The Last Storyteller Essay Example for Free

The Last Storyteller Essay Before the Europeans colonized America different tribes of Native Americas appointed storytellers to keep the tribes history alive. In â€Å"This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona†, by Sherman Alexie an odd boy named Thomas Builds-the-Fire holds the title of storyteller. This short story is about a journey Thomas takes with his old friend Victor to claim Victor’s father’s ashes from Phoenix, Arizona and bring them back to their reservation in Spokane. The story ultimately portrays the strain between Victors and Thomas’s friendship. Alexie uses Thomas and his friendship with Victor to show that not everyone conforms to what we call the social norms. Thomas Builds-the-Fire is different from the other boys from his reservation. In the opening scene Victor is standing in line at the trading post. He has a hundred dollar check in hand to cover travel expenses to find his father when he notices Thomas at a magazine rack. When Thomas approaches Victor and they start a conversation about his father. All the Indians at the trading post are surprised Victor is actually talking with him. In â€Å"This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona† perspective is shown by â€Å"All the other Indians stared, surprised that Victor was even talking to Thomas. Nobody talked to Thomas anymore because he told the same damn stories over and over again† (Alexie 171). This is when we first find out that Thomas is not accepted by his by his own people and is considered an outsider. Thomas is not taken seriously and is not listened too because he enjoys recounting story’s of his tribes past. Thomas makes a proposition to Victor agreeing to help with expenses for his journey to reclaim his father’s ashes if he is allowed to come. Victor reluctantly agrees to Thomas’s terms. The boys sat next to each other on the flight along with a tiny white woman who had the window seat. Thomas begins a conversation with the woman despite Victor’s embarrassment. In â€Å"This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona† character is shown by â€Å"â€Å"Excuse me, miss,† Thomas asked. â€Å"Are you a gymnast or something†Ã¢â‚¬  (Alexie 173)? Thomas is out spoken and is not afraid of being embarrassed unlike Victor who is sitting quietly hoping Thomas will stop. Victor eventually chimes in at the end but it is Thomas’s outspokenness that started the conversation. In this scene not only does the author show that Thomas is different but that the gymnast is unusual as well. In â€Å"This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona† charact er is shown by â€Å"She was busy twisting her body into pretzels. She was flexible† (Alexie 173). Most people on an airplane would find it a bit uncomfortable to be sitting next to someone contorting their body! Once Thomas and Victor had reclaimed Victor’s dad’s ashes they drove to the bank and retrieved the three hundred-dollars from his fathers account. While on the road back to there hometown Spokane Victor recounts the story of when Thomas flew. In â€Å"This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona† perspective is shown when â€Å"Once, he jumped off the roof of the tribal school and flapped his arms like a crazy eagle. And he flew. For a second he hovered, suspended above all the other Indian boys, who were too smart or to scared to jump too† (Alexie 175). Thomas fell and broke his arm in two places, but Thomas did what no other boy would do, even though they all wished too. This is not something many people would do but the author uses this to show that Thomas is not swayed by other people’s opinions. While the boys drive through Nevada the landscape is described. In â€Å"This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona† setting is shown when â€Å"Thomas and Victor had been amazed at the lack of animal life, at the absence of water, of movement† (Alexie 176). The setting of Nevada is desolate and baron of life. There are rarely any animals that are seen during the day. Since Nevada is one big desert most of the animals are nocturnal they come out after the sun has set and the oppressive heat has resided. The symbol of the Nevada desert is used to describe the feeling of being alone. The setting is used to show the feeling of being alone and how both boys are experiencing it. Alexia succeeds in portraying a message about not conforming to social norms in her short story â€Å"This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona†. Through out the story Thomas shows that he is different and that he isn’t going to change for anybody. Thomas despite being faced with many hardships, judgments, torments and even being beat up never faltered in his beliefs. Being different and not conforming the social norms is not an easy thing for people to do and this is what Alexia was trying to portray.

Employee Resistance to Organizational Change

Employee Resistance to Organizational Change Methodology/Approach The research for this study was conducted by using secondary research and primary research. The secondary research reviewed current literatures on the natural, symptoms and reasons of employees resistance to organizational change, followed by the factors affect employees resistance. The main focus of the factors reviewed on employee personal factors consists of age, gender, personality (locus of control) and educational level. The primary research was deployed though distribution of questionnaires to employees from the agribusiness organization. Findings   All of four factors including age, gender, personality and educational background shaped individual difference on the value, perception, adaptability towards organizational change. Research Limitations As the research is carried out though a big agribusiness organization which has been and are undertaking change plans, the research result may deviate due to sample size, respondents bias, past organizational change experience as well as the choice of questions. Implications The research urge the improved understanding and identification of factors effect employee resistance to change, and underlies the importance of managing workforce diversity in an organization. The research suggested management to develop a framework and theorize on how to create a climate, educate, persuade, communicate and reward employees to alter their fundamental mental psychology resistance, aim to direct and motivate them initially involve and commit to organizational change. An exploratory study on the factors of resistance to change from employees perspective Chapter 1- Introduction Change comes from anywhere, and is the only constant. Propelled by the driving force of technology and globalization, the economic landscape continuously transform in a way that has come to undermine the relevance of received wisdom on how a firm should be managed and what underlies its success (Gregory Prastacos, et al., 2002). In this new millennium, it is more challenging for an organization to sustain its competency or even survive in the diversity market. When an organization is threatened by environmental changes such as crisis or competition, it results in the increasing needs for communication as technology develops rapidly and higher customer demands will be foreseen. Organizational change is not an option; it constitutes a fundamental necessity for success within the new competitive landscape (Hamel and Prahalad, 1996). An organization need to evaluate its performance and review its business strategies, corporate structure, operational process and HR policies to identify th e areas that need transformation. To maintain its competitive advantages,  an organization must make effort to implement changes accordingly. Usually changes to be made in an organization is for the seeking of extending the ability of the organization to achieve the strategic goals but sometime changes do not necessarily contribute to the improvement of the organization (Stroh, 2001). The expected result of the change might vary due to other unexpected factors, such as resistance to change. Resistance is a phenomenon that affects the change process, delaying or slowing down its beginning, obstructing or hindering its implementation, and increasing its costs (Ansoff, 1990). Effect of resistance of changes in organization will cause distorted perception, interpretation barriers and vague strategic priorities, low motivation among the people and lack of creative response (Val, 2003). It is crucial for change initiators to deal with resistance for a successful change. Forasmuch as employees are the one who get the job done, and possess the knowledge, skills, tools and experiences, it is clear that organizational changes cannot be achieved without employees support and involvement. Employee acceptance and commitment are the key factors for successful changes. Effective change management should recognize the importance of its employees and the way to minimize the resistant from employees. Therefore, understand why it is caused, the forms of resistance and the factors determine employees reactions to change is significant. 1.1 Research Objective This research will study on the factors of resistance to change from employees prospective. The aim of this research is to review the factors by better understanding these which a shift in perception could occur, the paper hope to develop a framework to managers of how certain group of employees is the likely to react and behave to change that being unleashed by the value and perception, this knowledge will enable change initiators to design change plan and training programs which recognize the values of employees, and to interact with diverse others in order to optimize the expected change affect. The research attempt to explore the followings areas as a systematic way to rationalize the value of this project study: To identify the natural of employee resistance to change. To identify the symptoms of employee resistance to change. To identify the reasons of employee resistance to change To determine the various factors to effect employees resistance to changes. To evaluate the effect of these factors on organizations future development. 1.2 Chapter Summary Chapter 1 of Introduction has provided a background of the circumstances that force organization to change, and examined the inevitable resistance can undermined organizational change. By identifying the importance of employee in the organizational change, research objectives were generated to study on the resistance of change from employees perspectives and listed done the areas of the study to be explored on. The research was planned in a systematic way to rationalize the value of this project. Next chapter of this project will touch on a review of current literatures on the natural, symptoms and the reasons of employee resistance to change and factors affect employee resistance, followed by the research methodology, samples and limitation of the research. The subsequent chapter will be the questionnaire data analysis presentation and lastly the paper will conclude the findings and its implications for change initiators. The aim of this research is to review the factors that affect employee resistance and evaluate it thought the target samples. Chapter 2- Literature Review 2.1 Employee Resistance to Change 2.1.1 The nature Organizations can be confronted with incremental changes that focus on doing things better through a process of continuous tinkering, adaptation and modification or transformational changes that are regarded as revolutionary and break with the past.(John Hayes, 2010) Although the incremental changes rarely presented any abrupt challenges to the assumptions people make about how they related to the world (John Hayes, 2010), this is not always that case. People are not duplicate, the values, beliefs, assumption and knowledge of that person will be developed over the time, formed as a set of personal opinion, perceptions, views of the world to guide their behaviors (Hallie Preskill and Rosalie Torres, 1999). It is concerned with whether employees regards view change can bring present or future personal benefit and opportunities or change is a threat to their job, skills or any other interests. The implementation of changes inevitably involves the vital interests of various shareholders, and especially employees.Resistance occurs since most employees desire to be successful in their work environments due to they have basic needs which must be satisfied. To begin with, employees want to know their role and their responsibilities within the organization. In additional, employees want to be able to predict what they will face in the future (Appelbaum, S.H. et al, 1998). Even though old procedures that were initially regarded as cumbersome, costly or ineffective, after a prolonged recursive execution, employees become comfortable and are used to the ways things were done. Employee might fear in a changing organization, therefore change are frequently be seen as a threat to ones existence within an organization if upgrading or acquiring new skills are a problem because of time constraints , or the inability of the person to learn these new techniques. Change within an organizational setting usually poses several problems and challenged by the pressure in aspect of money , ego, and power for those who resist it. Employees resist change because the associated negative feelings since their basic needs may now be threatened (Mealiea, 1978). Thus it is human nature that employees look at Change negatively, resistance thereby coming into play. 2.1.2 The symptoms Resistance, described by Kilian M. Bennebroek Gravenhorst (2003) is commonly considered to be standard or even natural in reaction to organizational change. It is described as an most inevitable psychological and organizational response that seems to apply to any kind of change, ranging from rather modest improvement to far-reaching change and organizational transformation. Symptoms are the specific behaviors exhibited when employee resistance to change (Albert F. Bolognese, 2002) According to Bhutan (1995), it is important to distinguish between the symptoms of resistance to change and the causes behind them. Symptoms can be reflected in varies of forms, which Marc Maltz (2008) categorized it into the two varieties: overt and covert. Overt resistance is concern with obvious opposition, disagreement, arguing, debating, etc., to any change effort. While, covert resistance comes in two forms: one is conscious covert which employees are concerned about the consequences of their actions that they apparently agreed but actually not following though or withhold information and avoid implementation. Secondly is the unconscious covert resistance, which is the most difficult to see symptoms among employees as employees are unaware their resistance. 2.1.3 The Reasons There are many causes attribute to employees resistance to change, such as Coch French (1948), studied the workers of a clothing manufacturer and find that lower employee participitation causing the mistrust of management and increase their resistance to change. Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) identify four common reasons why people resist organizational change: people focus on their own interest and fear of losing something of value, it can be power and status, autonomy and control, or specific skills; Misunderstanding the change will cost them more than they will gain and lack of trust to the person who initiating change; Different assessment of the necessity and benefit of change situations; Low tolerance for change, sometimes people just resist to change emotionally even they understand the need for change. Several studies have acknowledged what Kotter and Schlesingers publication and enhance these categories with further researches, according to Prosci- A business process reengin eering directory and resource companys study (2003) in past six years in 288 organizations from 51 countries, result shows the top reasons employee resist to change is because of corporate history and culture, which the organizations past performance of change project failed or did not make much sense, employees are less interested to take initiatives to support the current change, they are not in the flavor the month , thus employee expected it go away like what happened in the past. Lorenzo (2000) also acknowledge that one attribute to employees resistance is that past failures leaves negative image for future changes. Another reason added on in Prosci (2003)s research is that employee often opposes to change because of the added job responsibilities, new processes or technologies. Changes with lower motivation to get employees involved and less consideration of employees interest and their emotional and perceptual perspectives thereby eliminate their initiatives and level of comm itment. Pardo Del Val, Manuela and Martinez Fuentes, Clara (2005) conclude above sources to employees resistance are most likely happen in change formulation stage, they further identify some reason rise resistance that consist of: (a) organizational values in relation to change values that cause a strong implementation climate to determine whether employee to accept or oppose to change; (b) departmental politics that form employees resistance. 2.2 Factors affect employees resistance to change Literatures have identified variety of factors affect employee resistance to change, the most cited views of the factors fall on the organizational level, for instance the communication process, employee participation, change facilitation procedures in change process (Ricky Griffin ,2008) to improve organizational effectiveness. Moreover, employee motivation (David Clarence and McClelland, 1987) and quality of leadership (Ken W. Parry, 1999) have been widely acknowledged to have influence on employees work initiatives, involvement and commitment, so that it can argues to be a significant factor to affect employees willingness to change. Above factors virtually are the ways to deal with the subtext of organizational humanity on the stage of change process. However, one must understand the root factors played to affect employees perception towards organizational change. Fail to understand the intrinsic factors govern employees values and beliefs guided behavior in the context of the way they were doing and expected in the future, and all the necessities organization attempt or should to do to implement and facilitate change is crucial. Therefore, the research will mainly explore on the personal factors played to affect employee resistance to change including age, gender, personality traits (Locus of control) and employee educational level as follows: 2.2.1 Age Baby Boomers refer to people who are born between 1945-1964. This generation grew up in an era of unprecedented economic growth and stability, so as to be regarded as a generation that finds comfort with long term employment with one organization. This has provided them with a false sense of stability (Loomis, 2000).Their perceived working values emphasize on chain of command, teamwork, technically challenged, team work and loyal to employer As they born after War II, which they entered the economic boom era, Money and job security such as life time employment are definitely extremely important for them to sustain their living. In this regard, it is argued that Baby Boomers are easier to accept organizational change as their working value of chain of command which they tend to commit to the hierarchical order. Moreover, the inception of organization loyalty also attributes them to be more committed rather than resistant or any other negative reactions. (Hui-Chun, Yu and Peter Miller, 2003) Another neuropsychological research held by (Stanford University professor Laura L. Carstensen et al. 2000) on the relationship between age and emotional experiences found that the periods of highly positive emotional experience were more likely to endure among older people and periods of highly negative emotional experience were less stable. With age, older adults report relatively low levels of worrying (Sandra Hunt, Patricia Wisocki and Julianne Yanko, 2003), experience less anger (Schieman,1999), and have lower levels of emotional distress after natural disasters (Bolin Klenow, 1982-1983). The implication of these findings are older employees have better capability to regulate their negative emotions with organizational change and adjust themselves to adapt the environment.Employees adaptability has been seen a key attribute to a successful organizational change (Heslin , 2005). Compared with Baby Boomers, Generation X refers to those people who were born between 1965 to 1980. This generation of employee tend to more independent, self-motivated and self-sufficient (Loomis, 2000). This is because most X generations did not have enough of their family attention as children because their parent may have been single or working parents. X generations therefore became adaptive at handling things on their own and in their own ways. Their work value is perceived more on personal satisfaction, and their attitudes towards work are focus on flexibility empowerment, loyal to skills. (Hui-Chun, Yu and Peter Miller, 2003). Hence, when the change conflict with their own interest such as against what they used to do , their skills, or leave less empowerment to them, they will feel unmotivated towards to commit to the change. However, David J. OConnell, Eileen McNeely and Douglas (2004) argue that since Xers entered the workforce under the employment of deal, in which career planning and development are largely individual responsibilities and where the average worker can expect to make several changes during their working lives. In this regards, it seems like Xers are more adaptive to change. However, there are also many scholars debate the relationship between the age and the personal adaptability to change, such as Mirvis and Hall, 1996. Recent research held by OConell, McNeely and Hall, 2008 also support this assertion, reporting that age is limited measured as a categorical variable namely the characteristics about an individual . 2.2.2 Gender Although many literatures have acknowledged the impact of gender difference on the management practice, there had been little systematic attention focus on identifying the gender roles on effective change management relatively. Feminist perspectives have tended to highlight not only the impact of organizational change on womens relatively marginalized position but also the role of women in the change management (Melissa Tyler, 2005). Jamie L, Michael G and Homer Tolson (2005) research findings suggest that there is a difference between male and female executive of their emotional expressiveness, and women are regarded to process better skill at encoding and decoding emotions (Laura K. Guerrero and Kory Floyd, 2008). Emotions are intensive feelings that are directed at someone or something (Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, 2010). Goleman-the founder of emotional intelligence theory also mentioned that women are good at reading others feelings than men averagely in his book pub lished in 1995. The skills to encode and decode emotions generally have advantage to develop and maintain relationships (Laura K. Guerrero and Kory Floyd, 2008), because skilled encoders have ability to express their internal emotional state so that other people can decode their emotions more easily and accurately (Burgoon and Bacue, 2003). In this regard, the chances such as misunderstanding and conflict due to implicit or unclear message delivered or received prone to be decreased, the communication becomes more easily and effective. In many literatures, communication has been widely acknowledged as a useful approach to eliminate resistance to change. Therefore, women are deems to be more successfully engaged in change circumstances. Maddock (1999) added that Women focus on relational aspect of how to do things,  while men tend to be expected to think what to do. It appears that women are emotionally discreet on how they are going to process the information, express and interpret their view points to react to change before making any decision. Combined with womens secondary position in labor market due to gender discrimination, especially in Confucian countries, in addition to their greater responsibilities in family and child care than men, which cause women are relatively powerless to challenge the situation (Melissa Tyler, 2005). Hence Melissa argues that women in change management appear to be positioned as performing an interpersonal function associated with safety; providing security in times of unexpected turbulence and anticipating. On the basis of these arguments, it seems that women tend to avoid conflict in working in this regard and to accept the change accordingly. 2.2.3 Personality Traits (Locus of Control) Some people are quiet and reserved, while others are aggressive and outgoing. Some people are trustworthy, some are not. People differ with each other in various dimensions as a result of different behavior and attitude towards things in personal life and working. The individuals differences are shaped by personalities (Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, 2010) Personality refers to the traits and characteristics that make individuals unique (Greenberg and Baron, 2002). The most frequent used definition of personality was produced by Gordon Allport nearly 70 years ago which he commented that personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment. Personality thus becomes an important reason mangers need to know to generate a view of employees likely behaviors and examine their coping reaction. Meselaar and Cozijnsen (1997) further highlighted the personality is a determinate of individ ual reaction to organizational change. Locus of control refers to the degree people believe their own behaviours determine what happens to them. People believes they have more control over their destiny are referred as internal, and people who believe they have less control over their life and the results are attributing to the will of God, or to the fortune of being born in the right social class or family are referred as external. At this point, it is suggested that people behave differently towards change. Wilson (1992) developed an approach referred as determinism to study change management portrays the manager and other organizational members as pawns affected by change rather than as agents who can initiate and secure change. Their ability to influence is limited because of the main determinates lie outside the organization. John Hayes (2010) argues that those who are overcommitted deterministic view of change may be inclined to believe that the locus of control is external to themselves and the organization and may therefore develop view that there is little they can do to influence events. Hence, people who think this way is less likely to attempt to adopt a proactive approach to the management of change than those who have more internal view about locus of control. 2.2.4 Educational Level Although there were not many literatures specifically emphasize the employees educational level to their resistance to organizational change, it is widely acknowledged (e.g.: George H. McCall, Karl E. Ristow and Daniel J. Cimini, 2004) that higher education improves employees personal management, time management, communication skills and problem solving skills. Higher education defined by Roberg (1987) refers to the instruction that was obtained at university or colleague. According to Thomas Kent Gaylor (2001)s research on 286 police officer from two North Texas Police department in 2001, result shows no significance relationship between the educational level and employees openness to change. However the limitation of his research was lack of variation in respondents education level. Nevertheless, the author believe that higher education of employees will be more likely to support and commit organization change with more positive thinking of why the change is needed, hence the resea rch intend to do further evaluation with different samples on the relationship of educational level to employee resistance to change since it is a logic factor that higher education equipped with employees more knowledge and broader thinking and believe, which reduce the tendency to be dogmatic and to be more creative. 2.3 Chapter Summary Chapter 2 of Literature Review has explored on the current literatures on employee resistance to change in terms of the natural, symptoms and reasons. The inevitable resistances from employee impulse the research to further find out the factors that affect employee resistance to change. The research noted many factors including communication process, employee participations, change facilitation process, employee motivation and quality of leadership, and lastly mainly reviewed the personal factors played consist of age, gender, personality traits (locus of control) and employee educational level influence various aspects from values and beliefs and emotions as a result of different behavior and levels of adaptability reacted to change After exposit the literature review of factors affect employees resistance to change, the paper will tackle the main objectives of this research. Starting with the description of research methodology, samples and limitation of the research, then paper will touch on the analysis part of the questionnaire, to examine the reflected results against with the literatures reviewed earlier on, so as to evaluate its universality of the factors in the sampling organization. Chapter 3- Research Methodology 3.1 Secondary Research The research was carried out at the beginning though a secondary research to review the current literatures on the areas of the study, which contains of the nature, symptoms and the reasons of employee resistance to change and the factors affect employee resistance to change from a more intrinsic view by looking at employee personal factors. The factors focus on the employees adaptability to change determined by age and gender, one dimension of personality traits -locus of control, and employee educational level. The information is collected from textbooks, journals and articles from reliable and creditable online Journal Publications, National Library and Campus Library. 3.2 Primary Research In order to evaluate the factors been presented in literature review, the research will primarily employ questionnaires as the main methodologies for information gathering. The questionnaire will be carried out with various employees working in a large organization. The methods allow directly and original information to be gathered from participants. Questionnaire results are to be consolidated, and will be analyzed using various questionnaire analyze techniques, to interpret the data. The main reason of using questionnaire and interview is because data is collected directly from specific target respondents. Interviewers have the ability to ask extra intensive questions of the respondent concerning survey responses. 3.2.1 Research Samples The research was conducted using data collected from a large size agribusiness organization located in Singapore, mainly doing palm oil plantation and trading. The reason of choosing this organization is because it is currently undergoing turbulence and change on merger with one small size palm oil trading company and one ship chartering company. And it also has experienced many merger and change in the past. Therefore the target samples of the questionnaire participants in the organization must have many varies views on organizational change to enable the research generate more practical reflections from employees perspective on organizational change and change effect on them, aims to evaluate the universality application of all those factors on employee resistance to change presented in literature on the target sampling. The questionnaire attempt to invite 150 employees in this organization from four departments who are affected by the merger plan, respectively 25 employee from IT department, 35 employees from logistic department, 25 employee from finance department and 65 employees from operation department. 3.2.2 Limitation of This Research During the research, data collected could be deviated due to limitation in the research methodology as follows: Data may not represent the entire population due to the limitation of sampling size As the four department employees may experience different kinds of minor changes in their department respectively, whether the change offend their interest or not might bring subjective bias towards their response to the questionnaire, hence the accuracy of data collected will be deviated. Respondent who experience the past organizational change may bring different perceptions towards new change. The choice of the question may limited respondents response. 3.3 Chapter Summary Chapter 3 presented the methodology of this research which employed on secondary research to review the current literatures on the area of the study, and also the primary research using questionnaires to collect data. Research Samples chosen was a large agribusiness organization who is experiencing turbulence and undergoing merger and work structural change. The limitations of the research were also discussed including the sample size, respondents bias, past organizational change experience as well as the choice of questions may also affect the accuracy of the survey result. Next chapter will touch on the research result analysis and discussion. Chapter 4- Result Analysis and Discussion The questionnaires were distributed to 150 employees in IT, Logistic, Finance and Operation department respectively as planned in Chapter 3, the responding rate is about 76%, namely 114 employees attend the questionnaire. Following are the result of each factors being tested. 4.1 Age The research finding on age factors shows that respondents in different age group perceived change differently and appears with different level of resistance. The result shows that in the age group of 20 to 65+, employees are more resistant to change as they age; an interesting finding is that for employees aged below 20, whom were surprisingly scored higher marks on resistance. Figure 4.1.2 shows details of scores on resistance in each age group. This is in contrary with literatures presented earlier on which Laura L. Carstensen et al. (2000) found that the periods of highly positive emotional experience were more likely to endure among older people. While elder people emphasize working value on the obedience of chain of command and organizational loyalty to commit the work instead of resisting and challenging hierarchical order (Hui-Chun, Yu and Peter Miller, 2003). All the earlier findings demonstrated elder people are more adaptable and emotional stable to organization change, yet this research findings reflect an even more complicated relationship between age and resistance level. The possible causes lead to this result might because when younger people firstly enter the workforce with no experience and lower educational background, they are uncertain about their skills and abilities. They may behave self-concerned and less flexible dealing with working matters, and not mature enough to regulate their emotions as they are undergoing a transition from childhood to adult, school life to working life with increased responsibilities, time is needed to help them accept such big changes and adapt themselves in the new environment. As they age and become more mature, they seek for competence, career movement and relationship, they are more flexible and motivated to change themselves in the organization to achieve their objectives. As time goes on, they feel tired and queried about what supposed to be. They are loyalty to their skills and fear losing it in the future. Stability, job security and sense of seniority may become the main values after they age 46. Hence th ey might act more resisting to change as demonstrated in below figure. Super (1980)s Life Stage Theory displayed some common characteristics against to the above analysis and assumptions, which the author would like to research further. 4.2 Gender Out of total 114 respondents, 78 are women, and 36 are men, most of men respond strongly agree that organizational change is necessary and beneficial, and express t

Greek History Class and Status

Greek History Class and Status Are there any special insights to be had from analysing Greek history in terms of either class or status? Greek history cannot be viewed as complete without analysing the class structure and status, as most of the historical evidence we have acquired from the classical period have come from inscriptions and sculptures made by one particular class of people, who had a high status in society. Thusly it is not necessarily about gaining special insights as it is gaining as complete an insight into Greek Ancient history as possible, though special insights will inevitably present themselves. This side of Greek history has only been focused on since these issues have come to the fore in modern times what with Marxism and communism rising in the 20th Century; these issues of class and status come under classical scrutiny because it is inevitable that they were as relevant then as they are now because human nature does not change and you will see clear comparisons. Only men native to a particular city-state who were free and owned land were entitled to the full protection of the law in a city-state and be considered citizens. The Athenian social structure consisted of the population being divided up into four classes based on wealth. This differs from Sparta where all male citizens who finished their education were considered equal. So it is clear that insights can be gained from analysing Greek history because both class and status are issues that classical historians must understand in order to have as complete as possible outlook on Greek history. People who were not part of the free land owning citizens were known as metics. Foreigners who moved into the city were part of this group, so too were slaves who had been freed. It can certainly be argued that this is exploitation of and looking down on certain groups of people showing us a special insight into how the different classes saw each other and the status each acquired. This insight could not be attained without analysing the class or status. Because they did not have the technology we have today in antiquity, G. E. M. de Ste. Croix argues in his book The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World that the dominant wealthy classes continued to dominate by demanding a lot more than was actually necessary from the lower classes. Such things as slavery, serfs, debt bondsmen and many other methods were employed to stop the lower classes from rebelling by keeping them busy. This is backed up by people such as Aristotle, who wrote in his Politics that men (meaning citizens of the state) were rational animals but slaves and women were not capable of reason. He called slaves animate tools whose only use was to obey the commands of the rich masters. In his Politics work he writes, But among barbarians no distinction is made between women and slaves, because there is no natural ruler among them: they are a community of slaves, male and female. Wherefore the poets say, It is meet that Hellenes should rule over barbarians; as if they thought that the barbarian and the slave were by nature one. This gives us some clear insight into the mindset of the citizens of Greek city states. There is a common misconception amongst people that Greece was a unified nation that thought as one. But, I have already displayed a difference between two different cities in Greece and their social structures were quite different and these differences do offer us special insights. Greece was not one nation operating under the same thinking, but it contained many different identities, it is both a Mediterranean and a Balkan country. In fact, an official Greek state did not come into being until Rome united it as one. There were hundreds of different states across the area which contained the people who became known as the Greeks. Loyalty was held to their own city states, rather than Greece as a whole. We can also gain some insight into daily life when analysing Greek history in terms of class or status. Most of the population were forced to work on the soil by those that were free citizens who were a small number of wealthy landowners and owned a lot of land. The slaves would work on the wealthy landowners land, there was little alternative to this. So they were viewed as mere tools, as the aforementioned quote from Aristotle shows, describing them as animate tools as if they were modern day tractors or any other tool that makes agriculture easier, for the wealthy landowner at least. There is also another area of study, apart from the relationship between the wealthy landowning citizens and the metics and slaves which is about how business in general was conducted in Ancient Greece that is opened to us once we study Ancient Greece from the perspective of status and class. Paul Millet suggests that patronage has had so little written about it that one might think it did not even exist in the Ancient Greek World. However, it must be said, with what little evidence we have; Sparta is the city-state we have the most evidence for patronage, but below this is Athens. Athens was viewed as the most advanced democracy of the time, and the aforementioned Aristotle also viewed it as such, despite its inequalities. This quote from Aristotles Politics is relevant here as, remembering his previously quoted view on barbarians, here he is talking about the citizens of the perfect democracy, which does not include slaves, women, metics and others: Democracy arose from the idea that those who are equal in any respect are equal absolutely. All are alike free, therefore they claim that they are all equal absolutely. Athens has always been said to have been the first true democracy by mainstream classical historians, special insight can be gained here from studying Ancient Greek history from a class and status perspective to denounce that myth. Though all members of the citizenship of Athens could vote at the assembly, the vast majority of the people who actually lived in Athens, like the metics, women, slaves and others could not vote or have any say in political life. Comparisons can be drawn to today here as, before Solons reforms slavery was given as a punishment for debt. This is comparable to today and offer special insight because today personal debt is at an all time high, particularly in America and Britain and if the debt becomes too high the banks send bailiffs to seize your property and your home effectively removing you from the citizenship and making you a metic. Using the Marxist ideology adopted by de Ste Croix in his aforementioned book, more comparisons can be drawn to today as a small minority of the people still maintain all the wealth. The means of production concept is also as relevant then as it is now and the owners of the means of production, the bourgeoisie still control it thus forcing the common man or the proletariat into working in order to survive. This in effect is slavery as they have no other choice but to work and feed the means of production to keep the wheels of democracy and capitalism turning. Analysing the status of women also offers special insights into Greek History that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by the male dominated classical period. The role of the female in Ancient Greece was one of purely being a housekeeper and a mother to any children she may have. As I have said, there was no way for them to get involved in political life. Plays like Aristophanes Lysistrata shows that the very idea of women being in power was considered completely ludicrous and was only relevant when they wanted to make a joke. Like slaves, women could hold no possessions as they belonged to her father and then once she is married to her husband. Their primary function of looking after the home included the use of many slaves, sorting out finances, spinning, bread making and of course weaving which is the epitomy of the feminine thing to do as in evidence from Homers The Odyssey. They lived and ate in separate quarters from the men, nor could they go out in public on their own. Spartan women had it better as they were allowed to take part in athletic competitions and generally had more freedoms. Comparisons can be drawn here with modern times also as in the Islamic faith women are encouraged not to be seen in public and in the Christian faith women have always been vilified. This is clearly special insight being drawn from Greeces Ancient history as studying the status or class both offer the opportunity to compare social issues from ancient times to today, as they are clearly still relevant. We can also gain insight from this because Athens direct democracy may not have worked if it werent for its usage of such strict requirements to be allowed to participate. This creates insightful debate over this very reasoning meaning that it was not a democracy per se, but rather a democracy for the few where only a small section of society could participate and be elected. Comparisons can also be drawn to today with the long Bush-Clinton dynasty heading towards their fourth straight president, who comes from the same elite wealthy section of society. But the only difference is that the debt slaves of modern times actually choose not to participate instead of being forced not to as was the case in Ancient Athens. A more obvious comparison to modern times and what we can learn from the Ancient Greeks is the modern examples of literal slavery as opposed to the economic enslavement I have spoken of. Slaves in near modern times are quite comparible to those of Ancient times and thus offer an interesting insight into Greek history and what we can learn from it in terms of their mistakes, before slavery was abolished in 1863 in America many people were taken from Africa and elsewhere to America to work as slaves. This is quite reminiscent of the barbarians I quoted Aristotle speaking of earlier, saying how they were less than human. This was the kind of attitude that allowed slavery to continue for as long as it did, and as Western society takes its origins from classical history it is then easy to understand why it was so readily accepted. The same comparisons can be drawn about the treatment of women and minority groups whose racism they had to endure is similar to the treatment and opinions of barbarians at the time. In conclusion, what constitutes special insight can be interpreted many different ways but I feel that it relates to the information we can gain that has previously been ignored by the classical history establishment, in favour of focusing solely on the elite wealthy landowners without considering the slaves and the people who did not necessarily have a voice. This is why I feel de Ste. Croixs use of Marxist ideology in his book The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World is extremely apt in portraying this special insight as it effectively shows the same system of control that is employed today as back in the Ancient Greek World in a different format to today, but still ultimately debt slavery. It also offers special insight in the general goings on of Ancient Greek society with the question of status and class relating to patronages usage and if it was even used at all as the lack of it in history books would suggest. The biggest special insight I feel it offers in terms of either class or status is that it shows the lack of willingness to make the unheard voices heard, it clearly shows that Greek history is written by those that dominated it and its majority of people living there as slaves, metics, women will unfortunately remain an unheard voice in the trumpeting of the creators of democracy we apparently hold so dear today. References De Ste. Croix, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World, Duckworth Ed, 1997 Paul Millet, Patronage in Ancient Society, Routledge, 1989 Aristotle, The Politics, Jowett translation, revised by Jonathan Barnes, 1981 Homer, The Odyssey, E.V. Rieu translation, Penguin Books, 2003. Arisophanes, Lysistrata and Other Plays, Alan H. Sommerstein translation, 2003 Professor Paul Cartledge, Critics and Critiques of Athenian Democracy, 1st January 2001, BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekcritics_01.shtml

The Internet And The Future Of Tv Essay -- Television TV

Imagine a day when you would be in total control of creating your own TV channel lineup. Instead of subscribing to a service from a cable, satellite or phone company that might offer you hundreds of channels you'll never watch, you would be able to select what you want and watch it on your own schedule. That day might not be so far away. Slowly but surely, content that's broadcast over cable networks and through satellite providers is being distributed through the public Internet. News.context What's new: A lot of the technology is in place to deliver TV content via the Internet, where content providers could bypass cable and satellite services and deliver programming directly to viewers. Bottom line: While content providers have no intention of giving up on traditional TV service, they are watching Internet TV developments carefully. Most are moving gingerly into the market, making sure digital rights issues are properly addressed, that they can maintain control over content once it's on the Web, and that there is adequate demand for the service. More stories on this topic In terms of the technology, all the elements are falling into place to deliver high-quality video from the Net directly to viewers in their living rooms. Software has been developed to ensure the quality of video distributed over the Net. And companies such as Microsoft and Cisco Systems' Linksys home division are developing products that enable Internet video to be viewed on TV sets instead of only on PC screens. Apple Computer, which has changed the music industry with its iPod music players and iTunes music store, is trying to do the same thing in the video market. Earlier this month it introduced an iPod that plays videos, and launch... ... Previous Next Comcast, the largest cable company in the United States, already provides an extensive library of on-demand movies. On Wednesday it announced it would provide an additional 250 movies every month to its digital cable customers at no extra charge. In total, Comcast customers will be able to select from about 800 movies each month. Comcast says that its video-on-demand programming is extremely popular. The company has already surpassed one billion total on-demand program views for the year, eclipsing last year's total of 567 million views. "The traditional TV market is not dead," said Kontiki's Sahadi. "Multiple models will evolve. Broadband penetration and improvements in digital rights management are helping push content providers to look toward the Web. But there will always be people who want to subscribe to a traditional television service."

The United States in the Vietnam War Essay -- Essays Papers

The United States in the Vietnam War Many soldiers have been lost in the different wars that the United States has been involved. Although there have been many wars only one is unique from the others, it is known as the war that was never won or lost. The Vietnam War started out as a conflict but soon escalated into a full-fledged war. Many soldiers have been lost in the Vietnam War. The United States sent many soldiers into the jungles of Indochina trying to stop the spread of communism from the North Vietnamese. It all seems clear-cut, with the motives and sides easily seen but as the war lagged on, it seemed that the United States became involved, and essentially needed a draft. The United States involvement in the Vietnam War became greater as the drudgery of the war progressed. With more increased support it seemed as though the United States was making a difference, but many thought it was a lost cause. The United States became involved in the Vietnam War as early as the Geneva Accords in 1953. The Geneva accords basically stated that Vietnam was to hold elections to unify the country. These were drawn just after the Korean War. The French were initially involved and requested the support of the U.S. When the conflict began the U.S. sent in mostly ground troops and officers, it was a limited amount. "According to the terms of the Geneva Accords, Vietnam would hold national elections in 1956 to reunify the country"-Brigham, 1. The French and the British were both ready for the treaty to be signed and the conflict finally ended -Hess, 47. The Eisenhower administration used SEATO only as a way of stalling. They had basically, through the work on SEATO, created a whole new country out of the remains of the old Vietnam -Br... ...sed his popularity in office -Hess, 117. The United States had many fallen soldiers in the Vietnam War. Many people think that it was not the United States’ place to go into Vietnam and prevent the spread of communism from the North to South. Many French troops were stationed in the Jungles of Indochina and it was believed that they could take care of the crisis that was growing in Asia. What started out as a relief campaign, only sending minimal forces to Vietnam turned into a war with over 550,000 United States troops. The gradual introduction of troops to Vietnam, the Tet offensive, and Vietnamization were all major aspects of the war that the United States was drawn into. It is still considered by many as the war that no one has won, and maybe if the Eisenhower administration had not sent troops in initially, a lot of American soldier’s lives would be saved.

Falstaffs Role in Henry IV, Part One Essay -- Henry IV Henry V Essays

Falstaff's Role in Henry IV, Part One      Ã‚  Ã‚   Henry IV, Part One, has always been one of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays, maybe because of Falstaff. Much of the early criticism I found concentrated on Falstaff and so will I. This may begin in the eighteenth century with Samuel Johnson. For Johnson, the Prince is a "young man of great abilities and violent passions," and Hotspur is a "rugged soldier," but "Falstaff, unimitated, unimitable Falstaff, how shall I describe thee? Thou compound of sense and vice . . . a character loaded with faults, and with faults which produce contempt . . . a thief, a glutton, a coward, and a boaster, always ready to cheat the weak and prey upon the poor; to terrify the timorous and insult the defenceless . . . his wit is not of the splendid or ambitious kind, but consists in easy escapes and sallies of levity [yet] he is stained with no enormous or sanguinary crimes, so that his licentiousness is not so offensive but that it may be borne for his mirth."      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Johnson makes three assumptions in his reading of the play:      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   1. That Falstaff is the kind of character who invites a moral judgment mainly that he can answer to the charge of being a coward.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2. That you (the reader) can detach Falstaff's frivolity from the play and it can exist for its own sake apart from the major theme of the drama.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   3. That the play is really about the fate of the kingdom, and that you (the reader) do not connect Falstaff's scenes with the main action. This means that the play has no real unity.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Starting with Johnson's first assumption, I do agree with this. Any discussion of Fa... ...ributes to Hal's maturing process, and it does.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In conclusion, every age of man has and will continue to judge Falstaff's role based on the morals and the thinking of the day. His frivolity is necessary to make the play amusing and interesting enough to hold the reader's/viewer's attention. However, that Falstaff's scenes are needed should go without question leaving the critics and us only to debate his motivation and his tactics.    Works Cited Bloom, Harold. Henry IV, Part One: Bloom's Notes. New York: Chelsea House, 1996. Cruttwell,Patrick. Hernry IV. Shakespeare For Students, Vol. II. Detroit: Gale Publishing, 1999. Kantor, Andrea. Henry IV, Part One. London: Baron's Education Series, Inc, 1984. Princiss, G.M. Henry IV Criticism. Shakespeare For Students, Vol.II. Detroit: Gale Publishing, 1999.   

The Arena

The Arena â€Å"We glide through darkness but the early morning kind, darkness about to lift. † It is without discussion an adventure and an experience to have a child. Mostly a feeling of great love follows. But definitely a responsibility and fear follows. The fear of being insufficient and maybe even the fear of endangering what you love the most. This is because our identity changes. In 2008 Martin Golan wrote the short story The Arena. The story is about a father and his son. The father is driving his son to the arena, where he is going on a trip with his lacrosse team by bus.The story circles around the protagonist of the story, who is the father. It is written in his point of view. The story consists of very little dialogue, which only is between him and his son. Mostly the all-knowing reader is confronted with the father’s inner dialogue as if the reader was inside his head. This and the point of view are also shown in the language of the story. It is informal a nd spoken language that is written to look like a dialect: â€Å"I spent many an afternoon at the Arena when my boy was small† (page 2, line 4-5).It has the effect that it easier to see through the father’s eyes and identify with him. This leads to a characterization of the father. Already in the first few lines you sense a strong emotional connection to his son or children in general: â€Å"The Arena somehow manages to be too cold and too hot at the same time, and my afternoons there were equally mixed, the physical discomfort eased by seeing my child dizzy with the boundless delight children take in simple games† (page 2, line 6-8). The father seems fascinated by the childish dewy-eyed way of thinking.But the most significant is that just seeing his own child happy counterbalances his physical discomfort. Now his son is a teenager and he is driving him to the arena at six a. m. on a Saturday morning. â€Å"The early weekend hour, the stillness we alone are he re to break, is like the drive to a hospital for birth, or (I cannot dwell on this) in an ambulance with an injured child† (page 2, line 22-23). Whatever the father thinks of, he always seems to connect it somehow with children – in this case the contrasting joyful and sad stage.The protagonist seems distant and in his thoughts. He is not mentally present in the car. Then he states: â€Å"Before the life I have now I had another life, with a different woman, and we also had a child, a boy named Willie† (page 2, line 37-38). But the boy beside him, the one going to the arena, is his only child. This combined with his fear of dwelling by the thought of an ambulance with an injured child raises the suspicion that Willie is dead. This suspension is slowly confirmed but mostly indirectly.The suspension evolves as the father thinks: â€Å"We attended a group for parents of children who died in preventable accidents, and everyone tried to be helpful† (page 4, lin e 122-123). He and his former wife could have prevented the death of their son Willie. It may have been their fault or they could have felt it that way. In a way it is confirmed by the fact that the father and his first wife could not stay together after what happened. â€Å"We had to part after what happened, and it wasn’t from lack of love, I promise you that† (page 3, line 57-58).The relationship was no longer an intimate connection between to people in love, â€Å"†¦ it was as if the he borders between what one expects and what happens, between one person and another, had collapsed† (page 4, line 110-111). After Willie died it was as if the father and the first wife only did what was expected, how a normal happy couple would act. He explains it as if everything they did had quotation marks around like it was acting, just a lie. They were not happy and could not stay together. They had to move on from each other, but he did not.The father has not left th e past in the past. He always dwells at the thoughts of his former life: â€Å"I had missed a turn. I do this a lot. He’s never had a father who isn’t absent-minded, who remembers where to turn on roads he’s travelled a hundred times† (page 3, line 78-79). This also indicates that the father has lived there, a New Jersey suburb, a long time. It is possible he may not even have moved after the divorce. He sometimes wakes up and questions which life he is in – the first life or the second life. You sense a longing for his former life and Willie.His second wife looks like his first wife, so much that even he himself sometimes is in doubt. On the outside his present life seems like just as big a lie as the former. But when the father and his son reach the arena, something is different. His son jumps out of the car and starts playing with his friends. This scene seems to calm the father. â€Å"†¦ It hits me as nothing has since Willie† (page 5, line 144-145). Jumping children having fun, a symbol of life that seems to assure the father that it is okay to let go. He knows he will always worry for his child but that he will stand eside him all his life and help him. The protagonist starts at one point but ends another, which indicates a chronological composition. The structure of the story is atypical. Despite the chronological composition, the story focuses mostly on the past without being flashbacks. It illustrates on of the many contrasts of the story: the past vs. the present. The most significant contrast in the story must however be the one of life and death, closely related to the past/present contrast. The father’s past, his first life, was very emotional. It starts of very happy and crammed with love.But it ends horribly and clearly leaves marks on his mind and soul. These depressing memories are brought with him into his new life that otherwise is filled with life. It is not less filled with love than th e first, but the father’s need to remake his past with a happy ending overshadows the possibilities of real happiness. The contrasts life and death, past and present are in this case deeply connected to the contrast happy vs. depressed. These contrasts show the themes of the story that are self-acknowledgement and the escape from the past.In addition is another important theme the close bond between child and parent. The most important thing in the world for the father is his child. He will protect him no matter what and prevent what happened in the past. The story is more like memoirs than fiction. During the short drive from their home to the arena the reader understand the father’s feelings and thoughts. He describes episodes of his life as different â€Å"arenas† – the most important being Willie. It may be a curious version of Giddens’ theory on creating our identity and arenas.There are many different arenas, where you have to act after which arena it is. You have to learn and create your own identity from the experience you get in these different â€Å"spaces† so you know how to act in the many social arenas we are confronted with. The combination of the title The Arena and the memoir style can have had the intention to force us, the reader, to consider our own identity and how we act in our arenas. It may be Golan’s way of explaining the importance of knowing what to let go and when to move on so that it is possible for us to act in the best possible way in our future arenas.