Personal freedoms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Personal freedoms - Essay Example It would seem a perfect situation if there is no drug trade, no terrorism, secure borders and complete order in the country. However if this is done at the price of searching one’s belonging more thoroughly, or by performing body scan tests on the airport, then I would not tolerate this invasion of privacy even if this is done in an attempt to curb the terrorism. On the other hand there are many things which appear an invasion on one’s privacy but according to me I think we can sacrifice. For example, if the government keeps a record of my phone history or the books that I have checked out of library, then there is no issue because such information is trivial for me and if it helps in reducing violence and terrorism then I have no problem with this sort of surveillance. It is therefore important that the government tries to exterminate terrorism without taking from people much of their freedom. Abram, T. (2010, November 13). Personal Freedom and the American Government. Retrieved July 05, 2012, from Freedom Works:

Financial Crisis Essay Example for Free

Financial Crisis Essay Dear Grandchildren, The last two decades have seen important milestones being achieved, not only for America, but which also have global impact and implications. These milestones are in the technological, political, and financial arenas. They are also profound in the sense that life as was known before these changes would never be the same again. Below are some of the things I believe are the most significant, simply because they are a sign of the times and which have direct impact on our lives in America. Technologically, there has been a digital revolution, with the advent of the Internet on the world scene. The home computer is now a ubiquitous item, and easily replaces the television and radio as furniture, feature display, and entertainment console. It also provides business solutions, home office setups, a vast knowledge and information database, and connectivity with the rest of the world. There is virtually no chance for anyone to be a hermit anymore. Even we old folks have mastered the basic skills of emailing, skype-ing, googling, and Facebooking. What more can we ask for? These will keep us entertained for many more years to come. There will not be time and lack of interaction for us to grow senile. The array of gadgets is simply gorgeous! Mobile phones, netbooks, iPads, and LED TV screens are now the must-have items. They increase our productivity, schedule our lives, and keep us updated on the go. Social media has given us social convergence and brought us closer as a result; ironically, sometimes, they also cause us to be indifferent and insensitive to those physically closest to us. Politically, the United States has broken through the invisible ceiling and has installed for the first time in its history, an African American president. This is simply unthinkable, and had it not been for this moment in time, would not have happened at all. That said, it may herald the possibility for other minority races in the United States to reach the top spot. Barack Obama, at one stroke, has finally achieved that which had eluded activists all along. He has achieved the realization of emancipation for all African Americans. In his becoming President, he has been able to appease both the Democrats and the Republicans and thus far, he has been even-handed and circumspect. Financially, there has been a tremendous upheaval in both the American and global economies. There was the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 which channeled much of the wealth then to the United States and Europe. This was however, reversed in 2008 when Wall Street literally collapsed, with brokerages, banks, and state institutions falling like dominoes. This has caused untold misery to millions of homeowners in America who had their houses foreclosed. This situation should be seen as completely unique to our time, for the financial equations may no longer work so effectively as before. Coupled with fraud, lack of transparency, and the sheer number of complex financial instruments that flooded the market, the whole financial sector is way overdue for a bypass and cleanup. This is the darkest period since the Great Depression in the 1930s. How will these events influence the future? I believe that these milestones represent yet another great development in the history of America and humanity in general. Technology will only continue to be improved with ever-increasing speeds and frightful ingenuity. The political climate will continue to evolve and result in hopefully a fairer system of governance that will represent the peoples of America. And financially, let us hope that the scares we went through are enough to jolt the wheelers and dealers to the fact that long-term stability is much more desirable than short-term gains and profiteering.

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.

The Importance of Aesthetic Distance in American Horror Movies :: Movie Film Essays

The Importance of Aesthetic Distance in American Horror Movies What then do we make of American horror movies? In the canon of horror pictures they almost always come second in respect to foreign horror movies and any American horror film that is considered to be artful is the one with the most aesthetic distance. Upscale slashers like Johnathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991) or David Fincher's Seven (1995) are both gruesome and bloody borrowing many of the same shock techniques as their lower budget counterparts (for example, Russell Mulchahy's Sevenish thriller Resurrection (1999)), both focus on the body and its violation, either through sexual means or violent means, and both feature villains who fit easily into Carol Clover's assessment as "distinctly male; his fury is unmistakably sexual in both roots and expression." The logic behind heaping plaudits on the upscale slashers and highbrow horror pictures lies, as with foreign horror, with the concept of aesthetic distance. Film analyst Ken Hanke theorizes that many critics simply praise so-called highbrow horror films because the acclaim comes from "people with little or no knowledge of the genre...What seemed so fresh and creative to them was largely a reshuffling of a very old bag of tricks." While Hanke's thesis is logical, I think the real reason these pictures get such acclaim is (you guessed it) their aesthetic distance. Both The Silence of the Lambs and Seven are considered to be more psychological in nature, as they present killers whose motivations are explainable. The unexplainable is infinitely more terrifying than the explainable so in elucidating the motivations to their gruesome behavior the audience is given an easy out. Believing that evil has a root cause, the audience does not have to accept the shocking hypothesis that evil can simply exist without rhyme or reason. Even in the masterpiece Halloween (1978) we are tossed a half-hearted psychological explanation as to why Michael Myers does what he does. The psychobabble that Donald Pleasance spouts is simply that Myers is "pure evil," and there are some vague connections made between Myers witnessing his sister engaging in premarital sexual activity and his slaughtering tendencies. Director John Carpenter t hen gets to have a killer who seems like a force of nature, yet is still explainable within the realm of psychology. Carpenter also gives his audience a sense of aesthetic distance through his numerous in-jokes and references to other horror films.

Aryabhatta Biography Essay

While there is a tendency to misspell his name as â€Å"Aryabhatta† by analogy with other names having the â€Å"bhatta† suffix, his name is properly spelled Aryabhata: every astronomical text spells his name thus, including Brahmagupta’s references to him â€Å"in more than a hundred places by name†. Furthermore, in most instances â€Å"Aryabhatta† does not fit the metre either. Time and place of birth Aryabhata mentions in the Aryabhatiya that it was composed 3,630 years into the Kali Yuga, when he was 23 years old. This corresponds to 499 CE, and implies that he was born in 476. Aryabhata was born in Taregna (literally, song of the stars), which is a small town in Bihar, India, about 30 km (19 mi) from Patna (then known as Pataliputra), the capital city of Bihar State. Evidences justify his birth there. In Taregna Aryabhata set up an Astronomical Observatory in the Sun Temple 6th century. There is no evidence that he was born outside Patliputra and traveled to Magadha, the centre of instruction, culture and knowledge for his studies where he even set up a coaching institute. However, early Buddhist texts describe Ashmaka as being further south, in dakshinapath or the Deccan, while other texts describe the Ashmakas as having fought Alexander. Education It is fairly certain that, at some point, he went to Kusumapura for advanced studies and lived there for some time. Both Hindu and Buddhist tradition, as well as BhÄ skara I (CE 629), identify Kusumapura as PÄ Ã¡ ¹ ­aliputra, modern Patna. A verse mentions that Aryabhata was the head of an institution (kulapati) at Kusumapura, and, because the university of Nalanda was in Pataliputra at the time and had an astronomical observatory, it is speculated that Aryabhata might have been the head of the Nalanda university as well. Aryabhata is also reputed to have set up an observatory at the Sun temple in Taregana, Bihar. Other hypotheses Some archeological evidence suggests that Aryabhata could have originated from the present day Kodungallur which was the historical capital city of Thiruvanchikkulam of ancient Kerala. For instance, one hypothesis was that aÅ›maka (Sanskrit for â€Å"stone†) may be the region in Kerala that is now known as Koá ¹ ­uá ¹â€¦Ã¡ ¹â€¦allÃ… «r, based on the belief that it was earlier known as Koá ¹ ­um-Kal-l-Ã… «r (â€Å"city of hard stones†); however, old records show that the city was actually Koá ¹ ­um-kol-Ã… «r (â€Å"city of strict governance†). Similarly, the fact that several commentaries on the Aryabhatiya have come from Kerala were used to suggest that it was Aryabhata’s main place of life and activity; however, many commentaries have come from outside Kerala. Aryabhata mentions â€Å"Lanka† on several occasions in the Aryabhatiya, but his â€Å"Lanka† is an abstraction, standing for a point on the equator at the same longitude as his Ujjayini. Works Aryabhata is the author of several treatises on mathematics and astronomy, some of which are lost. His major work, Aryabhatiya, a compendium of mathematics and astronomy, was extensively referred to in the Indian mathematical literature and has survived to modern times. The mathematical part of the Aryabhatiya covers arithmetic, algebra, plane trigonometry, and spherical trigonometry. It also contains continued fractions, quadratic equations, sums-of-power series, and a table of sines. The Arya-siddhanta, a lot work on astronomical computations, is known through the writings of Aryabhata’s contemporary, Varahamihira, and later mathematicians and commentators, including Brahmagupta and Bhaskara I. This work appears to be based on the older Surya Siddhanta and uses the midnight-day reckoning, as opposed to sunrise in Aryabhatiya. It also contained a description of several astronomical instruments: the gnomon (shanku-yantra), a shadow instrument (chhAyA-yantra), possibly angle-measuring devices, semicircular and circular (dhanur-yantra / chakra-yantra), a cylindrical stick yasti-yantra, an umbrella-shaped device called the chhatra-yantra, and water clocks of at least two types, bow-shaped and cylindrical. A third text, which may have survived in the Arabic translation, is Al ntf or Al-nanf. It claims that it is a translation by Aryabhata, but the Sanskrit name of this work is not known. Probably dating from the 9th century, it is mentioned by the Persian scholar and chronicler of India

Term Paper on Leadership

Most executives have come to rely on a familiar set of behaviors and skills, often exhibited in the way they communicate within their team. The High-Impact Leadership Executive Program is designed to help senior executives build distinctive communication skills that will help in shaping their leadership style and presence. When a person is deciding if she respects one as a leader, she does not think about his attributes, rather, she observes what one do so that she can know who the leader really are.She uses this observation to tell if one is an honorable and trusted leader or a self-serving person who misuses authority to look good and get promoted. Self-serving leaders are not as effective because their employees only obey them, not follow them. They succeed in many areas because they present a good image to their seniors at the expense of their workers. Be Know Do The basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service to your organization. In our employees' eyes, leadership is everything one does that affects the organization's objectives and their well-being.Respected leaders concentrate on: o what they are [be] (such as beliefs and character) o what they know (such as job, tasks, and human nature) o What they do (such as implementing, motivating, and providing direction). People want to be guided by those they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future. Leadership: Leadership can be defined as one's ability to get others to willingly follow. Every organization needs leaders at every level.Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leadership has been described as the â€Å"process of social influence, in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common ta sk†. A leader with vision has a clear, vivid picture of where to go, as well as a firm grasp on what success looks like and how to achieve it. But it’s not enough to have a vision; leaders must also share it and act upon it.Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric Co. , said, â€Å"Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion. † Leadership Theories TRAIT THEORY: Theories that consider personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate leaders from non-leaders. Reemergence: New methods and measurements were developed after the influential reviews that would ultimately reestablish the trait theory as a viable approach to the study of leadership.For example, improvements in researchers' use of the round robin research design methodology allowed researchers to see that individuals can and do emerge as leaders across a variety of situations and tasks. Additionall y, during the 1980s statistical advances allowed researchers to conduct meta-analyses, in which they could quantitatively analyze and summarize the findings from a wide array of studies. This advent allowed trait theorists to create a comprehensive and parsimonious picture of previous leadership research rather than rely on the qualitative reviews of the past.Equipped with new methods, leadership researchers revealed the following: ? Individuals can and do emerge as leaders across a variety of situations and tasks. ? Significant relationships exist between leadership and such individual traits as: ? intelligence ? adjustment ? extraversion ? conscientiousness ? openness to experience ? general self-efficacy While the trait theory of leadership has certainly regained popularity, its reemergence has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in sophisticated conceptual frameworks.Specifically, Zaccaro (2007) noted that trait theories still: 1. focus on a small set of individual attributes such as Big Five personality traits, to the neglect of cognitive abilities, motives, values, social skills, expertise, and problem-solving skills; 2. fail to consider patterns or integrations of multiple attributes; 3. do not distinguish between those leader attributes that are generally not malleable over time and those that are shaped by, and bound to, situational influences;Do not consider how stable leader attributes account for the behavioral diversity necessary for effective leadership. Behavioral and style theories: In response to the early criticisms of the trait approach, theorists began to research leadership as a set of behaviors, evaluating the behavior of successful leaders, determining behavior taxonomy, and identifying broad leadership styles. David McClelland, for example, posited that leadership takes a strong personality with a well-developed positive ego. To lead, self-confidence and high self-esteem are useful, perhaps even essential.Kurt Lewin, Ronald Lipitt, and Ralph White developed in 1939 the seminal work on the influence of leadership styles and performance. The researchers evaluated the performance of groups of eleven-year-old boys under different types of work climate. In each, the leader exercised his influence regarding the type of group decision making, praise and criticism (feedback), and the management of the group tasks (project management) according to three styles: authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire. The managerial grid model is also based on a behavioral theory.The model was developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in 1964 and suggests five different leadership styles, based on the leaders' concern for people and their concern for goal achievement. Situational and contingency theories: Situational theory also appeared as a reaction to the trait theory of leadership. Social scientists argued that history was more than the result of intervention of great men as Carlyle suggested. Herbert Spencer (1884) s aid that the times produce the person and not the other way around.This theory assumes that different situations call for different characteristics; according to this group of theories, no single optimal psychographic profile of a leader exists. According to the theory, â€Å"what an individual actually does when acting as a leader is in large part dependent upon characteristics of the situation in which he functions. † Some theorists started to synthesize the trait and situational approaches. Building upon the research of Lewin et al. , academics began to normalize the descriptive models of leadership climates, defining three leadership styles and identifying which situations each style works better in.The authoritarian leadership style, for example, is approved in periods of crisis but fails to win the â€Å"hearts and minds† of followers in day-to-day management; the democratic leadership style is more adequate in situations that require consensus building; finally, the laissez-faire leadership style is appreciated for the degree of freedom it provides, but as the leaders do not â€Å"take charge†, they can be perceived as a failure in protracted or thorny organizational problems.Thus, theorists defined the style of leadership as contingent to the situation, which is sometimes, classified as contingency theory. Four contingency leadership theories appear more prominently in recent years: Fiedler contingency model, Vroom-Yetton decision model, the path-goal theory, and the Hersey-Blanchard situational theory. The Fiedler contingency model bases the leader's effectiveness on what Fred Fiedler called situational contingency. This results from the interaction of leadership style and situational favorability (later called situational control).The theory defined two types of leader: those who tend to accomplish the task by developing good relationships with the group (relationship-oriented), and those who have as their prime concern carrying out the task itself (task-oriented). According to Fiedler, there is no ideal leader. Both task-oriented and relationship-oriented leaders can be effective if their leadership orientation fits the situation. When there is a good leader-member relation, a highly structured task, and high leader position power, the situation is considered a â€Å"favorable situation†.Fiedler found that task-oriented leaders are more effective in extremely favorable or unfavorable situations, whereas relationship-oriented leaders perform best in situations with intermediate favorability. Victor Vroom in collaboration with Phillip Yetton (1973) and later with Arthur Jago (1988), developed a taxonomy for describing leadership situations, which was used in a normative decision model where leadership styles were connected to situational variables, defining which approach was more suitable to which situation.This approach was novel because it supported the idea that the same manager could rely on diff erent group decision making approaches depending on the attributes of each situation. This model was later referred to as situational contingency theory. The path-goal theory of leadership was developed by Robert House (1971) and was based on the expectancy theory of Victor Vroom.According to House, the essence of the theory is â€Å"the meta proposition that leaders, to be effective, engage in behaviors that complement subordinates' environments and abilities in a manner that compensates for deficiencies and is instrumental to subordinate satisfaction and individual and work unit performance†. The theory identifies four leader behaviors, achievement-oriented, directive, participative, and supportive, that is contingent to the environment factors and follower characteristics.In contrast to the Fiedler contingency model, the path-goal model states that the four leadership behaviors are fluid, and that leaders can adopt any of the four depending on what the situation demands. T he path-goal model can be classified both as a contingency theory, as it depends on the circumstances, and as a transactional leadership theory, as the theory emphasizes the reciprocity behavior between the leader and the followers. The situational leadership model proposed by Hersey and Blanchard suggests four leadership-styles and four levels of follower-development.For effectiveness, the model posits that the leadership-style must match the appropriate level of follower-development. In this model, leadership behavior becomes a function not only of the characteristics of the leader, but of the characteristics of followers as well. Leadership on the whole: Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. So, leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership knowledge and skills. This is called Process Leadership. [pic]While leadership is learned, the skills and knowledge processed by the leader can be influenced by his or hers attributes or traits, such as beliefs, values, ethics, and character. Knowledge and skills contribute directly to the process of leadership, while the other attributes give the leader certain characteristics that make him or her unique. Leadership Models Leadership models help us to understand what makes leaders act the way they do. The ideal is not to lock yourself in to a type of behavior discussed in the model, but to realize that every situation calls for a different approach or behavior to be taken.Two models will be discussed, the Four Framework Approach and the Managerial Grid. Four Framework Approach: In the Four Framework Approach, Bolman and Deal (1991) suggest that leaders display leadership behaviors in one of four types of frameworks: Structural, Human Resource, Political, or Symbolic. [pic] This model suggests that leaders can be put into one of these four categories and there are times when one approach is appropriate and times when it would not be. That i s, any style can be effective or ineffective, depending upon the situation.Relying on only one of these approaches would be inadequate, thus we should strive to be conscious of all four approaches, and not just depend on one or two. For example, during a major organization change, a Structural leadership style may be more effective than a Symbolic leadership style; during a period when strong growth is needed, the Symbolic approach may be better. We also need to understand ourselves as each of us tends to have a preferred approach. We need to be conscious of this at all times and be aware of the limitations of just favoring one approach.Structural Framework: In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a social architect whose leadership style is analysis and design. While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a petty tyrant whose leadership style is details. Structural Leaders focus on structure, strategy, environment, implementation, experimentation, and ada ptation. Human Resource Framework: In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a catalyst and servant whose leadership style is support, advocating, and empowerment. hile in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a pushover, whose leadership style is abdication and fraud. Human Resource Leaders believe in people and communicate that belief; they are visible and accessible; they empower, increase participation, support, share information, and move decision making down into the organization. Political Framework: In an effective leadership situation, the leader is an advocate, whose leadership style is coalition and building. While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a hustler, whose leadership style is manipulation.Political leaders clarify what they want and what they can get; they assess the distribution of power and interests; they build linkages to other stakeholders, use persuasion first, then use negotiation and coercion only if necessary. S ymbolic Framework: In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a prophet, whose leadership style is inspiration. While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a fanatic or fool, whose leadership style is smoke and mirrors.Symbolic leaders view organizations as a stage or theater to play certain roles and give impressions; these leaders use symbols to capture attention; they try to frame experience by providing plausible interpretations of experiences; they discover and communicate a vision. . Company Profile of ROBI: Background of â€Å"Robi† Axiata (Bangladesh) Limited is a dynamic and leading countrywide GSM communication solution provider. It is a joint venture company between Axiata Group Berhad, Malaysia and NTT DOCOMO INC, Japan.Axiata (Bangladesh) Limited, formerly known as Telekom Malaysia International (Bangladesh), commenced its operation in 1997 under the brand name ROBI among the pioneer GSM mobile telecommunications service providers in Bang ladesh. Later, on 28th March, 2010 the company started its new journey with the brand name Robi. Robi is truly a people-oriented brand of Bangladesh. Robi, the people's champion, is there for the people of Bangladesh, where they want and the way they want. Having the local tradition at its core, Robi marches ahead with innovation and creativity.To ensure leading-edge technology, Robi has the international expertise of Axiata and NTT DOCOMO INC. It supports 2G voice, CAMEL phase 2 and GPRS/EDGE service with high speed internet connectivity. Its GSM service is based on a robust network architecture and cutting edge technology such as Intelligent Network (IN), which provides peace-of-mind solutions in terms of voice clarity, extensive nationwide network coverage and multiple global partners for international roaming. It has the widest International Roaming coverage in Bangladesh connecting 553 operators across 207 countries.Its customer centric solution includes value added services (V AS), quality customer care, easy access call centers, digital network security and flexible tariff rates. With its strengths and competencies developed over the years, Robi aims to provide the best quality service experience in terms of coverage and connectivity to its customers all over Bangladesh. Together with its unique ability to develop local insights, Robi creates distinct services with local flavor to remain close to the hearts of its customers. Objectives of RobiEMPOWERING YOU: Robi is there for people, where they want and in the way they want, in order to help them develop, grow and make the most of their lives through Robi’s services. Vision & Mission of â€Å"Robi† Vision To be a leader as a Telecommunication Service Provider in Bangladesh Mission ROBI aims to achieve its vision through being number ‘one’ not only in terms of market share, but also by being an employer of choice with up-to-date knowledge and products geared to address the ever changing needs of our budding nationLeadership Qualities of a HR Manager of ROBI Inspires a Shared Vision: An effective project leader is often described as having a vision of where to go and the ability to articulate it. Visionaries thrive on change and being able to draw new boundaries. It was once said that a leader is someone who â€Å"lifts us up, gives us a reason for being and gives the vision and spirit to change. † Visionary leaders enable people to feel they have a real stake in the project. They empower people to experience the vision on their own.According to Bennis â€Å"They offer people opportunities to create their own vision, to explore what the vision will mean to their jobs and lives, and to envision their future as part of the vision for the organization. † (Bennis, 1997) A Good Communicator The ability to communicate with people at all levels is almost always named as the second most important skill by project managers and team members. Project lea dership calls for clear communication about goals, responsibility, performance, expectations and feedback. There is a great deal of value placed on openness and directness.The project leader is also the team's link to the larger organization. The leader must have the ability to effectively negotiate and use persuasion when necessary to ensure the success of the team and project. Through effective communication, project leaders support individual and team achievements by creating explicit guidelines for accomplishing results and for the career advancement of team members. Integrity One of the most important things a project leader must remember is that his or her actions, and not words, set the modus operandi for the team. Good leadership demands commitment to, and demonstration of, ethical practices.Creating standards for ethical behavior for oneself and living by these standards, as well as rewarding those who exemplify these practices, are responsibilities of project leaders. Lead ership motivated by self-interest does not serve the well being of the team. Leadership based on integrity represents nothing less than a set of values others share, behavior consistent with values and dedication to honesty with self and team members. In other words the leader â€Å"walks the talk† and in the process earns trust. Enthusiasm Plain and simple, we don't like leaders who are negative – they bring us down.We want leaders with enthusiasm, with a bounce in their step, with a can-do attitude. We want to believe that we are part of an invigorating journey – we want to feel alive. We tend to follow people with a can-do attitude, not those who give us 200 reasons why something can't be done. Enthusiastic leaders are committed to their goals and express this commitment through optimism. Leadership emerges as someone expresses such confident commitment to a project that others want to share his or her optimistic expectations. Enthusiasm is contagious and eff ective leaders know it. Empathy What is the difference between empathy and sympathy?Although the words are similar, they are, in fact, mutually exclusive. According to Norman Paul, in sympathy the subject is principally absorbed in his or her own feelings as they are projected into the object and has little concern for the reality and validity of the object's special experience. Empathy, on the other hand, presupposes the existence of the object as a separate individual, entitled to his or her own feelings, ideas and emotional history (Paul, 1970). As one student so eloquently put it, â€Å"It's nice when a project leader acknowledges that we all have a life outside of work. † CompetenceHaving a winning track record is the surest way to be considered competent. Expertise in leadership skills is another dimension in competence. The ability to challenge, inspire, enable, model and encourage must be demonstrated if leaders are to be seen as capable and competent. Ability to Dele gate Tasks You demonstrate your trust in others through your actions – how much you check and control their work, how much you delegate and how much you allow people to participate. Individuals who are unable to trust other people often fail as leaders and forever remain little more that micro-managers, or end up doing all of the work themselves.As one project management student put it, â€Å"A good leader is a little lazy. † An interesting perspective! Cool Under Pressure When leaders encounter a stressful event, they consider it interesting, they feel they can influence the outcome and they see it as an opportunity. â€Å"Out of the uncertainty and chaos of change, leaders rise up and articulate a new image of the future that pulls the project together. † (Bennis 1997) And remember – never let them see you sweat. Team-Building Skills A team builder can best be defined as a strong person who provides the substance that holds the team together in common p urpose toward the right objective.In order for a team to progress from a group of strangers to a single cohesive unit, the leader must understand the process and dynamics required for this transformation. He or she must also know the appropriate leadership style to use during each stage of team development. The leader must also have an understanding of the different team players styles and how to capitalize on each at the proper time, for the problem at hand. Problem Solving Skills Although an effective leader is said to share problem-solving responsibilities with the team, we expect our project leaders to have excellent problem-solving skills themselves.Leadership Styles Leadership style refers to a leader's behavior. It is the result of the philosophy, personality, and experience of the leader. Rhetoric specialists have also developed models for understanding leadership. The Participative leadership style favors decision-making by the group of ROBI. Such a leader gives instruction s after consulting the group. They can win the cooperation of their group and can motivate them effectively and positively. The decisions of the democratic leader are not unilateral as with the autocrat because they arise from consultation with the group members and participation by them. good reasons why ROBI started embracing and applying Participative Leadership: 1. Participative leadership adds real value to employee contribution in decision making, problem solving, planning and implementation. It focuses on developing them on many levels while landscaping future goals and plans that benefit ROBI. 2. Participative leadership meets strategic needs/goals of companys by supporting individuals to reach their personal development goals. Developing people creates the foundation for sustainable positive change. 3.Participative leadership is transformational as it wakes the inner leaders in people by reaching out to their deepest resources, expertise and natural ability to lead. It remo ves barriers and opens doors. 4. Participative leadership delivers results as it increases productivity and provides a satisfactory ROI . Employees perform loyalfully and is more committed to achieve company's goals and contribute to the long- term picture. 5. Participative leadership is an opportunity for leaders to let go of their parochial perspectives and do what is right to optimize the entire company's capacity, not just their own area.Benefits of Participative Leadership Participative leadership has been implemented in various corporate organizations in a big way. Leaders are seeing the benefits of getting their team members to participate in the decision-making process through discussions and deliberations. Here we see the obvious and some not-so-obvious advantages of participative leadership that is taking business teams to a whole new plane of progress. Everyone Participates The best advantage of the participative leadership model is that everyone in the team gets a chance to participate.Like in a democracy, the team members have their say in the decisions that the team makes as a whole. This fosters a sense of equality within the team and that helps everyone feel important as contributors. New Ideas Are Thrown about Participative leadership helps bring more minds together and hence there are more ideas and suggestions that are generated. Leaders, for whatever they are, are individuals and they may be limited in their capacities of thought. However, when several people belonging to different levels of activity are asked to contribute to the worth of a particular decision, new ideas emerge.Some of these could be practical issues that people at the top levels do not think about. Hence, the decision becomes more practical and implementable and creatively rich. Decisions Become More Result-Oriented Since everyone has put in some or the other effort towards the planning process and everyone has a feeling of importance, it is quite evident that they will w ork towards implementing their own suggestions as well. This is a much better approach at making a team do things-make them suggest those things themselves. It becomes easier for leaders to generate results.Leaders Can Assess the Worth of Their Policies During the participation, leaders can find out whether there are any constraints or impediments that might come in the way of implementation. They also get a feel of the enthusiasm factor, and can assess whether the people in the team are agreeable to the changes they are planning to implement. The level of participation is a direct indicator of the enthusiasm of the team and if the enthusiasm is higher, the plan will be implemented faster and in a more effective way as well. A Progressive ApproachParticipative leadership is gaining wide currency right now because it allows everyone to contribute; it knits together the entire organization through their participation. This is the contemporary approach that leadership recommends and us es, and it has the potential to take organizations towards new levels of success. Future Leadership Discovery When employees participate in the decision-making process, current management has the opportunity to see who is stepping up to the plate and who is coming up with ideas. This is just another tool for management to evaluate employees for promotion.When employees are promoted from within a company, less outsiders are brought in, and the employees are more motivated to do a good job. Many companies with defunct leadership practices often miss opportunities to promote from within. A new leader found within the company will be a valuable cornerstone for teamwork. Motivation All employees feel the need for motivation. Motivation is the key concept for change. People are naturally resistant to change, and leadership needs to find the proper theory to help people make the transition. Communication is the most important facet of motivation. If employees feel out of the loop, hen they are less likely to concentrate on the main goal of the team or organization. With participative leadership, the employee has more information and will stay more active in the change or decision process. Employers must initiate the communication as a show of faith to their employees. Team Spirit Since employees have a position and input in the decision-making process, the sense of involvement is not just felt individually but is felt as a team. If potential negative circumstances are involved in the decision that is to be made, team-centered involvement will allow the leadership to be informed more fully of the pros and the cons.Communication is still important. When the leaders finally make a decision, the team is prepared for it; and with its participation, the stress and resistance to change is diminished. If negative perceptions of the change is noticed, the team can diffuse the situation without leadership becoming involved. Employee Productivity Studies have shown that there i s a correlation between participative leadership and productivity. There is a suggestion that through communication and participative leadership high-quality performance can be obtained.Leadership that practices the participative model have higher ratings as managers than leaders who manipulate their employees. Participative leadership begins a cycle of productive leadership and productive employees. This cycle increases company profitability and allows for internal growth. More promotions are possible and the progress of productivity increases across the company as the team grows. Performance Emotions: Leadership can be perceived as a particularly emotion-laden process, with emotions entwined with the social influence process. In an organization, the leader's mood has some effects on his/her group.These effects can be described in three levels. 1. The mood of individual group members. Group members with leaders in a (say) positive mood experience more positive mood than do group me mbers with leaders in a (say) negative mood. The leaders transmit their moods to other group members through the mechanism of emotional contagion. Mood contagion may be one of the psychological mechanisms by which charismatic leaders influence followers. 2. The affective tone of the group. Group affective tone represents the consistent or homogeneous affective reactions within a group.Group affective tone is an aggregate of the moods of the individual members of the group and refers to mood at the group level of analysis. Groups with leaders in a positive mood have a more positive affective tone than do groups with leaders in a negative mood. 3. Group processes like coordination, effort expenditure, and task strategy. Public expressions of mood impact how group members think and act. When people experience and express mood, they send signals to others. Leaders signal their goals, intentions, and attitudes through their expressions of moods.For example, expressions of positive moods by leaders signal that leaders deem progress toward goals to be good. The group members respond to those signals cognitively and behaviorally in ways that are reflected in the group processes In research about client service, it was found that expressions of positive mood by the leader improve the performance of the group, although in other sectors there were other findings. Environment: Every organization has a particular work environment, which dictates to a considerable degree how its leaders respond to problems and opportunities.This is brought about by its heritage of past leaders and its present leaders. Goals, Values, and Concepts Leaders exert influence on the environment via three types of actions: 1. The goals and performance standards they establish. 2. The values they establish for the organization. 3. The business and people concepts they establish. Successful organizations have leaders who set high standards and goals across the entire spectrum, such as strategies, mar ket leadership, plans, meetings and presentations, productivity, quality, and reliability.Values reflect the concern the organization has for its employees, customers, investors, vendors, and surrounding community. These values define the manner in how business will be conducted. Concepts define what products or services the organization will offer and the methods and processes for conducting business. These goals, values, and concepts make up the organization's personality or how the organization is observed by both outsiders and insiders. This personality defines the roles, relationships, rewards, and rites that take place. Leadership & Human Behavior:As a leader, we need to interact with our followers, peers, seniors, and others; whose support we need in order to accomplish our goals. To gain their support, we must be able to understand and motivate them. To understand and motivate people, we must know human nature. Human nature is the common qualities of all human beings. People behave according to certain principles of human nature. Human needs are an important part of human nature. Values, beliefs, and customs differ from country to country and even within group to group, but in general, all people have a few basic needs.As a leader we must understand these needs because they can be powerful motivators and helps to improve our performance. Analysis of the Leadership style/ Findings: Integrity: It is the integration of outward actions and inner values. A person of integrity is the same on the outside and on the inside. Such an individual can be trusted because he or she never veers from inner values, even when it might be expeditious to do so. A leader must have the trust of followers and therefore must display integrity. Honest dealings, predictable reactions, well-controlled emotions, and an absence of tantrums and harsh outbursts are all signs of integrity.A leader who is centered in integrity will be more approachable by followers. Dedication: It mean s spending whatever time or energy is necessary to accomplish the task at hand. A leader inspires dedication by example, doing whatever it takes to complete the next step toward the vision. By setting an excellent example, leaders can show followers that there are no nine-to-five jobs on the team, only opportunities to achieve something great. Magnanimity: It means giving credit where it is due. A magnanimous leader ensures that credit for successes is spread as widely as possible throughout the company.Conversely, a good leader takes personal responsibility for failures. This sort of reverse magnanimity helps other people feel good about them and draws the team closer together. To spread the fame and take the blame is a hallmark of effective leadership. Leaders with humility recognize that they are no better or worse than other members of the team. A humble leader is not self-effacing but rather tries to elevate everyone. Leaders with humility also understand that their status does not make them a god. Mahatma Gandhi is a role model for Indian leaders, and he pursued a â€Å"follower-centric† leadership role.Openness: Openness means being able to listen to new ideas, even if they do not conform to the usual way of thinking. Good leaders are able to suspend judgment while listening to others’ ideas, as well as accept new ways of doing things that someone else thought of. Openness builds mutual respect and trust between leaders and followers, and it also keeps the team well supplied with new ideas that can further its vision. Creativity: It is the ability to think differently, to get outside of the box that constrains solutions.Creativity gives leaders the ability to see things that others have not seen and thus lead followers in new directions. The most important question that a leader can ask is, â€Å"What if †¦ ? † Possibly the worst thing a leader can say is, â€Å"I know this is a dumb question †¦ † Fairness: It means dealing with others consistently and justly. A leader must check all the facts and hear everyone out before passing judgment. He or she must avoid leaping to conclusions based on incomplete evidence. When people feel they that are being treated fairly, they reward a leader with loyalty and dedication.Assertiveness: It is not the same as aggressiveness. Rather, it is the ability to clearly state what one expects so that there will be no misunderstandings. A leader must be assertive to get the desired results. Along with assertiveness comes the responsibility to clearly understand what followers expect from their leader. Many leaders have difficulty striking the right amount of assertiveness, according to a study in the February 2007 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the APA (American Psychological Association).It seems that being under assertive or overassertive may be the most common weakness among aspiring leaders. Sense of humor: It is vital to relieve tension and boredom, as well as to defuse hostility. Effective leaders know how to use humor to energize followers. Humor is a form of power that provides some control over the work environment. And simply put, humor fosters good camaraderie. Intrinsic traits such as intelligence, good looks, height and so on are not necessary to become a leader. Anyone can cultivate the proper leadership traits. Process of great Leadership/SuggestionsTo help us be, know, and do, follow these principles of leadership. This Leadership guide expand on these principles and provide tools for implementing them: †¢ Know ourself and seek self-improvement – In order to know ourselves, we have to understand our be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-improvement means continually strengthening our attributes. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.†¢ Be technically proficient – As a leader, we must know our jo b and have a solid familiarity with our employees' tasks. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for our actions – Search for ways to guide our organization to new heights. And when things go wrong, they always do sooner or later — do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge. †¢ Make sound and timely decisions – Use good problem solving, decision making, and planning tools.†¢ Set the example – Be a good role model for our employees. They must not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. We must become the change we want to see – Mahatma Gandhi. Know our people and look out for their well-being – Know human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for our workers. †¢ Keep our workers informed – Know how to communicate with not only them, but also seniors and other key people. †¢ Develop a sense of responsibility in our workers – Help to develop good character traits that will help them carry out their professional responsibilities.†¢ Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished – Communication is the key to this responsibility. †¢ Train as a team – Although many so called leaders call their organization, department, section, etc. team; they are not really teams†¦ they are just a group of people doing their jobs. †¢ Use the full capabilities of your organization – By developing a team spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities. Conclusion From the above discussion we can easily understand that Axiata (Bangladesh) Ltd. (ROBI) is one of the top mobile Company of Bangladesh. It covers the whole Bangladesh by its network. There are many product and services of ROBI is available in Market. At this moment the company is in growing position.But the strategies of the company will make the compa ny â€Å"number one† mobile company of Bangladesh. So we can easily find out the Participative leadership style of ROBI is a very developed and effective one. As a multinational company for making the process more effective ROBI should analyze the recruitment and selection process of other multinational company of home and abroad. That can make ROBI perfect in recruiting people and the company will get efficient professionals, that will increased the productivity as well as revenue.