOE for short). Gauging personalities is often an underrated aspect of managerial expertise and hence, this paper looks to expand on the topic in an analytical manner. Perception The perception can arise in an organization as the process of receiving information about, and making sense of, the world around us. This can lead to different problems within an organization or team. Creating Self-Fulfilling Prophecies and Minimization of Stereotyping, Attribution Errors, Halo Effect it can be managed in an organization. Values across Cultures Cultural values are very often overlooked when managerial decisions are undertaken. The prevalence of a one-size-fits-all mentality is generally found to be the culprit beyond this sort of dodgy decision making. Via the use of Hostfedes data on Germany and the United Arab Emirates, an analysis has been carried out in this report with emphasis on the differences between collectivism and individualism as well as power distance as it relates to potential managerial techniques that need to be employed. This paper ultimately aims at not just critical self-evaluation of the team but also the analytical formulation of recommendations that can aid in systematically and logically dealing with any plausible problems that can arise under the gamut of Organizational Behavior. Using conceptually-approved managerial measures of evaluation, the following pages seek to ask questions and deliver answers to many different aspects of Organizational Behavior. The paper will cover the following individual sections Self and Team analysis Team Cohesion Social Loafing Motivation Personality Perception Values Across Culture I have done a self-analysis and have posted a picture of myself in the analysis and also I have interviewed my team members Madison Rase, Duo Wang and Zui Tao on their educational qualifications, professional and career aspirations and the professional achievement that they are proud of. TEAM MEMBER QUALIFICATION AND OBJECTIVE SELF- Vineesh Nambiar I am an international student from India and hold a Bachelors in Computer Science Engineering from Anna University, India. I am currently Pursuing my MBA at SVSU and my interests are in Web Application Development and Cloud Computing. I have 2 years of experience in developing applications using Java and web Applications. My career objective is to pursue a dynamic and challenging career with an organization of repute, which will give value addition to the organization as well as opportunity to enhance professional skills while getting high level of satisfaction and recognition. Madison Rase Madison is currently pursuing a Bachelors degree in chemistry with an anticipated graduation date of May 2017 and simultaneously pursuing an MBA with an anticipated graduation date of May 2018. She is an experienced Lab Technician at the Dow Corning Corporation where she has created and evaluated formulations for customer standards and has also helped in correcting production issues. Her career objective is to have her own business working with the design and production of cars. Duo Wang Duo Wang is an international student from China who holds a Bachelors degree in animation design from Guilin University of Electronic Technology, China. She is currently pursuing her MBA at SVSU. She has an aspiration to work for an animation company. While she was doing her undergraduate degree, she was a member of the students association for three years and, also served as the head of the association for a year. This experience gave her an insight on how to work in a team and what teamwork is all about Zui Tao (Chris) Chris is an international student from China. He earned his Bachelors degree in General Business from SVSU. His aspiration is to have a successful management career in the U.S.A and more specifically in Human Resource Management. He has two years volunteering experience and used to run a department in the association. He is looking forward to reflecting on his personal values with and his abilities. Team cohesion (Appendix A- Figure 2).refers to the degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members. It is a characteristic of the team, and includes the extent to which its members are attracted to the team, are committed to the teams goals or tasks, and feel a collective sense of team pride. Thus, team cohesion is an emotional experience, not just a calculation of whether to stay or leave the team. It exists when team members make the team part of their social identity. Team development tends to improve cohesion because members strengthen their identity to the team during the development process. Following where the factors that lead to high cohesion of our group where these factors reflect an individuals social identity within the group and beliefs about how team membership will fulfill her or his personal needs. Member Similarity: This was very applicable to our team as all of us are pursuing an MBA degree in SVSU and has definitive objectives after completing the course. Team Size: This is also very relevant to our team as we are at the right number of team members. Member Interaction: we periodically communicate or interact with the team members using E-mails, Text, and group meetings. Team Success: This is the first project we are doing as a team and we expect to perform well and will be willing to work as the same team should we all be together in another course at SVSU. Social Loafing happens when a group member exerts less individual effort when doing an addictive task in groups than when working alone (McShane and Von Glinow, 2015, p. 224). This occurs when a large group is formed, the lower will be the impact of force on any of the one member in it. Thus, more the people who might be contributing for the group production, the less pressure each person faces and will result less responsible for behaving appropriately and social loafing occurs. Following are the ways by which social loafing can be overwhelmed. Emphasize the importance of the work: People are unlikely to go for free rides when they believe that the tasks that they are performing are vital to the organization. To help this I would explain to my team members the nature of contribution of work they need to do towards the team project. Making the team members identifiable: Social loafing occurs when people feels that they can get away by taking it easy, under conditions in which each individuals contribution cannot be determined. It can only be overcome when ones contribution to an additive task are identifiable. It is that potential loafers are unlikely to loaf if they have the fear of getting caught. Rewarding individuals for the contribution to their teams performance: The employee must be given with a bonus or some sort of recognition when they succeed in their task. In such situations, each member would benefit from the team success which encourages the individuals to contribute for their teams performance. In our team, we appreciate the good work done by each team member in an attempt to motivate each other. Reduced Group size: It will be very easy to track the performance of the individuals in a small group where as in large groups judging of the individuals cannot be done. The members of a team will be cautious about the responsibility when they are in a small group. Our group stated as a small team of 4 which was ideal to manage without issues. Motivation refers to the forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary behavior (McShane and Von Glinow, 2015, p. 124). It is one of the several determinants of job performances but not equivalent. People are motivated with the work ethics as they seek interesting and challenging jobs. Managers are the key peoples to motivate the team to reach the organizational goals. Ways of motivating a team: MASLOWs Theory of Motivation: Maslows needs hierarch theory Developed by psychologist Abraham Maslow in the 1940s, the model (Appendix A- Figure 3). condenses and integrates the long list of drives and needs that had been previously studied into a hierarchy of five basic categories (from lowest to highest): physiological (need for food, air, water, shelter, etc.), safety (need for security and stability), belongingness/love (need for interaction with and affection from others), esteem (need for self-esteem and social esteem/status), and self-actualization (need for self-fulfillment, realization of ones potential) (McShane and Von Glinow, 2015, p. 127). Maslow suggested that we are motivated simultaneously by several primary needs (drives), but the strongest source of motivation is the lowest unsatisfied need at the time. As the person satisfies a lower-level need, the next higher need in the hierarchy becomes the primary motivator and remains so even if never satisfied. We adopted some of the techniques that come under the different categories of the theory to motivate the team members. Physiological Needs Provide input for employee salaries and bonuses. Safety Needs Ensure the correct tools for the job are available. Create an environment where individuals are comfortable challenging requests that are dangerous. Social Needs Schedule weekly project team meetings. (Adopted) Get the team together to celebrate project milestones. (Adopted) Esteem Needs Recognize team members for excellent contributions to the project. (Adopted) Ensure each team member understands how important they are to the project. (Adopted) Self-Actualization Needs Consider each team members tasks goals when assigning tasks. (Adopted) Empower team members so that they can develop and grow. (Adopted) EQUITY Theory of Motivation: Equity theory (Appendix A- Figure 4) claims that people desire to attain an equitable balance between the ratios of their outcomes and inputs and the corresponding ratios of comparison to other (Jerald Greenberg, 2011, p. 224). Inequitable states of overpayment inequity and underpayment inequity are undesirable, motivating people to try to attain equitable conditions. Responses to inequity may be either behavioral like raising or lowering ones performance or thinking differently about work contribution, a psychological way. To avoid negative reaction such as strikes, reduced work, resignation overpayment and underpayment inequity must be avoided. In our team, we made sure that the tasks were equally allocated or distributed so that no one team member is overwhelmed with their assigned tasks. Employee engagement: It is described as an emotional involvement in, commitment to, and satisfaction with work (McShane and Von Glinow, 2015, p.124). In our team after assigning the tasks we made sure that members were in agreement with their assignments so that they have 100% involvement, committed and enjoyed working on their assignments/ tasks. EXPECTANCY Theory of Motivation: A motivation theory based on the ideas that work effort is directed toward behaviors that people believe will lead to desired outcomes (McShane and Von Glinow, 2015, P.133).Three components of expectancy theory are: Effort-to-Performance expectancy: It is ones belief that his or he effort towards the task will result in a particular level of performance. Performance-to-Outcome expectancy: This theory is based on the principle that a particular result will be obtained if one displays a specific behavior or performance level. Outcome valences: valence is the expected or desired satisfaction or dissatisfaction an individual feel towards the results. Personality can be defined as the outline of thoughts, emotions and behaviors that characterize a person along with the psychological process associated with those characteristics. Personality have five dimensions which comes under Five-Factor Model (FFM) and they are (CANOE) Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to experience and Extraversion (Appendix A- Figure 1). Conscientiousness: It is the predisposition of an individual or a person to do what is right, especially to do ones duty well and thoroughly. Agreeableness: Nature of an individual to be compassionate towards others. Neuroticism: It is the tendency of an individual to experience unpleasant emotions such as anxiety, anger, envy, guilt etc. easily. Openness to experience: The tendency of an individual to enjoy new ideas and experiences. Extraversion: It is the characteristics of an individual to seek recreation and to enjoy he company of other people. Following table was used to assess the personality of myself and my team members. Used a scaling factor of 1 through 5 (1-Strongly disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Neutral, 4-Agree, 5-Strongly agree) to gauge the personality of each team member using Five-Factor Model. FFM Madison Rase Duo Wang Vineesh Nambiar Zui Tao (Chris) Conscientiousness 5 5 5 5 Agreeableness 5 5 5 5 Neuroticism 1 1 1 1 Openness to Experience 5 5 5 5 Extraversion 5 5 5 5 Except for neuroticism all members scored high on the other factors in Five Factor Model (FFM). Job performance can be measured in employee evaluation. This provides the evaluation regarding the employers quality in their work. In order to determine an employees skill set is appropriately matched to the employees job it is important to conduct or perform employee evaluations. The four reasons why assessments are important are: Employee Training and Development: Strength and weakness are the first step steps for evaluating the type of training the employee needs. An evaluation helps understand the type of development programs required to benefit employee and eventually the employer. Employee Performance Goal: Evaluation stipulates the performances standards against the job. Or in other words it is the expected level of performance of job duties of an employee. Performances can be evaluated on a periodic basis as determined by the leadership of the organization. Conflict Management Among Employees: Conflicts arise from the differences in personalities. A personality assessment will help evaluating the root cause for conflicts which needs to be corrected so that the team can perform well. Employee Reward and Recognition: Most organization compensation structure is based on performance measurement through employee evaluations. It gives the upper leadership of an organization to recognize employees hard work, dedication and commitment. Perception (Appendix A- Figure 5). can be defined as the process of receiving information about, and making sense of, the world around us (McShane and Von Glinow, 2015, p. 72). The process begins with the stimuli received through our senses of which some are retained and most screened out after bombarding with our senses. The retained information then gets organized and interpreted. So the process of only attending to some information while ignoring the other is called selective attention and is greatly influenced by the characteristic of the person or object being perceived. Additionally, the characteristics of the perceiver also influence selective attention. So, this can lead to different problems within an organization or team one of which is called confirmation bias. The process of readily accepting confirming information and screening out that are contrary to our values and assumptions is called Confirmation bias. Below are some of the perception related issues an organization or a manager should consider when dealing with team members. Minimization of Stereotyping: stereotyping is something that is existent in all organizations and teams. People engage in stereotyping because it is a natural and mostly nonconscious process. Stereotyping lays the foundation for discriminatory attitudes and behavior. It can be minimized by providing appropriate trainings to team members and by efforts from managers in educating them. Minimization of Attribution Errors: It is the tendency of an individual to explain someones behavior based on the internal factors such as personality or disposition and intern underestimate the influence of external factors have on another persons behavior. One of the major causes for the conflicts between the teams is when attribution error exists so, manager or upper leadership make efforts to cultivate good understanding within the team member thus, reducing conflicts. Creating Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: A self-fulfilling prophecies is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true as a result of the positive feedback between belief and behavior or in other words it is a belief that comes true because we are acting as if it is already true. For example, if one believes that his or her project is strong and feel confident about it the person will most likely write a strong confident letter. This faith in the project and oneself will also serve well when it comes to for example, marketing the project. So, promoting self-fulfilling prophesies will lead to team success. Minimizing Halo Effect: it is a tendency for an impression created in one area to influence opinion in other area. In an organization halo effect occurs when a supervisor gives an employee a rating in all areas of performances based on a general impression of that person. Is also has an impact on employees sees themselves. They tend to develop their own insights about their performances and the companys overall performances based on the management feedback. Halo effect can be reduced by developing a training plan to build the capacity of the managers along with including information on how evaluations can be done more accurately. An Individualism can be defined as a value described to a degree in which the people with a culture emphasize personal uniqueness and independence. Where when it comes for a group with a harmony it becomes collectivisms. Power Distance is the value describing the degree by which people in a culture who accepts power in the society which is unequal. U.A.E from Asia and Germany from Europe where the countries where selected for evaluating Individualism/collectivism and Power distance. VALUE SAMPLE COUNTRY ANALYSIS Individualism/Collectivism High: Germany Low: United Arab Emirates In Germany, small families with a focus on the parent-children relationship rather than aunts and uncles are most common. There is a strong belief in the ideal of self-actualization. Loyalty is based on personal preferences for people as well as a sense of duty and responsibility. United Arab Emirates scored a low for individualism/collectivism. Loyalty in a collectivist culture is dominant, and supersedes most other societal rules and regulations. The society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group. In collectivist societies offence leads to shame and loss of face, employer/employee relationships are perceived in moral terms (like a family link), hiring and promotion decisions take account of the employees in-group, management is the management of groups. Power Distance High: United Arab Emirates Low: Germany In United Arab Emirates people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. Hierarchy in an organization is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, centralization is popular, subordinates expect to be told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat Germany is highly decentralized and supported by a strong middle class. Co-determination rights are comparatively extensive and hence have to be taken into account by the management. A direct and participative communication and meeting style is common, control is disliked and leadership is challenged to show expertise and best accepted when its based on it. From Vince Lombardis quote Individual commitment to a group effortthat is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. It was a great experience working with the team and we did not find much difficulty in completing the work together. We did follow the basic guidelines upon the team cohesion, personality, controlling social loafing and perception. We put conscious efforts to control any conflicts by establishing a good leadership in the team and also built a team culture among us. Adopting these strategies would eventually lead to a good team and will contribute to a successful organization. References McShane, S. L., Von Glinow, M. A. Y. (2015). Organizational behavior. New York: Irwin/McGraw-Hill Greenberg, Jerald. Behaviour in Organization. Tenth ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2011. Plant, L. (2012). Motivation and feedback influencing change in the goal-setting process (Order No. MR84417). Available from ProQuest Business Collection. (1115315275). Retrieved from https://0-search.proquest.com.library.svsu.edu/docview/1115315275?accountid=960 Lee, S. (1998). The relationship of personality type to self-perceived and faculty-perceived managerial effectiveness among college and university sport/physical education administrators in the republic of korea (Order No. 9820638). Available from ProQuest Business Collection. (304482798). Retrieved from https://0-search.proquest.com.library.svsu.edu/docview/304482798?accountid=960 Townsend, W. (2013). INNOVATION AND THE PERCEPTION OF RISK IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR. International Journal of Organizational Innovation (Online), 5(3), 21-34. Retrieved from https://0-search.proquest.com.library.svsu.edu/docview/1419395542?accountid=960 Alonso, A. (2003). The attribution of motives to organizational citizenship behaviors: The influence of personality, gender and ethnicity (Order No. 3085811). Available from Psychology Database. (305233252). Retrieved from https://0-search.proquest.com.library.svsu.edu/docview/305233252?accountid=960 Yu, C. (2005). An I -P -O model of team goal, leader goal orientation, team cohesiveness, and team effectiveness (Order No. 3202366). Available from ProQuest Business Collection. (305360282). Retrieved from https://0-search.proquest.com.library.svsu.edu/docview/305360282?accountid=960 Suleiman, J., Watson, R. T. (2008). Social loafing in technology-supported teams. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 17(4), 291-309. Retrieved from https://0-search.proquest.com.library.svsu.edu/docview/622218484?accountid=960 Mortenson, S. T. (2002). Sex, communication values, and cultural values: Individualism-collectivism as a mediator of sex differences in communication values in two cultures. Communication Reports, 15(1), 57-70. Retrieved from https://0-search.proquest.com.library.svsu.edu/docview/203808136?accountid=960 APPENDIX A: DIAGRAMS Figure 1. CANOE Figure 2. TEAM COHESION Figure 3. MASLOW THEORY OF MOTIVATION Figure 4. EQUITY THEORY OF MOTIVATION Figure 5. PRECEPTION Types and Forms of Racism: Exploration of the US Types and Forms of Racism: Exploration of the US Racism has been around for a long it and it is quite difficult to point out whether it is going to end today or in the near future. Many people would think of racism in terms of Whites oppressing the Blacks but there are various forms of racial discrimination that we will analyze shortly. Racial discrimination overall is not a good thing. Those who practice it should put themselves on the shoes of those being oppressed and try to visualize how good or bad it is. From there we would have an equal platform of reasoning together. In the United States, there are different groups of people that are discriminated against. This includes; the Native Americans, African Americans, Latin Americans, Arabs and Muslims and Iranians. Introduction Racism in simple terms can be described as the hatred one human being hast towards another human being (Human Rights Watch May, 2008). This hatred is based on the differences in skin color, language, place of origin and cultural customs. One group of individuals believes that their group is better than the other. An example of the worst racism is that of the Whites towards the Africans. Some, even up to today believe that Africans are incomplete creatures. This is what led to the early slave trade and the present enslavement. Racism also exists among the Whites themselves depending on whether one is an Easterner or a westerner. This is influenced by the superpower capability that a country possesses. Racism has led to slavery, war, splitting of nations and formation of new ones and drafting of legal codes. Types of Racism There exist different types of racism as described by Human Rights Watch (May, 2008); the first type is the historical racism. This comes about due to a persons lineage and decent. People with common historical origins, but not necessarily biological characteristics, fall under this category. It is used to categorize nation states in Europe. For example the Nazi eagle, Aryan cross; was believed to be superior to other nations. The second type of racism is the institutional based racism. This is put in place to protect the interests of a certain group and maintain the status quo of inequality among the society members. This can best be expressed by the apartheid rule that was in place in South Africa. The third type of racism is the scientific type of racism. This classifies people to have superior characteristics than the other for example intelligence due to brain size, a fore head which is sloping. It is believed there is a hierarchy of races and this is what was used a justificati on to colonize others. The last type of racism is new racism. This is based on new expressions. This encompasses immigrants, integration and cultural values. Forms of Racism According to Human Rights Watch (May, 2008), racism can be classified into two categories: Minority racism and majority racism. Minority racism is practiced by affluent minority groups that look at themselves as special and in some circumstances; you find that they have support from some external powers. This kind of racism tends to be closely linked with imperialism. It is usually y called minority racism from above. Western imperialism falls under this category as well as the former colonials that practiced apartheid in South Africa. The Whites were unable to exterminate the local Africans as they did with the natives of North America. The Chinese nationalism also falls under this group. The Chinese Diaspora views themselves as a superior ethnic group especially in Southeast Asia. Jews, in Israel, view themselves as a minority group surrounded and oppressed by the Arabs. However, the Jews are many in number in Israel. This emanates from the Arabs desire to oppress the oppressor. Th is view of the Jews is what is known as minority racism from below. Majority racism from above is a populist in nature usually based on racial reversal for example the Hutu and Tutsi genocide in Rwanda or Sinhala, who discriminated the Tamils (Human Rights Watch May, 2008). There is usually a divide and rule force behind this kind of discrimination. In the United States, this can be illustrated by the hatred the natives had against the immigrants. Racism from below is the common form of racism experienced in the West. This is illustrated by discrimination against the African Americans or discrimination against the Native Americans. African American is the most hated group due to the poverty levels they exhibit and the crime rate levels they are involved in. Racism can be more dangerous and hurtful if its forces are being propagated by a well social-economic class. Anti-racism in many cases is involved in trying to distribute power equal in terms of economy, employment opportunities, access to social amenities and education thus eliminating ethnic ten sions that may arise Overview of Racism in the United States Racism in the United States dates back as far as to the colonial era (Anthony 34). Inequality in human rights has been witnessed by the Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans and Asian Americans. Racial discrimination dates as far back as the 17th century up to the 1960s. Only the White Americans enjoyed access to literacy, the right to acquire and own land, citizenship, and the right to vote, immigration and a right to a fair trial in court proceedings. Other European groups like the Jews and the Irish have experienced major social exclusion. Even though racism was officially banned in the mid 20th century, it continues to be experienced in areas of employment, housing, education, lending and government institution. Many people have not accepted the ban and thus racism continues to be experienced in terms of segregation, slavery, reservations, residential schools, internment groupings and Indian wars. Discrimination is also evidenced in terms of religion. Muslims are discriminated against due the activities of extremists and are thus, widely viewed as terrorists (Alvin Poussaint, par 3). Recent Day Racism Situation According to a United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination report (March 2008) reported by Anthony (38), the United States has or it is failing to meet international standards on racial equality. The equality disparities are being witnessed education, housing, criminal justice and healthcare. In March 2006, the same committee criticized the United States for not upholding the right of land ownership policy by the Native American. The committee wanted the United States to enforce the United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous communities. The United States was also to provide a detailed report on what it had done to promote the culture of indigenous Hawaiian, Alaska and Indian Americans (Alvin Poussaint, par 3). The committee also observed that there was indiscriminate environmental racism and environmental degradation of spiritual areas and also areas that held certain cultural significances. The environmental degradation in question includes mining o n sacred lands. Anthony (37) reports that racial discrimination was also observed in the judicial system. This was so especially with the death penalty and life imprisonment sentence. It was observed that minors were sentenced to either of the two harsh sentences as compared to their other counterparts who received a more lenient sentence having been convicted of the same crime. The committee was outraged by the governments comments that black kids get life without parole because of the many crimes they had committed. The committee was also not happy in the way the United States continued to hold non-U.S. suspects of terrorism in the Guantanamo Bay prison. The wanted the United states to expose the prisoners to a judiciary review. To them, this was just another form of racial discrimination. Ajamu Baraka of the Human rights network observes Racial discrimination has been normalized and accepted as a way of American life (Anti-Defamation League, par 4). The committee advised the United States to set up a Human Rights body that will keep track and oversee racial discrimination or disparities. The committee went ahead to warn the United States that it is not above the law. Racism in the Criminal Justice System According to Anti-Defamation League (par 4), the United States criminal justice system has been mentioned negatively in various print and news media. It is said to be racial based. It is said that African Americans are usually targeted and severely punished as compared to their white counterparts. The following few incidents go on to show the extent to which the criminal justice system is said to be rotten. According to a Human Rights Watch (May, 2008), the Whites and Africans who are involved in drug trafficking are fairly the same. The United States African American population is made up of only 13% and those using drugs are made up of 14%. However, when it comes to arrests made on those dealing with drugs, the majority are African Americans. It beats the logic how come it is only the African Americans who are arrested the most. It is also reported that stops that are made by police involves mainly Blacks and the Latinos (Anthony 62). It is said that 80% of the stops made by NYPD in New York involved either Blacks or Latinos. For these stops, 85 % were frisked while only 8% of the white stops made were frisked. The same happenings are reported to be the same elsewhere in the country. In California, for example, it was found that Blacks were stopped times more compared to the Whites. It has also been revealed that once arrests are made, the Blacks are more likely to remain in jail awaiting trial as compared to the white counterparts. In a 1995 review report on the rate of trial of felonies carried out by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice, it was found out that 33% more Blacks would be detained awaiting trial as compared to their White counterparts 80 % of people convicted of a crime seek a public defender. The higher numbers of people seeking a public defender are Blacks. The public defenders ar e an overworked lot who are underpaid and effectively, it means the poor Blacks who cannot afford the services of a private attorney will contend with the services of a tired and disgruntled public defender. In the end, the Blacks stand a big chance to lose their cases (Anti-Defamation League, par 3). As reported by Anti-Defamation League (par 3), the Equal Justice Initiative released a report on June 2010, arguing that African American are underrepresented or excluded from the criminal jury services. It is reported that in Houston County, Ala, 8 of the 10 African American juries have been barred from participating on death penalty cases. It is said only few cases end up in the trial chambers. The main reason being, the African Americans plead guilty to a crime they did not commit so as to avoid the flawed court process that can sentence them for a long period for a crime they did not commit. It is also reported that Blacks found guilty are likely to receive a sentence that is 10% longer than their white counter parts for a similar crime. The report still goes on to say that 20% more Blacks are likely to be sentenced to prison on drug offences as compared to the Whites while 21% more will receive the compulsory minimum sentence. According to Anthony (2009), in July, 2009, the sentencing Project reported that more people who are not Whites were receiving the long term serving sentences. It reported that 2/3 of the people servicing life imprisonment were either the Blacks or the Latinos. According to the Congressional Testimony for The Sentencing Project report mentioned by Anthony (34), 56% of those in prison convicted of drug offences are the Blacks. This is a big contrast compared their population of 13% and drug users of 14%. The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that a male by born it the year 2001 is likely to go to jail five times and three times for Latinos more than a white boy born in the same year. There are about 16% juvenile Black American youth in the whole population and about 28 % juvenile arrests are made. 37% of the juveniles are imprisoned in juvenile jails and about 56% are sent to adult prisons (Anti-Defamation League, par 5). The United States has the highest percentage of population in prison than any other country in the world (Anti-Defamation League, par 5). However, the majority of the prisoners are Black males. This is according to the ABC News report. It is reported that even after the prison stint, racial discrimination continues to be felt outside prison. Whites who have criminal records are treated better than Blacks who do not have a criminal record. Whites who are released from prison have a higher percentage likelihood of being called back compared to Blacks also who have a criminal record. Impacts of Racism Racism has some negative psychological effect. Delivering a key address, Allavian Poussaint (1993) said; to be black in America is to be a suspect (par 2). A black has to prove that he/she has no ill motive. Competence also has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. Thus a black will not walk comfortably in the streets with long over his/her shoulder due to security reasons. Racism can impact negatively on one psycho-politically. Black in general has been considered to be evil. Lucifer is depicted to be black. Thus African Americans are considered to be of a dark ancestry. This in other words is promoting white purity and stigmatizing the black race. Overall, the implication is that the Blacks should be segregated, oppressed and enslaved. Racism has led to genocide. Allavian Poussaint (1993) also says that according to the white Americans, the only good Indian is a dead Indian (par 6). This shows how life has been devalued. During the civil rights struggle, several people were killed. Anthony (2009) reiterates that the law is not applied in equal terms. This is especially with the death penalty. It is said that minorities who are sentenced to death are highly likely to be executed as compared with their white counter parts. According to the anti-death penalty Organization Amnesty International, murderers of white people are 6 times likely to be executed as compared to the killers of the black people. It goes to show that the judicial system values White live than that of Blacks and other minority groups. Global Research (2008) has indicated that racism has led to formation of attack gangs. In Southern California for instance, there are African American and Mexican American gangs. The gangs have special mafias who attack each other i.e. the Mexican kills the Blacks and the Blacks kill the Mexicans on sight. This has also been witnessed in the prisons where riots have been reported due to one group attacking the other. The Black Americans have not had a cordial relationship with the black immigrants. This is based on the cultural and social differences that exist between them. Anthony (37) argues that there is disparity in wealth creation. The tax policies have restricted people on how to acquire wealth. The Social Security Acts excludes some sectors of the economy such as agriculture where most minority groups work and rewards other groups like the army. This has a disparity of wealth of acquisition by a factor of 1 to 10. Racism has affected negatively the health of the minorities. It is observed that the number of minorities that who visited psychiatrists was much higher as compared to Whites (Anti-Defamation League, par 3). Stress levels have also been discovered to be higher in the minorities groups. Frequent physical diseases and common colds have also been discovered to affect the minority females as compared to the white women. Inadequate health care is blamed for the many deaths observed in the black race than the white race. The Blacks lack or have inadequate medical insurance cover, reluctance to seek medical attention and poor medical service. It is said that many lives would be saved if the minority groups received proper medical attention as that of their white counter parts. The minority are no privileged to receive adequate health care if the treatment in question involves the very most recent technology. Affirmative Action Though he has been critical in highlighting the plights of the minority groups in America, Anthony (2009) adds that affirmative action has been put into place to address the historical injustice imposed on groups that were discriminated. This includes access to education, employment, health facilities. Most universities and employers are using affirmative action while admitting new students or employees respectively. Historically disadvantaged groups are given priority or a quota system is used. Opponents of affirmative action have displayed openly their discontent and would like people to be taken on merit and not on the basis of other methods. Fighting Racism at Individual Levels There exists ways that can help to fight this racism vice. A few of the ways as held by Global Research (2008) as such that could be to the sense that whenever one makes a racist joke, we are not supposed to laugh at it. Laughing encourages one to go on. Instead, we should make the person understand that the joke was not funny or we do not appreciate such kind of jokes. The worst thing is to keep silent. Instead we should speak over minds out but cautiously and politely. We should strive to learn about others and understand their cultures; the differences in our culture call for appreciation and celebration. We can learn from them and appreciate why some things are the way they are. There is no culture which is considered superior than the other. It is helps in enriching our own cultures. We should always use the correct language. It is not prudent to mention races in a conversation. Some people get offended when you use a language that it, there is an implication of racial discrimination. We should never use words haphazardly when we are not sure where one ails from. As much as possible, we should try to be role models. We should speak against but not criticize comments that are racist in nature. Educate others the negative effects of racism and narrate your own experiences to them if any. The other best thing though it can be uncomfortable is to venture into areas where one is not of the other kind. However, one should take his/her safety issues into consideration. If one learns in a White institution, one should try to venture into a Black institution or if she/he is a Christian, she/he should find time to visit a Muslim mosque. The experience will certainly be enlightening than one might expect (Global Research, par 7). If presented with projects, one should try t o do them with people who are not from their own kind. Playing at an equal level enhances the confidence of the minority and helps to cancel the bitter discrimination injustice feelings they might be harboring in their hearts. According to Anthony (2009), If one is a parent, he/she should at an early age try to mingle his/her children with the children from the other groups. One should strive to discuss TV programs and movies that could be of stereotype. This will help children to understand other people and their culture. This will help in suppressing racial discrimination traits from creeping in. As much as possible one should help and support organization that voices their ideas against racial discrimination. This will help in fighting against it and by joining these groupings; you will have a more powerful voice at the local level. People will be ready to listen to you. As they say, united we stand and apart we fall. Thus being in an organization with a common goal, great strides of achievements will be made. Conclusion It is safe to say that racism has drastically reduced with the continued legislation and having an informed populace. Religion also has played a major role in eradicating it as people believe that racism is a sin and practicing or helping in its propagation is sinning against God. Affirmative action programs have majorly benefitted the minority even though the white feel that they should be done away with total. They feel that they are the ones at the losing end. As always people try to resist change to the old ways they are used. Racial spats these days are not common. If one does an act implying racism, it is usually unconscious, unintentional and not malicious. With the reduction of racism, some things are yet to be achieved like equal employment opportunities and wages. The economic status of the minority still is wanting. This could be one of the reasons why hate crimes are still in the increase. The best way to reach a conclusive end to race disparities is to find a way of elim inating institutionalized discrimination. This kind of discrimination maintains the status quo of the society and thus the groups that have historically been disadvantaged continue to be on the losing end. As Martin Luther King Junior said that we as a nation need to undergo a radical revolution of values. Thus the United States criminal justice system must check the main cause of the problem. It should not rely on what it calls reforms; reforms of having nice beds in good position.