Self-Projection Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Self-Projection Project - Essay Example This has helped me explore a deeper side of myself that I never knew was possible. It has helped me see how others view myself, and that is one of the most valuable lessons that I take away from this. I tend to think that I know myself well. I have a very good sense of self. I know what I am good at and what needs improvement. I am constantly making self-improvements. To a certain extent, I really motivate others, and it has been shown through the interviews that I have garnered from friends, family, and colleagues, that I excel in almost anything I do. I guess one might say that I am a very high-strung (at times) individual, but that I make sure to keep all of my commitments. I have several hard and soft skills which I feel will serve me well in the future. One of my best assets is my leadership. I have good leadership skills which set me apart from the crowd. I also have amazing public speaking skills and can dazzle a crowd with my linguistic stylings. Really, it depends upon the p articular audience, but I know how to adapt myself to almost any setting and it shows. I am somewhat of an extroverted person; I enjoy making new friends and acquaintances, and am somewhat of a socially motivated person in that sense. I don’t pull any punches and am very honest with people about what I expect of them and how I expect to be treated in return. Another great feature I like about myself is that I have been able to use my outgoing nature to win friends, make money, and influence people. Meeting new people and seeing the world is part of what makes me who I am today. I have a real zest for life and believe you shouldn’t take life for granted. So, I eat life for breakfast, and I don’t mean the cereal! (Lol.) It is totally possible to learn something new from anyone that I meet and therefore, in business as well as in my leisure time, I always make sure to develop a solid list of contacts and social networks, since social networking is the wave of the f uture. I know that I can count on my friends and family to be there for me when things get difficult. Something else about me is that I am a very positive person. This has served me well in the past, as I definitely believe in karma and the phrase, â€Å"What goes around comes back around† (Janin, 2004, pp. 152). Like Anne Frank, I believe in the general goodness inherent in people. Everyone should be able to help everyone else out. Currently, one of the books I am reading is very inspiring. It’s called Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning. It talked about how Frankl survived Auschwitz, one of the worst concentration camps, by using logotherapy—also known as talk therapy. Frankl talks about the importance of prisoners to maintain their human dignity in the face of conditions that were worse than inhumane. I am the sort of person who likes solving problems, yet at the same time, I don’t have patience for things like crossword puzzles and so forth. I enjoy challenges, but sometimes I admit I can be a bit intellectually lazy, not fully taxing my mental capacities to their hilt because I am reserving brainpower for truly important and difficult tasks. I don’t like to use my energy unnecessarily; therefore, I keep a very tight rein on my time and how I control it. I always make sure that I know who I am going to be spending time with and what I should do to manage this time. My ability to tackle challenges, combined with the fact that I am a positive person, helps me to avoid bad situations and difficult people. This is part of what breeds success in my life and in my living environment. About me, I am definitely a team player, which has always been a strength of

Development of Pprogram for Non-Verbal Communication Skills Research Paper

Development of Pprogram for Non-Verbal Communication Skills - Research Paper Example Everything communicates, including material objects, physical space and time systems. Although verbal output can be turned off, non-verbal cannot. Even silence speaks. Non-verbal signals are powerful, instinctive, genuine and more honest. Social etiquette limits what can be said, but non-verbal cues can communicate thoughts. MODES OF NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION Non-verbal communication has the following modes – Proxemics – Nearness or physical distance between speakers. Chronemics – Time systems. Oculesics – Eye contacts and reflection of mind through eyes. Haptics – Touch sensation Para-language – features of intonation, stress etc. Kinesics – gestures Silence Inaction Demonstration Environment NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH Words are accented and punctuated by body movements and gestures while the face shows a myriad of expressions. While communicating, non-verbal messages can interact with verbal messages in five ways – repeati ng, conflicting, complementing, substituting and moderating. It is important to be aware of the dominance of the non-verbal message. The validity and the reliability of verbal messages are checked by non-verbal actions. Verbal and non-verbal messages within the same interaction can sometimes send opposing or conflicting messages. A person verbally expressing a statement of truth while simultaneously fidgeting or avoiding eye-contact may convey a mixed message to the receiver in the interaction. Conflicting messages may occur for a variety of reasons often stemming from feelings of uncertainty or frustration. When mixed messages occur, non-verbal communication becomes the primary tool people use to attain additional information to clarify the situation. Great attention is placed on bodily movements when people perceive mixed message4s during interaction. This mode of communication increases the degree of the perceived psychological closeness between people. Non-verbal communication s kills pervade all areas of life like business, marketing, management, trade and education. It is natural. Instinctive and universal and can serve to bridge the communication gap in the global scenario. LITERATURE REVIEW There is abundant research on communication but cooperatively, much less attention has been given to non-verbal communication. Most of the studies in this field are carried out by doctors or medical practitioners. They are related to autistic children or mentally retarded children or children having special needs. Albert Mehrabian, an American psychologist, has studied the relative importance of verbal and non-verbal communication. He came to the conclusion that there are basically three elements in face-to-face communication – word, tone of voice and body language. According to Mehrabian, these three account differently for the meaning of the message. Words account for 7%, tone of voice accounts for 39% and body language for 55%. For meaningful and effective communication, these three elements need to support each other. While verbal communication is only 7%, non-verbal consists of 38 + 55= 93%. Hence, there is no doubt as to its importance. REVIEWS 1. The researcher conducted a study on schools children and concluded six ways of improving NVC skills, like miming, watching video clips and interpretation of gestures. (Vicki Ritts )

Mission Statement Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Mission Statement - Coursework Example In essence, we are a school within a school. We have six Montessori classes at varying levels. We have supported the inclusion of children with special needs from the beginning. (We currently have 35 enrolled.) Supportive services are provided through the Belle Center and the Chicago Public Schools. We have a nationally recognized Outdoor Learning Environment - recognized by the National Wildlife Foundation. Our garden is the recipient of numerous awards from the City Of Chicago. The wetlands garden provides a wonderful place for children to explore, play and learn about themselves and the world around them. Parents are vital to our school and encouraged to participate in as much as they are able. We view parents as partners with the teachers in the care and education of the children. Many parents even serve on our Board or on many of our volunteer committees. Our faculty is composed of highly skilled Early Childhood professionals that have been selected because of their commitment and dedication to both children and families. Assistant teachers provide support to the teacher as well as love, warmth and knowledge to the children. Sister Barbara Jean Ciszek, C.S.J., also known as Sister BeeJay, has been our principal since we were founded in 1998. In her role, she works with the board, parents and faculty to oversee the day-to-day operation of the school as well as the spiritual and educational development of our students. She is under the direction of the Archdiocesan Superintendent of the Catholic

Paper on Career Skills Essay Example for Free

Paper on Career Skills Essay 1. Career direction It starts with five articles which help you think about career direction. These tools help you uncover what you do best and identify the types of work that you’ll enjoy doing most. From this, you can figure out how to make the most of your skills and preferences, whether in your current role or in a new one. a. Personal SWOT Analysis shows you how you can apply the well-known SWOT strategy tool to your life and career, helping you identify your strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities open to you and the threats you face. This leads naturally into the idea of job crafting. This is something that many of us do subconsciously to some extent, but our article gives you a rigorous approach that you can use to craft your ideal job. b. Develop your career in various ways. We show you what you can be doing now to future proof your career and to get ready for promotion. And if you’re frustrated because your hard work and abilities are going unnoticed, find out how to get the recognition you deserve. we show you how to live with a lack of job security and how to cope with life after job loss. Yet even when the economy’s booming, you can still face challenging career situations such as hitting a â€Å"glass ceiling†. We round off this section with two articles that will help you transition through significant events in your career. First, we look at what you can do when you get a new boss, and then we see how to wrap up in one role before moving on. Finding Career Direction Discover Yourself and Your Purpose How long has it been since you asked yourself what you want to be when you grow up? If you havent considered the idea since high school, then you may have settled into a job that is not fulfilling your professional aspirations, or your purpose. Each of us has particular talents that, when expressed or exercised, make the world a better place. Most likely you enjoy doing these things, and you find that people respond well to you when you do them. Perhaps theyre things you gravitate towards during out-of-hours activities, and that people respect you for. When you develop these talents as far as you can, you can make your greatest possible contribution to the world, and enjoy personal and professional satisfaction that goes along with this. Your Career Direction Journey The process of uncovering what you are meant to do, that is finding career direction, is a journey. It starts with discovering the essential you: the person who truly resides behind the facades, defenses, and stresses of everyday life. Once unmasked, your journey continues with specific career exploration and identification of a career that allows you to make good use of your talents. And it moves on with a focused job or career move, in which you identify the jobs you want and put yourself in the best possible position to get them. In fact, this journey never really ends because work itself is all about change, growth, development, and reinvention. By taking a talent-based approach to your career search right from the start, you keep yourself heading toward the right career even when the actual direction shifts over time. This approach consists of sequentially answering three questions: 1. Who Am I? 2. What Do I Want to Do? 3. How Do I Get Hired? 1. Discovering Who You Really Are The first question to answer is Who am I? Well take two approaches to answering this firstly asking you to explore your talents, and secondly using psychometric tests to explore your preferences. Exploring Your Talents First of all, consider your answers to the following questions: * When have you been most committed, passionate and enthusiastic? * When have you been most creative? * When have you been most sure of yourself and your decisions? * What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment? * When have other people considered you to be most successful? * When have you enjoyed your work most? * What talents were you relying on, and using, in these situations? * For what would you take a very strong stand? * What about the world puzzles or disturbs you that you could make an impact on? * What jobs do you like to do at work when you have a choice? * What activities are you drawn towards out of work? * If money were no concern, what would you be doing? Brainstorm each of these questions, and then use your answers to identify the top three talents that you most use when youre successful. Rank these in order. Tip:If youre having problems choosing, use a technique like paired comparison analysis to rank things in order. | Personality Inventories Next, well look at using personality inventories as a way of looking at your preferred way of working relative to other people. There are many typologies available including Myers-Briggs, DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness) and the strength finder evaluation in Now Discover Your Strengths. Tip 1: Some of these cost quite a lot of money, however considering the importance of what youre doing, it is probably worth investing in them if you havent already done so. Tip 2: It can be hard initially to see how to apply these tests. One trick is to turn things around, and as you identify possible careers, think about what personality type is most likely to be successful in these careers. Is there a match or a mismatch? Well do this later. Tip 3: Treat these tests as advisory only you cant capture the whole complexity of your personality and experience with only a few questions. That said, youll probably find the tests quite insightful! | With personality testing you learn what you have in common with other people. You also discover potential points of friction with people of other personality types. While no personality type is good or bad, it does help you discover what motivates and energizes you. This in turn empowers you to seek those elements in the work you choose to do, and avoid the things that frustrate and demotivate you. As you explore your personality you come to realize that who you are is really determined by the choices you make. You choose to react one way over another, or to prefer one thing to another. You can take this self-awareness one step further by examining why you make the choices you do. In psychological terms, what is your payoff for making the choices you make? When you know the why it is easier to see how you can become fulfilled through the work you do. Write a Who I Am Statement Now draw this together into a simple written statement of who you are. This is an important step toward self-discovery and defining your purpose. Use it to answer the following questions: * What your talents and strengths are. * The talents you achieve most with. * The activities you get most satisfaction from. * The type of activity the psychometrics youve completed guide you towards. Tip: When youre doing this, be careful not just to look back nostalgically at simple jobs where you performed well after all, many different people could perform well in these situations, and this gives you little information. Focus instead on more difficult areas where you made a positive difference, and where others didnt. 2. Finding Out What You Want to Do Now that you know who you are, the next stage is to think about what you want to do. For your life to be balanced and fulfilled, your career must be aligned with who you are: Otherwise youll be unhappy with work, and youll probably underachieve. After all, ill-fitting jobs demand different talents from the ones that you have. If you try to pursue a career path that is at odds with your values, your beliefs, and your way of seeing the world, then youll struggle constantly and be under a great deal of stress and pressure. The starting point is to do some brainstorming on the jobs that you think would suit who you are. Well then confirm this with some different psychometric tests, and then extend this list with some more brainstorming. You then need to spend some time researching the top careers youve identified. i. Exploring the Options You Know About Starting with your Who I Am statement, start thinking about all of the jobs you can see that would suit you someone with the talents and interests in that statement (by depersonalizing it in this way, you help to avoid being too close to the issue.) Starting here is particularly important if youre already established in a career: Its important to capitalize where you can on the experience and contacts youve already built up, compared with ditching everything and starting completely afresh (while this sounds glamorous and enticing, it puts you in the position of competing equally with other career starters, who may be much younger than you. On the other hand, if youre profoundly unhappy with your company, industry and profession, a radical career change may be the best thing) So start by asking yourself if your current role can be adapted to suit you much better; if there are other roles within your existing company that would be worth trying; or whether similar roles in other organizations might be more rewarding. Once youve done this, extend out and brainstorm the other options available. ii. Using Career Tests The next stage is to use online career tests to explore options that you might have missed. Useful ones are: Free, but limited career selection advice: Princeton Review Career Quiz Chargeable (but inexpensive, and with good selections of possible careers): http://www.self-directed-search.com http://www.assessment.com iii. Thinking Further The unavoidable flaw with these career tests is that theyre based on backward-looking data, and can only cope with the major career types. Because of this, they cant recommend new careers, nor do they know about less well-known careers. Using the test results as a starting point, do some brainstorming to see if there are new technology careers which demand similar personality types, or if there are more obscure careers that may also be open. iv. Pulling This Together. Youll now have identifies a wide range of possible careers open to you. Nows the time to cut these down and prioritize them. Were not asking you to choose one now, but to cut down to your top 5 or 6 choices (the reason being that when you start researching these careers, some of them may turn out to be quite bad!) Again, if youre having trouble prioritizing, use paired comparison analysis to rank your choices. v. Perform Career Research Armed with a solid understanding of how you can participate in fulfilling work, you now need to research the various options you have to make money doing so. Career research is not something many people relish, but it is necessary in order to eliminate choices that seem to be great fits on the surface but really wont align with your mission and purpose. Yes, this is quite tedious. But think about the consequences of getting things wrong! Surely its worth spending time exploring your options, rather than a lifetime kicking yourself for making a bad choice! Methods for researching careers include: * Researching the career using sites like Acinet.org, so that you can understand industry trends, job pay levels, qualifications needed, job availability, etc. * Conducting your own PEST Analysis to confirm your own view of likely career trends. * Reading industry/career magazines and get a sense of how happy the industry is, who the major players in it are, and what the issues and problems within it are. Also, looking at job vacancies to see if the career is in demand. * Understanding what talents and personalities make people successful in the career, and mapping these back against your own talents and personality. * Attending professional and trade shows. * Participating in job fairs; * Visiting company websites, and keep an eye on how companies are talked about in the press. * Understanding where organizations are based, and deciding if youre prepared to travel to interviews, and perhaps to move. * Volunteering. * Working part time and/or seasonally in the industry. Tip: Be careful when using career trends to identify career possibilities: The desire to pursue an up and coming career may overshadow your mission and purpose. This will only lead to dissatisfaction down the road. Also be aware that theres a natural desire from people within an industry to inflate its prospects (to ensure a good supply of new recruits in the future.) Take official figures with a pinch of salt! | By the end of all of this research, you may have rejected several possible careers. Nows the time to narrow down to one! Again, Paired Comparison Analysis may be useful here, however so can Grid Analysis which helps you make comparisons where many variables are involved. 3. Answering How do I Get Hired? In this last phase you answer, What am I going to do to get hired? With your Who I Am statement and your research as your compass, now you need to actually map your progress. Many people tend to move from their purpose right into job search mode. This is a mistake because unless you have a plan, it is far too easy to get derailed by a lucrative job offer, an opening that Uncle Vinny has, a job that sounds really glamorous, or a whole host of other distractions. Develop your plan first and youre more likely to get where you want to go, faster. * Start by writing down the career you want. What is your long-term vision for yourself in terms of your career? * Write down the steps you need to take or the things you need to accomplish, in order to get there. What qualifications should you get? What experience should you build? Which organization will give you the best start? * For each of these steps create a detailed implementation plan. * These are your short term goals. * Be sure to express as SMART objectives. * Go back and identify contingency plans * Do a what if analysis on your goals If you dont get accepted to grad school this year, what will you do? Tip: The more contingency plans you have the more likely you will be able to survive the inevitable setbacks. You will also have much more confidence in yourself despite the bumps in the road. Tip 2: Recognize that the more opportunities you have, the better the job that youll be able to choose. Concentrate on creating as many opportunities as possible! | Now you are free to pursue your dream career with confidence. There are certainly no guarantees but with the right amount of planning and a sufficient dose of reality, the career that you are meant for will materialize. Signs a career direction evaluation may be in order: * Your job lacks challenge and excitement for you. * You are feeling unappreciated. * Your promotional and/or development opportunities are limited. * You are no longer having fun. * Learning is replaced with routine. * You sense that your skills and talents are being wasted. * You are suffering from stress or depression. Finding career direction is a process. The more effort you put into the planning stages the better your results. Uncovering your true self and your purpose is heavy, emotional work and you may have to go through this process a few times in the span of your working life. The effort however, is certainly worth it when you end up with a clear sense of the direction your career should be taking.

Employee Resistance to Change: Dissertation

Employee Resistance to Change: Dissertation 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,ÂÂ  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 they the one who 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 factor and find out the correlates among the factors. By better understanding these which a shift in perception could occur, the paper hope to develop a framework to change initiators 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 they have learned to associate it 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: 2.2.1Age 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 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. In contrary with literatures presented earlier on demonstrating age have negative relationship with organizational change where people are more emotional stable and adaptable to organizational change as they age. Instead, 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. Figure 4.1.2- Age group vs Resist to change score 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 their willingness to take challenges. Although there is no strong evidence to show that women are more resistance to change, most of women strongly agreed with the statement that when things are not going as plan, they tend to feel stress and if there is significant change regarding the way things are done, they would probably feel stressed. At this point, the research result suggested that women tend to be trapped in stress situation more easily than men. Hellriegel, D. Slocom, J. W., and Woodman, R.W.(2001) has pointed out that organizational change can be viewed as greatest source of stress on job and perhaps employees life. Stress cause low morale, high desertion rate and consequently reduce in job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The women research samples in this study reflect lower ability to regulate stre ss in working and life that affect their job performance. When organizational changes go against their interest, plan or principles, family life, it easily get women feel stress emotionally and potentially raise their resistance level which can be described as unconscious covert resistance (Marc Maltz, 2008) whereby employees are unaware of their resistance to change. Such symptom as mentioned in Chapter 2 is difficult to recognize and manage. The result urges the management to recognize gender-related problems in the organizational process. The implication of the result underlines the importance of evaluating and managing performance between women and men employees in implementing change. 4.3 Locus of Control Figure 4.3.1 shows the relationship between Locus of Control versus Resist to Change scale. The extent of Locus of Control are divided into 5 category based on the score respondents received on answering 10 specially designed question (Q7-Q16) catered to identify the individual level of locus of Control. For each correct answer that suggested Internal Locus of Control, the participant are give 1 point, the end results are totaled up with a formula (N/10)x100. The result are categ

Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels Essay -- essays research papers

Although Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift has long been thought of as a children's story, it is actually a dark satire on the fallacies of human nature. The four parts of the book are arranged in a planned sequence, to show Gulliver's optimism and lack of shame with the Lilliputians, decaying into his shame and disgust with humans when he is in the land of the Houyhnhmns. The Brobdingnagians are more hospitable than the Lilliputians, but Gulliver's attitude towards them is more disgusted and bitter. Gulliver's tone becomes even more critical of the introspective people of Laputa and Lagado, and in Glubbdubdrib he learns the truth about modern man. Gulliver finds the Luggnuggians to be a "polite and generous people" (III, 177), until he learns that the Struldbruggs' immortality is a curse rather than a blessing. Throughout the course of Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver’s encounters with each culture signify a progression from benevolence towards man to misanthr opy, resulting in Gulliver's final insanity. In the first part of the book, Gulliver arrives on a strange island and wakes up tied to the ground by a culture of six-inch tall Lilliputians. Gulliver is amazed by the skill of the Lilliputians in handling him, but he is offended by their disrespect: â€Å"†¦in my Thoughts I could not sufficiently wonder at the Intrepidity of these diminutive Mortals, who durst venture to mount and walk on my Body, while one of my Hands was at Liberty, without trembling at the very Sight of so prodigious a Creature as I must appear to them† (I, 8). However, Gulliver complies with every inconvenience that the Lilliputians bestow on him, because he allows them to take him prisoner even though he could destroy them with one stomp. It is rather amusing that Gulliver surrenders to these tiny people so quickly: â€Å"†¦when I felt the Smart of their Arrows upon my Face and Hands†¦I gave Tokens to let them know that they might do with me what they pleased† (I, 9). They also tie Gulliver up as if he were a dog, and search his pockets in order to confiscate any weapons, among numerous other actions in which Gulliver placidly succumbs. No matter how respectful Gulliver is, however, it is negated by his lack of shame. By urinating on the queen’s palace to put out a fire, he does not realize that he offended the queen immensely, and this is the cause for his impeachment. By making th... ...is own race begins to turn on him ironically when he describes the culture of his native country to the Houyhnhnms. The rational beings conclude that Gulliver really is a Yahoo because the civilized people of Gulliver’s culture are just as corrupt as the less civilized Yahoos. Upon realizing the morose fact that he is indeed a Yahoo dressed up like a civilized man, Gulliver’s psyche collapses and he is transformed into a misanthrope, forever alienated from the rest of society. All four books of Gulliver’s Travels form a rapid descent into the dark nature of man. Swift is satirizing the elements that make men human, from small pettiness to corruptness and greed. When a sane man such as Gulliver is exposed to the different aspects of human immorality, Swift shows how these influence his life and the effect, ultimately, is the deterioration of his mind. At the end of the book, Gulliver cannot even look at his family without feeling disgust. Above all, he is disgusted with himself for being a part of such a corrupt race as man. But Gulliver is â€Å"an honest Man, and a good Sailor, but a little too positive in his own Opinions, which was the Cause of his Destruction† (IV, 191).

Discursive Written Analysis of Wherever I Hang by Grace Nichols and Reflections by Mario Petrucci

Reflections. Mario Petrucci. On first looking at the two pieces I have chosen, the preference of dialect fluctuate to a great extent, giving each poem a dissimilar insight to the dialect to each author. In Wherever I Hang, the idiom is of a native tongue to the Caribbean, with its seemingly imperfect sentences. ‘Had big rats in de floorboards' V1 Line 5 Where as Mario Petrucci has used Received Pronunciation, giving the reader more complete sentences. ‘Bees will sting like a razor' V1 Line 1 The vocabulary in Petrucci's Reflection is uncomplicated to read although every line is a metaphor, proficiently put together to make the reader observe each line in detail. While also generating a number of connotations in each line, giving the reader room for thought. A good paradigm could be gained from almost every line, but the fourth line is most apt. ‘Hills as old as hats' V1 Line 4 It isn't until one hears this that the thought of hats sat on top of a wardrobe or on shelves in hatboxes, comes into realization of the accuracy that this one sentence becomes clear, giving the line a conceit of its own. On the other side of the scale is Grace Nichols Wherever I Hang, which although clear in its context, can be hard to read if the accent is not known. In the first line there are repetitive determiners with the word use of ‘me' three times. ‘I leave me people, me land, me home' V1 Line 1 Also in this line the writer uses a repetition of nouns with no pre or post modifiers. This could be because the writer is generalising her whole life, and the world she knows rather than saying her family and friends. Also it must be taken into account of the fact this is a Caribbean poem and family and friends could be more thought to come from a European writer and would distort the poem, bringing to much plain English into the first verse, rather than it all being in the second, when she is changing from one culture to another. ‘And is so I sending home photos of myself' V2 Line 1 Within the first line of this rhyme, Nichols has used a repetition of nouns and reiteration determiners to emphasise just what she has given up to come to a new land. Possibly giving the reader the vehicle of travel and a new country and the tenor of a lack of feeling of belongingness. ‘Divided to de bone' V3 Line 2 This poem shows a big distinction in the cultures that Nichols has become in contact with, ‘de sun' along side ‘De misty greyness'. Although one must note that this is a connotation of how the writer sees the two different countries and may not be how a visitor to the Caribbean or a born English person may see the variation. Nichols has used antonyms to empathise the difference in each place. The vast array of bright colours of the ‘Humming-bird' and ‘de sun' compared to the dull grey ‘pigeons', ‘snow' and ‘cold' of this new wonder land. Also Nichols has given the reader a possible alliteration to show how that Nelson's Column is higher than most things she has encountered before. ‘I see Lord Nelson high-too high to lie' V1 Line15 This is also ambiguous sentence as the word lie can be taken to mean that Nelson is to high to lie down or to high to lie to anyone. Nichols gives us a representation of the life she is leaving, with ‘de sun' and ‘de humming-bird spendour' giving the reader a image of hot happy days, where as Petrucci's verse is more a reminder of things that are responsibilities to most people. ‘A nut, tough as a tax form'. The two poems contrast each other with the life they portray, until fifth line in verse two of Wherever I Hang. ‘I begin to change my calypso ways' V 2 Line 5 Here is the change in the poem, from the leaving of a home to come to what the writer has considered a dream country. This is the point that the author starts to become like the people in the land she now lives and take on their lifestyle. But this is also where the writer looses a lot of her homeland traditions and the divide starts. Nichols gives the reader different time spans but has written the whole piece in present tense. The effect this gives is the reader embarking on a journey through the poem with the writer. With her use of a metaphor ‘They solid to de seam', an alliteration on the ‘p', ‘people pouring' and a simile ‘Like beans', Nichols is pushing the reader to realize how different this feels to someone who has never felt or seen things like this. This poem has a non- repetitive rhythm that is filled with personal nouns with the use of ‘me' and ‘I'; it also has no punctuation. Petrucci's Reflections on the other hand, is a blank verse pentameter, with use of copular verse and all written in future tense. The writer has used words like ‘will' rather than ‘is' to give the reader the hint that the poem is about something that will happen in the future, almost saying its impossible to avoid. ‘The air will be clear as glass' V1 Line 2 The whole poem could be considered to have a connotation meaning, in which it is the view of how the author sees things in life, even though it has no narrative. In the second verse, line one there is a possible alliteration within the metaphor. ‘Trees will be sturdy as girders' V 2 Line 1 One could pick out of this poem the subject, verb and object of every line, with a few added fillers to make the whole piece make sense, right up to the last but one line. Here the pattern is broken and the fourth line in verse three is not a metaphor. This could be to express what the possible tenor is. The Internal rhyme differs in this line also, unlike the rest of the poem, which has iambic pentameters in every line. ‘And the button, that big red button' V3 Line 4 This could be taken in two ways, which is what the writer could want from the reader. One could be the threat of nuclear war and the fear of the Red Button that hangs over our heads, giving it an elegy. But another meaning could be linking the final but one, line with the final line of the poem. Petrucci could be using the old metaphor bright as a button, but replacing it with child to express the cycle of things, as in the whole world starts again, and so do the metaphors within the last line. ‘as bright as a child.' V4 Line 1 This is not the first time Petrucci mentions people in his poem. ‘Clockwork regular as citizens' V2 Line3 This line gives the reader the picture of people rushing to work or where ever in the rat race, which could be joined with the same line, giving it an ambiguous meaning. The rat race could be also taken as mice, as they are from the rat family. The mice could be also meaning from the nursery rhyme hickory dickory dock, and the mouse that ran up the clock. In the second verse of Nichols ‘Wherever I Hang', we are given a high level of co- ordination with ‘And is so' used in three lines, almost to show the reader that the change in the writers ways in inevitable. The dialect that is used in this second verse has changed to some extent to what is considered more English with the word ‘I' instead of ‘me', which is continually used in the first verse. Although the Caribbean word use is still present with the occasional use of ‘me' and ‘de'. ‘And waiting me turn in queue' V2 Line 8 The sentences are more complete in this verse, rather than ‘At first I feeling like I in dream', (V1 Line 8) the writer is using more English dialect than her native dialect, ‘I begin to change my calypso ways' (V2 Line 5). The whole of Nichols poem has many personal pronouns, unlike Petrucci's, which has no personal pronouns at all.