Salvador Dali Belief System Essay Example for Free

Salvador Dali Belief System Essay Salvador Dali – Explore and analyse the metamorphosis of Dali’s belief system through his art Salvador Dali was an artist; known not only for his tremendous artistic talent and flamboyant and eccentric personality, but also for the greater meaning he entwined into his art. His contrasting beliefs led to an interesting metamorphosis of his belief system. Dali struggled between religion and science, due to conflicting family influences from his childhood and personal experiences which he would go on to endeavour in life. Dali’s initial works commenced by experimenting specifically with scientific themes and ideas, which can be noted in one his most famous paintings; The Persistence of Memory (1931). However as his life progressed, Dali’s new reincarnated interest in religion, mysticism and metaphysics led him to believe that religion and science co-exist simultaneously, which he portrayed through his artwork. Dali developed conflicting views regarding religion from a very young age. The artist grew up in a household where his mother’s family were devout Catholics; however his father was a firm atheist. Dali’s early views on religion were explicitly expressed in his drawing Sometimes I spit with Pleasure on the Portrait of my Mother (The Sacred Heart) (1929). This abstract themed drawing of what appears to be the silhouette of Jesus Christ is incredibly blasphemous. The hand written â€Å"Parfois Je crache pour plaisir sur la portrait de ma mere â€Å"literally translates to â€Å"Sometimes I spit with pleasure on the portrait of my mother†. The drawing is done in black ink on a plain white canvas. This simple colour scheme proves to be very effective, as it delivers the message very clearly and graphically. However, the simple nature of this particular drawing reflects what artists and literary figures from previous generations would have potentially branded as a â€Å"simple† and â€Å"earthly† mind due to the lack of belief in religion and one’s higher self. The style of writing could almost be associated with the types of print associated with cartoons. This just further reflects the lack of seriousness on Dali’s behalf. On the drawing, the words â€Å"ma mere† are specifically written in a bolder and larger size compared to the rest of the sentence. This effect makes these two words stand out in particular, emphasising Dali’s abhorrence towards his mother’s belief system. The small drawing in the centre of the silhouette with the Christian symbol of the cross represents Dali’s version of â€Å"The Sacred Heart†. This heart which he has drawn appears to be a very deformed heart. According to Christian beliefs, The Sacred Heart is a devotional name used by Catholics to refer to the physical heart of Jesus Christ, as a symbol of divine love. The devotion especially emphasizes the unmitigated love, compassion, and long-suffering of the heart of Christ towards humanity. By illustrating this â€Å"Sacred Heart† as deformed, Dali atrociously insulted his mother’s beliefs. This scandalous portrayal of the priesthood clearly reflects how Dali and his father viewed the priesthood as heavily corrupted, ignorant and hypocritical. The deformed heart reinstates how he thought the Catholic Church had deformed views, beliefs and a deformed lifestyle. Dali was an artist who formed part of the Surrealism movement. In the surrealist period, I wanted to create the iconography of the interior world – the world of the marvellous, of my father Freud. I succeeded in doing it. Today the exterior world – that of physics – has transcended the one of psychology. My father today is Dr Heisenberg† (Salvador Dali, quoted in Elliott H. King, ‘Nuclear Mysticism’, Salvador Dali: Liquid Desire, p. 247). The artists from the surrealist era introduced the theory of the liberation of desire through the invention of techniques that aimed to reproduce the mechanisms of dreams (Centre Pompidou, 2007). From a very young age, Dali was an avaricious learner of science and extensively read many books on geometry, mathematics, optical science, physics and natural history. Dali extensively studied and experimented with the Freudian theories on dreams and the unconscious. Several surrealist artists turned to hypnotism and drugs to delve into the dream world, where they looked for unconscious images that were not available in the conscious world, and Dali was an artist who was known for doing so (Art History Archive, n. d. ). The most famous painting associated with Dali is â€Å"The Persistence of Memory†, which was completed in 1931. This painting perfectly expresses Dali’s intense fascination and interest with the world of science, in particular modern physics. Albert Einstein proved to be a strong influence and inspiration for Dali. Dali’s ubiquitous thirst for science and modern physics naturally drew him to Einstein’s idea of relativity from the early 1900’s. This painting primarily focuses on the theme of time and the idea that time is relative, not fixed. There are three clocks, which appear to be melting, drooping and fluid in movement. These clocks represent that time is irrelevant, especially during sleep. However, the one watch on the desk appears to be normal yet closed, with ants crawling all over it. These ants are a subtle theme in the painting, suggesting that they are drawn to the decaying of time, as if it were â€Å"like rotting flesh† (The Museum of Modern Art). The colour scheme which Dali uses, is a scheme found in many of his other paintings. The use of the earthy colours such as brown, yellow and blue to portray sandy beaches and a slightly rugged coastline, resemble imagery which he had been exposed to as a child in Port Lligat. The use of these earthy colours and scenes of nature in a raw yet calm form brings about a sense of grounding to the painting, which contrasts to the dreamy ideologies which were commonly introduced by Surrealist painters, in particular Dali. In addition, Dali uses contrasting shading and light in this painting. The left half of the painting appears to be under a darker light and shady, whereas the right hand side of the painting appears to be brighter and exposed to sunlight. This subtle detail suggests that these two halves could represent the sub-conscious mind and the conscious mind. In the painting, the drooping, flexible clocks are placed within the darker shaded part of the painting, representing the subconscious mind and the dream world. However, the â€Å"conscious† part of the painting, which appears to be lit by sunlight, suggests that in reality, there is light at the end of the tunnel. This part of the painting also doesn’t enclose any of the clocks, which further emphasises Dali’s belief that in reality, time is definitely relative. Whilst in America during the 1940’s Dali experienced a shift in attitudes and began to reinvent himself. Despite the hatred he had for the Catholic Church during his younger years, Dali found himself exploring and returning to his mother’s belief system. Dali reinvented his art to explore and combine psychology, science and religion. This urge to explore his religious roots came from his research regarding Spanish mystics, who believed that science, art and religion can be expressed and proved as one. During this time, Dali came to know of the mathematician Matila Ghyka, whose works related to the golden mean, a harmonious proportion known to the Ancient Greeks and present in both nature and art. It was through this mathematician, that Dali came to learn of this unique and beautiful proportion. Dali was convinced that Ghyka had solved the problem of geometrical composition and used a transcription of his golden mean composition diagram as an inspiration for many of his compositions ( The Dali Dimension: DVD). Dali incorporated the use of the golden mean in many of his works, such as The Sacrament of the Last Supper (1955). In mathematics and art, two quantities are the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the large quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. This proportion has been used in the form of the â€Å"golden rectangle† since the renaissance era by many artists, and is believed to be the most aesthetically pleasing. Dali was heavily inspired and influenced by artists from the renaissance era and therefore incorporated the golden rectangle in his own works too. The ratio of the dimensions of Dalis painting Sacrament of the Last Supper is equal to the golden ratio. Dali incorporated into the painting a huge dodecahedron (with each side being a pentagon) engulfing the supper table. According to Plato, the dodecahedron was the solid which the god used for embroidering the constellations on the whole heaven, and is intimately related to the golden ratio; both the surface area and the volume of a dodecahedron of unit edge length are simple functions of the golden ratio. In the painting The Sacrament of the Last Supper, Dali uses daring presentation. He successfully modernises a traditional and religious scene. The painting has an intense clarity to it, where the brush stroke artifacts that are barely visible give the image an even more meticulous quality to it. Dali presents Christ without any facial hair, which proves to be an extremely rare portrayal albeit a very effective one which modernises Christ. The use of the chapel like setting through the use of modern architecture removes this scene from an ancient biblical time in history, replacing and bringing it to what possibly could be the present. The three-dimensional effect which Dali incorporates proves to be alluring and only exemplifies the modern feel of the scene this painting. By using the three-dimensional affect, Dali could also be hinting at an ethereal dimension of spirituality. The colour scheme which Dali uses consists mainly of celestial shades of blue and soft hues of gold and white. Dali continues the beautifully spiritual theme with the body of Christ. The body is emphasised by the lack of a head, with his arms stretched over the Apostles symbolising that Christ offered himself up, however the Apostles are a metaphor for the mystical and metaphysical body of Christ. Dali seems to be the perfect match to create a modern-day painting of The Sacrament of the Last Supper, since he seemed to express a genuine understanding of the supernatural whilst having the uncanny ability to successfully merge modern science and religion in his work. Dali’s painting Meditative Rose (1958) charmingly indicates a sense of profound, peaceful serenity and completion in Dali’s life, in particular his relationship with his wife Gala, with whom he had an unconventional yet fulfilling and committed relationship with. The large, beautiful rose is unique and stimulating and provides the main focus of the painting. The rose is synonymous with the female form and is featured as a motif and metaphor for a sexual symbol in many of Dali’s other works. The rose bears a dual symbolism, which could represent Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as Dali’s beloved wife Gala. Dali’s positioning of the huge beautiful red rose hovering in the sky with a couple standing below it, promotes a sense of ambiguity and awe. The style which Dali has used is a unique blend of realism and dream-like fantasy. The tiny drop of water on the rose petal insinuates a realistic feature; however it can also infer a reference to holy water, implying that everyone’s life can have an auspicious element to it. The distinctive Spanish landscape which blends a range of earthy colours such as shades of yellow, orange and brown promote a sense of unity and variety. Dali strongly disliked war and conflict, he painted this painting over a decade after the Second World War had ended; therefore the peaceful qualities of this painting reflect his own personal emotional state as well as the condition of the community too. The rose is known for its medicinal and curing properties and perhaps by using this precious plant a motif, Dali aimed to promote healing through his art work. The journey for Dali to balance the struggle between religion and science proved to be empirical yet highly enriching and beneficial for him. Despite growing up with immense hatred towards Catholicism and religion, Dali turned to Spanish mysticism and metaphysics and proved that science and religion can perfectly complement one another. Through his artwork, his vivid expression along with his meticulous technique and exploration of challenging yet intriguing themes, perfectly show the journey and metamorphosis of his belief system.

The Global Drinking Water Shortage Essay -- Potable Water Scarcity

" We never know the worth of water till the well is dry." -- Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia #5451 (1732) While it is the single most important substance on earth, we usually don’t think about water other than when we’re thirsty. Most homes have at least two indoor faucets. Almost every public building has water fountains conveniently placed for easy, instant refreshment. Water is simple; it’s always there. Yet despite all this convenience, simplicity, and lack of excitement, water is the most essential part of life. Water is part of every step of the life cycle, every food chain and every organism. Perhaps the effort associated with getting a drink of water is too little to bring to our realization the magnitude of water’s significance. After enough contemplation, it begins to seem too good to be true. Perhaps it is. In Ethiopia, famine due to drought claimed 1 million lives in 1984 (Thurow A8). While Ethiopia has the right temperatures for good agriculture, it lacks consistent rainfall, and crops can only be grown through the wettest season. All of this adds up to a lot of starving, thirsty people (A1). When I say â€Å"Nile†, you think â€Å"Egypt†. When I say â€Å"Ethiopia†, you think â€Å"famine.† The Nile River, which brings life into the hot dessert of Egypt, starts in Ethiopia. In fact, 85% of the water in the Nile River comes from tributaries in Ethiopia (Thurow A1). Ethiopia has a wealth of water running through it; why not use that water to grow food for one of the most impoverished parts of the world? Politics. For years, Egypt has str... ...ntal Psychology. 24 (2004): 91-103. Thurow, Roger. â€Å"Ravaged by Famine, Ethiopia Finally Gets Help From the Nile.† Wall Street Journal. 26 November 2003, eastern ed.: A1,A8. United States. Environmental Protection Agency. Water-Efficient Landscaping. Washington, D.C.: GPO, September 2002. ---. ---. National Management Measures to Control Nonpoint Pollution from Agriculture. Washington, D.C.: GPO, July 2003. ---. General Accounting Office. Water quality [microform] : key EPA and state decisions limited by inconsistent and incomplete data : report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives / United States General Accounting Office. Washington, D.C.: GPO, March 2000. Weiss, Rick. â€Å"Threats Posed by Water Scarcity Detailed.† The Washington Post. 5 March 2003: A3. The Global Drinking Water Shortage Essay -- Potable Water Scarcity " We never know the worth of water till the well is dry." -- Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia #5451 (1732) While it is the single most important substance on earth, we usually don’t think about water other than when we’re thirsty. Most homes have at least two indoor faucets. Almost every public building has water fountains conveniently placed for easy, instant refreshment. Water is simple; it’s always there. Yet despite all this convenience, simplicity, and lack of excitement, water is the most essential part of life. Water is part of every step of the life cycle, every food chain and every organism. Perhaps the effort associated with getting a drink of water is too little to bring to our realization the magnitude of water’s significance. After enough contemplation, it begins to seem too good to be true. Perhaps it is. In Ethiopia, famine due to drought claimed 1 million lives in 1984 (Thurow A8). While Ethiopia has the right temperatures for good agriculture, it lacks consistent rainfall, and crops can only be grown through the wettest season. All of this adds up to a lot of starving, thirsty people (A1). When I say â€Å"Nile†, you think â€Å"Egypt†. When I say â€Å"Ethiopia†, you think â€Å"famine.† The Nile River, which brings life into the hot dessert of Egypt, starts in Ethiopia. In fact, 85% of the water in the Nile River comes from tributaries in Ethiopia (Thurow A1). Ethiopia has a wealth of water running through it; why not use that water to grow food for one of the most impoverished parts of the world? Politics. For years, Egypt has str... ...ntal Psychology. 24 (2004): 91-103. Thurow, Roger. â€Å"Ravaged by Famine, Ethiopia Finally Gets Help From the Nile.† Wall Street Journal. 26 November 2003, eastern ed.: A1,A8. United States. Environmental Protection Agency. Water-Efficient Landscaping. Washington, D.C.: GPO, September 2002. ---. ---. National Management Measures to Control Nonpoint Pollution from Agriculture. Washington, D.C.: GPO, July 2003. ---. General Accounting Office. Water quality [microform] : key EPA and state decisions limited by inconsistent and incomplete data : report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives / United States General Accounting Office. Washington, D.C.: GPO, March 2000. Weiss, Rick. â€Å"Threats Posed by Water Scarcity Detailed.† The Washington Post. 5 March 2003: A3.

Hard to Be Fair

BEST PRACTICE Everyone knows that being fair costs little and pays off handsomely. Then why do so few executives manage to behave fairly, even though most want to? Why It’s So Hard to Be Fair by Joel Brockner W hen Company A had to downsize,it spent considerable amounts of money providing a safety net for its laid-off workers. The severance package consisted of many weeks of pay, extensive outplacement counseling, and the continuation of health insurance for up to one year. But senior managers never explained to their staff why these layoffs were necessary or how they chose which jobs to eliminate.What’s more, the midlevel line managers who delivered the news to terminated employees did so awkwardly, mumbling a few perfunctory words about â€Å"not wanting to do this† and then handing them off to the human resources department. Even the people who kept their jobs were less than thrilled about the way things were handled. Many of them heard the news while driving home on Friday and had to wait until Monday to learn that their jobs were secure. Nine months later, the company continued to sputter.Not only did it have to absorb enormous legal costs defending against wrongful termination suits, but it also had to make another round of layoffs, in large part because employee productivity and morale plummeted after the ? rst round was mishandled. When Company B downsized, by contrast, it didn’t offer nearly as generous a severance package. But senior managers there explained the strategic purpose of the layoffs multiple times before they were implemented, and executives and middle managers alike made themselves available to answer questions and express regret both to those who lost their jobs and to those who remained.Line managers worked with HR to tell people that their jobs were being eliminated, and they exharvard business review 122 pressed genuine concern while doing so. As a result, virtually none of the laid-off employees ? led a wr ongful termination lawsuit. Workers took some time to adjust to the loss of their former colleagues, but they understood why the layoffs had happened. And within nine months, Company B’s performance was better than it had been before the layoffs occurred.Although Company A spent much more money during its restructuring, Company B exhibited much greater process fairness. In other words, employees at Company B believed that they had been treated justly. From minimizing costs to strengthening performance, process fairness pays enormous dividends in a wide variety of organizational and people-related challenges. Studies show that when managers practice process fairness, their employees march 2006 respond in ways that bolster the organization’s bottom line both directly and indirectly.Process fairness is more likely to generate support for a new strategy, for instance, and to foster a culture that promotes innovation. What’s more, it costs little ? nancially to imple ment. In short, fair process makes great business sense. So why don’t more companies practice it consistently? This article examines that paradox and offers advice on how to promote greater process fairness in your organization. The Business Case for Fair Process Ultimately, each employee decides for him or herself whether a decision has been made fairly.But broadly speaking, there are three drivers of process fairness. One is how much input employees believe they have in the decision- making process: Are their opinions requested and given serious consideration? Another is how employees believe decisions are made and implemented: Are they consistent? Are they based on accurate information? Can mistakes be corrected? Are the personal biases of the decision maker minimized? Is ample advance notice given? Is the decision process transparent? The third factor is how managers behave: Do they explain why a decision was made?Do they treat employees respectfully, actively listening t o their concerns and empathizing with their points of view? It’s worth noting that process fairness is distinct from outcome fairness, which refers to employees’ judgments of the bottom-line results of their exchanges with their employers. Process fairness doesn’t ensure that employees will always get what they want; but it does 123 OLEG DERGACHOV B E S T P R A C T I C E †¢ W h y I t’s S o H a rd t o B e Fa i r mean that they will have a chance to be heard.Take the case of an individual who was passed over for a promotion. If he believes that the chosen candidate was quali? ed, and if his manager has had a candid discussion with him about how he can be better prepared for the next opportunity, chances are he’ll be a lot more productive and engaged than if he believes the person who got the job was the boss’s pet, or if he received no guidance on how to move forward. When people feel hurt by their companies, they tend to retaliate. And w hen they do, it can have grave consequences.A study of nearly 1,000 people in the mid-1990s, led by Duke’s Allan Lind and Ohio State’s Jerald Greenberg, found that a major determinant of whether employees sue for wrongful termination is their perception of how fairly the termination process was carried out. Only 1% of ex-employees who felt that they were treated with a high degree of process fairness ? led a wrongful termination lawsuit versus 17% of those who believed they were treated with a low degree of process fairness. To put that in monetary terms, the expected cost savings of practicing process fairness is $1. 8 million for every 100 employees dismissed. That ? gure–which was calculated using the 1988 rate of $80,000 as the cost of legal defense – is a conservative estimate, since in? ation alone has caused legal fees to swell to more than $120,000 today. So, although we can’t calculate the precise ? nancial cost of practicing fair process, it’s safe to say that expressing genuine concern and treating dismissed employees with dignity is a good deal more affordable than not doing so. Customers, too, are less likely to ? le suit against a service provider if they believe they’ve been treated with process fairness.In 1997, medical researcher Wendy Levinson and her colleagues found that patients typically do not sue their doctors for malpractice simply Joel Brockner ([email  protected] edu) is the Phillip Hettleman Professor of Business at Columbia Business School in New York. 124 because they believe that they received poor medical care. A more telling factor is whether the doctor took the time to explain the treatment plan and to answer the patient’s questions with consideration – in short, to treat patients with process fairness.Doctors who fail to do so are far more likely to be slapped with malpractice suits when problems arise. In addition to reducing legal costs, fair process cuts down on employee theft and turnover. A study by management and human resources professor Greenberg examined how pay cuts were Using process fairness, companies could spend a lot less money and still have more satis? ed employees. handled at two manufacturing plants. At one, a vice president called a meeting at the end of the workweek and announced that the company would implement a 15% pay cut, across the board, for ten weeks.He very brie? y explained why, thanked employees, and answered a few questions – the whole thing was over in 15 minutes. The other plant implemented an identical pay cut, but the company president made the announcement to the employees. He told them that other cost-saving options, like layoffs, had been considered but that the pay cuts seemed to be the least unpalatable choice. The president took an hour and a half to address employees’ questions and concerns, and he repeatedly expressed regret about having to take this step.Greenberg found that durin g the ten-week period, employee theft was nearly 80% lower at the second plant than at the ? rst, and employees were 15 times less likely to resign. Many executives turn to money ? rst to solve problems. But my research shows that companies can reduce ex- penses by routinely practicing process fairness. Think about it: Asking employees for their opinions on a new initiative or explaining to someone why you’re giving a choice assignment to her colleague doesn’t cost much money. Of course, companies should continue to offer tangible assistance to employees as well.Using process fairness, however, companies could spend a lot less money and still have more satis? ed employees. Consider the ? nancial fallout that occurs when expatriates leave their overseas assignments prematurely. Conventional wisdom says that expats are more likely to leave early when they or their family members don’t adjust well to their new living conditions. So companies often go to great expen se to facilitate their adjustment – picking up the tab for housing costs, children’s schooling, and the like.In a 2000 study of 128 expatriates, human resources consultant Ron Garonzik, Rutgers Business School professor Phyllis Siegel, and I found that the expats’ adjustment to various aspects of their lives outside work had no effect on their intentions to depart prematurely if they believed that their bosses generally treated them fairly. In other words, high process fairness induced expats to stick with an overseas assignment even when they were not particularly enthralled with living abroad. In a similar vein, some companies have devised expensive solutions to help employees cope with the stress of modern work.They’ve set up on-site day care centers and sponsored stress management workshops to help reduce absenteeism and burnout. Those efforts are laudable, but process fairness is also an effective strategy. When Phyllis Siegel and I surveyed nearly 3 00 employees from dozens of organizations, we found that work/life con? ict had no measurable effect on employees’ commitment– as long as they felt that senior executives provided good reasons for their decisions and treated them with dignity and respect. Of course, executives should not simply emphasize process fairness over tanharvard business reviewW h y I t’s S o H a rd t o B e Fa i r †¢ B E S T P R A C T I C E gible support. Determining exactly how much tangible support to provide is perhaps best captured by the law of diminishing returns. Beyond a moderate level of ? nancial assistance, practicing process fairness proves much more cost effective because, although money does talk, it doesn’t say it all. Fair Process as a Performance Booster Process fairness can not only minimize costs but can also help to increase value, inspiring operational managers to carry out a well-founded strategic plan eagerly or embrace, rather than sabotage, an organiz ational change.This form of value is less tangible than direct reduction of expenses, but it affects the bottom line nonetheless. The fact is, most strategic and organizational change initiatives fail in their implementation, not in their conception. Several years ago, I worked with the CEO of a ? nancial services institution that needed a major restructuring. The bank’s operational managers, however, were showing signs of resistance that threatened to stop the process dead in its tracks. I advised the CEO and his senior management team to conduct several town hall–type meetings and to hold informal focus groups with the operational managers.During those senior managers to respond to the root problem. Moreover, since the operational managers felt respected, they showed a similar level of process fairness with their direct reports during the actual restructuring, making the change go more smoothly. Michael Beer, of Harvard Business School, and Russell Eisenstat, preside nt of the Center for Organizational Fitness, recently provided evidence of how systematically practiced process fairness (embedded in an action-learning egy implementation as well as the shortcomings that could hinder it.Task force members distill the information they gain from these interviews into major themes and feed them back to senior management. Then they discuss how the strategy could be rolled out most effectively. SFP is a model for process fairness: More than 25 companies – including Becton, Dickinson; Honeywell; JPMorgan Chase; Hewlett-Packard; and Merck – have used it with great success to hone the substance of their strategic initiatives and, probably more important, to gain employees’ commitment to making those initiatives happen.Most companies say that they want to promote creativity and innovation, but few use process fairness to achieve those ends. They’re missing out on a great opportunity to create value. Harvard Business School profes sor Teresa Amabile has conducted extensive research on employees working in creative endeavors in order to understand how work environments foster or impede creativity and innovation. She has consistently found that work environments in which employees have a high degree of operational autonomy lead to the highest degree of creativity and innovation.Operational autonomy, of course, can be seen as the extreme version of process fairness. When employees feel that they are heard in the decision-making process, they are more likely to support–rather than merely comply with– those decisions, their bosses, and the organization as a whole. talks, it became clear that the managers felt that the CEO and senior executives failed to appreciate the magnitude of the change they were asking for. Interestingly, the managers didn’t request additional resources; they simply wanted those at the top to recognize their dif? ult plight. By expressing authentic interest, senior execu tives created a trusting environment in which managers felt they could safely voice their true objections to the change effort. That enabled march 2006 methodology known as the strategic ? tness process, or SFP) has helped numerous organizations capture value by getting employees to buy in to strategies. A critical element of SFP is the appointment of a task force consisting of eight well-respected managers from one or two levels below senior management.Their job is to interview roughly 100 employees from different parts of the company to learn about the organizational strengths that are apt to facilitate strat- The nature of organizations, though, means that few (if any) employees can have complete operational autonomy – just about everyone has a boss. Creativity and innovation tend to suffer in work environments characterized by low levels of process fairness, such as when employees believe that the organization is strictly controlled by upper management or when they believ e that their ideas will be summarily dismissed. When employees believe that 125B E S T P R A C T I C E †¢ W h y I t’s S o H a rd t o B e Fa i r their supervisor is open to new ideas and that he or she values their contributions to projects, however, creativity and innovation are more likely to ? ourish. Two examples illustrate how process fairness creates value by attracting innovative employees or additional customers. The CEO of a renowned electricalengineering ? rm, for instance, wanted to change the corporate culture to be more receptive to new ideas, so he separated a large group of workers into teams of ten, asking each team to come up with ten ideas for improving the business.Then the team leaders were brought into a room where the company’s executives were gathered and were asked to â€Å"sell† as many of their team’s ideas as possible. The executives, for their part, had been instructed to â€Å"buy†as many ideas as possible. The team leaders swarmed like bees to honey to the few executives who had reputations for being good listeners and open to new ideas. The other executives stood by idly because team leaders assumed from past experience that they wouldn’t listen. One company that used process fairness to create value is Progressive Casualty Insurance.In 1994, the ? rm began to give potential customers comparison rates from two competitors along with its own quotes for auto insurance. Even though Progressive’s rates weren’t always the lowest, the very act of delivering this information created goodwill. Potential customers felt that they were being treated honestly, and the practice drew many new sales. servant, Winston S. Churchill. † After being castigated by his countrymen for the letter’s deferential tone, Churchill is said to have retorted, â€Å"When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite. In a change management seminar I’ve taught to more than 40 0 managers, I ask participants to rate themselves on how well they plan and implement organizational change. I also ask the managers’ bosses, peers, direct reports, and customers to rate them. The measure ers were â€Å"lucky enough to still have their jobs. † But economically supporting those who lost their jobs doesn’t cancel out the need to show process fairness to those affected by the change–which, incidentally, includes everyone.Ironically, the fact that process fairness is relatively inexpensive ? nancially may be why this numbers-oriented executive undervalued it. Another reason process fairness may be overlooked is because some of its bene? ts aren’t obvious to executives. Instead of wrestling with uncomfortable emotions, many managers ? nd it easier to sidestep the issue– and the people affected by it–altogether. contains more than 30 items, and managers consistently give themselves the highest marks on the item that measure s process fairness: â€Å"When managing change, I ake extra efforts to treat people with dignity and respect. † Those rating them, however, are not nearly as positive. In fact, this is the only item in which managers’ self-assessments are signi? cantly higher than the ratings they receive from each of their groups. It’s not entirely clear why this perceptual gap exists. Perhaps managers are tuned in to their intentions to treat others respectfully, but they aren’t as good at reading how those intentions come across to others. Or maybe it’s just wishful – and self-serving – thinking.Some managers wrongly believe that tangible resources are always more meaningful to employees than being treated decently. At a cocktail party, the CEO of a major international bank proudly told me about the hefty severance pay his company gave to its laid-off employees. I expressed admiration for his organization’s show of concern toward the people who lost their jobs and then asked what had been done for those who remained. Somewhat defensively, he said that it was only necessary to do something for the employees who were â€Å"affected† by the layoffs.The othSocial psychologist Marko Elovainio of the University of Helsinki and his colleagues recently conducted a study of more than 31,000 Finnish employees, examining the relationship between employees’ negative life events (such as the onset of a severe illness or death of a spouse) and the frequency of sicknessrelated absences from work for the subsequent 30 months. The study showed that the tendency for negative life events to translate into sickness-related absences depended on how much process fairness employees experienced before the events occurred.That is, not being pretreated with process fairness led to absences waiting to happen. Sometimes corporate policies hinder fair process. The legal department may discourage managers from explaining their decisio ns, for instance, on the grounds that disclosure of information could make the company vulnerable to lawsuits. Better not to say anything at all, the thinking goes, than to risk having the information come back to haunt the organization in the courtroom. Clearly, legal considerations about what to communicate are important, but they should not be taken to unnecessary extremes.All too often organizations withhold information (such as the alternatives to downsizing that have harvard business review Why Isn’t Everybody Doing It? With all that process fairness has going for it, one might expect that executives would practice it regularly. Unfortunately, many (if not most) don’t. They’d do well to follow the example of Winston Churchill, who keenly understood the cost-effectiveness of process fairness. On the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Churchill wrote a declaration of war to the Japanese, ending it as follows: â€Å"I have the honour to be, with high con sideration, Sir, Your obedient 126W h y I t’s S o H a rd t o B e Fa i r †¢ B E S T P R A C T I C E been considered) when revealing it would have done far more good. Legal and medical advocates in Hawaii, for instance, are currently drafting a statute that would allow health care professionals to apologize for medical errors without increasing the risk of lawsuits. Doctors often refrain from apologizing for mistakes because they fear that admitting them will anger their patients, who will then be more likely to ? le malpractice suits. In fact, the opposite is true: Patients who feel they’ve been treated disrespectfully ? e more malpractice suits than those who feel they have been treated with dignity. By making apologies for medical mistakes inadmissible during a trial, the law would let doctors express regrets without worrying that doing so would hurt them in court. Managers who unwaveringly believe that knowledge is power may fear that engaging in process fairnes s will weaken their power. After all, if employees have a voice in deciding how things should be run, who needs a manager? Managers sometimes do run the risk of losing power when they involve others in decision making.But usually the practice of process fairness increases power and in? uence. When employees feel that they are heard in the decision-making process, they are more likely to support– rather than merely comply with – those decisions, their bosses, and the organization as a whole. The desire to avoid uncomfortable situations is another reason managers fail to practice process fairness. As Robert Folger of the University of Central Florida has suggested, managers who plan and implement tough decisions often experience con? icting emotions. They might want to approach the affected parties out of sympathy and to explain the hinking behind a decision, but the desire to avoid them is also strong. Andy Molinsky at Brandeis University and Harvard Business Schoolâ₠¬â„¢s Joshua Margolis analyzed why managers ? nd it so hard to perform necessary evils (such as laying off employees and delivering other bad news) with interpersonal sensitivity, which is an important element of process fairness. Leaders in this situation have to manage their own internal dramas, including feelings of guilt (for, say, making poor strategic decisions that led to the downsizing) and anxiety (about having suf? ient interpersonal sensitivity to accomplish the task gracefully). Instead of wrestling with those uncomfortable emotions, many managers ? nd it easier to sidestep the issue–and the people affected by it– altogether. â€Å"Emotional contagion† also comes into play in these situations. Just as we tend to laugh when we see others laugh, even when we don’t know why, we also involuntarily feel anxious or sad when those around us feel that way – and that’s uncomfortable. No wonder so many managers avoid people in emotional pa in. Unfortunately, such avoidance makes it very unlikely that they will practice process fairness.Breadth. Depth. Performance. Leadership. Tuck Executive Program July 22–August 11 Leading high-potential and senior executives to new levels of business performance Gateway to Business Management April 30–May 5 & November 12-17 Delivering skills and perspective functional managers need for advancement Finance Essentials for Senior Managers September 10–15 Offering greater accountability and transparency in your organization New Branding Imperatives May 7–9 Presenting strategies for maximizing brand equity and competitive positioning www. tuck. dartmouth. edu/exec 603-646-2839 tuck. xec. [email  protected] edu B E S T P R A C T I C E †¢ W h y I t’s S o H a rd t o B e Fa i r I can understand how managers feel. Several years ago, I was working with a telecommunications organization after the ? rst layoffs in the company’s history. The CEO an d his senior management team wanted me to talk to the midlevel managers about how the layoffs would affect the people who remained and what they could do to help their direct reports â€Å"get over it. † Feeling betrayed and fearful, however, the midlevel managers were in no mood to help others return to business as usual. They identi? d me with the problem and implied that I was partly responsible for the decision to downsize. That was a moment of real insight for me: Trying to counsel this unhappy and suspicious group, I completely understood the discomfort that managers experience when they’re called on to act compassionately toward people who feel aggrieved. It was much harder than I expected. The senior managers of the company admitted to me that they were tempted to avoid the rank and ? le – partly out of guilt and partly because they doubted whether they would be able to keep a cool enough head to practice process fairness.That’s a natural response , but ignoring negative emotions only keeps them swirling around longer. When senior managers made themselves more accessible to their workforce, employees reacted positively, and the organization developed a renewed sense of purpose. ter able to cope with (and hence not act on) their negative emotions. Furthermore, managers are more likely to endure a dif? cult process when they know that the effort will have a tangible payoff. But it’s not enough for managers to be vaguely aware that process fairness is cost effective. Corporate executives should educate them about all the ? nancial bene? ts, using charts and ? ures, just as they would when making a business case for other important organizational initiatives. Invest in training. Study after study has shown that fair-process training can make a big difference. Subordinates of the trained managers, for instance, are When I was working with an executive at a utility company several years ago, for example, I noticed that she m ade a common mistake: She didn’t tell others that she had seriously considered their opinions before making her decisions, even though she had. I advised her to preface her explanations by saying explicitly that she had â€Å"given their input some serious thought. Six months later, she told me my advice had been priceless. She learned that it’s not enough for executives just to be fair, they also have to be seen as fair. Training is most effective when it’s delivered in several installments rather than all at once. For example, one suc- It’s not enough for executives just to be fair; they also have to be seen as fair. Toward Process Fairness Companies can take several steps to make fair process the norm. Address the knowledge gaps. Managers need to be warned about the negative emotions they might experience when practicing fair process.Merely acknowledging that it is legitimate to feel like ? eeing the scene can help managers withstand the impulse to do so. Studies have shown that people can tolerate negative experiences more easily when they expect them. Just as forewarned surgical patients have been found to experience less postoperative pain, forewarned managers may be bet128 not only signi? cantly less likely to steal or to resign from the organization, but they are also more likely to go the extra mile – aiding coworkers who have been absent, helping orient new employees, assisting supervisors with their duties, and working overtime.Several studies by Jerald Greenberg have even found that employees whose managers underwent process fairness training suffered signi? cantly less insomnia when coping with stressful work conditions. Daniel Skarlicki, of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, and Gary Latham, of the University of Toronto’s Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, have identi? ed some factors of an effective process fairness training program. Participants respond better to active guidance than to a lecture on the bene? ts of improved process fairness.That’s why it’s particularly effective to give trainees speci? c instructions on what they need to do and how they need to do it, such as how to detect resistance to a new strategic initiative. After the participants have practiced these behaviors, give them feedback and let them try again. cessful program consisted of a two-hour session each week for eight weeks, along with assigned role-playing homework. That way, participants could receive feedback from instructors during the formal training sessions and from their peers in between meetings.As with most constructive feedback, referring to behaviors (â€Å"You never explained why you made this decision†) rather than to traits (â€Å"You came across as condescending†) proved to be most compelling. Both the process and the outcome of the training need to be communicated to participants – but not at the same time. Before the sessions begin, focus on the outcome. Participants are likely to be far more engaged if they are told that the program will help them gain their employees’ commitment to strategy implementation than if they are told it will help them communicate that they’ve seriously considered other people’s points of view.During the course, however, focus on process. Thinking about expected outcomes (improved strategy implementation, for instance) can distract people from learning the speci? c practical skills they need (such harvard business review as how to involve people in decision making) to achieve the desired results. Finally, it is important for trainees to maintain expectations that are both optimistic and realistic. Once again, the distinction between outcome and process is useful to keep in mind.You can generate optimism by focusing on the outcomes: Touting the improvements that previous trainees have made should help people feel positive about their own chanc es for growth. And you can inject realism by focusing on the process: Behavioral change is dif? cult and rarely takes a linear course. Trainees shouldn’t expect to get better at process fairness day by day; but, if they keep working at it, they will improve. I suggest trainees ask themselves three months after the program if they are practicing process fairness more on average than they were three months prior to it.Conducting after-action reviews also helps managers continue to hone their skills long after the training sessions are over. Make process fairness a top priority. Like most managerial behaviors, the practice of process fairness must begin at the top. When senior managers explain why they have made certain strategic decisions, make themselves available for honest two-way communication with the rank and ? le, involve employees in decision making, provide ample advance notice of change, and treat people’s concerns with respect, the practice of process fairness is likely to spread like wild? e throughout the rest of the organization. By modeling process fairness, senior management does more than communicate organizational values; it also sends a message about â€Å"the art of the possible. † People are more likely to try to tackle dif? cult challenges when they see others whom they respect doing so. In one company that was trying to implement a much-needed restructuring, senior executives effectively served as role models not only by describing the mixed feelings they had about practicing process fairness but also by articulating the process they went through that ultimately convinced them to do march 2006 o. The message they sent was that it was legitimate for operational managers to have mixed emotions, but, at the end of the day, the reasons in favor of practicing process fairness prevailed. In addition to acting as role models, senior managers may communicate the value they place on process fairness by making its practice a leg itimate topic of conversation throughout the organization. I worked with one company, for example, that selected its employee of the month based on process fairness skills as well as bottom-line results.Other organizations have made managers’ annual pay raises partly dependent on 360-degree feedback about how they plan and implement decisions, in which perceptions of process fairness ? gure prominently. Recent corporate scandals show that giving workforces outcome-only directives (â€Å"I don’t care how you get there, just get there†) can be disastrous. Forwardthinking organizations care not only about the outcomes their managers produce but also about the fairness of the process they use to achieve them. This is not a call for micromanagement.Just as there is usually more than one way to produce ? nancial results, there is more than one way to involve people in decision making, to communicate why certain actions are being undertaken, and to express thoughtfulne ss and concern. †¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ There is a moral imperative for companies to practice process fairness. It is, simply put, the right thing to do. As such, process fairness is the responsibility of all executives, at all levels, and in all functions; it cannot be delegated to HR. But with that moral responsibility comes business opportunity.An executive must minimize the costs of decisions that might threaten employees and maximize the bene? ts of decisions that may be sources of opportunity for them. In both instances, practicing process fairness will help get you there. The sooner you realize it, the better off you and your company will be. Reprint R0603H To order, see page 151. â€Å"A new, surprising, and authoritative take on an important aspect of modern society that most people just don’t know about. † Toby Lester, Deputy Managing Editor, The Atlantic Monthly Fred Reichheld is the godfather of customer loyalty. His new book, The Ultimate Question, continues to push the envelope with innovative, practical ideas. † John Donahoe, President, eBay Marketplace â€Å"Perceptive analysis brought to life by references to real people and real situations. † Kieran C. Poynter, Chairman, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLp AVAILABLE WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD, INCLUDING: 5th Ave. & 46th St. , NYC Rockefeller Center 5th Ave. & 48th St. , NYC HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PRESS www. HBSPress. org

The Issue Of American History Essay - 2225 Words

In the discussion of American history, one controversial issue has been the importance of laws. On the one hand, some people argue that laws shapes history. On the other hand, other contends that laws reflect American history. The latter argument is correct. Though, American history spans only 300 years, numerous laws in the country have changed the lives of its people. It is obvious that America today is different than 100 years ago. Today, attitudes towards certain subjects such as gay rights, torture, crime, marijuana have changed the direction of laws in the country. In those cases, the laws have been beneficial to those cause, because the country voiced their opinion on those issues. The same could be said about America in its infancy, both as a group of colonies and its beginnings as an early, yet dominant Republic. In Pre-Modern America, it was a transitional period as some laws were reflected religious beliefs. As the country modernized it became more progressive and legal ca ses were more based on precedent (Hoffer 2016). Women and African-American were disenfranchised groups, and laws did not help them until much later in American history. Looking at the Gilded Age, the government looked to help business and believe in free-market ideology. In retrospect, those decisions are laughable, but it affected a lot of people at the time. Sometimes stubborn beliefs affected law’s passage or rejection in the courts. Attitudes of different eras have dictated the laws in theShow MoreRelatedThe Issue and History of Illiteracy Among African Americans1510 Words   |  7 PagesThe Issue And History Of Illiteracy Among African Americans Becca White Writing 123 Instructor Sydney Darby 27 May 2008 Illiteracy is a growing issue in America. 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