Employee Resistance to Change: Dissertation

Employee Resistance to Change: Dissertation Chapter 1- Introduction Change comes from anywhere, and is the only constant. Propelled by the driving force of technology and globalization, the economic landscape continuously transform in a way that has come to undermine the relevance of received wisdom on how a firm should be managed and what underlies its success (Gregory Prastacos, et al., 2002). In this new millennium, it is more challenging for an organization to sustain its competency or even survive in the diversity market. When an organization is threatened by environmental changes such as crisis or competition, it results in the increasing needs for communication as technology develops rapidly and higher customer demands will be foreseen. Organizational change is not an option; it constitutes a fundamental necessity for success within the new competitive landscape (Hamel and Prahalad, 1996). An organization need to evaluate its performance and review its business strategies, corporate structure, operational process and HR policies to identify th e areas that need transformation. To maintain its competitive advantages,ÂÂ  an organization must make effort to implement changes accordingly. Usually changes to be made in an organization is for the seeking of extending the ability of the organization to achieve the strategic goals but sometime changes do not necessarily contribute to the improvement of the organization (Stroh, 2001). The expected result of the change might vary due to other unexpected factors, such as resistance to change. Resistance is a phenomenon that affects the change process, delaying or slowing down its beginning, obstructing or hindering its implementation, and increasing its costs (Ansoff, 1990). Effect of resistance of changes in organization will cause distorted perception, interpretation barriers and vague strategic priorities, low motivation among the people and lack of creative response (Val, 2003). It is crucial for change initiators to deal with resistance for a successful change. Forasmuch as employees are the one who get the job done, and they the one who possess the knowledge, skills, tools and experiences, it is clear that organizational changes cannot be achieved without employees support and involvement. Employee acceptance and commitment are the key factors for successful changes. Effective change management should recognize the importance of its employees and the way to minimize the resistant from employees. Therefore, understand why it is caused, the forms of resistance and the factors determine employees reactions to change is significant. 1.1 Research Objective This research will study on the factors of resistance to change from employees prospective. The aim of this research is to review the factor and find out the correlates among the factors. By better understanding these which a shift in perception could occur, the paper hope to develop a framework to change initiators of how certain group of employees is the likely to react and behave to change that being unleashed by the value and perception, this knowledge will enable change initiators to design change plan and training programs which recognize the values of employees, and to interact with diverse others in order to optimize the expected change affect. The research attempt to explore the followings areas as a systematic way to rationalize the value of this project study: To identify the natural of employee resistance to change. To identify the symptoms of employee resistance to change. To identify the reasons of employee resistance to change To determine the various factors to effect employees resistance to changes. To evaluate the effect of these factors on organizations future development. 1.2 Chapter Summary Chapter 1 of Introduction has provided a background of the circumstances that force organization to change, and examined the inevitable resistance can undermined organizational change. By identifying the importance of employee in the organizational change, research objectives were generated to study on the resistance of change from employees perspectives and listed done the areas of the study to be explored on. The research was planned in a systematic way to rationalize the value of this project. Next chapter of this project will touch on a review of current literatures on the natural, symptoms and the reasons of employee resistance to change and factors affect employee resistance, followed by the research methodology, samples and limitation of the research. The subsequent chapter will be the questionnaire data analysis presentation and lastly the paper will conclude the findings and its implications for change initiators. The aim of this research is to review the factors that affect employee resistance and evaluate it thought the target samples. Chapter 2- Literature Review 2.1 Employee Resistance to Change 2.1.1 The nature Organizations can be confronted with incremental changes that focus on doing things better through a process of continuous tinkering, adaptation and modification or transformational changes that are regarded as revolutionary and break with the past.(John Hayes, 2010) Although the incremental changes rarely presented any abrupt challenges to the assumptions people make about how they related to the world (John Hayes, 2010), this is not always that case. People are not duplicate, the values, beliefs, assumption and knowledge of that person will be developed over the time, formed as a set of personal opinion, perceptions, views of the world to guide their behaviors (Hallie Preskill and Rosalie Torres, 1999). It is concerned with whether employees regards view change can bring present or future personal benefit and opportunities or change is a threat to their job, skills or any other interests. The implementation of changes inevitably involves the vital interests of various shareholders, and especially employees.Resistance occurs since most employees desire to be successful in their work environments due to they have basic needs which must be satisfied. To begin with, employees want to know their role and their responsibilities within the organization. In additional, employees want to be able to predict what they will face in the future (Appelbaum, S.H. et al, 1998). Even though old procedures that were initially regarded as cumbersome, costly or ineffective, after a prolonged recursive execution, employees become comfortable and are used to the ways things were done. Employee might fear in a changing organization, therefore change are frequently be seen as a threat to ones existence within an organization if upgrading or acquiring new skills are a problem because of time constraints , or the inability of the person to learn these new techniques. Change within an organizational setting usually poses several problems and challenged by the pressure in aspect of money , ego, and power for those who resist it. Employees resist change because they have learned to associate it negative feelings since their basic needs may now be threatened (Mealiea, 1978). Thus it is human nature that employees look at Change negatively, resistance thereby coming into play. 2.1.2 The symptoms Resistance, described by Kilian M. Bennebroek Gravenhorst (2003) is commonly considered to be standard or even natural in reaction to organizational change. It is described as an most inevitable psychological and organizational response that seems to apply to any kind of change, ranging from rather modest improvement to far-reaching change and organizational transformation. Symptoms are the specific behaviors exhibited when employee resistance to change (Albert F. Bolognese, 2002) According to Bhutan (1995), it is important to distinguish between the symptoms of resistance to change and the causes behind them. Symptoms can be reflected in varies of forms, which Marc Maltz (2008) categorized it into the two varieties: overt and covert. Overt resistance is concern with obvious opposition, disagreement, arguing, debating, etc., to any change effort. While, covert resistance comes in two forms: one is conscious covert which employees are concerned about the consequences of their actions that they apparently agreed but actually not following though or withhold information and avoid implementation. Secondly is the unconscious covert resistance, which is the most difficult to see symptoms among employees as employees are unaware their resistance. 2.1.3 The Reasons There are many causes attribute to employees resistance to change, such as Coch French (1948), studied the workers of a clothing manufacturer and find that lower employee participitation causing the mistrust of management and increase their resistance to change. Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) identify four common reasons why people resist organizational change: people focus on their own interest and fear of losing something of value, it can be power and status, autonomy and control, or specific skills; Misunderstanding the change will cost them more than they will gain and lack of trust to the person who initiating change; Different assessment of the necessity and benefit of change situations; Low tolerance for change, sometimes people just resist to change emotionally even they understand the need for change. Several studies have acknowledged what Kotter and Schlesingers publication and enhance these categories with further researches, according to Prosci- A business process reengin eering directory and resource companys study (2003) in past six years in 288 organizations from 51 countries, result shows the top reasons employee resist to change is because of corporate history and culture, which the organizations past performance of change project failed or did not make much sense, employees are less interested to take initiatives to support the current change, they are not in the flavor the month , thus employee expected it go away like what happened in the past. Lorenzo (2000) also acknowledge that one attribute to employees resistance is that past failures leaves negative image for future changes. Another reason added on in Prosci (2003)s research is that employee often opposes to change because of the added job responsibilities, new processes or technologies. Changes with lower motivation to get employees involved and less consideration of employees interest and their emotional and perceptual perspectives thereby eliminate their initiatives and level of comm itment. Pardo Del Val, Manuela and Martinez Fuentes, Clara (2005) conclude above sources to employees resistance are most likely happen in change formulation stage, they further identify some reason rise resistance that consist of: (a) organizational values in relation to change values that cause a strong implementation climate to determine whether employee to accept or oppose to change; (b) departmental politics that form employees resistance. 2.2 Factors affect employees resistance to change Literatures have identified variety of factors affect employee resistance to change, the most cited views of the factors fall on the organizational level, for instance the communication process, employee participation, change facilitation procedures in change process (Ricky Griffin ,2008) to improve organizational effectiveness. Moreover, employee motivation (David Clarence and McClelland, 1987) and quality of leadership (Ken W. Parry, 1999) have been widely acknowledged to have influence on employees work initiatives, involvement and commitment, so that it can argues to be a significant factor to affect employees willingness to change. Above factors virtually are the ways to deal with the subtext of organizational humanity on the stage of change process. However, one must understand the root factors played to affect employees perception towards organizational change. Fail to understand the intrinsic factors govern employees values and beliefs guided behavior in the context of the way they were doing and expected in the future, and all the necessities organization attempt or should to do to implement and facilitate change is crucial. Therefore, the research will mainly explore on the personal factors played to affect employee resistance to change including age, gender, personality traits (Locus of control) and employee educational level as follows: 2.2.1Age Baby Boomers refer to people who are born between 1945-1964. This generation grew up in an era of unprecedented economic growth and stability, so as to be regarded as a generation that finds comfort with long term employment with one organization. This has provided them with a false sense of stability (Loomis, 2000).Their perceived working values emphasize on chain of command, teamwork, technically challenged, team work and loyal to employer As they born after War II, which they entered the economic boom era, Money and job security such as life time employment are definitely extremely important for them to sustain their living. In this regard, it is argued that Baby Boomers are easier to accept organizational change as their working value of chain of command which they tend to commit to the hierarchical order. Moreover, the inception of organization loyalty also attributes them to be more committed rather than resistant or any other negative reactions. (Hui-Chun, Yu and Peter Miller, 2003) Another neuropsychological research held by (Stanford University professor Laura L. Carstensen et al. 2000) on the relationship between age and emotional experiences found that the periods of highly positive emotional experience were more likely to endure among older people and periods of highly negative emotional experience were less stable. With age, older adults report relatively low levels of worrying (Sandra Hunt, Patricia Wisocki and Julianne Yanko, 2003), experience less anger (Schieman,1999), and have lower levels of emotional distress after natural disasters (Bolin Klenow, 1982-1983). The implication of these findings are older employees have better capability to regulate their negative emotions with organizational change and adjust themselves to adapt the environment.Employees adaptability has been seen a key attribute to a successful organizational change (Heslin , 2005). Compared with Baby Boomers, Generation X refers to those people who were born between 1965 to 1980. This generation of employee tend to more independent, self-motivated and self-sufficient (Loomis, 2000). This is because most X generations did not have enough of their family attention as children because their parent may have been single or working parents. X generations therefore became adaptive at handling things on their own and in their own ways. Their work value is perceived more on personal satisfaction, and their attitudes towards work are focus on flexibility empowerment, loyal to skills. (Hui-Chun, Yu and Peter Miller, 2003). Hence, when the change conflict with their own interest such as against what they used to do , their skills, or leave less empowerment to them, they will feel unmotivated towards to commit to the change. However, David J. OConnell, Eileen McNeely and Douglas (2004) argue that since Xers entered the workforce under the employment of deal, in which career planning and development are largely individual responsibilities and where the average worker can expect to make several changes during their working lives. In this regards, it seems like Xers are more adaptive to change. However, there are also many scholars debate the relationship between the age and the personal adaptability to change, such as Mirvis and Hall, 1996. Recent research held by OConell, McNeely and Hall, 2008 also support this assertion, reporting that age is limited measured as a categorical variable namely the characteristics about an individual . 2.2.2 Gender Although many literatures have acknowledged the impact of gender difference on the management practice, there had been little systematic attention focus on identifying the gender roles on effective change management relatively. Feminist perspectives have tended to highlight not only the impact of organizational change on womens relatively marginalized position but also the role of women in the change management (Melissa Tyler, 2005). Jamie L, Michael G and Homer Tolson (2005) research findings suggest that there is a difference between male and female executive of their emotional expressiveness, and women are regarded to process better skill at encoding and decoding emotions (Laura K. Guerrero and Kory Floyd, 2008). Emotions are intensive feelings that are directed at someone or something (Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, 2010). Goleman-the founder of emotional intelligence theory also mentioned that women are good at reading others feelings than men averagely in his book pub lished in 1995. The skills to encode and decode emotions generally have advantage to develop and maintain relationships (Laura K. Guerrero and Kory Floyd, 2008), because skilled encoders have ability to express their internal emotional state so that other people can decode their emotions more easily and accurately (Burgoon and Bacue, 2003). In this regard, the chances such as misunderstanding and conflict due to implicit or unclear message delivered or received prone to be decreased, the communication becomes more easily and effective. In many literatures, communication has been widely acknowledged as a useful approach to eliminate resistance to change. Therefore, women are deems to be more successfully engaged in change circumstances. Maddock (1999) added that Women focus on relational aspect of how to do things, while men tend to be expected to think what to do. It appears that women are emotionally discreet on how they are going to process the information, express and interpret their view points to react to change before making any decision. Combined with womens secondary position in labor market due to gender discrimination, especially in Confucian countries, in addition to their greater responsibilities in family and child care than men, which cause women are relatively powerless to challenge the situation (Melissa Tyler, 2005). Hence Melissa argues that women in change management appear to be positioned as performing an interpersonal function associated with safety; providing security in times of unexpected turbulence and anticipating. On the basis of these arguments, it seems that women tend to avoid conflict in working in this regard and to accept the change accordingly. 2.2.3 Personality Traits Some people are quiet and reserved, while others are aggressive and outgoing. Some people are trustworthy, some are not. People differ with each other in various dimensions as a result of different behavior and attitude towards things in personal life and working. The individuals differences are shaped by personalities (Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, 2010) Personality refers to the traits and characteristics that make individuals unique (Greenberg and Baron, 2002). The most frequent used definition of personality was produced by Gordon Allport nearly 70 years ago which he commented that personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment. Personality thus becomes an important reason mangers need to know to generate a view of employees likely behaviors and examine their coping reaction. Meselaar and Cozijnsen (1997) further highlighted the personality is a determinate of individ ual reaction to organizational change. Locus of control refers to the degree people believe their own behaviours determine what happens to them. People believes they have more control over their destiny are referred as internal, and people who believe they have less control over their life and the results are attributing to the will of God, or to the fortune of being born in the right social class or family are referred as external. At this point, it is suggested that people behave differently towards change. Wilson (1992) developed an approach referred as determinism to study change management portrays the manager and other organizational members as pawns affected by change rather than as agents who can initiate and secure change. Their ability to influence is limited because of the main determinates lie outside the organization. John Hayes (2010) argues that those who are overcommitted deterministic view of change may be inclined to believe that the locus of control is external to themselves and the organization and may therefore develop view that there is little they can do to influence events. Hence, people who think this way is less likely to attempt to adopt a proactive approach to the management of change than those who have more internal view about locus of control. 2.2.4 Educational Level Although there were not many literatures specifically emphasize the employees educational level to their resistance to organizational change, it is widely acknowledged (e.g.: George H. McCall, Karl E. Ristow and Daniel J. Cimini, 2004) that higher education improves employees personal management, time management, communication skills and problem solving skills. Higher education defined by Roberg (1987) refers to the instruction that was obtained at university or colleague. According to Thomas Kent Gaylor (2001)s research on 286 police officer from two North Texas Police department in 2001, result shows no significance relationship between the educational level and employees openness to change. However the limitation of his research was lack of variation in respondents education level. Nevertheless, the author believe that higher education of employees will be more likely to support and commit organization change with more positive thinking of why the change is needed, hence the resea rch intend to do further evaluation with different samples on the relationship of educational level to employee resistance to change since it is a logic factor that higher education equipped with employees more knowledge and broader thinking and believe, which reduce the tendency to be dogmatic and to be more creative. 2.3 Chapter Summary Chapter 2 of Literature Review has explored on the current literatures on employee resistance to change in terms of the natural, symptoms and reasons. The inevitable resistances from employee impulse the research to further find out the factors that affect employee resistance to change. The research noted many factors including communication process, employee participations, change facilitation process, employee motivation and quality of leadership, and lastly mainly reviewed the personal factors played consist of age, gender, personality traits (locus of control) and employee educational level influence various aspects from values and beliefs and emotions as a result of different behavior and levels of adaptability reacted to change After exposit the literature review of factors affect employees resistance to change, the paper will tackle the main objectives of this research. Starting with the description of research methodology, samples and limitation of the research, then paper will touch on the analysis part of the questionnaire, to examine the reflected results against with the literatures reviewed earlier on, so as to evaluate its universality of the factors in the sampling organization. Chapter 3- Research Methodology 3.1 Secondary Research The research was carried out at the beginning though a secondary research to review the current literatures on the areas of the study, which contains of the nature, symptoms and the reasons of employee resistance to change and the factors affect employee resistance to change from a more intrinsic view by looking at employee personal factors. The factors focus on the employees adaptability to change determined by age and gender, one dimension of personality traits -locus of control, and employee educational level. The information is collected from textbooks, journals and articles from reliable and creditable online Journal Publications, National Library and Campus Library. 3.2 Primary Research In order to evaluate the factors been presented in literature review, the research will primarily employ questionnaires as the main methodologies for information gathering. The questionnaire will be carried out with various employees working in a large organization. The methods allow directly and original information to be gathered from participants. Questionnaire results are to be consolidated, and will be analyzed using various questionnaire analyze techniques, to interpret the data. The main reason of using questionnaire and interview is because data is collected directly from specific target respondents. Interviewers have the ability to ask extra intensive questions of the respondent concerning survey responses. 3.2.1 Research Samples The research was conducted using data collected from a large size agribusiness organization located in Singapore, mainly doing palm oil plantation and trading. The reason of choosing this organization is because it is currently undergoing turbulence and change on merger with one small size palm oil trading company and one ship chartering company. And it also has experienced many merger and change in the past. Therefore the target samples of the questionnaire participants in the organization must have many varies views on organizational change to enable the research generate more practical reflections from employees perspective on organizational change and change effect on them, aims to evaluate the universality application of all those factors on employee resistance to change presented in literature on the target sampling. The questionnaire attempt to invite 150 employees in this organization from four departments who are affected by the merger plan, respectively 25 employee from IT department, 35 employees from logistic department, 25 employee from finance department and 65 employees from operation department. 3.2.2 Limitation of This Research During the research, data collected could be deviated due to limitation in the research methodology as follows: Data may not represent the entire population due to the limitation of sampling size As the four department employees may experience different kinds of minor changes in their department respectively, whether the change offend their interest or not might bring subjective bias towards their response to the questionnaire, hence the accuracy of data collected will be deviated. Respondent who experience the past organizational change may bring different perceptions towards new change. The choice of the question may limited respondents response. 3.3 Chapter Summary Chapter 3 presented the methodology of this research which employed on secondary research to review the current literatures on the area of the study, and also the primary research using questionnaires to collect data. Research Samples chosen was a large agribusiness organization who is experiencing turbulence and undergoing merger and work structural change. The limitations of the research were also discussed including the sample size, respondents bias, past organizational change experience as well as the choice of questions may also affect the accuracy of the survey result. Next chapter will touch on the research result analysis and discussion. Chapter 4- Result Analysis and Discussion The questionnaires were distributed to 150 employees in IT, Logistic, Finance and Operation department respectively as planned in Chapter 3, the responding rate is about 76%, namely 114 employees attend the questionnaire. Following are the result of each factors being tested. 4.1 Age The research finding on age factors shows that respondents in different age group perceived change differently and appears with different level of resistance. In contrary with literatures presented earlier on demonstrating age have negative relationship with organizational change where people are more emotional stable and adaptable to organizational change as they age. Instead, the result shows that in the age group of 20 to 65+, employees are more resistant to change as they age; an interesting finding is that for employees aged below 20, whom were surprisingly scored higher marks on resistance. Figure 4.1.2 shows details of scores on resistance in each age group. Figure 4.1.2- Age group vs Resist to change score The possible causes lead to this result might because when younger people firstly enter the workforce with no experience and lower educational background, they are uncertain about their skills and abilities. They may behave self-concerned and less flexible dealing with working matters, and not mature enough to regulate their emotions as they are undergoing a transition from childhood to adult, school life to working life with increased responsibilities, time is needed to help them accept such big changes and adapt themselves in the new environment. As they age and become more mature, they seek for competence, career movement and relationship, they are more flexible and motivated to change themselves in the organization to achieve their objectives. As time goes on, they feel tired and queried about what supposed to be. They are loyalty to their skills and fear losing it in the future. Stability, job security and sense of seniority may become the main values after they age 46. Hence th ey might act more resisting to change as demonstrated in below figure. Super (1980)s Life Stage Theory displayed some common characteristics against to the above analysis and assumptions, which the author would like to research further. 4.2 Gender Out of total 114 respondents, 78 are women, and 36 are men, most of men respond strongly agree that organizational change is necessary and beneficial, and express their willingness to take challenges. Although there is no strong evidence to show that women are more resistance to change, most of women strongly agreed with the statement that when things are not going as plan, they tend to feel stress and if there is significant change regarding the way things are done, they would probably feel stressed. At this point, the research result suggested that women tend to be trapped in stress situation more easily than men. Hellriegel, D. Slocom, J. W., and Woodman, R.W.(2001) has pointed out that organizational change can be viewed as greatest source of stress on job and perhaps employees life. Stress cause low morale, high desertion rate and consequently reduce in job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The women research samples in this study reflect lower ability to regulate stre ss in working and life that affect their job performance. When organizational changes go against their interest, plan or principles, family life, it easily get women feel stress emotionally and potentially raise their resistance level which can be described as unconscious covert resistance (Marc Maltz, 2008) whereby employees are unaware of their resistance to change. Such symptom as mentioned in Chapter 2 is difficult to recognize and manage. The result urges the management to recognize gender-related problems in the organizational process. The implication of the result underlines the importance of evaluating and managing performance between women and men employees in implementing change. 4.3 Locus of Control Figure 4.3.1 shows the relationship between Locus of Control versus Resist to Change scale. The extent of Locus of Control are divided into 5 category based on the score respondents received on answering 10 specially designed question (Q7-Q16) catered to identify the individual level of locus of Control. For each correct answer that suggested Internal Locus of Control, the participant are give 1 point, the end results are totaled up with a formula (N/10)x100. The result are categ

Albee and Twain: Demystifying an American Dream

Albee and Twain: Demystifying an American Dream â€Å"What Happens to a dream differed? / Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun / Or fester like a sore- / etc. And then run? / Does it stink like rotten meat? / Or crust with sugar over- / like a syrupy sweet? / Maybe it just sags / like a heavy load / Or does it explode? † ——– Langston Hughes American Dream was a term that first appeared in James Truslow Adams’s The Epic of America, where he states The American Dream is â€Å"that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position† (Adams, 1931) It is this land; Twain throws Huck and Jim to endure the hardships of life, to experience the thrown-Inness of being born into the world unprepared, without choice. Long considered as a â€Å"quest for freedom†, Huck-Finn essentially is as M. Cox puts it â€Å"a flight from tyranny, not a flight for freedom† (Cox, p172-173, 1966). Freedom is essentially a relative term, and freedom may manifest itself in physical and psychological realms. Half of the world still considers itself honored under the nomenclature of â€Å"The Commonwealth†, illustrates the limitation of physical freedom alone. One dreams in order to maintain that freedom, but as Schumacher put it, â€Å"The greatest deprivation anyone can suffers is to have no chance of looking after himself and making a livelihood†, depriving one of one’s existence and consciousness of being free. Kumar, p2672, 1991). Being a Post-American Dream novel, Twain did not go to the extent to overthrow the entire socio-political system to emphasize the impossibility and superficiality of American dream. Europeans found the dark lands flourishing with immense economical and religious opportunities. The idea was perhaps that opportunities could not be isol ated to lands, and certainly these â€Å"islands† cannot claim to provide equality and recognition to people of all races and creed, when its own socio-political apparatus is plagued with racism and lack of consciousness. With Huck and Jim, the racial discrimination prevalent in America was laid bare. Twain does not talk about conscience as a mode of judgment of human actions; rather he infused the transcendental viewpoint of intuition and innate human instincts as the basis of making choices. Conscience, which are essentially derived from society, the learned distinction between good and bad, contrary to black and white, are merely â€Å"false constraints upon natural behavior. Such constraint is what Huck rejects† (Burg, p303, 1974), something which is apparent when Huck says â€Å"always do whichever [right or wrong] come handiest at the time†. There can be no geographical location which can encompass this distinctness of human quality, to change with time as the instincts indicate may be not dictated or etched in law, and no moral order of society could circumscribe the complexity and vastness of intuition. We must not expect Twain to propound any moralistic view regarding the confrontation of races in Huck-Finn. Although set in the past, the novel peeps into the future and without dealing with complexities of master-slave psychodynamics, interprets the nature of ‘freedom’, something which seems to suggest that psychological freedom is hard to achieve in a night with such thing as an ‘Emancipation Proclamation’. If organizations like â€Å"Afro–American Unity†, â€Å"Society of African Culture† and resistance fronts like â€Å"Operation Breadbasket† and â€Å"Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work† were all prevalent during even the late 1960s, suggesting the fact that the whole concept of American dream was unacceptable to most of the black Americans. The final chapter of Huckleberry Finn which is often considered as a â€Å"chilling descent† is not a flaw in architectural unity, but a denial of celebration of freedom which one would expect from Jim’s liberation. Twain deliberately de-romanticizes and trivializes the whole concept of freedom, since the idea of equality and opportunity was â€Å"White American†; the one who was aware of his past and ensured about his recognition, nativity of his own culture and tradition, the one who assumed the nationality of a land which captured. The slaves, who by now formed the consciousness of a community and not the citizen, was more concerned with their individual identity as Joanna Zangrando puts it â€Å"the quest for black liberation is a search for what whites no longer possess in full measure; a clear and purposeful sense of self identity† (Zangarando, p154, 1970). Jim’s never been and would never be free unless he acquires an identity like the slaves of the African culture did. A slave in Nigeria, would still be a Nigerian, while Jim, does not figure into that frame of nationality, and neither into that ‘dream’ which an ‘American’ saw. The concept of American Dream was built upon the pillars formed by the dislocated and reluctant hands of the slaves, akin to what the Romans did, and just like them, came down the fabrication of entire dream, devastated, stranded and lost. Nationality is not just one issue that can be talked about in reference to American dream. Societal dynamics function through interaction of power, authority and influence. It can well function without the aesthetic and poetic representation of human development. And in a society devoid of sustainable archaic references, financial status does become a determining parameter of individual growth. Although not implicit in the original idea of James Turslow, but economic influence finds its manifestation in the American dream of the common man. Such aspects find distinct voice in Albee’s works which revolve around the social fabric. The general view that â€Å"Edward Albee's plays are ferocious attacks on lethargy and complacency in American society† and â€Å"a savage denial that everything is just dandy† receives a nod from Albee himself (Albee, p8, 1961) and he goes on to confirm his own claim with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, a play through which historicity speaks out for entire American civilization. How subjects receive names is also interesting. While George corresponds to the then president of United States and Martha being her wife, Albee certainly hits the nail on the head, illustrating a family whose life is drowned deep into the artificialities manufactured under in the social machinery. Near the end of the second act of Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, George, the professor of history, is left alone onstage while Martha, his wife, and Nick are playing the preliminary rounds of â€Å"hump the hostess† in the kitchen. Attempting to control his hurt and anger he reads aloud from a book he has taken from the shelf, â€Å"And the West, encumbered by crippling alliances and burdened with a morality too rigid to accommodate itself to the swing of events must eventually fall† (II, 174). George is clearly encumbered with a crippling alliance in his marriage to Martha and does seem to be burdened with a kind of morality that makes it difficult for him to respond in kind to her vicious attacks. At the same time, this observation on the movements of history, read in connection with the events of George's personal history, is a splendid example of how Albee has managed to endow the events of the family drama with a deeper significance, suggestive of larger events and movements. Upon the historicity and it’s relation to American Dream, Holton writes â€Å"One of the principal myths on which this country was founded was the notion that America was a New Eden, a second chance ordained by God or Providence in which man could begin all over again, freed from the accumulated sin and corruption of Western history† (Holton, p47, 1973). With Holton’s comment, we move yet closer to the objective of this paper, that not only could the American become a New Adam and found upon the unspoiled continent an ideal human polity, but this new way of life and new order of society could serve as a shining example to redeem erring Europe from her own sinfulness. Such a dream was essentially impossibility in an imperfect world where multitudes dream their own dreams. Thus the majority of American historians, says David Noble, have been Jeremiahs, decrying America's involvement within the transitory patterns of European history and calling Americans back to their duties and obligations (Nobles, p4, 1965). With such a catastrophic dream at hand, the people of American couldn’t have gone far with the nightmare it was to cast. It was not unprecedented, as such a crumbling of social order already shook the British machinery where ‘The Angry Young Man’ was invented during the mid of twentieth century who looks back in anger and, shouts â€Å"I’d love to live too†¦ But I must say, it’s pretty dreary living in the American age† (Osborne, p9-14, 1954). This disillusionment and dissatisfaction with life and lack of recognition in society, was soon realized in America as well. In fact the three acts of the play titled â€Å"Fun and Games†, â€Å"Walpurgisnacht† and â€Å"Exorcism† may be said to illustrate the historic passage of American civilization; from innocence to guilt to madness. America which began as an un-spoilt continent, convinced that it was unique in human history to create a perfect society, just like the Germans once thought, in a race of differentiation, cut themselves from European tradition and history, in effect ‘killed’ its parents. But how can one neglect the parenting they once received in Europe, when memories transform into haunting, only by retreating into madness can one escape the vicissitudes of history. Again in the words of Holtan, â€Å"Both George and Martha indicate at various points that â€Å"back there,† â€Å"in the beginning,† â€Å"when I first came to New Carthage,† there might have been a chance for them. That chance was lost and now their â€Å"crippling alliance† exacts its toll from both of them† (Holtan, p48, 1973). Finally, what Johnson perceived with his panoramic eye while surveying â€Å"mankind from China to Peru† (Johnson, p50, 1749), acknowledging the universality of human behavior, holds true for any nation any â€Å"island† claiming to become land of opportunity. Freedom again is a responsibility, that functions under a collective consciousness of â€Å"being free†, consequently â€Å"whoever, in man's universal condition, chooses freedom chooses it for everybody† concludes Franz Adler (Adler, p284, 1949). Similarly an idea that negates the masses, devoids itself the potential of transformation into a phenomenon, its localization soon consumes its very presence with time. References: Adams, James, Truslow, The Epic of America, Simon Publications, 2001. Adler, Franz, The Social Thought of Jean-Paul Sartre, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Nov. , 1949), The University of Chicago Press. Albee, Edward, The American Dream, Coward-McCann, Inc. , New York, 1961. Burg, David, F. , Another View of Huckleberry Finn, Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 29, No. 3, University of California Press, 1974. Cox, James, M. , Mark Twain, The Fate of Humour, Princeton University Press, 1966 Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes, edited by Harriet Raghunathan, Worldview Publications, 2004, New Delhi. Noble, David, W. , Historians Against History, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1965. Osborne, John, Look Back in Anger, edited by Neeraj Malik, Worldview Publications, 2002, New Delhi. Schumacher, E. F. , Dilemmas of Measuring Human Freedom, Kumar, K, G, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 26, No. 47, Economic and Political Weekly, 1991. Zangrando, Schneider, Joanna, Zangrando, L. Robert, Black Protest: A Rejection of the American Dream, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, Sage Publications, Inc. , 1970.

20 Paperback Guides on Essay Writing

Paperback guides are one of the best methods to learn something new. The following list contains the best paperback guides for essay writings. 1. How to Write Better Essays by Bryan Greetham This guidebook is a comprehensive tutorial on essay writing. The reader is carefully taken through each section such as research, planning, writing, and revising. 2. First Class Undergraduate Essays in Under 24Hours by Martin Horton This is the essential guide for students in universities who are looking forward to write more. This book includes how to read essays, how to construct essays, and how to produce a bibliography. 3. How to Write Essays: A Practical Guide for Students by John Clanchy Brigid Ballard This book is a simple guide for students on essay writing. It teaches them the basic steps of essay writing such as how to choose your topic and how to research on it accordingly. Though this book has been published a while back, it is still a great guide to start with. 4. Writing an Academic Essay by Quinton Howitt This book by Quinton Howitt helps the reader to analyze questions. If you were given a topic to write on, this book helps you analyze the topic and its requirements. 5. How to Write an Essay by Kathi Wyldeck This guide includes warm up activities for the reader. It also includes many topics such as how to write letters to friends. This book contains many great topics such as how to write applications and different types of essays. 6. How to Write Essays for GCSE English Literature by Neil Bowen In this guide, Neil helps the reader by giving excellent sample essays and guiding them on how to write essays according to their academic requirements. From planning to writing, this book has it all. 7. How to Use Your Reading in Your Essays by Jeanne Godfrey This guide is suitable for university students; it’s a simple guide, it is simply using your reading skills, and utilizing them in writing. 8. Write Great Essays by Peter Levin This guide is for undergraduates and postgraduates alike. This guide helps the student get thorough hard topics using the right structures. 9. Brilliant Writing Tips for Students by Julia Copus This is a pocket study guide, you can take it anywhere and everywhere, a very useful guide for students to keep with them at all times. 10. Planning your Essay by Janet Godwin This is also a pocket study guide. This guide is also very essential for students as it helps them plan the perfect essays. 11. Writing Essays for Dummies by Mary Page Carrie Winstanley Learn how to write the perfect essays by this great guide. It will help you write the perfect essay for your required academic standards. This is a great guide for college and university leveled students. 12. PWN the SAT: Essay Guide by Mike McClenathan The best guide to take you through your SAT within instants, it helps the student meet the requirements and is recommended by many teachers out there. 13. Writing Essays about Literature by Kathrine O. Acheon It is a brief guide for college university students, these students are taken step by step to achieve the required standard. 14. Writers at Work by Dorothy Zemach This guide helps students with their academic needs. This book is a great guide for college level students. 15. Real World Writing for Secondary Students by Jessica Early Meredeth DeCosta This is a great guide for students in the secondary level. This book helps the student with all the subjects such as letter writing, essay writing, and much more. 16. Quick Lit: Plots, Themes Characters and Sample Essays by Students Research Tufts This guide is an excellent resource, which gives students the basic understanding of what teachers want. The guide gives them different themes and accordingly shows them sample essays. 17. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis This will help students use intelligent words while writing essays. This can also be used as a GRE guide for students in universities. 18. Real Writing with Readings by Susan Anker In this guide, Susan brings a new perspective amongst the students. She shows them what writing is about and how they can learn to write what they want to and still meet their requirements. 19. Models for Writers by Alfred Roza and Paul Eschholz Simple guide, with lots of experience within it. This guide contains thousands of sample essays to help students write essays. 20. The Basics of Essay Writings by Nigel Warburton Nigel helps students with planning, and researching. He takes them step-by-step and helps them explore their writing skills.

Poverty Between Poverty And Poverty - 831 Words

Poverty line is a level of personal or family income below which one is classified as poor according to governmental standards. Generally, a person who falls below this line is without any basic needs like food, shelter, clothing etc. Every government strives to reduce the number of poor people in the country. The poverty line should be defined in such a way that no needy person is left out. Around the world, in rich or poor nations, poverty has always been present. It’s a very important tool in the hands of the policy makers which enables them to make policy decisions specifically. Should be defined in such a way that every needy person gets its benefits. Absolute and relative poverty are both ways of measuring poverty but differ in†¦show more content†¦It takes time, energy and money to measure poverty, since it can only be done properly by gathering survey data directly from households. Even though it can be difficult measuring poverty its highly important to do so . It’s important to keep the poor on the agenda, to target interventions, domestically and worldwide, monitor and evaluate projects and policy interventions geared towards the poor and to evaluate the effectiveness of institutions whose goals is to help the poor. Throughout the years there’s been different poverty guidelines used to determine financial eligibility for certain federal programs. According to the Federal Register by the U.S Department of health and Human Services, â€Å"The poverty thresholds are the original version of the federal poverty measure. They are updated each year by the Census Bureau. The thresholds are used mainly for statistical purposes — for instance, preparing estimates of the number of Americans in poverty each year.† The poverty guidelines are designated by the year in which they are issued. Conservatives generally go with the perspective that less is more. For example, most would agree with the argument that less govern ment action is a better approach for society as a whole. Rather than promoting the idea of social equality, like the Liberal perspective, they promote social inequality. Liberals usually have the perspective that the government should helpShow MoreRelatedPoverty Between Poverty And Poverty1875 Words   |  8 PagesPoverty eradication has become one of the main goals within the last few decades as shown through the recently expired Millennium Development Goals and the subsequent Sustainable Development Goals. Poverty, in turn, is influential as high poverty causes worse health outcomes within a country. Poverty severely affects several aspects of quality of life, such as health, happiness. This makes it important to evaluate the quality of life within a country. Poverty and Inequality have been linked togetherRead MorePoverty Between Poverty And Poverty Essay2121 Words   |  9 PagesPoverty in America is severe. One third of our population lives under the poverty line. The povert y line being a family of three or more surviving on $36,000 or less. This transfers to 20.5 million people. Seven million of these people being women with children. 6.7% of our population has an income less than 9,000 for a family of three. These numbers are astounding and they are only on the rise. This means that more families are going without food. This means more children are starving and gettingRead MorePoverty Between Poverty And Poverty1322 Words   |  6 PagesPoverty has been a prevalent issue that has plagued the world’s economy for years, fortunately, global poverty rates seem to be declining . In order to understand why this decline is occurring, one must first understand levels of poverty. In an article published by The Economist they claims that there are different levels of poverty, they use extreme poverty (absolute poverty), and relative poverty as the two definitions . Extreme poverty refers to the world banks â€Å"poverty line†. In 2011 the †Å"WorldRead MorePoverty Between Poverty And Poverty1501 Words   |  7 PagesIndividuals in poverty face their own problems and cope with them in their own way. People in poverty may face problems with their health and well-being (Fauth, Leventhal, and Brooks-Gunn 250). They may not be able to afford medical care, and the environments of poverty could contribute to poor health or injury. Also, poverty leads to a lack of resources which causes a lack in development (Broosky, O’Campo, and Aronson 660). Without the same resources as others, people may not be as well off. TheyRead MoreInequality Between Poverty And Poverty1139 Words   |  5 Pageslast two decades in ending the terms of inequalities and poverty. Many countries are determined to improve their economy, and become fully developed just like the United States. In my home country, Kuwait, poverty do not exist, however, inequalities do. Some of the countries that have done well in the recent past include China, India , Brazil, and South Korea. However, poverty and inequalities are still being realized in the wealthy nation. Poverty and inequalities in the society are the two main factorsRead MorePoverty Between Poverty And Middle Class1454 Words   |  6 PagesPoverty is visible anywhere and it happens everywhere, from the richest nations to the poorest. From the youth to the elderly, poverty can dramatically affect anyone. Some grow up in poverty, while others end up in it. Poverty has increased drastically over the years. The blame for the increased poverty has become an extremely controversial subject, as there are many contributing factors to spite each side. It is evident that it is the people in poverty themselves that is the underlying cause ofRead MoreThe Achievement Gap Between Poverty And Poverty1654 Words   |  7 PagesFifty years after the declaration of war on poverty, an increasing number of children still grow up in poverty in this country. Poverty is now more determinative tha n race as a predictor of student educational success (Reardon, 2013). The achievement gap between the poor and the more economically advantaged child has actually widened over the last three decades (Reardon, 2013). If we are to provide all children with equal and excellent educational opportunities, it is imperative that we utilize theRead MoreThe Link Between Poverty and Crime1654 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"Many people living in poverty do not want to be living in poverty. In order to obtain a higher level of socioeconomic status, crime is seen as the only option.† (Wilson, 1987). Crime exists everywhere in the world – in rural and urban areas in many countries, in the East and West, and among all types of people. This has led many government officials, especially those in urban areas, to focus largely on the reduction of crime among their respective constituencies and has led others to speculateRead MoreThe Relationship between Poverty and Crime879 Words   |  3 PagesIntroduction Poverty and the relationship it has to crime is a long standing sociological, humanists and historical phenomenon. From the plight of the third world to the violence soaked inner city streets of the 1980’s, the relationship of crime and poverty has been the source of a great deal of social commentary. In societies throughout the world and throughout history there has always been a traditional measure of deviance through relative income gaps. Both poverty and crime as well as theirRead MoreRelationship Between Poverty And Crime Essay1485 Words   |  6 PagesThe relationship between poverty and crime will be examined in this literature review. The topic is interesting because there is a relationship between poverty and crime. Society uses a system that separates people by social class. Social class is determined by the total amount of income and wealth that a person has. According to Segal, Gerdes, and Steiner (2013), a person’s living expenses and needs are not met du e to the lack of proper wages would be considered living in poverty; the year 2009 a