Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Quantitative and Qualitative research into the voyeuristic appeal of Paper

Quantitative and Qualitative into the voyeuristic appeal of watching observational reality TV - Research Paper Example Mostly, it is assumed that the audience may not tell the difference between information and entertainment, or reality and fiction in popular factual television. Therefore, in regards of the audience and reality TV it is significant to examine this genre’s development and audience relationships with the popular factual output. Audiences have a different response to the reality shows and teenagers and young youth seem to develop more interest in the observational reality shows. There has been a great amount of open criticism of the observational reality show genre popularity and few articles explain the consumer’s appeal. There are reports that propose that viewers watch this kind of reality entertainment due to aspirational or voyeuristic needs. The reports of the external audience suggest that the television audiences perceive observational reality themselves as being voyeuristic. Hence, it is this voyeurism part that is attractive. Additionally, the Week online magazine (2015) suggest that it is intrinsically fascinating in observing how some individuals behave and speak in pressured situations. As a result, many intellectual people find themselves fixed by The Only Way is Essex and other observational reality shows. Thus, teaching them the aspects of human nature and widening their experience. Charlie King, The Only Way is Essex star was bombarded by scholars with gayism accusation on the reality show and accused of inspiring young people on revealing their sexuality. He openly revealed his true sexuality on the ITV program (2014). IMDB (2015) says that The Only Way is Essex got first aired on 1oth October 2015 and were currently the top rating show on ITVB channel. Adam Croizer (2010), the chief executive of ITV states that the target audience was for 16-34 years old. He added that the objective was to reinforce plans to increase revenue and audience in the Telegraph interview (2015). The informal and content motives of â€Å"The Only

Monday, October 28, 2019

Impact of christianity Essay Example for Free

Impact of christianity Essay Christian dogmas have always been intertwined with philosophy regardless of the fact that most of the time both philosophers and theologians had polar opinions associated with religion and philosophy respectively. The first mentioning of philosophy in the Bible was encountered in the New Testament: See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8) Nevertheless, one of the earliest Christian representatives Tertullian always disagreed with the combination of ordinary temporal philosophical views and spiritual exalted religious dogmas. To the contrary, another religious thinker St. Augustine of Hippo defended the idea of inter-complementation of abstract science and Christian faith only in case of their mutual compatibility. St. Thomas Aquinas made great contribution to the Christianity’s impact on philosophy, as he was the first to distinguish these two important sectors of human perception of surrounding environment. He claimed that o Owing to philosophy information is being received through basic sensory functions: smell, touch, vision, hearing, and taste. Also, it is possible to prove and check the data according to laws of physics initially based on philosophy as well. o Owing to Christianity, information is not something to be proved or argued. It is to be accepted axiomatically especially when it is closely connected with God and Divine. After the Middle Ages the double nature of Jesus Christ (divine and human) was put in doubt and required explicit evidence regarding the origin and function of God. Philosophy could not succeed in answering this question, as the notions of humanity and divinity do not logically coincide with each other. Therefore, certain attempts were made with the help of Christianity to resolve the issue of imbalance. Thus, we need to mention three major reasons why philosophy was isolated from Christianity. ? First of all, philosophers from English-speaking world were predominantly atheists and rejected all spiritual and divine aspects of human activity. They required strong logical evidence and proof for subjects of their investigation and discussion ? Secondly, rejecting Christian dogmas philosophers were constantly seeking alternative ways to find proof for their arguments and new methods and evidences hidden in other religions.? Thirdly, philosophers believed that the language of religion and theology is too incoherent, irrational, and inconsistent that the meaning, no matter how important or of current importance it may be, loses its significance. Philosophical issues that have become Christianized include: ? Trinity: it was no clear for many thinkers why God consisted of three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In the 7th century the Council of Toledo announced: â€Å"we may say God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; but they are not three Gods, he is one God†. Similar to how a solar system may consist of numerous cosmic bodies. ? Sacrifice and atonement: philosophers believed that one punishment is enough to give birth to another, which is not always fair. However, Christianity responded by proving that punishment has moral nature and it is not something that exceptionally deals with evil. In conclusion, we may add that Christianity had a great impact on philosophy since early times. References Moore, N. B. , Bruder, K. (2004). Philosophy: The Power of Ideas. 6th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

The Oxford Movement and Jane Eyre :: Jane Eyre Essays

The Oxford Movement and Jane Eyre    The Victorian period from the mid to late 1800's was a time of internal religious turmoil for England. In the Anglican Church there were many different groups competing to define the doctrine and practice of the national religion. The church was politically divided in three general categories following: the High Church, which was the most conservative; the Middle, or Broad Church, which was more liberal; and the Low Church, which was the Evangelical wing of the Anglican Church. Within the High Church there were also differences of opinion on the true nature of the Church as a whole. It is from this conservative branch of the Anglican Church where the men of the  Oxford Movement came. The Oxford Movement began as a movement to reform the Church of England in 1833. The name is taken from the Oxford University fellows who led the movement. Among these men were John Keble, Edward Pusey and John Henry Newman. All of them were extremely loyal to the Anglican Church and were concerned with the government's interference in its affairs. They also were worried about the liberal tendencies of the Evangelicals as a threat to the Church. The Oxford movement thought that they needed to lead the Church back to the "true" church of the fourth century AD; drawing on the patristic writings of St. Augustine, St. Jerome and St. Bernard, their aim was to revive the ritual and mysticism of the early church. The Oxford Movement's beginning is usually associated with July 14, 1833, which was the date John Keble gave his sermon on "National Apostasy." But, more importantly the movement took its roots with the publication of the "Tracts for the Times" by Newman, the first of which was published September 9, 1833, and the last, Tract 90, in 1841. The Tracts meant to remind the English to understand the church as an independent body, not as an appendage to the state. The Tractarians wanted the movement to offer a compromise between Roman Catholicism and Evangelicalism. The Anglicans were distrustful of the Catholic tendency because of the power of the Pope. On the other hand, they did not embrace the evangelical doctrine of universal damnation. The Oxford Movement and its leaders had the best intentions to reform the Church, but it seems to have been most successful in the way it pursued faith as "an impulse of the heart and conscience not an inquiry of the head" (Chadwick 12).

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Development of a Four Year Old Child Essay -- Papers Psychology Child

Development of a Four Year Old Child Works Cited Not Included Enthusiasm in children is like a ripple in the water ... it spreads. ~Anonymous~ The study of child development helps us understand the changes we see as children grow and develop. A child?s development is divided into five areas: physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and moral development (Mitchell and David 1992). Although each area will be discussed separately, it is important to remember that all these areas overlap. Together, they make up the whole person. Physical development is an increase in body size and shape. Motor development is included in physical development because it shows the development of the large and small muscles. Changes in the brain and nervous system will affect physical and motor development. Emotional development is how the child feels about himself/herself, other people, and the world that they live in. Emotional development also involves children?s learning to distinguish different feelings and express them in culturally acceptable ways (Henniger,...

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Understanding Change

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

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Effect of pH Levels on the Growth of Bean Plants Essays

Effect of pH Levels on the Growth of Bean Plants Essays Effect of pH Levels on the Growth of Bean Plants Essay Effect of pH Levels on the Growth of Bean Plants Essay Different pH degree may impact the growing and development of the workss. Certain cardinal words include: pH degree. sprouting. sourness. osmosis and diffusion. This experiment examines the effects of different pH degree of acetum on the growing of bean workss. Materials used in this experiment consist of: H2O ( pH 6 ) . acetum with the pH degree of 3. 4 and 5 ( each one were made before experiment ) . beans. dirt. and pots. Eight bean workss were planted. two were watered with pH 6 and the other 1s were each watered with pH 5. pH 4 and pH 3 acetum. The consequences were that beans watered with pH 3 shrunk and began to decease. pH 4 beans were turning at a slow rate. beans watered with pH 5 grew at a reasonably normal gait and pH 6 grew the fastest. Overall. the more acidic the environment. the harder it is for workss to last. Introduction Sourness is the quality or province of being acerb ; pH below 7. Researching the different degrees of sourness affect works growing and development. the procedure of sprouting must happen to see the affects upon the growing of the beans. Germination is the procedure whereby seeds or spores sprout and begin to turn. With the sourness expressed with pH degrees is the step of sourness or alkalinity of a solution. in deepness the step of the activity of dissolved H ions ( H+ ) . Following these constructs is the procedure of normal works growing. Plants require foods for growing. Their procedure depends on the indispensable foods of abundant sunshine. H2O. fertile dirt. and minerals6. To look into how the workss respond to alterations in the sourness of their environments. photosynthesis is another important construct involved. Photosynthesis is the a procedure by which energy from the Sun is trapped by chlorophyll and is subsequently converted to chemical energy with the cardinal reacta nts of H2O. C dioxide and light6. Osmosis is the diffusion of H2O in which the workss obtain their H2O and foods from3. Replacing H2O with acids of different pH degrees ( 1 being most acidic and 12 the most basic ) it is hypothesized that the lower the pH of the acid used to H2O the works the faster and more fatal for the works undergoing plasmolysis ( when the works cells diffuse H2O out to set up equilibrium in its environment ) to die. The workss watered with a lower pH solution either as declared dies or grows at a slower rate that the controlled workss of pH 6. The decision of this hypothesis was based off the cognition provide from the media about the effects of non merely planetary heating but besides acerb precipitation and their injuries. The procedure of this experiment was to imitate the existent acid precipitation of azotic and sulphuric acids in which was represented with vinegar solutions to detect the works responses to different environmental conditions. Materials and Equipment Eight bean plantsOne medium sized pot ( about 10-15 centimeters in diameter ) 4 little pots ( about 5-7 centimeter in diameter ) A battalion of wide-ranged pH paper ( is able to observe pH degrees of 0-12 ) About 500 milliliter of white vinegarThree 500 milliliter beakersTap waterA seting country with plentifulness of lightPlanting dirt mixTape and a marker to label the potsA rulerMethodsRefer to Figure 1 for the undermentioned set-up. The pots were filled with a seting dirt mix and one bean was planted into each of the little pots by forcing the beans about 2. 5 centimeter into the dirt and covering the hole with dirt. Two beans were planted in the medium sized pot with the same methods. Beans were embedded near the Centre of the pot to let room for the roots to widen and the beans that shared a pot were planted near the Centre. about 2 centimeters apart. Figure 1: Experimental Set UpFigure 1 shows the experimental set up for this probe ( the distance of the seeds from the soil’s surface and the distance between seeds sharing a pot. The pots were placed in an country with tonss of visible radiation ( under lamps ) and were watered with tap H2O until the beans germinated and grew to about 5cm. The beans germinated at different times and therefore the workss were different tallness when the independent variables ( the pH of the solution they were watered with ) were added. While the workss were shooting and turning. an observation tabular array based on Figure 2 was created to enter the undermentioned variables: Date. pH. tallness. coloring material. form. and other information. Figure 2: Observation Table templateFigure 2 shows the templet for an observation tabular array needed to enter informations collected from this probe. The tallness. coloring material and form were variables that depended on the pH ( the independent variable ) . and so by pull stringsing the pH degree. the dependent variables were besides manipulated. Solutions with different pH solutions were created in order to pull strings the independent variable. Mention to Postpone 1 for the ratios needed to make the pH solutions. Note that because pat water’s pH may be different depending on the H2O supply. it is best to follow Table 1. and prove the pH utilizing pH paper. If the pH degree is right. so add more H2O or acid consequently. Table 1: Ratios needed for pH solutionspHVolume of Tap WaterVolume of VinegarpH 3None250 mLpH 4500 mL50 mLpH 5500 mL5 mLpH 6500 mLNoneTable 1 shows the volumes of tap H2O and acetum needed to do the pH solutions. When the workss grew to the appropriate tallness. each pot was labelled with the pH degree which they would be watered with. Two of the little plats in the little pots would be watered with a pH 3 solution. and so those pots were labelled as pH 3 . Two pH 3 workss were needed because it produced a consequence that was highly different from the other workss. and so the consequence needed to be confirmed. The workss in the staying little pots were labelled pH 4 and pH5 . The medium sized pot was labelled Control . as it would be watered with tap H2O instead than a diluted acid. The control workss helped stress the alterations uses to the independent variable ( the pH degree ) caused in the dependant variable ( the tallness ) . Again. two workss were needed for the control in order to corroborate the consequences. After labelling was completed. the information listed in Figure 2 was recorded in the observation tabular array. The tallness was measured utilizing a swayer. Watering began after the first set of informations was recorded. Each works was watered with the pH solution indicated by their labels. There should be merely adequate solution to wet the immediate country around the root of the works. The workss were watered one time ( each ) every two of three yearss. and information was recorded each clip the workss were watered. Watering continued for two hebdomads until 8 sets of informations were recorded ( informations for 8 yearss ) . Observations and Consequences All of the workss except for those watered with a pH 3 solution grew at different rates. ensuing from the differences in the pH degrees of the solutions used to H2O the workss. The controlled plants’ ( workss watered with tap H2O ) grew much faster than most of the other workss. This represented the growing rate of workss in a normal’ environment in which the independent variable ( the pH degree of H2O ) has non been manipulated. By comparing the other workss with the controlled workss. a better decision can be reached. The growing rate of the other workss can be compared with the growing rate of either controlled workss reflected in Figure 3: Figure 3: The Growth Rate of pH 6 works BFigure 3 shows the tallness of pH 6 works B over the span of two hebdomads. The controlled works grew about exponentially over the span of two hebdomads. As reflected in Figure 3. Plant B have a slower growing rate near the beginning of the probe. and towards the center and near the terminal. the works experienced really fast growing. Because this works was watered with a controlled stuff ( tap H2O ) . it is seen as the normal growing of a bean works. It was hypothesized that the workss watered with a lower pH solution would either dice before the other workss would. or would turn much slower than the other workss. As reflected in Table 2. the workss watered with the pH 3 solution began deceasing within 2 yearss. while the other workss remained alive. Although the other workss remained alive for the continuance other the probe. the rate of growing still differed from works to works. For illustration. when the probe began. the pH 5 works and the pH 4 works were the same tallness ( mention to Table 2 ) . However. as irrigating with acids began. the pH 5 works continued to turn. but the pH 4 works would stay the same ( or around the same ) tallness for about the full probe. and merely grew a sum of 2 centimeter at the terminal of the probe. The different between the pH 4 and the pH 5 workss are shown in Figure 4: Figure 4: Comparison of the growing rates of the pH 5 works and the pH 4 plantFigure 4 shows the tallness of each works for each twenty-four hours recorded. Discussion portion 1The hypothesis was right. that the beans watered with the more acidic acetum died faster. During the procedure. the bean that was H2O with pH 3 easy shrunk and shrivelled up. However. the bean that was H2O with pH 6 neer shrunk or shrivelled. alternatively it grew the fastest and healthiest. Mention to Postpone 2. the form shown was that the more acidic the solution is. the less likely the workss will last in that environment. The independent variable ( pH levelled solutions ) affected the dependant variable ( the workss. in this instance the beans ) as predicted. Due to the low pH degree. the beans watered with it bit by bit shrunk and dried up. In comparing. the beans watered with the higher pH degree ( pH 6 ) . grew tall and healthy looking. In the terminal. the independent variable. the pH degree affected the growing of the dependant variable. the beans as expected. Discussion portion 2The information gathered shows the consequence of acid on bean workss. It was hypothesized that the workss watered with an acidic solution would turn slower than the control works because acid can denature proteins and cause harm to cells and tissue. As hypothesized. the workss watered with a lower pH solution either died really rapidly or grew at a much slower rate than the controlled works. As reflected in the informations recorded on the concluding twenty-four hours of the probe ( Table 2 ) . the closer to neutral the solution the workss were watered with. the taller and faster they grew ( as reflected in Figure 5 ) : Discussion portion 3Although. the consequences of the workss in sourness conditions were accurately hypothesized. experimental mistake may hold occurred. Meaning if any experimental mistakes occurred they have non impacted the consequences. However. in the procedure of sprouting of the bean workss several reverses aroused. For case. irrigating the seeds in the pot may hold been excessively heavy and may hold leeched the seed farther down the pot doing its decease. Other times were where outside interventions may hold removed the germinated workss from its pot. Looking at the chief processs of this experiment the deficiency of supervising of the acids made have weakened or beef up their pH as outside elements were exposed to them when the parafilms has ripped or ruptured. This changes the consequence of dirt pH which is great on the solubility of minerals or foods. As 14 of the 17 indispensable works foods are obtained from the soil5. Some workss if shared a pot is another factor that may hold affected the consequences a small as competition for foods occurred. Other incidences like supplying abundant sunshine to the workss. as the sunshine was mimicked by fluorescent light the workss at the terminals may hold obtained l ess light for their procedure of photosynthesis. Procedural mistakes may hold impacted the consequences more than instrumental mistakes ; nevertheless it was non equal plenty to obtain false consequences as proved in figure 5. As the intent of this lab was to imitate existent acid precipitation it relates greatly to the society. economic system and the environment. The consequence of this experiment proves to be a direct impact on the environment as it can destroy or kill off works flora. Get downing off from the industries ( economic system ) that pollute the ambiance with emanations of air pollutants like C monoxide. N dioxide and S dioxide that besides earnestly affect the wellness in kids. the aged. and people with bosom and lung conditions4. It contributes the formation of acid rain which in this instance is the aim of the experiment. Our mimics of acerb precipitation affect ponds. lakes. and streams that lead to non merely the disappearing of flora but carnal life excessively. In one instance. the sulphuric acid works discovered to hold cost a sum of two million dollars charged on DuPont and Lucite International Inc. to the United States and the province of West Virginia on April 2009. Not merely have the chemical fabrication composite made alterations to their works in 1996 without first obtaining pre-construction licenses and installation required pollution control equipment their works emits 98. 7 dozenss of sulphuric acerb mist. 86. 1 dozenss of N dioxide and 212. 4 dozenss of C monoxide that contributes to smog each year4. This experiment provided direct importance to the responds of emanations and pollution even thought it was merely the usage of acetum. Figure 5: Comparison of the Final Height of Each plantFigure 5 shows the tallness of each works on the concluding twenty-four hours of the probe ( May 1st. 2009 ) . Acid likely affects the plants’ wellness and growing because they could make environments which make denature proteins in the workss. As workss absorb H2O and foods from their roots. protein in works cells could be exposed to low pH degrees. Besides. because acids are solutions. they could set the workss in a hypertonic environment in which there are more solutes outside of the cell than dissolvers. Plant cells undergo osmosis ( the diffusion of H2O ) in order to obtain H2O and foods. Osmosis normally occurs down a concentration gradient. significance that the cell would seek to set up homeostasis by spreading H2O in or out of the cell to equalise the concentration of each environment. Because there are solutes in the acids used to H2O the workss. it lowers the concentration of H2O in the dirt. To seek and set up homeostasis. the cells would spread H2O out. This environment would do non merely the works to retain less H2O than a works that has been watered with tap H2O. but it would do the works to lose H2O. doing plasmolysis ( in which the cells shrivel ) . As seen in Figure 5. there are still some incompatibilities in the correlativity between works tallness and sourness. For illustration. although Plant A was more impersonal than pH 5 Plant. it is shorter. This is a consequence of several factors: Plant A had germinated subsequently than pH 5. and so would be lagging’ behind in footings of growing. and Plant A besides shared a pot with Plant B. which may hold competed with Plant A for foods and growing room for roots. Although the beans were planted a just distance apart. roots can turn past that distance. Another incompatibility is that. although sourness degree ( the figure of H ions released in solution ) addition or diminish ten-fold per pH degree. some degrees have growing forms that are more likewise than others. despite the pH difference of merely one. For illustration. the works watered with a pH 5 solution has experienced 10 times more sourness ( 10 times more hydrogen ions ) than the larger controlled works ( which germinated at around the same clip as the pH 5 works ) . Despite this. the workss grew at a similar gait. and the difference in their concluding tallness is little. as reflected in Figure 6 and Table 2. Figure 6: Comparison of the growing rate of Control Plant B and pH 5 PlantFigure 6 shows the tallness of each respective works on the yearss recorded. pH degrees further from impersonal have a wider scope of effects on the works. nevertheless. The ratio of H ions in the acid irrigating the pH 4 Plant and the pH 3 Plants were the same was the ratio between the controlled works ( B ) and the pH 5 Plant. but the different in wellness and growing of the pH 4 Plant and the pH 3 Plants were drastically different. as reflected in Table 2. Although the pH 4 Plant grew much slower than the control works ( B ) and the pH 5 Plant. it still remained alive and reasonably healthy ( as reflected in the Shape and Colour columns of Table 2 ) . The pH 3 Plants. on the other manus. died or began to decease merely two yearss after it was watered with pH 3 acid. As reflected in the Shape and Colour columns of Table 2. while the pH 4 Plant maintained its healthy coloring material and form. both pH 3 Plants became really dried-up and the coloring material became really unsaturated. These consequences could be explained by experimental mistake. The pH solutions used to H2O the workss were unsupervised. and although parafilms were used. they frequently broke. leting outside elements to fall into the solution. This could alter to pH degree of the acids. The solutions were non tested for their sourness aside from the initial readying for the probe. This could intend that the pH 5 solution had become less acidic than earlier. or the pH 3 solution had become more acidic than earlier. Furthermore. acids affect different workss otherwise. Although all of the workss were of the same species. they could still possess allelomorphs that make them somewhat unique from each other. It is possible that these allelomorphs could impact how acerb affects the plants’ growing. Rubin. Ken. Effect of Acid Rain on Plants. SOEST| School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. 13 May 2009. Rubin. Ken. Effect of Acid Rain on Plants. SOEST| School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. 13 May 2009. ? Galbraith. Donald. Leesa Blake. Jean Bullard. Anita Chetty. and Eric Grace. McGraw-Hill Ryerson Biology 11. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. 2001. Print. 4 Sulfuric Acid Plant Emissions Cost Dupont and Lucite $ 2 Million. Environment News Service 20 Apr 2009 Web. 14 May 2009. . 5 Soil pH: What it Means. SUNY-ESF E-Center. 2009. State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. 14 May 2009. 6 Paillai. Maya. Plant Growth Procedure: How does a Plant Grow? . Buzzle. com. 17 June 2008. 14 May 2009.

Monday, October 21, 2019

9 High-Growth Careers in Healthcare Support

9 High-Growth Careers in Healthcare Support You don’t have to be a doctor or spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and years on medical school to be part of the lucrative health care industry. The field of health care support is rumored to be one of the fastest growing job sectors and is only going to get bigger in the years to come. Here are 9Â  of the best and fastest growing job areas in this break-out field.1. Occupational TherapyOccupational therapy assistants work with patients directly, helping them through their stretches and exercises, instructing them in how to use special therapeutic equipment, and recording their progress. In the next 10 years, this field could increase by as much as 43%.2. Dental HygieneDental hygienists actually do most of the day-to-day work in the dentist’s office: cleaning teeth, taking x-rays, assisting the dentist in procedures and exams. There may be more than 37,000 new job openings for dental hygienists in the coming decade.3. Orthotics and ProsthesesOrthotists and prosthe tists design artificial limbs for amputees, as well as body braces and other medical devices. OP professionals also work directly with patients helping them to adapt to their new devices. This field is slated to grow 23% in the next 10Â  years.4. Physical Therapy (PT)Much like occupational therapy assistants, physical therapy assistants and aides assist physical therapists in the work of helping rehabilitate patients after surgeries and injuries. Expect nearly 32,000 new jobs to come in this field.5. Diagnostic SonographyDiagnostic sonographers don’t just take ultrasounds of babies for expecting mothers! There is a huge demand for these non-invasive images of internal organs. Expect this field to grow by over 25%.6. Hearing AidsHearing aid specialists help patients select and fit their auditory devices, modifying them as necessary, and testing their efficacy. This field is looking at growth of up to 27% in the years to come.7. Medical AdministrationEver consider being a medi cal secretary? These are the folks who ready reports and charts and provide doctors with valuable behind-the-scenes support, sorting out insurance particulars, billing, and transcribing notes. There may be as many as 108,000 new positions available in this field in the next decade.8. Massage TherapyGood with your hands? Want to participate in the project of healing people? Massage therapists can be a valuable part of alleviating painful conditions and relieving stress. With an increase of 22% in the next 10Â  years, you’d be getting into this growing field at a great time.9. MRI TechnologyEver had an MRI? You could be the person shepherding you through the process, obtaining all those images of what is happening in your spine. Expect a 10% increase in this field.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Future of Singapore Public Housing Loan The WritePass Journal

Future of Singapore Public Housing Loan Abstract Future of Singapore Public Housing Loan ). Moreover, the private sector’s better performance and management of the economy was an added reason for the privatization as compared to the public sector’s ability in managing and performance. With the privation of the HDB loans to consumer banks, the annual interest rate returns have since increased and projections show that they will continue to increase in the coming year. This therefore eliminates the high rate hurdle previously presented by HDB through the elimination and minimization of the government regulation on the HDB housing projects. (Li, 2014). Financier of Mortgage loan: Interest rates   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Homebuyer with potential can choose to buy a home with either a HBO loan or Bank loan. The payment scheme chosen will determine the selection of the mortgage partner from which the mortgage loan will be received. Homeowners are able to apply for mortgage loans through HBO and Consumer banks. The above options for loan financier are in place in order to enable potential buyers to decide which best fits their financial capability.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In addition, HDB plays the role of a financier to flat owners by giving mortgage loans. This has enabled Singapore residents to acquire public houses easily and faster with the help of HDB mortgage loan. From a financier’s point of view, a homebuyer applying for a mortgage loan is required to have met their credit assessment and this is assessed with their current system of standard mortgage application. For an eligible flat buyer to have access to a concessionary loan, they must have an HDB Eligibility Letter (HLE) confirming that they are capable of making repayments. This is important because it accesses one’s potential ability to pay back his loan with constraining their personal budget. Before anyone can purchase a flat, they must have a letter of eligibility of HDB. HBO concessionary loan interest is 2.6% which is only 0.1% higher than the Central Provident Fund (CPF). It seems important tor e-examine the interest rate of HBO quarterly in comparison to CPF interest rate to ensure that it stays roughly the same level. This type of system design helps to provide an easier scheme for the mortgagor to service their loan payment, and ensure they constantly pay without defaults. This interest rate of the HBO loan has been in existence for over 15 years (Ong, 2010). Contrary to this, banks interest rate is currently 1%. The interest is dynamic and not constant because it is determined by a number of other factors which affects the operation of the bank such as its business strategy, the prevailing market situation and commercial decisions. It is determined jointly by all the financial institution in Singapore. This system make it unreliable because it is not constant, it keeps fluctuating based on the above mentioned factors. Even though HBO mortgage offer low amount of loans, HBO mortgage scheme remain the most suitable financier to mortgage loan. Unfortunately, and since the privatisation of HBO, all those who wish to finance their resale and acquisition of HBO public housing will have to apply loans to various banks licensed by the monetary fund to give mortgage loans to public housing acquisition and resale. Immigration There are benefits to being a citizen in Singapore. Singapore is one of the major cities in Asia in terms of wealth and culture. To buy and rent an HBD flat, one has to be 21 years or older and a citizen to Singapore. Another benefit that the citizens of Singapore are entitled to is obtain loans at concessionary interest rate with HBO to help them in obtaining the flats. In addition to this, they are also offers for citizens who obtain public houses for the first time such as subsidies, for instance grants offered by the government as a cushion to aid those buying public houses. Citizens also enjoy lower rates for houses repairs (Adams, 2014). Conclusion In conclusion, the number of public house owners in Singapore is bound to increase in the near future with increase in mortgage.   The performance of HDB’s hurdle interest is expected to increase on an annual basis with the privatisation to consumer banks to aid in the mortgage loan financing. This has facilitated the process of solving the housing problem in Singapore owing to the fact that the government has provided a more reliable and efficient option to help people buy property. Although the current market is not promising, the government is working hard to curb the situation and enable more Singapore in the coming year to own public house. This will enable them to deal with the housing problems and concentrate in development of other sectors of the economy thereby increase their national income and dominate in the leading economy (Li, 2014). Bibliography Adams, J. (2014, October 10). Bleeding the banks. Retrieved October 31, 2014. Li Sen, S. (2014, October 3). Spike in bad home loans swells Singapore banks NPLs. Retrieved October 31, 2014. Ong, S. (2010). Housing affordability and upward mobility from public to private housing in Singapore. Singapore: S.E. Ong].

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Gift Exchanging Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Gift Exchanging - Essay Example What actually this gift is It's a transfer or exchange of something voluntarily usually give to express one's love, solidarity, to express gratitude etc on any special occasion i.e. wedding, birthday, Christmas, anniversary, birth, father's day, mother's day etc The basic purpose behind this exchange of little things is to make your loved ones feel special and to make them feel that you care for them. But according to some people they are important in insecure relations. According to Caplow, Theodore. 1982. Christmas gifts and kin networks. Sociological Review, "What the ethnographic literature on gift giving does suggest is that ritual gift giving in any society is a method in dealing with relationships that are important bur insecure"1 Well now the culture has become advanced and as a result the gift exchange is no more a one way process but has taken the form of cycle which involves obligations to give, to receive, and to return. Endorse may exist to induce people to give, disapproval or loss of prestige resulting from a failure to do so. We can call it a moral norm but it varies from country to country for instance in Taiwan gifts like gold pen, imported liquor, gifts related to base ball, perfume, magazine subscription and anything high-tech is appreciated . In western world exchanging gifts in holiday seasons is a custom and if you become fed up of exchanging gifts people will suppose that you are a selfish person. Christmas gifts are other important features of American society. According to Caplow, Theodore, 1982 " Relationships with kin being more valued then other affiliations, it is not surprising that so much efforts goes into reinforcing them by ritual gift giving"2.. (Christmas gifts and kin networks. Sociological Review) In Japan you have to give a gift to a person in order to show respect, friendship or appreciation and in case you are meeting a person for the very first time it is necessary to exchange gifts. Moreover it is considered a rude behavior to give a gift to an individual in a group and ignore others. Another interesting fact about Japanese gift exchanging culture is that they avoid giving gifts in sets of four as the word "four" in Japanese is "shi," which is also associated with the word for death and pens are considered to be the very appropriate gift for your colleague. In Korea gifts between business associates are considered as the symbol of appreciation and the presenting expensive gift is a custom but don't present an expensive gift if the receiver is not financially strong enough to return the gift of same worth. 4 numbers is considered unlucky in Korea as well. Koreans Give and receive the gifts with both hands. Korean opens the gift in the presence of the one who presented them the gift. Chinese people often avoid exchanging expensive gifts. They avoid giving gifts in odd number as they relate it to loneliness and separation. Umbrellas and Clocks are also not considered as good gifts in Chinese civilization. Taiwan had even more interesting custom that is they avoid giving gifts with a label "made in Taiwan". They also avoid giving clocks, sweat cakes, umbrellas, scissors, mirrors, fans and hand towels as well. Business gifts are also very popular in Taiwan's culture. Moreover it is customary to reciprocate a gift with one of similar value. Numbers also play an important role in selecting gifts for example: in china 8 and