Altering Public Space in Ugly Ways essays

Altering Public Space in Ugly Ways essays In his essay Black Men and Public Space, Brent Staples attempts to introduce people to something most all are guilty of, but pay little attention to. Using accounts from his own and others experiences, Staples essay portrays the racist tendency of people to assume black men are potentially violent and dangerous. Staples discovery of this comes during a late-night encounter. A young white female, whom Staples labels my first victim (197), was walking down the street in front of Staples and was not comfortable with the space he provided for her. After a couple of glances back and changes in her pace, she soon began running and disappeared down a side street. Of course, Staples had no intention of robbing or in any way harming this woman. He was just taking a walk, just as she was. Nevertheless, this was a fairly well to do neighborhood. Apparently, this woman figured that if a black man did find himself in this part of town, he was most likely up to something. Not wanting any trouble, she decided to get out of harms way. In another illustration, Staples describes an instance in which he was delivering a story to the editor of a magazine for which he was writing, and was mistaken for a burglar. While racing to his editors desk in order to meet his deadline, the office manager and an ad hoc posse (199) of security personnel began to chase him through the building. I had no way of proving who I was, Staples writes. I could only move briskly toward the company of someone who knew me. (106) While writing for a Chicago paper, Staples walked into a jewelry store in another well-off part of town, and encountered another situation where his skin color came into play. The woman behind the counter disappeared and returned with an angry Doberman. Understanding that the woman did not quite value him as a possible sale, ...

Bolman & Deals Four-Frame Model Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Bolman & Deals Four-Frame Model - Essay Example The power to reframe is vital for modern leaders. The ability to see new possibilities and to create new opportunities enables leaders to discover alternatives when options seem severely constrained. It helps them find hope and faith amid fear and despair. Choice is at the heart of freedom, and freedom is essential to achieving the twin goals of commitment and flexibility (Bolman & Deal, 2003, p.433)." In the contemporary times, change within the organizations is an expected and normal phenomenon, though the pace of chance has been manifold accelerated by the IT revolution and the digitization of the economies. Corporate organizations more then often consist of a highly complex framework that can make the task of managing change really challenging and unpredictable. Every organization undergoing a change represents a unique scenario that may have multiple facets such as the popping up technical challenges, existing political framework and the rampant cultural ethos (Tichy, 1983, p.17). The multiple dimensions inherent in the functional efficiency of the organizations call for astute management responses and seasoned administrational efficacy. Also the attitude of the employees towards the inbuilt values and ethical moorings within the organizations more then often gives way to immense resistance from within and without (Lewin, 1947). Thus the complexity involved in managing change may further be aggravated due to a friction between the gamuts of opposing elements within the organizations (Charles, Bastein & Hostages, 1991). In such a scenario, the top leadership within the organizations often gets bifurcated into managers who insist on the relevance of existing maintenance procedures and the managers who aspire to play a leadership role in facilitating the inevitable change (Zaleznick, 1977). Change management undeniably calls for a visionary perspective on the part of a leader and demands an ability to visualize the overall process of change from a vantage point that is seldom distracted by the humdrum of everyday activities (Bums, 1978, p.42). The ability of a leader to visualize change in the context of multiple frames facilitates a linkage of the experiences of the people working within an organization with the requisite transformational behaviour (Avolio, 1994). These intrinsic connections between experience and behaviour yield the stimulating driving f orce that transforms organizations (Schuster, 1994). Hence Bass was not wrong in tracing a direct correlation between the ability of a leader to visualize change from multiple perspectives and team effectiveness (1985). The ability of a leader to dissect the predominant influences within an organization into constituent frames helps in unravelling the vision, beliefs, assumptions and goals that aught to be dealt with on a priority basis to facilitate change (Schein, 2004, p.22).Over the years there has occurred a sea change in the way managers and administrators are expected to visualize change within organizations. From the anachronistic perspective of seeing change as a monolithic phenomenon, managers today are encouraged to

Managing Behavior in the Workplace Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Managing Behavior in the Workplace - Term Paper Example It is a reality that today workplace issues happen to be more diverse, complex, and inexplicable than ever before. A large percentage of such issues are commonly found to be originating from negative workplace environment fraught with confusions, biases, discrimination, fear, and unhealthy criticism. Negative environment in turn originates from mismanaged workforce behavior. An army leader should be well aware of the direction in which the behavior of his men proceeds as it can influence the whole country either for the good or the worse. Major annoying issues developing due to bad or wayward behavior include excessive gossip about each other’s personal affairs, sexual or mental harassment, communication gap between leaders and employees, and mistreatment of myriad changes by workforce. It is true that changes are always for the betterment of the organization and if those changes are not welcomed by the employees due to behavior which lacks obedience and understanding, results can be disastrous and much chaos could be created. This paper basically aims to postulate that the army leaders should be highly acknowledged to the behavior of those working under them as appropriately managed behavior is especially important in the military context since it raises concern not only for the army but for the entire nation as well. Stress also results when behavior is not managed efficiently. For this purpose, it remains mandatory for an army leader to communicate more often with the people of his army so that confusion about certain instructions could be removed and general appreciation for one another could be developed. Moreover, each worker should be motivated by the army leader to do a lot of things which do not necessarily fall into the role assigned to that worker like filling communication gap, condemning negative gossip, offering creative ideas, and professional handling of the bosses who sabotage employee’s careers. Professional handling of the bosse s who negatively affect employees’ careers relates to zero tolerance for harassment directed at employees. A leader should always try to set an example himself in order to see the workforce behaving appropriately. There is no chance for an employee to behave good if the leaders themselves engage in unprofessional activities like feeling tired all the time, arriving late for important tasks, and remaining absent. It becomes increasingly important for an army leader to set a good character example so that his workers could take an advice just by looking at his personality. It is repeatedly suggested by the researchers that creating a kind of culture where people feel part of the organization itself rather than merely remaining involved in their individual jobs makes a company preferable over another to work for. Many people leave army only because they do not feel themselves to be a part of the whole scene, rather they start considering their lives monotonous and boring. That i s just one way by which most of the talent gets wasted. In order to keep workers from feeling monotonous, changes should be implemented by efficient leaders. Though changes are despised but â€Å"

HR Assingment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

HR Assingment - Essay Example Human resource management is a way that a company or any other firm can use to manage its staff; in fact this aspect of organization has been identified as an academic theory of business functions which identifies workers or employees as resources with changing needs and ambitions. Workers are not just like other business resources like machinery, transport and raw materials as people ability to work depends on knowledge, training, and the processes set in place. The 21st century is a critical period in the growth of business departments especially the information and communications departments and the human resources departments as these have become every critical for the development of any organization (Fisher & Ashkanasy 2000). The following are major functions of the human resource department as identified many organizations with well developed department divisions; Human resource planning (keeping workers records, forecasting, career modelling and succession planning); employment (recruitment, training, selection, testing and orientation); training and development (primary and advanced skills training, devising working programs); labour relation (solving employee concerns, monitoring morale, labour management programs); compensation ( incentives, analyses of job performance, salary surveys and performance reviews); workforce benefits ( administration of policy, health insurance, designing vacation and sick benefits schemes) (Fisher & Ashkanasy 2000); safety (making sure that the workplace complies with safety regulations like Occupational Safety and Heath Act, supervising security, carrying out possible accident investigations, and evaluation of the physical environment); discipline ( policy formulation and coordination, conduction of disciplinary measures); and personnel research (conducting opinion surveys,

Diversity at work - organisational politics to employees Essay

Diversity at work - organisational politics to employees - Essay Example As the case study shows, Isobela intelligently participates in the organizational politics at TopNotch and eventually gets a promotion after the retirement of James, their CEO. Alternatively, participating in organizational politics can have adverse effects on the careers of various individuals as happened to Alexis and George in the case study under consideration. The main issue that Alexis, George and Chetan are facing is their participation in organizational politics in an effort of seeing their efforts at the organization recognized and in turn get promotions. Their participation takes place when Alexis discovers that a former minister in New Zealand plans on hosting celebrations for his seventieth birthday. Alexis sees this as an opportunity of advancing her own agenda through playing politics to assist the company in achieving their objective of attracting latent clients while strengthening their status (Schermerhorn, Osborne, Uhl-Bien & Hunt, 2011). Alexis relies on rumors tha t are circulating within the organization concerning their relationship with their competitors. This enables her to obtain vital information concerning their organization of the various parties they have contracted (Martin, 2005). On the other hand, the company’s CEO also utilizes organizational politics in eliminating his competition in the attainment of contracts. He is able to threaten the management of ExcelEvent with the possibility of cutting ties with their major catering organization that is run by his relative. It is this move that enables him to eliminate part of their competition leaving one company vying for the same contract as his company (Sievers, Long & Lawrence, 2006). This therefore implies that the organizational politics utilized by the CEO of TopNotch were beneficial for his company (Case Study 2, 2012). Isobella is also perceived to have begun the steady rise in her career through the use of organizational politics. She reportedly manages to get the prom otions through having dinners with the company’s CEO and her family’s background. Isobella is said to be incompetent and leaves most of her duties to her assistant, a Mr. George. She utilizes the time she would have been performing beneficial duties for the company in blackmailing, gossiping and making negative reports concerning her subordinates to the CEO. This strategy enables her to propel her career to levels which other employees within her company only dream about. She additionally utilizes threats to damage the image of her subordinates who have not been complying with the organizations regulations (Champoux, 2010). For instance, she utilizes the pictures she had taken of George dating a colleague since the company has strict regulations concerning the relationships that exist between their workers. The types of organizational politics that are utilized by Isobella are meant to help her in pursuing her self-interests through the promotions she will get (Daft & Willmott, 2010). Alexis on the other hand uses her skills of negotiating directly with officials from other organizations in the pursuit of excellence for the company (Samuel, 2005). She uses her influence through positive organizational politics that would greatly have helped the company in achieving their desired objectives (Schermerhorn, Osborne,

Illegal Immigration. Sepcifically Spanish or Asian Illigell Immigrants Essay

Illegal Immigration. Sepcifically Spanish or Asian Illigell Immigrants - Essay Example Illegal immigrants receive more from public monies than they contribute which lowers the standard of living for legal citizens. Illegal immigrants contribute greatly to the overall population growth and health care, education and employment are the most impacted. Salaries are driven down by illegal immigrants willing to work for much less while their children, illegal and legal, overcrowd the schools. It’s the U.S. taxpayer who is sent the bill for their health care services as well. In addition, the large influx of illegal aliens burdens the already inadequate number of units classified as affordable housing and other welfare resources such as energy, water and land usage (â€Å"Illegal Immigration†, 2003). Illegal immigrants have already broken the law upon arrival into the country and a considerable number break more including selling drugs, theft, murder, rape, etc. while in the country. The cost to the federal court and prison system alone in 2002 attributed to illegal aliens was $1.6 billion. This does not include the costs to state judicial and penal institutions. It costs Arizona, for example, $80 million to jail illegal aliens yearly. According to a 2002 report by Heather MacDonald of the City Journal, â€Å"In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens† (McDonald, 2004). Illegal aliens drain social services paid for by legal citizens, $2.5 billion from Medicaid, $2 billion from food aid programs and $2 billion in hospital care from the federal coffers in 2002 alone.

248789_diversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

248789_diversity - Essay Example not only includes the traditional categories of race and gender but also people with disabilities, gays & lesbians and other non-traditional categories considered having â€Å"diversity of thought† or those from the different disciplines, college degrees, socio-economic backgrounds etc. It was Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who inspired the concept of diversity when he advocated that people should be judged by their character, not by the color of their skin. This propelled lawmakers to come up with laws that provide equal opportunity to all. (MOR BARAK, M. E., 2000) These laws have been designed protect anyone from being discriminated against by reason of sex, marital status, ethnic or national origin, color, race, nationality, age, disability, religion, and differing terms of employment, including pay for jobs of equal value. As of now, an escalating number of European firms are implementing diversity and equality strategies; not only for principled and legal reasons but also for the trade benefits they are anticipated to deliver. Amongst the most imperative of these benefits are enhanced employee recruitment and employee retention from a broad pool of superior quality workforce, better corporate icon and repute, better innovation and improved promotion opportunities. The term â€Å"Equal opportunity† refers to a situation where a person is entitled to equal access in society. â€Å"Equal opportunities approach† is premised on the principle that all people are eligible to avail certain rights or privileges like education, employment, health care or other welfare services without any discrimination or any preference. Different organizations now apply various equal opportunity practices which consist of a number of means adopted to provide fair conditions for all their members in the process of employment and work. (GILL KIRTON, A. M. G., 2000) This current trend of the embracing of diversity has given birth to the concept of â€Å"the inclusive